Todd Howard recommends Starfield players to upgrade their PC

Bloomberg conducted an interview with Phil Spencer and Todd Howard following the full release of Starfield, in which they were asked about the complaints regarding poor PC optimization. However, all Howard had to say was that you probably just need better hardware.

"I asked our audience: What would you ask Todd?" said co-host Ed Ludlow. "A significant question for many was: 'Why didn't you optimize this game for PC?'"

"We've done that, and it's running great," Todd Howard said as Phil Spencer chuckled. "It's a next-generation PC game where we're truly pushing the boundaries of technology. Therefore, it might be necessary to upgrade your PC for this game, but it has many wonderful things to offer, and the fans are responding enthusiastically to it."

Since the early access launch of Starfield, players have shared mixed reports regarding the PC performance. Some claim to have no issues and maintain a stable frame rate on top-tier hardware, especially with the RTX 4090 and the 7900 XT, while others have encountered constant stuttering and crashes. A thread on the subreddit asked, "Why is the PC performance so poor?" and received over 100 upvotes.

"Yes, I have a 5900x and a 3090, and it runs like hot farts everywhere outdoors," Juts replied. "The interiors are mostly fine, except for the initial caves so far. It feels like a worse version of what Remnant did with their 'built for DLSS' release. You have to lower the render resolution and use upsampling just to get close to 60fps, it's insane."

"With a 3090ti, Ryzen 7800 X3D, 128 GB RAM DDR5 5600, this game runs like complete garbage on any settings except 1080p low FSR2," said Routine-Stress7379. "At 1440p, the frame rate drops below 20fps, and at 4k, it simply crashes."

Due to Bethesda's partnership with AMD, Starfield does not feature DLSS but instead relies on FSR2. To explain further, DLSS is a technology utilized by modern Nvidia graphics cards to upscale resolution, allowing for gameplay in 4K or 1440p without compromising performance. Naturally, modders swiftly incorporated DLSS and replaced FSR2, which many recommend for achieving the best experience on PC. However, it does require an RTX card.

However, not everyone encountered issues. A thread on the Starfield subreddit with the simple statement "So frustrated with the PC port" was largely met with anecdotes of positive experiences.

"That's really strange; I have a 4070ti with the latest driver, and I haven't experienced any crashes or errors of that kind," said CriticalMammal.

"Quite strange, as I'm using a 4070 and haven't encountered any issues," said TestItCall.

That being said, many are hopeful that Starfield will receive official DLSS support in the future, along with additional graphical options, to achieve the optimal balance between performance and graphics.