Bethesda's sprawling space RPG — vast and atmospheric, but demanding, with cities that lean hard on your CPU.
Starfield sends you across a galaxy of hand-crafted cities and procedurally generated worlds in Bethesda's largest RPG yet. It is a demanding title: open space and interiors run well, but dense hub cities like New Atlantis are heavily CPU-bound and can tank frame rates on otherwise capable machines. FSR2 is built in and DLSS is a one-click mod away, so upscaling is essential. Render Resolution Scale is your primary performance dial — small reductions there buy back big frames with little visible softening.
Built for competitive players who want the highest frame rate and lowest input latency.
Leans on aggressive render scaling to hold a steady frame rate, especially in the CPU-heavy cities where the game struggles most.
| Setting | Value | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Display Mode | Fullscreen (Exclusive) | Lowest latency, best frame pacing. |
| Render Resolution Scale | 60% | The key lever — largest FPS gain, biggest win in cities. |
| Dynamic Resolution | ON | — |
| Upscaling | FSR2 / DLSS (mod) — Performance | Essential for a stable frame rate. |
| Graphics Preset | Low | — |
| Shadow Quality | Low | — |
| Indirect Lighting | Low | — |
| Reflections | Low | Screen-space reflections are costly. |
| Particle Quality | Low | — |
| Volumetric Lighting | Low | Heavy indoors and in fog. |
| Crowd Density | Low | Eases the CPU load that bottlenecks cities. |
| Motion Blur | OFF | — |
| GTAO Quality | Low | — |
| Depth of Field | OFF | — |
Maximum visual fidelity for players who prefer the best-looking image.
Full fidelity for exploration and screenshots. Note that Ultra reflections cost a lot for little visible gain.
| Setting | Value | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Display Mode | Fullscreen (Exclusive) | — |
| Render Resolution Scale | 100% | — |
| Dynamic Resolution | OFF | — |
| Upscaling | DLAA / Native | Best possible image quality. |
| Graphics Preset | Ultra | — |
| Shadow Quality | Ultra | — |
| Indirect Lighting | Ultra | — |
| Reflections | High | Ultra SSR is very expensive for a subtle change. |
| Particle Quality | Ultra | — |
| Volumetric Lighting | Ultra | — |
| Crowd Density | High | — |
| Motion Blur | ON | — |
| GTAO Quality | Ultra | — |
The sweet spot between frame rate and visuals. Drag the slider to shift the balance.
A clean, atmospheric look with render scaling and upscaling doing the heavy lifting. The sensible everyday default.
| Setting | Value | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Display Mode | Fullscreen (Exclusive) | — |
| Render Resolution Scale | 75% | The main quality/FPS dial — sweet spot for most cards. |
| Dynamic Resolution | ON | — |
| Upscaling | FSR2 / DLSS — Quality | Big gain, near-native sharpness. |
| Graphics Preset | Medium | — |
| Shadow Quality | Medium | — |
| Indirect Lighting | Medium | — |
| Reflections | Medium | — |
| Particle Quality | Medium | — |
| Volumetric Lighting | Medium | — |
| Crowd Density | Medium | Lower this if cities still stutter. |
| Motion Blur | OFF | — |
| GTAO Quality | Medium | — |
| Metric | CompetitiveMax FPS / Performance | BalancedBalanced | High GraphicsBest Graphics |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input Latency | Lowest | Standard | Standard |
| Graphics Quality | |||
| GPU Usage | Medium | High | Very High |
| Competitive Score | 86/100 | 66/100 | 48/100 |
| Recommended For | 60 fps in cities on mid-range GPUs and high-refresh play. | RTX 3060-class GPUs wanting a smooth 1080p/1440p experience. | RTX 4070+ GPUs, exploration, and screenshot capture. |
Official minimum and recommended specs for Starfield.
| Component | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| OS | Windows 10 version 21H1 (10.0.19043) | Windows 10/11 with updates |
| Processor | AMD Ryzen 5 2600X, Intel Core i7-6800K | AMD Ryzen 5 3600X, Intel i5-10600K |
| Memory | 16 GB RAM | 16 GB RAM |
| Graphics | AMD Radeon RX 5700, NVIDIA GeForce 1070 Ti | AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 |
| DirectX | Version 12 | Version 12 |
| Storage | 125 GB available space | 125 GB available space |
Minimum
OS: Windows 10 version 21H1 (10.0.19043) Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 2600X, Intel Core i7-6800K Memory: 16 GB RAM Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 5700, NVIDIA GeForce 1070 Ti DirectX: Version 12 Storage: 125 GB available space Additional Notes: SSD Required
Recommended
OS: Windows 10/11 with updates Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X, Intel i5-10600K Memory: 16 GB RAM Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 DirectX: Version 12 Network: Broadband Internet connection Storage: 125 GB available space Additional Notes: SSD Required
Source: Steam
Pick your hardware and preset to estimate your frame rate — results update instantly.
Frame generation is never counted: every figure is rendered frames only.
Your Estimated Starfield Performance
High (assumed from the recommended spec) · native · 1080p
55
Low end
63
Estimate
70
High end
FPS values displayed on GamerSpecs are estimates. Actual game performance may vary depending on hardware configuration, drivers, cooling, power limits, background applications, and game updates.
How is this calculated?Safe, technically-sound tips to get the most out of Starfield.
Render Resolution Scale is your primary FPS dial — dropping it toward 75-80% gives a large gain with little visible softening.
Install a DLSS mod (or use the built-in FSR2) at Quality for a big frame boost, especially on NVIDIA cards.
Major cities like New Atlantis are CPU-bound; lower Crowd Density and close background apps to smooth them out.
Reflections and Volumetric Lighting cost a lot for little benefit — Medium is the smart balance point.
Keep the game on an SSD (it's required) and leave at least 16 GB of system RAM free for space and city streaming.
Update to the latest Starfield-optimized GPU driver — early drivers left significant performance on the table.