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Starfield just released on and we’re only getting started with tons of reviews pouring in and crazy gameplay videos. But that’s for later although I can say Bethesda’s done it and done it well.
If you’re about to run Starfield on your Windows PC, you must have a few basics covered and some serious power under the cover.
In this blog, you’ll get an idea of whether you can run Starfield on your rig, what you’ll need to do, and a few Starfield settings that can help you make the best of it.
Starfield System Requirements: What You Need
| Requirement | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| Operating System | Windows 10 version 21H1 (10.0.19043) | Windows 10/11 with updates |
| Processor | AMD Ryzen 5 2600X or Intel Core i7-6800K | AMD Ryzen 5 3600X or Intel i5-10600K |
| Memory | 16 GB RAM | 16 GB RAM |
| Graphics | AMD Radeon RX 5700 or NVIDIA GeForce 1070 Ti | AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT or NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 |
| DirectX | Version 12 | Version 12 |
| Storage | 125 GB available space | 125 GB available space |
| SSD | Required | Required |
These are the minimum and recommended requirements, and your actual experience may vary depending on your hardware and settings.
If you want to enjoy Starfield to the fullest, it is recommended to run at least a 2021-spec rig.
But with Starfield supporting FidelityFX Super Resolution 2 or FSR 2, you might just be able to get away with a below-spec system.
What is FSR 2?
FSR 2 is an image upscaling tech from AMD. It’s open source so even NVIDIA, Intel and others can use it. What it does is – it renders the game’s graphics at a lower resolution than what the game originally should render. This demands less graphics processing power from your PC. After that, it upscales and re-renders the image according to your display res to make it look like you’re rendering great graphics, which is not the case IRL.
With FSR 2 in Starfield, you may be able to run the game on a 6th gen i7 or a Ryzen 5 2600 X.
What Graphics Card do I Need to Run Starfield?
I will suggest amping up the graphics cards to either an RTX 2080 or a Radeon RX 6800 XT to run Starfield for hours without worrying about losing your motherboard. And although the minimum requirements state that a 1070 Ti or a RX 5700 will do considering Starfield does come with FSR 2, that would be really scraping the bottom of the barrel and you might as well upgrade now if you want to play games like Mirage or Avatar or Mortal Kombat I.
The fact that Bethesda’s gone ahead to list a bare minimum of a 1070 Ti for Starfield is a bit alarming considering the graphics they are showing the game can render. But I guess that’s only to bring in the whole lot of gamers who are happily running their rigs on graphics cards released back in 2017.
Yet, that’s understandable since Starfield is heavily reliant on the CPU thanks to a game system that procedurally generates worlds as you dig deeper. So unlike FPS or even racing games where the frames come thick and fast, Starfield needs a lot more CPU than the GPU.
Just so, I will suggest on the 10th gen i5 or a Ryzen 5 3600X to enjoy the Starfield gameplay mechanics seamlessly.
How much RAM do I need for Starfield?
8GB will make it through but you’ll need to sacrifice graphics performance and quality especially if you are running on minimum requirements in the graphics department as well. I will recommend adding another 8GB to really bring out the graphics quality and enjoy smooth gameplay experience while at it.
Starfield Settings: Hitting the Sweet Spot
Starfield has officially taken over my feed and it’s the GoTY for too many.
Starfield is huge and it has lived up to its promise.
What I was more interested in was Starfield’s in-game settings, rather, if Bethesda’s left enough options for us system gamers to tweak our desired performance out of it.
Here’s a look at what would be an initial settings sweet spot (shoutout to Jacob Roach) –
With FSR 2 running, Starfield can go easy on your graphics engine. So, you can get the most out of what Starfield offers by adjusting the render resolution to its minimum, that’s at 50%, since FSR 2 will constantly be kicking in to give you sufficient graphics.
Instead, what Starfield will do is run your CPU to the ground if you don’t keep a check on that.
The easiest way to do that is by keeping Crowd Density to Low and doing the same for Particle Quality.
In case you’re running the minimum requirements, you can even turn off Depth of Field and Motion Blur.
Bottomline on Starfield system requirements – Starfield is a lot less graphics-intensive than we thought it would be, but it can scale up without FSR to run the cinematics-quality graphics that Bethesda’s used in official trailers and sneak peeks. Just so, I will suggest concentrating on the CPU/motherboard more since that’s where Starfield does need some serious grunt. If you have a close-to-min board, at least upgrade your RAM to 8GB+ and make sure you run an SSD. That should do.
I’ll update this with PC build specific performance from Starfield. Bookmark.
