GPU check- Skyrim capable?

[Karnor00]

For reference, here is how the GTX 570 performed on Skyrim at max settings (in three resolutions) in techspot'ss benchmarking : http://www.techspot.com/review/467-s...nce/page6.html

Basically confirming it will be fine for Skyrim as anything beyond 60fps is basically unnoticeable anyway (and really anything above 30 is very acceptable).

[Jack-]

Thanks for the benchmarks, that's a reassurance about the 570. Any idea whether the £30 cheaper 7850 would be preferable?

Basically, I'm not talking about saving the £30, I'm more concerned with whether Nvidia's SSAO (or any other exclusive advantage- I heard that AMD drivers are a pain to manage) makes the 570 the better option. Otherwise, I'd consider opting for the 7850, and pushing the £30 either to increase the PSU or twoards a low capacity SSD :/

[Karnor00]

They have pretty much the same performance - it varies from game to game as to whether Nvidia or AMD are better. As a bit of a generalization the GTX 570 is innately a little quicker but has less VRAM than the 7850. In practical terms this means that the GTX 570 will tend to outperform the HD 7850 at lower resolutions (say 1680x1050 and below) whereas the HD 7850 will edge ahead on the higher resolutions (1900x1200 and above). Of course certain games will buck this trend if they are optimised better for one card or the other.

Given that you will be running at 1900x1080 the performance will be pretty much identical on average so my preference would be to save the £30. Incidentally the 7850 has significantly lower power requirements than the 570 (about 100W less at full load) so the PSU may be less of an issue.

[truegrace]

The 7850 also runs cooler, and is newer tech