Starfield - System requirements

[BlackPete]

Although I'm not planning on purchasing Starfield right now, I was wondering if anyone could help me determine if my PC can run it, and if so how well it would likely perform. System requirements and various stats related to hardware have a tendency to confuse me when I read them. I bought this PC in August of 2022, so it may already be too outdated for new games like this. Anyway, I'll list my PC's specifications below.

-System Information-
System model: Alienware Aurora Ryzen Edition R14
Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 5800 8-Core Processor (16 CPUs), ~3.4GHz
Installed RAM: 16.0 GB
System type: 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Operating System: Windows 11 Pro (Version 23H2)
DirectX Version: DirectX 12

-Display Devices-
Card name: AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT
Display memory: 20395 MB
Dedicated memory (VRAM): 12243 MB
Shared Memory: 8152 MB

Edited June 15 by BlackPete

[RabidGears]

It should run it fine. I'm running it on an Intel 9700K, NVidia RTX 2060 and 32GB of RAM. I do get frame drops in more demanding areas but mostly the game runs pretty smooth.

[DayDreamer]

The current official list seems to be:

Quote

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(Solid-state Drive)

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(Solid-state Drive)

 

[DayDreamer]

1 hour ago, BlackPete said:

AMD Ryzen 7 5800

That's far more than even recommended.

1 hour ago, BlackPete said:

AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT

More than minimum, just shy of recommended.

1 hour ago, BlackPete said:

Installed RAM: 16.0 GB

Exactly as required.

But you also are using GPU Shared Memory: 8152 MB. (That's half the available RAM.) This is where I'd worry. Hopefully the game engine is smart enough to reserve enough of the main memory as needed, and the GPU won't hog the memory too much.

 

[Arthmoor]

I think it's a bit weird for a system with a dedicated GPU to have an additional pool of "shared" memory beyond the VRAM on the GPU itself. Usually that only happens when there's also an APU installed but the 5800 isn't an APU.

Either way I think the GPU is probably the only thing that might limit performance.

[Nico coiN]

SSD mandatory. I tried on a regular HDD, and both loading times and streaming performances made it almost unplayable.

My setup:

CPU: Intel core i7-6700K 4.0 GHz without any overclocking / 4 physical cores / 8 threads. This is below recommended specs, but working perfectly fine.

GPU: NVidia Geforce RTX 4070 12 GB dedicated memory for display on a regular 'old' 1920x1080 monitor with vsync. I turned off DLSS and am playing at native resolution as I'm not a big fan of all these AI upscaling technologies.

RAM: 16 GB DDR4 'only'

Probably an unbalanced setup (GPU and SSD bought 1 year ago, everything else 6-7 years ago). Almost all settings on high or very high. 50~60 fps almost everywhere.

[BlackPete]

Thanks everyone for your feedback. It sounds like my PC would likely run the game reasonably well, assuming the system requirements don't go up.

 

On 6/14/2024 at 8:59 PM, DayDreamer said:

But you also are using GPU Shared Memory: 8152 MB. (That's half the available RAM.) This is where I'd worry. Hopefully the game engine is smart enough to reserve enough of the main memory as needed, and the GPU won't hog the memory too much.

That is a bit concerning, now that I understand what it means. The games I currently play don't have any problems with the GPU using excessive amounts of memory. There's a game called Cyberpunk 2077 that was included with my PC and it's the most performance demanding one that I own. Most of the time It utilizes more than 50% of the of the GPU and CPU, but I don't ever experience lag and consistently get ~60 fps. When playing games, I always limit the frame rate to 60 since my eyes can't tell any difference beyond that.

 

On 6/14/2024 at 9:18 PM, Arthmoor said:

I think it's a bit weird for a system with a dedicated GPU to have an additional pool of "shared" memory beyond the VRAM on the GPU itself. Usually that only happens when there's also an APU installed but the 5800 isn't an APU.

From what I've read, the 6000 series AMD Radeon cards all have that "feature." Apparently it is (or was) some kind of experiment by the company, but I don't really understand the details or the reasoning behind it.

