Starfield Performance Upgrade - 40FPS, 60FPS, VRR And More - The Complete Breakdown

bethesda's Starfield was generally a well-regarded RPG but the game's 30fps Target on consoles did lead to some upset players the game's massive scope arguably Justified that 30fps refresh with only high-end PCS capable of hitting 60fps and higher frame rates after some considerable optimization though Bethesda has opened the floodgates on series X consoles allowing players to select from performance and visuals modes along with a Litany of Target frame rates so exactly how well do these new modes fair is 60fps really a [Music] possibility Starfield presents players with a pretty dazzling array of options at first glance we have two key modes visuals and performance along with display targets for 30 FPS 40 FPS 60 FPS and uncapped frame rates with different availability depending on your display type and system settings plus there's an onoff toggle for vsync to enable the possibility of tearing if you prefer let's start with untangling the visuals and performance modes there's an obvious difference in terrain rendering between these two versions Starfield uses a procedural terrain system and the settings here appear to differ somewhat there's not necessarily a clear quality divide between the two here though they just have differently sculpted and shaped terrain details we actually saw the same split here between Series S and series X at launch there is however a consistent difference in ground clutter favoring the visuals mode there's a greater volume of shrubs small rocks grass and other little incidental details in the visuals mode especially at a distance it doesn't have a huge impact on the presentation but it's definitely noticeable in my testing I also noticed that some distant objects use lower lods in the performance mode at a distance and some texture myips are higher resolution in the visuals mode probably the most significant difference here though lies in the resolution of the game's Cube Maps Starfield makes use of frequently updated Cube maps for Reflections and detail and Clarity are much higher in the visuals mode we can simply make out much more detail than in performance mode at Point Blank Range on a flat reflective surface neither gives an especially convincing result but on undulating water or rough medals both modes deliver passable looking Reflections other basic visual settings appear to be matched between the two modes or close to matched Shadows are the same in my testing for instance with very similar detail and draw in it's hard to get an exact match because of starfields constantly shifting time of day but there's no visible difference to my eyes Starfield has crowd density selections available on PC so I tried to evaluate crowd density across the two series X modes I didn't actually spot any real difference at all between the two settings although obviously there's a lot of run-to-run variation here I restarted my game between settings changes to ensure a correct result Bethesda highlighted crowd density as one of the tweaks they made between the two modes so I did expect to see a more substantial difference Beyond any settings tweaks Starfield reacts somewhat curiously when you actually change the game's visual settings in some environments especially on Mars we see dramatic lighting changes when swapping between settings notice how bright and shiny everything is with the lighting settling down over time I believe the global illumination here is just taking some time to accumulate and display correctly when we swap out the settings indirect lighting can look incorrect or broken while this occurs because Starfield uses a realtime GI system so the game can't just rely on GI baks the actual quality of the indirect lighting appears very similar between the two modes once everything is settle down resolution metrics do differ somewhat between the modes perhaps unsurprisingly the visuals mode comes in at a 1440p pixel count while the performance mode clocks in at 900p and both appear to use vrs as well I didn't spot any Dynamic resolution in my testing though Bethesda does mention it as a possibility so it may be present in the game under load but both visual modes appear just about equally sharp and detailed when you actually examine still shots with both delivering a clear and 4K like final image I believe both modes are upscaling to 4K or close to 4K using FSR 2 here the game has plenty of Telltale FSR 2 artifacts including fizzle on particle effects that suggest the technique it is surprising that the performance mode is targeting such a high resolution though as FSR 2 becomes much more expensive at higher output targets you would typically expect the lower final resolution for 60fps targeting mode the game's lower internal resolution in the performance mode does give the game a bit more of that characteristic instability at rest that we sometimes see with TAA style techniques though most of the time it's usually not much of a concern we do occasionally find pockets of detail that don't resolve correctly with the 900p internal resolution but it's not too common in motion it does become a bigger issue with more obvious Shimmer in the foliage here for instance but I didn't find it distracting all the testing thus far has been conducted at 60 HZ with the visuals mode set to 30 FPS and the performance mode set to 60 FPS but I did test them with other frame rate and refresh rate settings and the modes appear to be identical with those settings as well so these findings should apply equally to all permutations of the visuals and performance modes starfields performance with the new update is a little bit complicated let's start with the stand out visual option here the performance mode targeting a 60fps output I've set the console to 60 HZ to test out most of the visual options here though we'll get to 120 HZ in a few minutes the good news is that this mode is indeed capable of achieving 60fps in a range of content interior combat encounters generally run in a flat 60fps for instance with a minimal frame time deviations certain smaller scale environments including the mar and neon cities generally hit 60 FPS as well though frame rate drops can occur occasionally Planet exteriors also typically hit 60 although small hitches do punctuate The Experience fairly frequently it's not a perfect turnout so