Bethesda’s newest recreation wants no introductions, so let’s get straight into the finest graphics settings for Starfield. We’re going to be overlaying the choices you’re going to need for top efficiency and FPS, whereas additionally giving choices for a high-fidelity expertise.
Not like Fallout 4 and Skyrim, Starfield is operating from the Creation Engine 2, the newest iteration of their recreation engine. Enhancements to the graphical structure, alongside developments to {hardware} have allowed Bethesda to squeeze probably the most out of the graphics of Starfield, and also you’re going to need to take a look on the Starfield system necessities earlier than rigging your self up with the very best graphics settings.
With an in depth wealth of planets in Starfield, exploration goes to be huge and immersive. You’re going to need to rig up your recreation to maximise the expertise, which you’re going to have the ability to do with a number of key tweaks to the sport’s graphic choices. Starfield efficiency just isn’t one thing to be significantly anxious about, so that you’re going to have a easy time with this recreation. It’s additionally price noting there a lot of mods popping out for the sport already – preserve updated with all of them in our Starfield mods information.
Greatest graphics settings for Starfield

We had a evaluate copy of Starfield, which means that we had some time to become familiar with the very best graphics choices for the sport. As famous in our efficiency overview, Starfield burns vibrant, and so does its efficiency. We examined the sport utilizing an RTX 3070 FE and Ryzen 5 3600 with 16GB RAM.
You is perhaps questioning what the Render Decision Scale toggle does, which we’ll go into depth on. Starfield’s Render Decision Scale is a characteristic that encourages gamers to not run the sport at your monitor’s native decision. As an alternative, you’re going to make use of the Render Decision Scale, alongside FSR2 to max out the sport’s decision with out taxing your {hardware} as a lot. Whereas there isn’t native DLSS within the recreation, fortunately there’s a mod on the market that can convey it to the sport for you.
Be careful for the Render Decision Scale
Whereas bumping up the Render Decision Scale may offer you the next constancy picture – you do run the danger of placing pressure in your CPU. If that is so, preserve it decrease than 75%.
There’s additionally a slew of choices comparable to oblique lighting, volumetric lighting, GTAO and VRS, all of which could appear barely alien technical jargon.
One other factor we’d advocate for all set-ups is to utterly disable the Movie Grain Depth which, whereas it gained’t affect efficiency closely, will make your recreation look rubbish if enabled.
Greatest graphics settings for Starfield for FPS and efficiency
To start with, we examined out Starfield with the Render Decision Scale set to roughly 75%. Body price was operating easy, so we determined to bump it as much as 100%, after which we noticed that picture high quality was noticeably smoother with little to no frame-rate drops.

Nevertheless, as render decision scaling is a GPU intensive course of – we attributed this to the 3070 FE which was powering our gaming PC. Should you’re looking for out FPS and efficiency, you may not have the identical capabilities in your graphics card, and we’d advocate cutting down the render decision.
Should you’re struggling for efficiency in Starfield, you’re going to need to strategy Shadow High quality, Volumetric Lighting, GTAO High quality, and Contact Shadows as your first level of name. Whereas all of those are vital in bettering the visible constancy of the sport, disabling them drastically elevated our efficiency throughout the board.
Equally, we discovered that turning on movement blur helped to cowl up any low FPS and stuttering we skilled.
We additionally discovered that toggling shadow high quality additionally improved efficiency in some areas – particularly on land.
- Borderless Full Display: On
- Window Measurement: Select relying on show {hardware}
- Dynamic Decision: On
- Render Decision Scale: 75%
- Graphics Preset: Customized
- Shadow High quality: Low
- Oblique Lighting: Medium
- Reflections: Medium
- Particle High quality: Medium
- Volumetric Lighting: Low
- Crowd Density: Low
- Movement Blur: Medium
- GTAO High quality: Low
- Grass High quality: Medium
- Contact Shadows: Medium
- VSync: Allow, except you’ve a VRR or G-Sync monitor / show
- Upscaling: FSR2 (when you’ve got a appropriate GPU)
- Sharpening: Default
- Allow VRS: On
- Movie Grain Depth: Off
These settings ought to show you how to squeeze out the very best graphics settings for efficiency and FPS in Starfield, although in case you’re nonetheless struggling you may take into account rigging your self up with the very best graphics card and finest CPU for Starfield.
Greatest graphics settings for Starfield for top constancy expertise
Should you’re seeking to get pleasure from Starfield with probably the most visible constancy, you’re going to wish to verify your gaming PC is up for the job. Whereas we don’t suppose that Starfield is especially graphically intensive – in truth we all know it’s a recreation that depends far more in your CPU, it’s nonetheless going to be fairly taxing. Nevertheless – in case you’re able to squeeze probably the most out of the sport, you’re going to need to guarantee that you’ve FSR2 enabled, whereas additionally maxing out most of the lighting and shadow settings. Alongside that, you’re going to have the ability to crank the Render Decision Scale as much as the max.
