Best Performance Settings for Starfield

Starfield's full release arrived on September 6, and you want to be prepared for this expansive sci-fi roleplaying adventure game. This includes having the correct settings for your device to run Starfield properly. We've designed this Starfield Best Performance Settings guide to help you optimise your machine to run the game.

Minimum and Recommended PC Requirements and Settings

Starfield's spec requirements are as extensive as its universe. As players will be travelling a lot and doing various activities, it's no wonder they need some PC performance settings. Starfield will undoubtedly make players want to explore every nook and cranny the game offers, from the vast planets to the complex cities.

Credit: Bethesda Game Studios

However, this may prove challenging if you don't have the right set-up. Below are some of the minimum and recommended PC requirements you should have for the game in order to run it.

Minimum PC requirements

We highly recommend downloading and installing the Starfield DLSS mod from PureDark. If you barely meet these specs, this mod gives a performance boost to your game. We also have a list of the best performance mods, so keep reading.

However, if you don't feel like downloading mods, try playing around with the rendering resolution in the game's settings. This may make the game look less immersive. However, you'll be able to run it better. It's quite a small price to pay to lower or avoid stuttering, but you should invest in improving your specs if you truly want to immerse yourself in Starfield.

Recommended PC requirements

Having more than enough regarding your PC requirements and settings would help you evade rising issues when running Starfield.

While these settings aren't as different from the minimum required settings, it helps to have a better processor and consider getting more RAM.

Best Performance Settings

In terms of the best performance settings, you should try playing around with the graphics settings, as these heavily affect the performance of your game.

Credit: Bethesda Game Studios

We've compiled this list of recommended settings you can try to improve Starfield's performance:

These performance settings find the perfect balance between the best graphics and performance for you. If you aren't fully decked out on your PC, then these settings are good enough for your device. But if you have exceeded the system requirements, you can increase the resolution, shadows, crowd density, and particle quality to make the game more immersive.

Please remember that crowd density is quite CPU-intensive; be careful when turning that up so it doesn't affect your game's performance. However, if you're still not getting a smooth game, it may not be your fault, and you'd have to wait for Bethesda to release patches for performance bugs.

List of AMD Recommendations

Credit: AMD Inc., Bethesda Game Studios

Bethesda Game Studios has also collaborated with AMD to make Starfield run smoothly. Besides preparing the Starfield best performance settings, we've listed some of AMD's recommendations for various playing experiences players want to have when playing the game.

Legendary Experience: 4K

Consider these AMD recommendations for your PC if you want the best Starfield experience.

• Featured CPU - AMD Ryzen™ 7 7800X3D
• Featured GPU - AMD Radeon™ RX 7900 XT
• Featured Motherboard - AMD X670

The RX 7900 XT can break through 60 fps, and it's the best of the best AMD offers to players who want to maximise the game's roleplaying feature and expansive world.

Epic Experience: 1440p

If you're more into the visuals, these AMD recommendations will surely deliver the maximum visual settings at high fps.

• Featured CPU - AMD Ryzen™ 7 7700X
• Featured GPU - AMD Radeon™ RX 6800 Series
• Featured Motherboard - AMD B650

Heroic Experience: 1080p

Lastly would be the entry specs for AMD's recommendations. These deliver decent visuals and framerates for those on a budget.

• Featured CPU - AMD Ryzen™ 5 7600
• Featured GPU - AMD Radeon™ RX 7600
• Featured Motherboard - AMD A620

Xbox Performance mode

As Starfield is exclusive to PC and the Xbox platforms, this raises the question of whether Starfield has an Xbox Performance mode.

Performance modes generally refer to settings that prioritise your game's frame rate over resolution. This helps your game maintain higher frame rates but at the cost of lower resolutions. They are often helpful for fast-paced or competitive games for a smoother or more responsive playing experience. The main benefit of them is to ensure smoother gameplay.

Is There a Starfield Xbox Performance Mode?

Unfortunately, there aren't any options yet for changing how Starfield runs on the Xbox. Players have to live with the default set performance for the game on this console.

Xbox Series S vs. Xbox Series X

In terms of the Xbox Series S and X, Starfield performs very differently between these two versions. For the Xbox Series S, the game can run at 30 frames per second up to 1440p fidelity. While for the Xbox Series X it's also locked to 30 frames per second but can display graphics in 4K.

Both Xbox Series consoles still do their job of delivering the game visually at 30 fps. Despite minor frame rate drops, playing Starfield on the Xbox is still a decent experience.

