Skyrim:System Requirements

Knowing Your Computer's Hardware
It is essential to know what your hardware is before you can use this page. On Windows systems, the easiest way to identify your video hardware is to run DxDiag, which is short for DirectX diagnostic. To do this:
On Windows XP, click the Start button on the lower left-hand side of the screen, select the 'Run' option and type in  , then hit enter.
On Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10, click the Start button and type in   directly in the search box at the bottom of the start menu that pops up, and hit enter.
On Windows 8, right-click anywhere on the Start screen and select "All Apps" in the lower-right. From there, type "dxdiag" (ignoring the "No apps match your search" message) to search for it. When you've typed the entire word, it'll show up as an app and you can click on it to launch it.
You may be asked if you want to check for digital signatures. You don't need to for this, so click "No". Once you're in DxDiag, on the first screen (System) there will be a box called System Information. Within this box will be your processor and memory information. Under the tab 'Display' will be the information about your video card, in the Device box.

If you are using a GNU/Linux operating system, use the command   to view hardware specifications for your machine.

You can also use an external program to find computer details and more accurately determine if your computer is able to run Skyrim. See the External Links section for some such programs.

Officially Recognized Specifications 

The following represents what Bethesda's officially released specifications for Skyrim are, according to BethBlog. It is also important to note that even if a system meets these, it may still have very low performance.  According to Pete Hines on Twitter: ''"The Min specs get you playing. The recommended specs let you play on High, not on Ultra. You'll want [a] beefier rig for that."

Recommended
Windows 7/Vista/XP PC (32 or 64 bit)
Quad-core Intel or AMD CPU processor
2GB System RAM
6GB free HDD (Hard disk drive) space
DirectX 9.0c compatible NVIDIA or AMD ATI video card with 1GB of RAM: Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 or higher; ATI Radeon HD 4890 or higher
DirectX compatible sound card
Internet access for Steam activation

Minimum System Requirements
Windows 7/Vista/XP PC (32 or 64 bit)
Processor: Intel Dual Core 2.0GHz or equivalent processor (AMD Sempron @ 2.4 GHz)
2GB System RAM
6GB free HDD space
Direct X 9.0c compliant video card with 512 MB of RAM
DirectX compatible sound card
Internet access for Steam activation

Special Edition Official Specifications 
The Skyrim Special Edition runs on an updated engine with a host of graphical improvements, and as such requires higher specs. The following are the officially recognized specifications according to Bethesda.net. Notably, it does not run on 32-bit machines like the original release.

Recommended
Windows 7/8.1/10 (64-bit Version)
Intel i5-2400/AMD FX-8320
8GB RAM
12GB free HDD space
NVIDIA GTX 780 3GB/AMD R9 290 4GB

Minimum System Requirements
Windows 7/8.1/10 (64-bit Version)
Intel i5-750/AMD Phenom II X4-945
8GB RAM
12GB free HDD space
NVIDIA GTX 470 1GB/AMD HD 7870 2GB

Console Storage Needs
PS4: 20GB (North America), 33GB (Europe)
Xbox One''': 17GB (North America), 25GB (Europe)

Unofficial Video Chipsets Specifications
The video card market is flooded with cards with various clock speeds and architectures, so making a totally accurate list of all available cards is simply impractical. In order to make this list, several generalizations have been made, and several cards have been omitted for space. Also note that much of this list is user-reported; your experience may vary.

 
 
Personal Computer


Mobile/Laptop PC

 

These are generalizations based on the entire series of cards, single cards can be quite different from the rest of the series. 

Source: Unofficial "Will My PC Run Skyrim" Thread #63 w/ hardware guide (original thread may have more information for your specific card)

Operating Systems
It is recommended that you use Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, or 10 to play Skyrim, whether as your native operating system or through dual boot. Wine is a good method for running Skyrim on other operating systems. Because Skyrim is very CPU-intensive, using a virtual machine or emulation will give you drastically reduced performance, bringing an otherwise-powerful system to its knees. It is recommended that Mac OS X users use Boot Camp, as it will allow them to use Windows natively on their computer, or Wine; using Parallels or VMware Fusion will likely give you significantly reduced performance. Linux users may have luck with Wine, with potentially better performance; more information can be found here.

External Links