# Skyrim on Bootcamp



## Euansmith

Hi all, 

I'm new to the forum and have a question I would like to ask regarding an issue  I encountered whilst starting Skyrim. I have a 2011 15' macbook pro. I made a windows partition and installed windows 7. I also installed parallels desktop. 
The problem: Upon starting Skyrim in the windows 7 partition I get a fatal error message: Failed to initialize renderer. I do not encounter this problem when starting skyrim using parallels desktop. (Skyrim through PD is EXTREMEMLY SLOW). So I wanted to ask for help regarding the error message because I think (I HOPE) that Skyrim will perform better if I boot my mac into windows 7 instead of using it on the desktop. If it doesn't perform better, than I will sell this piece of shit and get a pc. 
I think I should mention that I installed Skyrim onto an external harddrive. Will this affect gameplay in any way?
I appreciate any help, 

Euan.


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## Phy

I believe it will be slower on an external due to the connection being longer and overall slower, but that might be completely wrong or not true anymore. No idea about the rest of the question.


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## Euansmith

I have Dead Space 2 installed on the external hd. It performs admirably on PD with High graphics settings. The reason I put it on the external hd is because (like a fool) I didnt put enough space on the windows partition, and I have yet to find a way of increasing it's size.


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## Phy

Update drivers is the only thing I can think of.


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## Euansmith

I thought an update of some kind might fix this, I just wasn't sure which ones.......


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## Phy

Look for an update to your graphics driver first, then sound. And to ask the obvious question, is your laptop capable of playing the game in the first place?


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## Euansmith

It has the more than the minimum specs. It plays other games perfectly. Borderlands, Dead space, Assassis creed. All good. And it sure as hell should do considering it's price.


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## Phy

It's Apple, price has nothing to do with it's capabilities.


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## Euansmith

I see.


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## Euansmith

So I installed an update, and same thing happens. Knowing that I have Skyrim and I can't play it is driving me insane.


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## Phy

What's graphics card does it have and does it support directx 11? I know very little about macs so keep that in mind.


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## Euansmith

AMD Radeon HD 6750M. I'm not entirely sure if it supports directx11


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## Phy

That shouldn't have a problem running Skyrim. Do you have a disc or is a steam download?


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## Euansmith

I have the disc.


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## Aastii

Euansmith said:


> AMD Radeon HD 6750M. I'm not entirely sure if it supports directx11



It does, but it isn't very powerful


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## jonnyp11

well what do you mean the game is slow, considering it's on an extrnal hd, which i assume is using a usb 2.0 adapter, and skyrim must continuously load the map off of the disk as you roam, could that be it? but that should also appear in borderlands a little, but it's maps are much smaller too so it might have the data in the ram so borderlands might not show it.


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## epidemik

In terms of resizing the partition, you could look into these: http://guides.macrumors.com/Extend/Resize_Boot_Camp_Partition

I don't have any experience and I'd personally say just back up everything and delete then reinstall the windows side (just start completely fresh). 

In terms of Skyrim not running, I'm pretty sure thats a video driver issue. Have you installed and updated the drivers for the video card?


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## Euansmith

Ah I think I forgot to mention, Borderlands is a mac version, and its installed on the macs hd. However, Dead space 2 is on the EXTERNAL hd, and i can play it through paralells on high graphics settings with no hiccups. I do appreciate that Skyrim is a much larger game, so I will delete the windows partition and make a new one. Once I start Skyrim (from the windows hd, I will let you guys know if there are any improvements. Thanks for the help!


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