Starfield in test: Laptop and desktop benchmarks

Off to the stars. After The Elder Scrolls and Fallout, Bethesda is following in the footsteps of Mass Effect and its ilk. The sci-fi adventure should thrill RPG fans with its gigantic dimensions. Whether the graphics requirements are also gigantic can be found out in our benchmark check.

Florian Glaser, 👁 Florian Glaser, ✓ Brian Burriston (translated by DeepL / Ninh Duy), Published 09/25/2023 🇩🇪 🇸🇪 ...

Test notebooks

We are currently running our gaming benchmarks with these notebooks. Clicking on the photos will take you to the respective manufacturer's homepage. All other test systems (tower PCs, mini PCs, ...) are listed at the end of the article.

Technology

Starfield has received quite high ratings from the press. If you take the basic tenor of the user ratings so far, the conclusion is rather "solid to good, but not outstanding". Our benchmark article is primarily dedicated to the technical side of the game.

Bethesda uses its own Creation Engine 2, which is based on DirectX 12. The engine's strengths include a lush wide view (although details tend to disappear in the distance and thus leave a lot to be desired) and crisp textures. On the higher quality levels, object surfaces usually look quite sharp.

As is typical for Bethesda, there are weaknesses in the animations, the pathfinding, the AI and the facial expressions. The fact that the game often has to load when switching between different zones is also a bit annoying and a pity, but the duration of the loading times is okay. The "Building Shaders" process during the initial launch also doesn't take too much time. Players will be busy with the pure download for much longer. However, around 86 GB is no longer a big surprise in 2023 and is still acceptable considering the size of the world. Starfield currently takes up almost 116 GB on the hard drive, which is also an above-average value.

The graphics menu is neither puny nor particularly extensive. The display tab of the options menu contains about 10 quality controls that can be changed globally via preset. Unfortunately, the presets automatically activate Dynamic Resolution and Upscaling (Starfield only supports FSR 2 and not DLSS). Both options were disabled for the benchmarks (the same applies for VSync as usual).

We cannot quite understand why a classic FullScreen mode is missing. You only have the choice between borderless fullscreen in the native or Windows resolution or the window mode. On the other hand, the fact that setting changes do not require a restart turns out to be pleasant. Bethesda does not provide comparative pictures of the individual settings, which is why players have to be satisfied with short text explanations.

Benchmark

For our benchmark sequence, we use the starting world of Vectera (moon of Anselon), whose outdoor area you enter after a short tutorial in a mine. The tool CapFrameX records the march on a set route for just under 20 seconds. The sequence should have at least 40 FPS for an adequate gaming experience. Our GPU recommendations, which now follow, are made accordingly.

Results

FHD (1,920 x 1,080)

Even more powerful iGPUs like the Radeon 680M have a visibly hard time with Starfield. The latter model only manages 1,280 x 720 pixels and minimum details reasonably smoothly. It should at least be a mid-range chip for Full HD displays. Current mid-range representatives on the level of the Radeon RX 6800S or GeForce RTX 4050 can then also cope with high settings in 1,920 x 1,080. For the Ultra preset, we recommend an GeForce RTX 4060 or better.

