Best PC settings for Starfield: High FPS, graphics, more

❘ Published: 2024-02-23T10:00:38

Bethesda

Starfield has an FPS cap on consoles but the PC version allows you to tweak the graphics, display, sound, and other settings to get the best experience possible. Here are the best PC settings for Starfield ensuring high FPS, stunning visuals, no lag, and more.

Starfield not only has a massive campaign and side quests, but also lets you explore thousands of procedurally generated planets and build ships with the utmost detailing. Although a Bethesda RPG being a major time sink is no surprise, it is important to consider the high system requirements if you’re on a PC.

Generating all the planets and holding the massive in-game universe together is a task for any device, but unlike consoles, there are no limitations on PC and you can change the settings to customize the experience.

On that note, here are the best PC settings for Starfield that can help you get high FPS, amazing graphics, and a lot more.

Starfield PC system requirements
Best Starfield PC settings for high FPS
Best Starfield PC settings for graphics
How do Starfield display settings impact your FPS?
How to update graphics drivers

Starfield PC system requirements

To play Starfield on PC, your system must meet the following requirements:

	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 (SSD required)	125 GB available space (SSD required)

As noted before, Starfield requires an SSD to run properly. Another thing to note is that you may require a CPU that’s more powerful than the ones listed here.

Best Starfield PC settings for high FPS

Here are the best-optimized graphics settings to run Starfield smoothly on your PC with 60 FPS and above:

Dynamic Resolution: On
Render Resolution: 75%
Graphics Preset: Custom
Shadow Quality: Medium
Indirect Lighting: Medium
Reflections: Low
Particle Quality: Low
Volumetric Lighting: Medium
Crowd Density: Low
Motion Blur: Off
GTAO Quality: Medium
Grass Quality: Medium
Contact Shadows: Medium
VSync: Off
Upscaling: FSR 2
Enable VRS: On
Depth of Field: Off

Starfield is not intended to be played at native resolution, so you should set Render Resolution to less than 100%. Bethesda expects you to turn FSR 2 on while playing, and it does a decent job of upscaling without making the game look too bland. This is also why the highest graphics preset also sets Render Resolution to 75%.

For most games, you might be used to seeing four presets for FSR, such as Ultra Quality, Quality, Balanced, and Performance. Starfield’s graphics settings, however, give you a slider with percentage values. Although DLSS support wasn’t an option for Starfield during the launch, it was made available through the 1.8.86 update released on Nov 20, 2023.

Your PC might struggle with large maps like New Atlantis.

The most performance-intensive graphics settings in Starfield are Shadow Quality, Volumetric Lighting, GTAO Quality, and Contact Shadows. Turn these down if you’re not happy with the framerate you’re getting. Motion Blur also has an impact on performance, so disable it if you don’t like the effect.

Two more significant settings are Crowd Density and Enable VRS. The former option is quite obvious; it makes the game world more populated, and it’s taxing on your CPU. VRS, on the other hand, which stands for Variable Rate Shading, can improve performance on some PCs.

Best Starfield PC settings for graphics

Here’s how your graphics settings should look if you want the best graphics but with decent performance:

Dynamic Resolution: On
Render Resolution: 75%
Graphics Preset: Custom
Shadow Quality: Medium
Indirect Lighting: High
Reflections: Medium
Particle Quality: High
Volumetric Lighting: Medium
Crowd Density: High
Motion Blur: Off
GTAO Quality: High
Grass Quality: Ultra
Contact Shadows: Medium
VSync: Off
Upscaling: FSR2
Enable VRS: On
Depth of Field: On

If your PC is able to handle the game quite well with the optimized graphics preset given above, you can try taking it up a notch. Options like Crowd Density and Contact Shadows add to the immersion, so you might want to increase it. The former can be quite CPU-intensive, while the latter doesn’t take up a chunk of your performance.

Starfield is a graphics-intensive game that requires an SSD to run.

How do Starfield display settings impact your FPS?

We’ve listed all the major display settings, along with their function, in Starfield and how they impact your game’s performance in the table below.

Display Setting	What it does	Impact on FPS
Dynamic Resolution	Changes the game’s resolution as per requirement without affecting the HUD. Graphically demanding scenes will run at a lower resolution, and regular scenes will run at a higher resolution.	Significant boost when enabled.
Render Resolution	Forces the game to run at a lower resolution, getting upscaled by the game to the monitor’s resolution without affecting the HUD.	Significant boost when kept under 70%.
Shadow Quality	Affects the smoothness, clarity, and accuracy of shadows.	Lowering from Ultra to Low can give up to a 20% boost.
Indirect Lighting	Changes how the lighting around various objects in the game.	Can be left on Ultra or High. No change in FPS.
Reflections	Similar to Shadow Quality, this affects everything around reflections from various objects.	Negligible impact on FPS.
Particle Quality	Affects the quality of particles like snowflakes, sand, and dust floating in the air.	Negligible impact on FPS.
Volumetric Lighting	Affects the lighting around various objects, giving them a 3D or volumetric look.	Slight boost (around 5-6 FPS) when set to Low.
GTAO quality	Refers to ambient occlusion, affecting the soft shadows on various objects.	Negligible impact on FPS.
Upscaling	Similar to Render Resolution, but looks a lot better.	Significant boost when set to FSR 2.
Enable VRS	Refers to variable rate shading, adding more details around shadows as per requirement.	Slight boost when enabled.

While lowering some of the display settings will give you a dramatic boost in FPS, it should only be done if you’re desperate for an increase in the game’s performance. Doing so will affect your game’s realistic graphics and can lower the level of immersion.

How to update graphics drivers

You should ensure that your graphics drivers are up-to-date before playing Starfield on PC. Here’s how you can do it:

For NVIDIA Graphic card users

If you have an NVIDIA graphics card on your PC, you can use the NVIDIA GeForce Experience app to update your drivers. You can download GeForce Experience from NVIDIA.com.

Find the GeForce icon in the right-hand corner of your taskbar. Right-click and select NVIDIA GeForce Experience.
Click on the Drivers tab.
Select Check for updates. If an update is available, click on Quick Install.
Wait for the installation process to complete.

For AMD Graphic card users

If you have an AMD graphics card on your PC, you can use the Radeon Settings app to update your drivers.

Right-click on your desktop and select AMD Radeon Settings.
Click on the Home Icon.
Select New Updates on the bottom left and click on Check for update.
Wait for the installation process to complete.

That covers everything to know about the best graphics setting in Starfield. If you wish to learn more about the game, check these out: