Best Starfield graphics settings to improve performance & FPS

Best Starfield graphics settings to improve performance & FPS
Images via Bethesda

Written by 

Harry Boulton

Published 

1st Sep 2023 17:17

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.

Best Starfield graphics settings

Image of a helmet on a shelf in Starfield
Click to enlarge

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
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
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.

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.

Harry Boulton
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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