When folks cry out for a AAA, lengthy, and immersive game to sell VR, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR has to be near the top of the pile for games that could reasonably be ported to VR. By all accounts, Skyrim VR is absolutely fantastic on PC. It includes all of the released expansions for potentially hundreds of hours of gameplay, but this time players can actually exist within this scarily huge world. If you've got an HTC Vive or Oculus Rift and are planning to give Skyrim VR a go though, beware some incredibly demanding system requirements.

Skyrim VR Minimum System Requirements

• OS: Windows 7 64-bit
• CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz or AMD Ryzen 5 1400 3.5 GHz
• RAM: 8 GB System Memory
• GPU RAM: 4 GB Video Memory
• GPU: GeForce GTX 970 or Radeon RX 580 8GB
• HDD: 15GB Available Hard Drive Space
• API: DirectX 11

Skyrim VR Recommended System Requirements

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit
• CPU: Intel Core i7-4790 3.6 GHz or AMD Ryzen 5 1500X 3.5 GHz
• RAM: 8 GB System Memory
• GPU RAM: 8 GB Video Memory
• GPU: GeForce GTX 1070 or Radeon RX Vega 56
• HDD: 15GB Available Hard Drive Space
• API: DirectX 11 

The demands of powering a virtual reality headset mean we're always expecting the system requirements for a VR version of a game to be significantly higher than the standard version. These specs for Skyrim VR are something else though. 2015's mid to high-end Intel Core i5-6600K is suggested as the absolute minimum Intel CPU for Skyrim VR, while AMD users will need last year's quad-core Ryzen 5 1400. Where you can really see the gulf is it we take a look at the minimum CPUs for Skyrim's Special Edition that the VR version is based: an Intel Core i5-750 or AMD Phenom II X4 945. That's an incredible gulf, yet it could prove useful for those hunting for the 90fps+ frame rates required for a stable VR experience.

The minimum GPUs to play Skyrim VR are a lot less surprising. While a remaster of a seven-year-old game, we're talking about a 2160 x 1200 screen resolution for the HTC Vive. This needs to be matched and then run at 90 frames per second for stable performance, and a GeForce GTX 970 or Radeon RX 580 should certainly be considered the absolute minimum.

As for the recommended specs, I've reached out to Bethesda for clarification but we have to assume these are system requirements aimed at running Skyrim VR on the new HTC Vive Pro. The updated headset is out on Thursday (April 5th) and has a resolution bump up to 2880x1600. That's around 78% more pixels to push, which would explain why need the mighty GeForce GTX 1070 or Radeon RX Vega 56. This is a game that runs on the base PS4, so it would seem likely that these GPUs can max out Skyrim VR's visuals at 2880x1600 with the HTC Vive Pro.

As ever, remember you can always check out how well your PC can run the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR System Requirements here, where you can check benchmarking and performance from other users. Compare your graphics card to the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR GPU benchmark chart and we also have a Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR Frames Per Second system performance chart for you to check.