Now to be fair, Skyrim is now five, going on six years old. And in the world of technology and video game development, that can be quite a long time. But this really shouldn't be that surprising, after all we were promised mods for consoles, of course it's going to be far more demanding on your system than it was five years ago. I've thrown the specs we were given down below so feel free to check it out for yourself.
Now for those who have already purchased Skyrim and all of its DLC (Dawnguard, Dragonborn, and Hearthfire) you're in luck and will receive the Special Edition at no additional cost whatsoever. And really, if you want the Special Edition don't wait to buy that once it releases on October 28th, you should just buy the stuff from five years ago at a discount price and wait a few weeks to get your free upgrade. Maybe you could take some of that money you've saved and put it towards upgrading your PC.
PC System Specs
Minimum
Windows 7/8.1/10 (64-bit Version)
Intel i5-750/AMD Phenom II X4-945.
8GB of ram.
12 GB free HDD space
NVIDIA GTX 470 1GB /AMD HD 7870 2GB
Recommended
Windows 7/8.1/10 (64-bit Version)
Intel i5-2400/AMD FX-8320.
8GB of ram.
12 GB free HDD space
NVIDIA GTX 780 3GB /AMD R9 290 4GB