Skyrim, PC vs 360 and optimising a rig

[XSin]

I bought Skyrim on release for my girlfriend since shes a big 'scrolls fan and honestly didn't expect to play it considering I intensely disliked Oblivion and downright hated Morrowind. Theres a bunch of reasons but when it comes down to it I'm not big on sandbox games and honestly enjoy being railroaded if it's in the name of a killer story.

That aside, I decided on the 360 version since even though we have a okay PC I heard a lot of horror stories about Oblivion for PC being unplayable on release and that it took months for it to get patched properly. So we get the game and I watch her play it and something clicks in my head, it plays like medieval Fallout. . . Fallout 3/NV being the two sandbox games I had no problem with, so now I'm addicted

But it seems like I made a bad decision since the word is that the PC version plays just fine as well as not having the 360 issue of pain-in-the-ass load times for entering and exiting buildings which is really getting on my nerves. Can anyone here vouch for this?

Also I'm thinking of grabbing Skyrim for computer with my next paycheck and wanted to know just how pretty I can put the setting with my current specs and which parts of my computer should be first on the upgrade list in order to set everything to max xD

Currently running:
AMD Phenom II X6 2.80 GHz
4gb DDR3 RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 9500GT 1Gb

Not sure if Motherboard is important but I can't really do anything about that anyway.

Any and all help would be appreciated

 

[Soggy Toast]

I would buy Skyrim for PC, but only for mods. Unless you care about achievements, there is no point in getting Skyrim for the 360.

 

[robert01]

Once to Creation Set is released the content that the mod community will create will greatly outweigh anything that the 360 version may have including official DLCS.

 

[isometry]

But it seems like I made a bad decision since the word is that the PC version plays just fine as well as not having the 360 issue of pain-in-the-ass load times for entering and exiting buildings which is really getting on my nerves. Can anyone here vouch for this?

My PC is a few years old and fairly similar to yours, and I haven't found the entering / exiting loading times noticeable. 1-2 seconds or so.

Currently running:
AMD Phenom II X6 2.80 GHz
4gb DDR3 RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 9500GT 1Gb

What is the resolution of your monitor? Those specs would be a little low for playing in 1080p (1920x1200), but if your monitor is a little smaller like 1440x900 or 1680x1050 then it should be fine to run the game on medium settings. The best bang for buck upgrade would be your graphics card, just make sure your power supply can handle the new card.

 

[Baldr]

Do what I did, bought it for the PC, but use my 360 controller.

 

[Easton Dark]

I would buy Skyrim for PC, but only for mods. Unless you care about achievements, there is no point in getting Skyrim for the 360.

PC version has Steam Achievements.

 

[robert01]

@isometry
1920x1200 is a 16:10 ratio

Just when you go to buy the game scout around, since it is a Steamworks game you guaranteed to get it into Steam, but some prices are cheaper than Steam. GMG has had it on sale(-10% if you call that a sale) for the last week or so. Not huge savings but cheaper than full price on Steam.

 

[XSin]

What is the resolution of your monitor? Those specs would be a little low for playing in 1080p (1920x1200), but if your monitor is a little smaller like 1440x900 or 1680x1050 then it should be fine to run the game on medium settings. The best bang for buck upgrade would be your graphics card, just make sure your power supply can handle the new card.

I have a 1080p LCD so yeah, was thinking of going to 8gb RAM and either swapping out my GPU for a really flash one or getting another similar and running crossfire or something although I'd be learning as I go, haven't tried anything like that before.

But 1-2 seconds sounds a hell of a lot better than 10-30 seconds -_-

 

[Robert Ewing]

Yeah, I just feel that Skyrim is infinitely better for the PC.

It just outclasses the 360 one in every way. The only one up the 360 has is achievements. But the Steam version of Skyrim has those, so that's that I suppose.

The only reason you'd get Skyrim for 360 is because you don't have a machine that can run PC skyrim.

 

[Darkmantle]

It honestly doesn't have any of the problems that you see people on here whine about. The graphics complaints are the absolute worst, anyone who thinks skyrim "looks worse than oblivion" need to grow the hell up.

 

[XSin]

@isometry
1920x1200 is a 16:10 ratio

Just when you go to buy the game scout around, since it is a Steamworks game you guaranteed to get it into Steam, but some prices are cheaper than Steam. GMG has had it on sale(-10% if you call that a sale) for the last week or so. Not huge savings but cheaper than full price on Steam.