 

19 hours ago, Nico coiN said:

SSD mandatory. I tried on a regular HDD, and both loading times and streaming performances made it almost unplayable.

Thankfully, my system drive is a SSD. The bad news is that it only has 1TB of storage space. Starfield requires 12-13% of that and obviously Windows already takes up a lot. I do have a 2TB HDD for backup and storage purposes but don't ever use it for games. Gaming companies, I would expect, are going to make SSDs mandatory from now on.

Edited June 16 by BlackPete

[DayDreamer]

On Summer Sale, and there being a CK and USFP, I'm trying this game now.  My system is a bit dated, purchased at the time for Skyrim VR and a Valve Index. Runs Skyrim SE without a hitch. (I've long since given up on Skyrim VR, as Bethesda has done piss poor support. But No Man's Sky VR is nice.)

I'm barely above the Starfield minimum:

• Intel Core i7-6800K, mine is i7-6850K.
• NVIDIA GeForce 1070 Ti, mine is 1080.
• 16 GB RAM, mine is 64 GB (plenty).

Running Starfield the first time, it set almost everything to "medium".

On a 4K monitor (LG OLED55CX TV), it looks somewhat better than Skyrim SE.

But everything freezes from time to time. Mildly annoying, not enough to make the game unplayable.

Anybody else freezing?  Anybody have better than medium graphics?  Is it worth splurging for a modern system?

[Nico coiN]

1 hour ago, DayDreamer said:

[snip]

Anybody else freezing?  Anybody have better than medium graphics?  Is it worth splurging for a modern system?

Depends on what you are calling 'freezing'. My rig is very close to your, apart from the GPU. I have a small 1s 'freeze' at every loading transition while in 1st or 3rd person view: the controls are unresponsive, but I think it's just the game normal behaviour.

4K display resolution is most probably too much for your GPU with medium settings. I'm on medium on a RTX 4070 at 1080p / 60 fps capped.

If you are talking about general performance, the game being installed on a decent SSD is mandatory (and solved all the micro stuttering and freezes I had).

[DayDreamer]

On 7/4/2024 at 3:01 AM, Nico coiN said:

I think it's just the game normal behaviour.

OK. I'm still doing the first quest. Admittedly, I'd bought the game on July 1st, played a little, then had to wait 2 days after the update, played a little more, then skipped the 4th holiday. Then started over, now that I've discovered that Skyrim things like left control sneaking work. Skyrim had sneak in their tutorial, but not (so far) in this tutorial. Yet this tutorial is very, very long.

The freezes seem to occur arriving at the research facility, going up stairs, things like that.  But also when 3 pirates and Vasco are firing at once. Quitting to desktop and resuming seems to fix it.

On 7/4/2024 at 3:01 AM, Nico coiN said:

4K display resolution is most probably too much for your GPU

Sadly bad timing, I'd purchased the 1080 (Jan 2017) only a couple of months before the Ti version was released at the same price. The Ti version supposedly "delivers immersive 4K graphics at a buttery-smooth 60 frames per second." Still, I'm not seeing tearing or other degradation.

Ah, well. Remembering that I'd bought a GTX 570 to play Skyrim. It was far more than the official Bethesda recommended GTX 260 or higher, yet the 570's overheating alarm would scream whenever a dragon breathed fire in a snow storm even on a 1K screen. The GTX 1080 fixed it, and also runs Skyrim on 4K reasonably well.

On 7/4/2024 at 3:01 AM, Nico coiN said:

I'm on medium on a RTX 4070 at 1080p / 60 fps capped.

Goodness gracious. Then I'll wait to upgrade, since that was my target card. What does it take to do more than medium? 4080 Super? 4090?

On 7/4/2024 at 3:01 AM, Nico coiN said:

decent SSD is mandatory

Aha! That may be the culprit. My PCIe 3 M.2 Samsung 512 MB SSD is more than 7 years old (just like the 1080).