Thinkpads Forum

Can I play Skyrim on my T500 with the ATI Radeon HD 3650 with 4GB RAM, a 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo, running Windows 7 Pro x64? I'm trying to find out if I can replace my Xbox with this since Skyrim is the only game I play commonly. I can upgrade RAM, the processor, and I'm putting an SSD in it.

I remember seeing posts which indicated that Skyrim was playable on a T500 w/ATI switchable graphics. Try entering 'T500 skyrim' into the 'search' link at the top of the forum page. In addition here are 3 YT videos that show someone playing Skyrim on the T500.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeCb2rYs-b8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqhCHhFNU1w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6f5_0CUiR4

My guess is the in-game effects will need to be turned down and the in-game resolution may need to be lowered to maybe 1280X800 or lower as well. Please post your results if you do give it a try as other T500 owners may be curious as well

In my experience, you get the best results by setting a very low resolution, like 960x600, use rather low AF, like x2 or x4, no AA.
There is a mod that disable all in game shadows, get that, it will speed things up a lot.

This is to conserve video memory, the HD3650 only has 256MB.

I play a lot of Skyrim on my W510, at 1280x720, 4x AF, no AA, game settings at the highest settings except shadows and water effects.
I installed a mod to disable all shadows except those cast by the sun.

So a T500 might be able to run it at 960x600, medium/high settings, no AA, 4xAF, no shadows, low water.

I will try it when I get home tomorrow and see if it is playable. If so, goodbye Xbox.

I have no doubt it will be playable.

Let me rephrase what I said a little bit. Playable low settings with mods and at 1280x800, with the shadow removal mod. I'll have to see how to install mods, the only PC game that I've modded is Minecraft, which I can play at maximum settings with very little to no lag.