Later this month Bethesda will release the Special Edition of Skyrim featuring updated visuals taking advantage of the improved horsepower of the average chipset since 2011. And it being five years later, running the new version of the game is going to take a stronger PC. If you own the basic game and all the expansions (or just the Legendary Edition) you’ll be sent a free download code for the new version. But first, see if yours is up to these requirements….
Minimum
- Windows 7/8.1/10 (64-bit Version)
- Intel i5-750/AMD Phenom II X4-945
- 8 GB RAM
- 12 GB free HDD space
- Nvidia GTX 470 1GB /AMD HD 7870 2GB
Recommended
- Windows 7/8.1/10 (64-bit Version)
- Intel i5-2400/AMD FX-8320
- 8 GB RAM
- 12 GB free HDD space
- Nvidia GTX 780 3 GB /AMD R9 290 4 GB
For the sake of comparison (and because Polygon also did it) here is what the original requirements for the first Skyrim were:
Minimum
- Windows 7/Vista/XP PC (32 or 64 bit)
- Dual Core 2.0 GHz or equivalent processor
- 2 GB RAM
- 6 GB free HDD Space
- DirectX 9.0c compliant video card with 512 MB of RAM
- DirectX compatible sound card
Recommended
- Windows 7/Vista/XP PC (32 or 64 bit)
- Quad-core Intel or AMD CPU
- 4 GB RAM
- 6 GB free HDD Space
- DirectX 9.0c compatible Nvidia or AMD ATI video card with 1 GB of RAM (Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 or higher; ATI Radeon 4890 or higher)
- DirectX compatible sound card
A lot can happen in five years. Skyrim Special Edition will be out for PC, Playstation 4 and XBox One October 28.