What Are the Starfield PC Requirements?

Starfield sees you exploring hundreds of star systems, completing quests, blasting bad guys, and stealing other people’s sandwiches. But if you’re going to be playing this space-based action RPG on PC, will your machine be up to it? If you’re wondering just what are the Starfield PC requirements, I’ve got the answer.

Here’s What You’ll Need to Play Starfield on PC

As with several recent games, you’ll need a reasonably powerful graphics card to play Starfield. However, there’s another requirement that might end up holding you back from getting the most out of the game. An SSD is required just to meet the game’s minimum requirements and while most higher end PCs have had them in the last couple of years, older machines may be lacking.

Here’s precisely what you’ll need to run Starfield.

Minimum requirements:

• OS: Windows 10 version 21H1
• Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 2600X, Intel Core i7-6800K
• Memory: 16 GB RAM
• Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 5700, NVIDIA GeForce 1070 Ti
• DirectX: Version 12
• Storage: 125 GB available space (SSD required)

Recommended requirements:

• OS: Windows 10/11 with updates
• Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X, Intel i5-10600K
• Memory: 16 GB RAM
• Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080
• DirectX: Version 12
• Network: Broadband Internet connection
• Storage: 125 GB available space (SSD required)

Could You Run Starfield Without an SSD?

It might work but it won’t be pretty and even if it did work it could pause when it was loading in assets. I’m currently playing Baldur’s Gate 3 with 3GB of video memory (the minimum spec is 4GB) and without the required SSD drive. However, there’s some texture pop-in and when I load a game, it takes a minute or two to load all the scenery.

I can live with that, given that Baldur’s Gate 3 is a turn-based game. I’m not going to get murdered just because the walls of a building take a minute to appear. But Starfield is an action-RPG with real-time combat, so judder and pop-in could potentially be fatal.

The good news, if your PC is just below the minimum spec, is that since Starfield is on Game Pass (and if you’re a subscriber) you can test it out to see if your PC will handle it. But if you want to play it safe, especially if you’re buying the game from Steam, you should make sure that your PC is up to it.

Those, then, are all the Starfield PC requirements. And if you want to learn how to play Starfield a few days early, as well as a breakdown of the factions you can join in the game.