Starfield FPS Calculator & System Requirements

Starfield takes players on an epic journey across a massive galaxy, featuring sprawling planets and complex physics systems that demand a strong PC. To run the game your PC must reach a CPU performance score of at least 75 and a GPU score of at least 70. As a visually intensive title, Starfield rewards hardware above the recommended threshold — particularly for ray tracing, high-resolution shadow maps, and ambient occlusion. At the recommended tier (CPU 88, GPU 88) expect around 70 FPS at 1080p on high settings. Enter your CPU and GPU in our calculator for a personalized estimate.

Starfield lists these minimum specifications: CPU — AMD Ryzen 5 2600X, Intel Core i7-6800K; GPU — AMD Radeon RX 5700, NVIDIA GeForce 1070 Ti; RAM — 16 GB RAM; Storage — 125 GB available space; OS — Windows 10 version 21H1 (10.0.19043). At the minimum tier, expect the game to run at low or medium presets with frame rates around 30 FPS at 1080p. Demanding scenes — dense environments, complex lighting, or heavy particle effects — may dip below this. Disabling ray tracing and lowering shadow quality deliver the highest performance recovery on minimum-spec hardware.

For the best Starfield experience, the recommended specifications are: CPU — AMD Ryzen 5 3600X, Intel i5-10600K; GPU — AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080; RAM — 16 GB RAM; Storage — 125 GB available space. This hardware level targets smooth 70 FPS at 1080p on high settings with stable frame times. Enabling ray tracing, high-resolution shadow maps, and ambient occlusion simultaneously calls for a GPU above the recommended tier. If you are targeting 1440p on ultra presets, check our FPS calculator for the exact scores required.

On hardware meeting Starfield's recommended specifications, expect around 70 FPS at 1080p on high settings. Enabling ray tracing, ultra shadow resolution, or screen-space ambient occlusion can reduce that figure by 15–30% depending on your GPU. Minimum-spec hardware typically achieves 25–40 FPS at 1080p on low-to-medium presets. Moving to 1440p costs roughly 30% of your 1080p frame rate, and 4K approximately 50–60%. Enter your exact hardware in our FPS calculator for a personalized estimate across every quality preset.

For high graphics settings in Starfield at 1080p, your GPU needs a performance score of at least 88. The officially recommended card is AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080, which targets 70 FPS at 1080p. Enabling ray tracing on top of high settings demands significantly more GPU headroom — plan for a score well above 88 if RT is a priority. For 1440p on high settings, a GPU scoring around 114 or better is advisable. The FPS calculator lists every compatible GPU ranked by expected performance for this title.

Starfield requires a CPU with a minimum performance score of 75 — roughly the level of AMD Ryzen 5 2600X, Intel Core i7-6800K or better. For a smooth experience without CPU bottlenecks, target the recommended score of 88 (around AMD Ryzen 5 3600X, Intel i5-10600K). As a graphically rich title, it can stress the CPU in densely populated areas, complex physics sequences, or large set-piece moments. A CPU at the recommended score paired with 16 GB RAM ensures the processor does not throttle your GPU's potential output in those scenarios.

At 1440p, expect roughly 25–35% lower frame rates than 1080p in Starfield. On hardware at the recommended tier (GPU score 88), this translates to around 49 FPS on high settings. To maintain 70+ FPS at 1440p, target a GPU scoring around 114 or higher. Use the FPS calculator above to get a precise estimate for your specific CPU and GPU combination at 1440p across every quality preset.

4K demands roughly 55–65% more GPU power than 1080p in Starfield. On the recommended GPU (score 88), expect around 29 FPS at 4K on high settings. Reaching a consistent 70 FPS at 4K requires a GPU scoring around 145 or better. Upscaling technologies like DLSS 3 or FSR 3 can recover 40–60% of the resolution overhead with minimal visual cost on supported hardware.

Starfield uses a Creation Engine 2 shader compilation model that can produce stutters on first visit to new areas while shaders are compiled in the background. This is most noticeable on AMD GPUs and on systems without a fast NVMe SSD. Installing the game on an NVMe drive (vs. SATA SSD or HDD) significantly reduces open-world streaming hitches. Setting the in-game shader pre-compilation to complete before playing, and ensuring Windows Game Mode is on, reduces recurring stutters. AMD users should also enable Shader Pre-Compilation in Adrenalin if available for the game.

The base release of Starfield shipped with AMD FSR 2 only, but Bethesda added NVIDIA DLSS and Intel XeSS support in post-launch patches. All three are available in the Display settings menu. On RTX 40-series hardware, DLSS 3 Frame Generation can dramatically improve perceived smoothness — particularly useful given Starfield's tendency to be CPU-bound in large cities like New Atlantis. For AMD GPU owners, FSR 3 with Frame Generation was added and provides similar gains. Quality mode is recommended as a minimum; Performance mode introduces visible geometry softness in distant planet terrain.