Will the game work on a weak laptop?

[andreybaton2003]

So I finally bought Skyrim (Tod Howard can be proud of me), I have a weak laptop and I thought "well, a 13-year-old game should run at maximum speed without any problems." But there is a problem, I bought the Special Edition, and I cannot find the original edition. So, please tell me who understands (because I'm not very good): if I have 4 GB of RAM, is there any point in installing the game? According to other characteristics, the laptop is more or less suitable

[Lone Wolf]

Special Edition needs 8 gig the old one used run on any old crap hell i used run it on intel p4 cpu back in the days

[andreybaton2003]

Thanks for the answer. So I'll play Skyrim sometime later :(, but for now there's Morrowind and Oblivion (my laptop can handle them for sure)

[vee-kay]

On such an old PC that has merely 4GB of RAM (in an era where even mobile phones have 8-12GB RAM by default these days), you shouldn't waste time trying to play a complex game like Skyrim on it. It may work, but the experience won't be pleasant. Skyrim is notorious for hogging memory. Even Oblivion or ESO would be difficult to run on such old machine.

But you can try Morrowind and Fallout2 & NV on it.

Or try other old games like Minecraft, CS:Go, Team Fortress 2, Witcher2, Far Cry 2, Assassin's Creed 2, Borderlands 2, Dishonored, Portal 2, Doom, Terraria, Age of Empires, Halo 2, etc.

ARPG or Hack&Slash games like Hades, Grim Dawn, Diablo2, Torchlight2, Path of Exile, etc. should work well too.

https://60fps.in/blog/games-for-4gb-ram-pc-and-laptop/
https://screenrant.com/best-pc-games-play-without-video-graphics-card/

[andreybaton2003]

Thank you for such a meaningful answer. I will definitely play one of the recommendations

[xybolt]

Yeah, you're in tough luck that the old, first edition of the game is not being enlisted (although - hint hint - you may find third party keys here and there on other sites) for sale anymore.

vee-kay's post is a good one and may point you in the right direction. there are some games that do run very well while have only 4GB RAM as memory hardware. However, that is the working memory. There is also "graphical memory", usually represented as "VRAM". Do ensure that your laptop can run some of the aforementioned games before purchasing one. The minimum system requirements on Steam's page is a good indicator.

Another hint: Terraria (something your laptop would run I think) is in sale right now. It's a very great game if you don't mind some hard survival and losing the game. If you are going to try that, do know that losing the game is part of the process. You have to learn from it. It is a game with a decent learning curve, but once you are past that, it can be a game where you can spend a lot hours into.

Hades is another game you can run that has good critics as well. Be mindful that it is a roguelike hack and slash game, of which is a very niche genre on itself.

[Junipercat]

Originally posted by andreybaton2003:

I have a weak laptop and I thought "well, a 13-year-old game should run at maximum speed without any problems."

But there is a problem, I bought the Special Edition, and I cannot find the original edition.

if I have 4 GB of RAM, is there any point in installing the game? According to other characteristics, the laptop is more or less suitable

Always check system requirements before buying a game. Cannot speak to the rest of your build but your RAM is too low for this edition.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
MINIMUM:
OS *: Windows 7/8.1/10 (64-bit Version)
Processor: Intel i5-750/AMD Phenom II X4-945
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 470 1GB /AMD HD 7870 2GB
Storage: 12 GB available space

RECOMMENDED:
OS *: Windows 7/8.1/10 (64-bit Version)
Processor: Intel i5-2400/AMD FX-8320
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 780 3GB /AMD R9 290 4GB
Storage: 12 GB available space

As for the original version of Skyrim, they removed it to move ahead with the times.

Notice: At the request of the publisher, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is unlisted on the Steam store and will not appear in search.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/72850/The_Elder_Scrolls_V_Skyrim/

[andreybaton2003]

Originally posted by Junipercat:

Originally posted by andreybaton2003:

I have a weak laptop and I thought "well, a 13-year-old game should run at maximum speed without any problems."

But there is a problem, I bought the Special Edition, and I cannot find the original edition.

if I have 4 GB of RAM, is there any point in installing the game? According to other characteristics, the laptop is more or less suitable

Always check system requirements before buying a game. Cannot speak to the rest of your build but your RAM is too low for this edition.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
MINIMUM:
OS *: Windows 7/8.1/10 (64-bit Version)
Processor: Intel i5-750/AMD Phenom II X4-945
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 470 1GB /AMD HD 7870 2GB
Storage: 12 GB available space

RECOMMENDED:
OS *: Windows 7/8.1/10 (64-bit Version)
Processor: Intel i5-2400/AMD FX-8320
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 780 3GB /AMD R9 290 4GB
Storage: 12 GB available space

As for the original version of Skyrim, they removed it to move ahead with the times.

Notice: At the request of the publisher, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is unlisted on the Steam store and will not appear in search.

I usually check the system requirements before I buy a game. In the case of Skyrim, there was a good discount, I bought Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim at once. I didn't look at the system requirements because I was blinded by the discount, but after the purchase I started looking and realized that most likely I won't be able to play Skyrim. But still, it was a good offer, I will play the previous parts of the series

[andreybaton2003]

By the way, thanks a lot for the link to the original Skyrim

[Junipercat]

Glad the info helped. And since you already have it, you can either refund if it hasn't been too long or just hold onto it for when you can play it.

If the rest of your laptop meets the specs, and has a dedicated GPU, perhaps you could increase the RAM. Usually a cheap and easy upgrade for many laptops. Just check your laptop's specs for how much and what type of RAM it supports. From experience even if it supports 8GB, likely that is two 2GB stick in there so you would need two 4GB sticks so can't just add 4. You do want the RAM sticks to match anyway, but just something to be prepared for.