Yeah, steam sells it for $90 USD atm which is about $120 in New Zealand, while EBgames sells for $20 less. Have to admit though, I love steam and would probably suffer the load times and wait for a 20% off sale in the next month or two

 

[robert01]

@isometry
1920x1200 is a 16:10 ratio

Just when you go to buy the game scout around, since it is a Steamworks game you guaranteed to get it into Steam, but some prices are cheaper than Steam. GMG has had it on sale(-10% if you call that a sale) for the last week or so. Not huge savings but cheaper than full price on Steam.

Yeah, steam sells it for $90 USD atm which is about $120 in New Zealand, while EBgames sells for $20 less. Have to admit though, I love steam and would probably suffer the load times and wait for a 20% off sale in the next month or two

Just make sure if you buy it from a non Steam vendor that you don't get suckered into a region that you can't play.

More ram always helps, even though Skyrim isn't optimized to run on 64bit os's(apparently). Just run out and grab yourself new mid range GPU(s) if you feel that yours is a little under performing after you install the game.

 

[NotLikeOtherGuys]

My friend brought his ps3 version to compare with my PC, just to shove his bigwank HDMI features in my face, and I can tell you the graphics use the same texture quality as a maxed PC. The only upgrade you'll notice is in loading times (considerable) and some framerate improvements when shit gets serious (low fps kills) but whether that's a reason to fork out for another game is up to you, because your 7-day return policy is now void, I'm guessing....

Why didn't you spend 60 hours in the game in the first 24 hours of buying like the rest of us?!

Also I have one o' thems DVI-HDMI converters, so I've effed my friend's shit up.

EDIT: PS3 and XBOX textures are the same unless you can prove otherwise

 

[ZeZZZZevy]

If you install the game on your hard drive, the load times are a lot better
(I got the game for 360 because I honestly dislike PC controls to the point where it's flat out uncomfortable)

 

[JambalayaBob]

I'd wait for the Steam holiday sale to get a better deal (you will be paying twice for the same game after all), since you can just play on the Xbox for now. There won't be a lot of the really awesome mods out for a while, so don't rush yourself unless you really want pedo bear look alikes in place of spiders XD.

 

[AriesSalsero]

Skyrim is a Steamworks game. Meaning, if you buy it somewhere cheaper at retail, you can still activate it on steam with all the achievements and goodies thereof. So don't hesitate when you spot a good deal at present.

 

[XSin]

If you install the game on your hard drive, the load times are a lot better
(I got the game for 360 because I honestly dislike PC controls to the point where it's flat out uncomfortable)

Holy Crap thank you so much, I totally forgot about that >_<

Installing fixed lag issues back when Fable 3 came out so I'm guessing it'll do the trick here too

My friend brought his ps3 version to compare with my PC, just to shove his bigwank HDMI features in my face, and I can tell you the graphics use the same texture quality as a maxed PC. The only upgrade you'll notice is in loading times (considerable) and some framerate improvements when shit gets serious (low fps kills) but whether that's a reason to fork out for another game is up to you, because your 7-day return policy is now void, I'm guessing....

Why didn't you spend 60 hours in the game in the first 24 hours of buying like the rest of us?!

Also I have one o' thems DVI-HDMI converters, so I've effed my friend's shit up.

EDIT: PS3 and XBOX textures are the same unless you can prove otherwise

I have a 360 VGA output cable -random I know- which beats RCA but since my monitor only has DVI input if I want to use a converter to get HDMI quality I miss out on sound

 

[ResonanceSD]

Currently running:
AMD Phenom II X6 2.80 GHz
4gb DDR3 RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 9500GT 1Gb

Not sure if Motherboard is important but I can't really do anything about that anyway.

Any and all help would be appreciated

Get a new video card if your PSU can handle it. A GTX 260 or 400 series would be good for you.

EDIT: or a small SSD to put skrim on with SteamMover.

 

[Worgen]

Really the only problem you have is an old vid card, you could find a nice 460gt for 150 or less, thats what I have and I run the game at maxed out settings aside from antialiasing, and my setup is pretty similar to yours but with worse ram, I've still only got ddr2.