- Borderless Full Display: On
- Window Measurement: Most
- Dynamic Decision: On
- Render Decision Scale: 75%
- Graphics Preset: Customized
- Shadow High quality: Excessive
- Oblique Lighting: Excessive
- Reflections: Excessive
- Particle High quality: Excessive
- Volumetric Lighting: Excessive
- Crowd Density: Excessive
- Movement Blur: Off
- GTAO High quality: Excessive
- Grass High quality: Excessive
- Contact Shadows: Excessive
- VSync: Allow, except you’ve a VRR or G-Sync monitor / show
- Upscaling: FSR2 (when you’ve got a appropriate GPU)
- Sharpening: Default
- Allow VRS: On
- Movie Grain Depth: Off
We’d advocate ensuring you’ve movement blur disabled as that is solely going to cowl up the crisp visuals and easy body price. Alongside that, you’re going to need to ensure you have up to date your graphics drivers to the newest.
Ideas for getting higher efficiency in Starfield
Starfield doesn’t have entry to DLSS, although there may be already a mod that implements this. For now although, we’ve acquired a reasonably good grasp on what the graphics choices are going to provide us with Bethesda’s newest title. Should you’re experiencing points with crashing, it’s potential that you simply’re attempting to play Starfield on too bold graphics settings. In that case, have a go at setting your self up on the efficiency settings as an alternative.
There’s additionally a neighborhood patch on the market, alongside efficiency optimisation mods so ensure you have a fast scan for what’s the very best route to your {hardware}.
How nicely does Starfield run with these graphics settings?
We examined out Starfield on two totally different graphics playing cards – each of which various in high quality and price-range. First, we examined out our ‘efficiency graphics’ settings on an RTX 2060 / Ryzen 7 3700X, after which the with and RTX 3090 / Ryzen 7 3700X.
Starfield with an RTX 2060
The RTX 2060 carried out as anticipated: not that nicely.
- Excessive – 29 Common FPS
- Medium – 37 Common FPS
- Our efficiency graphics settings – 40 Common FPS
- Low – 45 Common FPS
These weren’t horrible benchmarks, they usually actually point out that the sport is playable. Nevertheless, you’re in all probability going to need to play the sport on a barely higher GPU in case you can.
Starfield with an RTX 3090
The RTX 3090 carried out so much higher, nevertheless there’s nonetheless some considerations right here.
- Extremely – 65 Common FPS
- Our excessive constancy graphics settings – 76 Common FPS
- Excessive – 73 Common FPS
- Medium – 82 Common FPS
- Low – 89 Common FPS
It’s most certainly that the sport’s efficiency was hampered by the Ryzen 7 3700X contained in the gaming PC, particularly as the sport is so closely dependant on CPU utilization. With that in thoughts, we’d advocate taking these benchmarks with a pinch of salt. On the finish of the day, the sport appears completely playable on low-end {hardware}, although you’re actually going to battle to drag excessive body charges out of the sport in most cases. You’re going to battle much more with the Steam Deck, although our greatest settings ought to have coated.
Is Nvidia or AMD higher for Starfield?
With the unique partnership between AMD and Starfield, it’s no marvel that Staff Inexperienced’s followers are left questioning if their new Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Ti will have the ability to minimize its tooth on Bethesda’s newest. To get the very best efficiency out of the sport – it’s extremely really useful that you simply use AMD’s FSR 2 to extend your frame-rate with out hitting the efficiency too exhausting. Nevertheless, as that is an AMD software program, you’d be proper in worrying about if it’s going to return at a price to Nvidia customers.
The excellent news is that there’s a DLSS mod on the market for the sport. As a facet notice – this mod appears to have kicked up a stir within the gaming neighborhood, particularly on the information that the modder is incomes over $40K+ monthly. So long as you’re nicely above the minimal really useful specs, and personal an RTX graphics card – you’re going to have the ability to run DLSS on the sport. This may drastically enhance your efficiency, even over these utilizing AMD’s body technology. A minimum of Nvidia customers have one thing to brag over AMD Radeon RX customers now. On the finish of the day, nevertheless, FSR vs DLSS is all as much as private choice.
The longer that the sport’s been out – it’s changing into an increasing number of obvious that the efficiency is fairly reliant on having a beefy Intel Core processor, or AMD Ryzen CPU. So long as you’re taking part in from an honest CPU and GPU – you’re going to be alright.
Are you able to play Starfield with 8GB of VRAM?
Not like a slew of different video games not too long ago launched, Starfield doesn’t appear to expertise comparable points with VRAM. Realistically, 8GB VRAM must be greater than sufficient for Starfield.