Best Starfield graphics settings to improve performance & FPS

If you're struggling to run Starfield then try out the best graphics settings to improve your performance and FPS, giving a more stable experience overall.

Harry Boulton

01st Sep 2023 17:17

Images via Bethesda

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Selecting the best Starfield graphics settings is a must with how demanding the game is, as they will help you improve your performance and FPS to truly bring your space adventure to life.

The sheer number of planets in Starfield is enough to make any ageing PC start melting, as Starfield will likely strike fear in any components that aren't fully up to scratch. Thankfully, using the best settings should alleviate many of the issues with lower-performing cards, while still getting more performance out of the top-of-the-line parts too.

So, make sure to continue reading to see our picks for the best Starfield graphics settings, allowing you to improve your performance and FPS in the game.

Find out if you can respec in Starfield if you're looking to reset your character

Best Starfield graphics settings

Image of a helmet on a shelf in Starfield

Here are the best graphics settings that you will want to enable in Starfield if you're looking to improve your performance and FPS:

Setting	Option
Borderless Full Screen	On
Window Size	Match monitor resolution
Dynamic resolution	Off
Render resolution	55-75% (keep as high as you can with acceptable performance)
Shadow quality	Low
Indirect Lighting	Medium
Reflections	Medium
Particle Quality	Low
Volumetric Lighting	Low

Do you want to change your FOV in Starfield? We've got everything you need to know in our guide

Setting	Option
Crowd Density	Medium
Motion Blur	Off
GTAO Quality	Medium
Grass Quality	Medium
Contact Shadows	Medium
VSync	Off (or On if you don't have a FreeSync monitor)
Upscaling	FSR2
Sharpening	75%
Enable VRS	On

Check out all of the Starfield console commands and item IDs here

Setting	Option
Film Grain Intensity	0%
Enable Depth of Field	Off

The settings listed above are best for a system that is on the lower end, as it should help you get as many frames as possible out of hardware that might be struggling, without compromising too much on visual quality. The Starfield system requirements have a GTX 1070 Ti as the minimum, but these settings should work well on a GTX 1060 and slightly lower.

The most important settings to pay attention to are ones like lighting and crowd density, as they have the most impact on your CPU and GPU. Generally, Starfield is a CPU-intensive game, so you will definitely want to scale back these settings if you have an older processor.

Make sure that you've got the ideal Starfield aiming sensitivity settings enabled too

If you do have more powerful hardware though, you can definitely look at upping these settings to make the game more beautiful. Render resolution is definitely one to keep as close to 100% if you can, as the game can get quite blurry when this is lowered. We definitely recommend keeping FSR 2 on if possible though, as that can give a major performance boost without too noticeable of a difference.

So, that wraps up our list of the best Starfield graphics settings, letting you improve your performance and FPS in-game if your components are struggling.

Don't miss all of the other guides on our Starfield homepage, as there is plenty that you can find out on your space adventure.

About The Author

Harry Boulton

Harry is a Guides Writer at GGRecon, having completed a Masters of Research degree in Film Studies. Previously a freelance writer for PCGamesN, The Loadout, and Red Bull Gaming, he loves playing a wide variety of games from the Souls series to JRPGs, Counter-Strike, and EA FC. When not playing or writing about games and hardware, you're likely to find him watching football or listening to Madonna and Kate Bush.

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