Starfield PC efficiency: easiest settings, FSR 2, benchmarks, and extra

Starfield devices a brand unique benchmark for PC efficiency, taxing even essentially the most highly efficient hardware on the market. To salvage the sport to bustle smoothly, you’ll need essentially the most easy settings for Starfield. 

Right here is rarely any easy sport, and the disaster on PC is even extra complex. I’ve tested the sport widely both sooner than and after initiate to amass optimized settings, benchmark it with several GPUs, and register on upscaling enhance. Right here’s what I’ve stumbled on up to now.

Simplest settings for Starfield

Starfield doesn’t enjoy an enormous graphics menu, and the four graphics presets attain an ethical job of balancing efficiency. I tested each atmosphere for my share, and almost all of them provide a puny bump in efficiency — there are only just a few extraneous settings and straight forward wins for efficiency.

Peaceful, I settled on a checklist of essentially the most easy settings that I in actuality feel optimize efficiency and image quality. Right here are my optimized settings for Starfield: 

• Dynamic Resolution: On
• Render Resolution: 75%
• Graphics Preset: Customized
• Shadow Quality: Medium
• Indirect Lights: Excessive
• Reflections: Medium
• Particle Quality: Low
• Volumetric Lights: Medium
• Crowd Density: Low
• Motion Blur: Off
• GTAO Quality: Medium
• Grass Quality: Excessive
• Contact Shadows: Medium
• VSync: On
• Upscaling: FSR2
• Allow VRS: On
• Depth of Self-discipline: On

Gasp! Your eyes don’t deceive you. You ought to unexcited bustle Starfield below native resolution. As I’ll dig into with my benchmarks later, the sport is clearly designed spherical AMD’s FidelityFX Huge Resolution 2 (FSR 2), and even essentially the most sharp graphics preset defaults to FSR 2 running at 75% of the native resolution.

It’s neutral a dinky utterly different than FSR in other games. Essentially, FSR 2 entails three or four presets that resolve your render resolution. Starfield as a replacement entails a slider that goes from 100% of render resolution to 50%. Upright within the center at 75% is positively the candy location for image quality, so it’s easiest to optimize your efficiency with settings reasonably than push FSR 2 all of the vogue down to its lowest point.

Essentially the most sharp efficiency wins for Starfield near from Shadow Quality, Volumetric Lights, GTAO Quality, and Contact Shadows, so these are the settings to be triumphant in for first to optimize your efficiency. Motion Blur also has an ethical impact on efficiency, so turn it off unless you’re running below 60 frames per 2nd (fps) and need neutral a dinky smoothing.

Because it is doubtless you’ll perhaps also analysis within the comparison above, my optimized settings look awfully akin to the Extremely preset, not less than with the 75% render resolution utilized to both. I saw a couple of 15% lengthen in efficiency with these settings, but I’ve tailor-made my list in a methodology that could wait on less highly efficient techniques.

For occasion, there’s the Crowd Density atmosphere. My attempting out reveals that Starfield is terribly taxing on the CPU, with some scenes riding even the 24-core Intel Core i9-13900K to 60% utilization. Turning down this atmosphere vastly reduces the weight on the CPU, so it’s an ethical place to lower in case your CPU isn’t as highly efficient as your GPU. Crowds unexcited look dense even on the lowest atmosphere, but when it’s maxed out, it is doubtless you’ll perhaps also analysis 50 or extra other folks in an place at one time.

Finally, I are looking out for to highlight VRS, or Variable Rate Shading. This atmosphere is on by default, and likewise you ought to unexcited gallop away it that methodology. You could perhaps seemingly also not analysis it at work reckoning on how highly efficient your system is, nonetheless it could perhaps enhance efficiency plenty on older, less highly efficient techniques.

Starfield system requirements

Forward of getting to my benchmarks, it’s worth having a take a look at on the Starfield system requirements. It’s a stressful sport, and the system requirements befriend that up.

In step with my benchmarks, it appears to be like the Rapid specs are targeting 4K at 30 fps on the Excessive preset, which renders the sport at 62% of its resolution by intention of FSR 2. You could perhaps seemingly also also study running the sport at 1080p with 60 fps on the same graphics preset.

The Minimal specs look as if they’re targeting 1080p at 30 fps, again with FSR 2 enabled. As talked about, Starfield is clearly designed spherical FSR 2, and that’s factoring within the system requirements carefully. With the upscaling grew to turn out to be off, you would prefer a mighty extra highly efficient system to defend a steady frame rate.

About a additional notes right here. First, you need an SSD to play Starfield. It’s required, even on the Minimal specs. Moreover, the sport calls for a six-core CPU at minimal, but I wouldn’t counsel playing it with less than an eight-core chip. The game is terribly taxing on the CPU in carefully populated areas, and likewise you’ll analysis an incredible dip in efficiency with only six cores.

