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One of the things we learned about Bethesda Game Studios' new flagship RPG experience, Starfield, are the game's hardware requirements and, conversely, its performance on Xbox Series consoles. Though the RTX 3060 Starfield PC system requirements might not tell the whole story of how it will run on low to mid-end hardware, we do believe we can make some good predictions on this front already.
That, in fact, is precisely the topic of today's article. A game as massively intriguing and pedigree'd as Starfield will inevitably be installed and played on decidedly sub-par hardware. This was the case when Skyrim first came out, after all, with people playing the game on anything and everything just to experience it all anew.
How should we be setting our expectations, then? What should we be looking at, in regard to the announced hardware requirements? What do the console performance targets tell us? Down below, we do have many of the answers you've been looking for.
READ MORE: 15 Starfield Details You Missed During the 45-Minute Gameplay Demo
What do the RTX 3060 Starfield System Requirements Mean?
First things first, let's take a look at Starfield's official hardware recommendations - both the minimum and the recommended options.
Minimum PC Hardware for Starfield
- OS: Windows 10 (build 22H2)
- DirectX Version 12
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600X / Intel Core i7-6800K
- GPU: AMD Radeon RX 5700 / Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070Ti
- RAM: 16 GB
- Storage: 125 GB of free SSD storage
Recommended PC Hardware for Starfield
- OS: Windows 10/11 (fully up-to-date)
- DirectX Version 12
- Broadband Internet connection
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X / Intel i5-10600K
- GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT / Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080
- RAM: 16 GB
- Storage: 125 GB of free SSD storage
A lot to parse in there, right? Just to list a few curiosities, SSD is a necessity. No hard drives need apply here, because Bethesda's grand RPGs will no longer support them. Good riddance, we say, but we also appreciate that some may disagree. Internet is recommended but not required, though, which is a good sign for all of us offline aficionados.
One of the big things to note here is the performance ratio between the referenced CPUs and the GPUs, however. Note that the recommended CPUs are modern mid-to-high-tier offerings, which is the same that could be said about the recommended GPUs as well. Starfield doesn't appear to have any raytracing support at this time, but what it does have is a need for lots and lots of CPU cycles, due to the nature of its game world.
Why is Starfield so CPU-Heavy?
Starfield's immense nature - with object permanence and a huge, interconnected system of gameplay features - basically makes sure that the game will inevitably be hard to run. Of course, it will be Bethesda Game Studios' prettiest offering yet, but it's also easily the biggest game Todd Howard's team has ever made. Whereas some games can easily chug along on the processing side of things, Starfield is also a universe sim at its core. This leads to a situation where simply lowering its rendering resolution does not lead to a performance bump. That's what a CPU bottleneck is.
For gamers who kept upgrading their graphics cards in lieu of keeping their processors also up-to-date, that may well be an issue, especially for those who are hoping to target 60 FPS or beyond.
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Why Are Consoles Capped to 30 FPS?
It's simple: Starfield cannot get a stable, permanent 60 FPS on the Xbox Series consoles, so Bethesda is capping it at 30 FPS for stability's sake. "It’s a creative choice," said the Xbox boss Phil Spencer. "We obviously have games that are running at 4K/60 on the platform. It’s not a platform issue, it’s a creative decision."
Though capital 'H' hardcore gamers may scoff at the idea, the simple truth is that Starfield is an immense game that needs rapid-fire CPU calls to maintain a stable performance target. GPU power alone cannot account for this, and if the choice is between a rough-and-tumble 30 to 60 FPS (depending on the situation) and a picture-perfect 30, the choice is obvious.
Now, a 40 FPS cap would've been preferable, but this too may have been unattainable on Xbox Series consoles. On PC, the best Starfield graphics settings for RTX 3060 Trending Nvidia's RTX 3060 is sufficient to play Starfield at 60 FPS comfortably by using a mix of high and ultra settings. However, we still recommend gamers use a bit of upscaling (AMD FSR) for a more satisfactory experience in this game, as it runs pretty well on the graphics card when this is done.
Will Low-Spec PCs Run Starfield?
As it currently stands, we've got no idea whether Starfield will run well on the mid-tier hardware of yesteryear. GPUs such as the 1660 from Nvidia, for example, may well be left in the dust, as the 1070Ti - which is the recommended minimum spec - is a fair bit faster than it.
What's more curious, perhaps, is that one of the most popular graphics cards on the market, the Nvidia RTX 3060, is only slightly faster than the 1070Ti, which may result in subpar performance on PCs that people expected would run Starfield just fine. As it stands, we just don't know, but your CPU may end up being your saving grace here, as the game obviously heavily relies on it to do some heavily lifting.
Can Mods Help, If All Else Fails?
Modding is the bread and butter of any Bethesda Game Studios title. The legendary Gamebryo engine that all of the studio's titles are based on is, after all, effectively infinitely moddable. People did manage to get multiplayer working in Skyrim, after all, so it's plainly possible to do just about anything with enough elbow grease.
We've got no doubt, then, that modders will manage to potatoify Starfield enough that it can run on some truly low-spec systems. Our low-spec PC optimization guide, too, should help you out in this regard, but the question is - what sacrifices might need to be made?
As we previously discussed, the game is going to pull CPU power more than anything else. Now that modern consoles have access to fast, powerful processing units, GPU is no longer the only important part of your roughly gen-comparable PC, as was the case during the generation of the infamously underpowered PS4 and Xbox One CPUs.
September Can't Come Soon Enough!
Naturally, everything we pointed out above is theory-crafting for the time being. All we've got for now are informed views of what may or may not end up panning out, but we did rely on hard facts to boil it all down to a believable argument. As soon as Starfield comes out, we'll have a comprehensive performance overview to help anyone tune their game's frame-rate (and frame-times, don't forget!) for optimum gameplay.
For that, and lots more on Starfield and heaps of other games, do stay tuned to 2Game. In fact, if you're in a reading mood, here are a couple of great articles to begin your journey:
- Why Aliens: Dark Descent is a Worthy Genre Experiment
- Things to Do in Park Beyond to Become a Rollercoaster Mastermind
- Is Cities: Skylines 2 Going to Be Hard-To-Run?
See you around!
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