Starfield graphics settings: What are the best options?

Back to the PC version of the game, though, and you’ll find a long list of graphics options to change to optimise your experience.

What is best, of course, depends on how powerful your PC is. For most players, though, who can’t afford the best of the best hardware, there are various settings you should change to get the most out of the game’s performance without losing detail in the graphics.

If you’re looking to get even more out of the game, there are some great mods already, including one that adds DLSS.

Here are the best Starfield graphics settings on PC and Xbox.

Starfield graphics settings: What are the best options?

The best Starfield graphics settings will maximise performance and not have a particularly noticeable effect on visual fidelity. It’s all about getting the best out of Bethesda’s highly-demanding RPG.

If your PC can run it at a cool 60fps on ultra-settings, great! But this guide isn’t for those people, is it? This is for those who need a custom setup to get that frame rate to its peak.

Some graphics settings in Starfield seem to have a minor effect on its frame rate while others provide a big boost to performance without compromising on graphical detail. We’ve tested the lot of them to help you make sure you have the best settings.

Here are the best Starfield graphics settings on PC:

• Contact Shadows | Medium
• Crowd Density | Low (we can't tell any difference in the number of NPCs in any of the settings, but turning it to low does marginally improve performance)
• Depth of Field | Turn this off
• Dynamic Resolution | Turn this on
• Film Grain Intensity| 0-20% (personal preference here, but it does look nicer the lower it is)
• Grass Quality | Medium
• GTAO Quality | Medium
• Indirect Lighting | Medium
• Motion Blur | Low (or off, depending on if you like how it looks or not)
• Particle Quality | Medium
• Reflections | Medium
• Render Resolution Scale | 60-75% (any lower and you will notice a drop in quality)
• Shadow Quality | Medium
• Sharpening | Leave this on default
• Upscaling | FSR2
• Volumetric Lighting | Medium
• VRS | Turn it on
• VSync | Turn it off

In general, if you stick to the settings above, you’re experience of Starfield on PC should match that on Xbox Series X in terms of looking nice at 4K resolution (upscaled with some fancy FSR2 magic) while maximising its frame-rate.

You can always play around with the graphics settings more than this, though, to find the best balance of performance against visuals for you.

Read more on Starfield:

• Starfield review - our final verdict
• Starfield missions list - how far are you?
• Starfield tips and tricks - how to get started
• Starfield romance - all potential relationships
• Starfield character creation - all your options explained
• Starfield digipick - how to lockpick
• How long is Starfield? The hours you'll need
• Will Starfield ever come to PS5? Developer comments
• Starfield cast - all voice actors
• Starfield companions - who to recruit
• Starfield soundtrack - how to listen
• Starfield storage guide - don't be overburdened
• Starfield FOV - change your point of view
• Starfield PC requirements - specs needed
• Starfield factions - all possible groups

On Xbox, meanwhile, the graphics settings are almost non-existent compared to PC. There is no performance mode in the game and it’s limited to 30fps no matter what you do.

Instead, you can only change its film grain intensity, and turn motion blur and depth of field on or off.

The game looks great on the Series X no matter what you choose, and you shouldn’t see a performance boost from disabling motion blur or depth of field due to the capped 30fps on console.

We’re unusual enough in quite liking a bit of film grain (even if its default is a little too much), depth of field and motion blur - but you can turn it all off if you prefer.

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