My experience is that GPU DOES matter especially when it comes to HDR, AA settings and number of objects. To avoid VRAM and performance problems I suggest to set screen resolution to "very high" and world distance detail to "medium" (in HDR mode). Makes very little difference in visual quality and huge difference in performance on my system. 2600k@4.3, GTX670 2 GB, 16 GB Ram, 23'' screen. You said: slower than with my old laptop...running the same settings??? That would really mean your system is set up wrong. Flo PS: 2GB are sufficent for XP10 in my eyes and you shouldn't worry about this. Nobody can run XP10 with settings maxed out today and I myself never had trouble with the 2GB limit.