It's interesting because the minimum specs for the remastered edition of the game requires a card that came out before the original Skyrim released back in 2011. Back then the recommended specs. Skyrim, Bethesda's Norse-inspired RPG, puts you in the fur boots of the Dovahkiin, a mortal with the soul of a dragon. That means one thing: fancy magic and lots of fighting as you undertake a never ending series of quests and dungeon delves. To be the next Dovahkiin, you'll want a Quad Core CPU and a GeForce GTX 260/Radeon 4890.
Bethesda's released the recommended specs for the Skyrim: Remastered edition after the game went gold in anticipation of its upcoming October 28 release date.
The PC requirements for the remastered edition are a far cry from those that were needed to run the original back in 2011. This shouldn't come as a surprise since it's been 5 long years and the game promises a far better visual experience and 4K support.
All of these features obviously come at a cost and you can't expect to run the remastered version using the same setup you used for the playing the original Skyrim videogame. For comparison's sake, we put both the minimum and recommended setups side-by-side:
Here are Skyrim's original minimum specs from 2011:
Windows 7/Vista/XP PC (32 or 64 bit)
Processor: Dual Core 2.0GHz or equivalent processor
2GB System RAM
6GB free HDD Space
Direct X 9 compliant video card with 512 MB of RAM
And here are the minimum specs for the Special Edition, via Bethesda:
Add live effects to microphone. Windows 7/8.1/10 (64-bit Version)
Intel i5-750/AMD Phenom II X4-945.
8GB of ram.
12 GB free HDD space
NVIDIA GTX 470 1GB /AMD HD 7870 2GB
As you can see, the remastered edition requires quite a LOT more than the original and almost everything in that list is double or more of what the original needed.
The recommended specs are even more demanding to say the least with almost every component needing a major upgrade.
As you can see, it's a LOT more than what the 2011 release needed but then again isn't that high if you compare it to some AAA releases of this year.
The recommended specs have taken quite a jump as well. Here's 2011:
Windows 7/Vista/XP PC (32 or 64 bit)
Processor: Quad-core Intel or AMD CPU
4GB System RAM
6GB free HDD space
DirectX 9 compatible NVIDIA or AMD ATI video card with 1GB of RAM (Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 or higher; ATI Radeon 4890 or higher).
And here's the Special Edition:
Windows 7/8.1/10 (64-bit Version)
Intel i5-2400/AMD FX-8320.
8GB of ram.
12 GB free HDD space
NVIDIA GTX 780 3GB /AMD R9 290 4GB
The game as stated earlier launches on October 28. If you already own the original game and all its expansion packs on PC, you'll be getting a free upgrade.
Specs For Skyrim Remastered Ps4
It's also releasing on Xbox One and PS4. Both of them will come with mod support although the PS4 version would be limited in its modding capabilities.
