Lowest possible Settings in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

How can I get the lowest settings possible so that this game is at least playable for me? It's really slow. I've turned everything down in the settings, but I've heard you can tweak the configuration files. Could someone tell me how?

With integrated GPUs it’s hit or miss. Some games will run, others won't. Even the newer Intel HD 3000 integrated GPUs on Sandy Bridge models have trouble running most games at above low settings.

You have an integrated chipset, which is a GPU with no dedicated graphical memory. Instead it borrows system memory, which is slower, clumsier, and less efficient. The minimum hardware requirements are that you have a GPU with at least 512 Mb of dedicated memory on the card. It’s simply a technical limitation of your system architecture. WoW likely runs fine on your system, but it’s also using 3D technology that was old even back in 2004.

If the laptop wasn't made with a GPU to begin with it likely doesn't have room for one. And MW3 was easier to run on your PC because it was loading narrow and focused levels one at a time, without a ton of AI or Realtime shadow updates, and it certainly didn't have forests of foliage.

The problem you are having, and why it is different than MW3 is that Skyrim is both very graphic intensive as well as being very CPU intensive. Your integrated chipset is trying to do the job of two devices, while it is an underpowered substitute for either device. MW3 can be graphic intensive, depending on settings, but is never CPU intensive. Very little data involved in games like MW3, especially when compared to games like Skyrim. I'm having a hard time believing you will have a worthwhile experience with that computer.

I am afraid that even if you put everything down to minimum, you won't be getting acceptable framerates. This is due to your integrated "GPU", as many others have pointed out already. Hell, Skyrim has even trouble running on some high-end machines. And I will tell you what I'd tell everyone trying to use a laptop (one that's not made for gaming) as a gaming PC: Don't waste your time or money. Yes, it sounds harsh, but it's how it is. If you want to play games that aren't 5 years old with acceptable graphics and frames, get a desktop PC. You can get decent gaming rigs for about 600+ Euro's these days, or you could get yourself a console and stop worrying about hardware as a whole.

Using the launcher and going into the display options resets the .ini files, so it is possible you disabled shadow, but reenabled them. Make sure your graphics are set to the lowest possible settings. Save and never return! Edit skyrimprefs.ini and change everything with shadow in it to 0. For example, bEnableShadows=1 would become bEnableShadows=0, and so on, try the game like this. Also, make sure the low res texture pack is installed properly. It is very possible that you have installed it, but not enabled it, or something.

This is what i was going to say. With your IGP you might be able to run low/medium closer to low. Put it in 640X480, low textures turn everything down start on as low as can go and run the game see if it plays decently there then slowly raise the settings. Do the old multithreaded ini edits from oblivion/fallouts work on Skyrim? If they do you should do those for your x2. Might give you a few extra frames just from the CPU but the IGP are still going to hold you back so don’t expect ultra.

One thing you can try that I don't know if you have or not yet, is lower the games screen resolution that can help with performance a bit sometimes. And as for your mouse sensitivity problem, make sure you tweaked it in the in-game settings as well as go into the skyrimprefs.ini file and change bMouseAcceleration=1 to bMouseAcceleration=0. I had that problem at first but after changing that it worked, also change iPresentInterval=1 to iPresentInterval=0 to push out a few more FPS. And another thing, I don't understand why everyone on these forums seems to have the urge to be a complete dick to other people. Yeah, people can save money to buy parts and then either build it themselves or have someone that knows how to do it do it for them but sometimes that is just not a big priority.

While it is quite obvious that the OP doesn't have a PC that can run Skyrim out of the box, there certainly are some tweaks that can be made which may help, as some of you have already pointed out. But for the rest of you, less of the sarcasm eh. Many people buy a game on the off chance it will work. Sometimes we are lucky and sometimes we aren't but that’s no reason to berate someone else for having a PC less powerful than our own.

This is a known problem that will hopefully be fixed by Bethesda in the next patch. The vertical mouse movement is tied to the framerate, so with a low framerate looking up or down is very slow while with a high framerate it is incredibly fast. Just wait for the next patch, I don't think I've seen a definitive solution to this problem yet - it's up to Bethesda to do this.