What GPU attain you would prefer for Starfield?

I tested seven graphics playing cards in Starfield to salvage a tough thought of what you’d need reckoning on the resolution you’re playing the sport at. You could perhaps seemingly also analysis my outcomes above, with playing cards representing the closing two generations of GPUs from AMD and Nvidia. There’s no Intel illustration right here, not only on story of there isn’t an reliable Starfield driver for the Arc A770 and A750, but to boot for the reason that sport refused to load with the cardboard in my prerelease attempting out.

Intel confirmed there was once an pains, and it has released an emergency driver update to repair steadiness factors with Starfield. 

Forward of digging in, it’s valuable to present that I created a worst-case disaster to envision graphics playing cards in Starfield. That supposed ignoring FSR 2 and running my benchmarks within the New Atlantis city within the sport, where dozens of characters are on-camouflage. Efficiency goes up plenty whenever you allow FSR 2, as I’ll salvage into later in this share.

For now, you’ll need spherical an RTX 3070 Ti in list to defend 60 fps with out FSR 2 enabled. The RX 6700 XT shall be an choice, assuming you turn down just a few graphics settings. At as a lot as 1440p, both the RTX 4070 and RTX 3080 scratch 60 fps with out fully reaching it, while the RX 6950 XT passes that tag with ease.

It’s 4K where issues are in actuality inferior, although. Even AMD’s RX 7900 XTX and Nvidia’s RTX 4080 can’t defend 60 fps at 4K with out the aid of FSR 2. That only leaves the RTX 4090 as an choice to play Starfield at native 4K with all of the settings maxed out.

That said, I did this attempting out sooner than AMD’s initiate of a dedicated driver for Starfield. The patch notes claim a efficiency lengthen of as a lot as 16%, so it could perhaps also push the sport over the 60 fps tag for the RX 7900 XTX.

I went befriend and retested just a few playing cards with the unique patch, and because it is doubtless you’ll perhaps also analysis above, it improves efficiency reasonably neutral a dinky.

As talked about, each of the graphics presets in Starfield mechanically turn FSR 2 on. The Extremely preset uses a 75% render resolution, Excessive uses a 62% render resolution, and both Medium and Low use 50%. These modifications enjoy an enormous impact on efficiency.

Ought to you study FSR 2 on versus off, it is doubtless you’ll perhaps also analysis the RTX 3080 can with out problems hit above 60 fps at 4K with the Excessive graphics preset, nonetheless it struggles to defend above 40 fps otherwise. The disparity on the Low and Medium presets is even extra obvious, with FSR 2 offering almost double the efficiency.

That comes at a valuable rate to image quality, although. Because it is doubtless you’ll perhaps also analysis within the comparison above, both the Low and Medium presets undergo from valuable aliasing within the background, to boot to a valuable tumble-off in sharpness (look on the blue flag and the overhanging tree).

In a similar vogue, within the scene above, it is doubtless you’ll perhaps also analysis the signs on the constructing list some distance less component on the Medium and Low presets. There are modifications to shadow and lights quality between modes, nonetheless it’s the low render resolution of these lower presets that in actuality kills the expertise.

Is 8GB of VRAM adequate for Starfield?

VRAM concerns are effectively-known among well-liked games, but happily, Starfield doesn’t enjoy lots of factors. Even at native 4K with the full graphics grew to turn out to be up, the sport by no methodology consumed above 8GB of VRAM. That was once good for taking part in cards together with the RTX 4090 with its big array of 24GB of VRAM.

It’s not an incredible enviornment right here. Moreover, I didn’t undercover agent any stuttering or hitching on GPUs with 8GB of VRAM, which has been a valuable enviornment in games adore Resident Inappropriate 4, The Last of Us Part One, and Hogwarts Legacy. 

Does Starfield enjoy Nvidia DLSS?

At initiate, Starfield doesn’t enjoy native enhance for Nvidia’s Deep Learning Huge Sampling (DLSS). AMD is the odd PC associate for the sport, but no topic that, the corporate says the developer is free so that you just can add DLSS if it chooses.

That hasn’t happened but, even though it’s conceivable DLSS enhance will near within the extinguish. Fortuitously, modder PureDark has already released a mod that adds DLSS and Intel’s XeSS to the sport. There’s also a free mod that adds Nvidia’s DLSS 3.

Editors’ Concepts

• Nvidia DLSS enhance for Starfield teased alongside steadiness-bettering update

• This Starfield mod adds Nvidia’s DLSS 3 — with out spending a dime

• The first Starfield-themed GPU is up for sale — amid warnings of scams

• AMD isn’t good copying Nvidia’s homework with FSR 3

• Some of our worst fears about Starfield also can now be confirmed