How to Boost Your FPS in Starfield

We have provided you with our tried and tested optimal display settings to enhance your performance on your PC. However, it is possible for you to still feel some lag or choppiness in the game with regular FPS drops despite meeting the system requirements and tweaking your settings. The game isn’t fully optimized initially, and Bethesda might take several patches to fix most of the FPS issues.

Furthermore, you can also experience an FPS drop due to your system’s outdated graphics drivers, some problems with your hardware, or even because of your PC’s resources being used elsewhere. If you meet the minimum requirements to run the game and have tried the best graphics settings mentioned above but still end up experiencing the lag, here’s how you can boost your FPS in Starfield.

Update Your Graphics Drivers

The first and most crucial step that you need to do is to update your GPU drivers. Outdated drivers are one of the biggest causes of FPS drop in Starfield, and installing the latest version on your system will instantly boost the performance.

• Open up the Device Manager on your PC.
• Select the display adapters drop-down.
• Right-click on your graphics card option.
• Select the Update driver option.

Disable Fullscreen Optimizations

Another common reason you’re experiencing an FPS drop in Starfield is that other applications consume your system’s resources. The best way to fix this issue is to turn off fullscreen optimizations in the game.

• Navigate to the Starfield installation directory.
• Right-click on the Starfield.exe application file.
• Go to the compatibility tab.
• Check the Disable fullscreen optimizations option and click OK.

Also, open the Task Manager and close any unnecessary applications running in the background.

Optimize Graphics Performance Preference

There is another method of ensuring that your GPU’s full resources are used towards optimizing the game. This involves setting your system’s performance preference for Starfield to a higher priority.

• Go to the System settings on your PC and open the Display settings.
• Click on the Graphics settings option.
• Turn on Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling.
• Choose the Starfield launch icon for performance preference.
• Go to Starfield options and select the High-performance option.
• Click Save and restart your systems for the changes to take effect.

Enable or Disable AMD FSR

The AMD FSR is an incredible feature that can boost your game’s FPS and upscale the performance without significantly sacrificing the graphics quality. Since Nvidia’s DLSS isn’t available in the game yet, you can try tweaking the FSR option to see how it affects your game’s performance.

• Launch the game and go to Settings.
• Open the Display settings option.
• Select the Upscaling option and change it to FSR2.
• Restart the game and check your in-game FPS.
• Now you can go to the Display Settings again and turn off the Upscaling.
• Restart your game once again and compare the performance.

Best Starfield Mods for Performance Enhancement

The FPS boosting options we have described so far should be enough to enhance your game’s performance to your needs. However, if you want more juicy FPS with no compromise to the graphics quality, you can install some mods to improve the game's performance.

Luckily, the modding community for the Bethesda game is as active as ever, and there are already dozens of mods that truly upscale your game to a higher level. Here is a list of some of the best mods you can install to enhance your Starfield experience with increased performance.

• Install this Upscaler Base Plugin and then this Starfield Upscaler mod that replaces the FSR2 setting in your game with DLSS or XeSS.
• This incredible Starfield Performance Optimization mod will boost your FPS and enhance your system’s overall performance for the game.
• This Neutral LUTs mod will help replace the color filters in the game with more uniform colors.
• A better field-of-view and HUD can make the experience more immersive. So, use this Starfield FOV mod and the BetterHUD mod.
• If you want to make your display more compact with better UI for inventory, this StarUI Inventory mod has got you covered.
• For players who get frustrated by the in-game menus, this Undelayed Menus mod will make their lives much more accessible by reducing the menu times.
• Finally, this Achievement Enabler mod will be a lifesaver to ensure you can still unlock your in-game achievements with the installed mods.

Check out our list of the best Quality of Life mods for Starfield to improve your overall experience.

How to Install Performance Boosting Mods in Starfield

Now that you know how helpful mods can be in performance and user experience enhancements for Starfield players, you might wonder how to install these mods in the game. It is relatively simple, but first-time Nexus Mods users may need a tip or two. Installing mods in Starfield is as simple as following the steps below.

• Go to Nexus Mod and sign in to your account. If you’re a new user, register your fresh account.
• Download the Base StarfieldCustom.ini file needed to install mods and place this file in the game’s installation directory.
• Create a new folder in your game’s installation directory and rename it mods.
• Next, you can go ahead and download the mod you want to install and place all its files inside the newly created mods folder.
• You can now launch the game to see if the mod works.

There you have it: a complete guide on the best performance settings for Starfield on your system. Doing so will allow you to gain the maximum performance boost and experience the Settled Systems in all their glory.

We hope this guide on the best performance settings for Starfield has helped you prepare your device for installing and running Starfield. If you have some spare time, consider checking out our other guides on Starfield, such as which faction you should join and our main story path guide.

For all things Starfield, stick with us at Starfield Portal.