far but the game is surprisingly close to hitting its full 60fps Target that comes with a big asterisk though Akila and new Atlantis the two most complex City environments in the game Run much more poorly than the rest of the game content we're typically in the 30s and 40s here with some large repeatable hitches in certain areas it's not ideal of course but in my testing these were the only areas that consistently failed to reach a 60fps Target the other parts of the game far much better if we keep the frame rate target at 60 FPS but change to the more ambitious visuals mode the game actually manages to come surprisingly close to the performance mode in these two larger cities for instance we're still in the 30s and 40s which is evidence the game is substantially CPU Limited in these environments in line with the performance of the PC code smaller scale interior environments can also hit and sustain 60fps a pretty novel feat given that we are running the game with settings that are really intended for 30fps play but larger interiors and Planet Side environments exhibited more sustained performance losses that seem to stem from that much higher internal resolution and often land in the 40s these frame rate dips are pretty distracting on a conventionally refreshed display with a performance mode Landing a pretty sizable lead in these gameplay spaces stepping down to 30 FPS we achieve a pretty solid frame rate lock in the visuals mode almost all content runs at a straight 30 which isn't a surprise considering the launch version of the game also managed to hit a solid 30 FPS any frame rate perturbations are typically on the smaller side with the game dropping a handful of frames from time to time when traversing more complex City environments there are more substantial dips here as well on occasion but it's otherwise smooth sailing likewise with the performance mode at 30 FPS the general run of play here is identical to the visuals mode with only Aila and new Atlantis really posing a frame rate concern again to the extent we are seeing dips here they seem to stem from spikes in CPU load I'd say this option is a little bit pointless then given the near identical perform performance level and Superior Graphics in the visuals mode at 30 FPS if we step up to 120 HZ output a 40 FPS option becomes available it predictably straddles the 30fps and 60 FPS options not just in terms of the frame rate target but also in terms of the frequency of frame rate drops expect a more variable performance level in and around certain cities with occasional performance problems out in the open world the performance option here outperforms the visual mode but by a less obvious margin than you'd expect with both mostly hitting 40 FPS in typical play outside of cities with some of these options particularly when targeting 60fps vrr can help greatly a lot of the game's frame time inconsistencies are ironed out when running on a vrr capable display especially when the series X is set to 120 HZ output the key here is that starfields frame times are pretty reasonable even when CPU limited so a wobble 35 or 45 FPS frame rate can feel quite consistent with vrr enabled I can't show this to you directly on the current version of the game but the first patch we were sampled completely disabled vsync when Starfield was operating below its frame rate target when aiming for 60 FPS you can see how flat that frame timeline is accepting some more significant momentary hitches at times the current version of Starfield on series X runs with vsync at all times by default and the vsync toggle that is available simply allows the game to tear in the very top portion of the screen with a minimal effect on frame times finally we can run the game with no frame rate cap though this option is only available to us when we are running the game at 120 HZ output with vrr enabled in smaller scale environments 90 to 100 FPS seems achievable in the performance mode with more moderate frame rate gains elsewhere and the same dips as we find without VR of course in the visuals mode the performance uplift when available is more moderate and a large portion of the experience is still sub 60 personally I'd probably gravitate towards having a frame rate cap over leaving the game uncapped even on a VR display if only because Starfield significant frame time spikes are less intrusive with a lower typical frame rate playing the performance mode at 60fps with VR enabled at 120 HZ output feels like a good sweet spot to that provides the most consistent and most smooth overall experience though I could see an argument for most of the other visual options available here I think the latest Starfield patch is largely successful the game performs at a high enough level at this point to work with a wide range of frame rate targets and the configuration of the two actual modes here is pretty sensible vrr is helpful for sure though a lot of cont content works well enough without It ultimately expectations do need to be in check as Starfield is a pretty demanding game for mid-range and lower n CPUs but as long as you understand a locked 60 is off the table you can get a good experience with higher frame rate targets bethesda's visual choices on series X consoles at least are fairly sensible and aren't overly confusing the performance mode at 30fps does seem pretty much pointless however and it would be reasonable to block that combination my only real disappointment is that the series s doesn't get any of the new visual options I think that console plays perfectly fine at 30fps but similar visual options really ought to be made available on Microsoft's Junior current gen console there's room to degrade image quality in my opinion without ruining the game's visuals on that machine so the lack of feature parody here is a little bit strange so overall starfields High frame rate console debut is successful we can't quite get a loed 60fps but we do get a healthy range of visual options to enable smoother Starfield experiences if you enjoyed this video please like subscribe and press the bell for YouTube notifications check out the patreon at digitalfoundry for exclusive and Early Access content and to get in touch you social media thanks for watching

Channel: Digital Foundry

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Length: 13min 25sec (805 seconds)

Published: Wed May 15 2024