Starfield
1920x1080 Low Preset 1920x1080 Medium Preset 1920x1080 High Preset 1920x1080 Ultra Preset
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT, i9-13900K Desktop-PC Asus ROG Strix Z790-F	105.7 (67.7^min, 77.3^P0.1, 84.9^P1) fps ∼86% 101.5 (66.2^min, 67.9^P0.1, 80^P1) fps ∼97% 95.1 (58.2^min, 62.3^P0.1, 70.5^P1) fps ∼100%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, i9-13900K Desktop-PC Asus ROG Strix Z790-F	123.3 (73.1^min, 82.2^P0.1, 101.5^P1) fps ∼100% 105.1 (66.8^min, 75.4^P0.1, 83.6^P1) fps ∼100% 94.1 (63.7^min, 66.5^P0.1, 74.1^P1) fps ∼99%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX XMG Neo 17 E23	105.4 (17^min, 72.3^P0.1, 83.1^P1) fps ∼85% 89.3 (53.1^min, 63.4^P0.1, 70.7^P1) fps ∼85% 80.5 (56^min, 57.8^P0.1, 62.2^P1) fps ∼85%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX Schenker Key 17 Pro E23	90.5 (56.2^min, 59.6^P0.1, 70.5^P1) fps ∼73% 75.1 (48.7^min, 50.6^P0.1, 54.9^P1) fps ∼71% 67.1 (39.4^min, 42.3^P0.1, 49.1^P1) fps ∼71%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU, i9-12900H Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 G733ZX	70.3 (45.2^min, 50.4^P0.1, 56.4^P1) fps ∼57% 58 (38.9^min, 39.2^P0.1, 44.6^P1) fps ∼55% 51.8 (33.4^min, 35^P0.1, 39.4^P1) fps ∼54%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX XMG Pro 15 E23	66.7 (44.9^min, 45.8^P0.1, 52.3^P1) fps ∼54% 52.3 (31.6^min, 35.6^P0.1, 39.2^P1) fps ∼50% 46.6 (31.5^min, 31.9^P0.1, 34.7^P1) fps ∼49%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Laptop GPU, i7-12700H Acer Predator Helios 300 PH315-55	61.7 (40.1^min, 40.4^P0.1, 45.1^P1) fps ∼50% 50 (27.6^min, 28^P0.1, 34.5^P1) fps ∼48% 44.8 (24.4^min, 25.7^P0.1, 30^P1) fps ∼47%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX XMG Pro 15 E23	59.5 (37.3^min, 39.2^P0.1, 44.8^P1) fps ∼48% 46.5 (27.3^min, 32.7^P0.1, 34^P1) fps ∼44% 41 (25.5^min, 26.9^P0.1, 30.2^P1) fps ∼43%
AMD Radeon RX 6800S, R9 6900HS Asus ROG Zephyrus G14	63.9 (43.3^min, 44.4^P0.1, 50.3^P1) fps ∼100% 54.6 (35.2^min, 37.7^P0.1, 43.1^P1) fps ∼44% 44.6 (32^min, 32.2^P0.1, 35.1^P1) fps ∼42% 39.4 (29.7^min, 30^P0.1, 31.8^P1) fps ∼41%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX XMG Focus 15 E23	53.6 (29.7^min, 30.9^P0.1, 40.1^P1) fps ∼43% 41.7 (28.1^min, 28.6^P0.1, 30.3^P1) fps ∼40% 36.3 (22.1^min, 24.7^P0.1, 27.3^P1) fps ∼38%
AMD Radeon 680M, R9 6900HS Asus ROG Zephyrus G14	23.2 (17^min, 17.1^P0.1, 18.6^P1) fps ∼36% 19.4 (14.7^min, 15^P0.1, 16^P1) fps ∼16% 14.8 (8.47^min, 8.62^P0.1, 10.3^P1) fps ∼14% 12.7 (7.99^min, 8.15^P0.1, 8.83^P1) fps ∼13%

QHD (2,560 x 1,440)

You can hardly get around a high-end accelerator on QHD displays. 2,560 x 1,440 pixels and maximum details only run properly from an GeForce RTX 3080 Ti.

Starfield
2560x1440 Ultra Preset
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT, i9-13900K Desktop-PC Asus ROG Strix Z790-F	88.3 (62.9^min, 64.4^P0.1, 71.1^P1) fps ∼100%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, i9-13900K Desktop-PC Asus ROG Strix Z790-F	80.6 (55^min, 57.3^P0.1, 64.9^P1) fps ∼91%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX XMG Neo 17 E23	67.2 (7.08^min, 22.5^P0.1, 51.9^P1) fps ∼76%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX Schenker Key 17 Pro E23	56.3 (32.3^min, 39^P0.1, 41.6^P1) fps ∼64%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU, i9-12900H Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 G733ZX	42.2 (29.1^min, 30.9^P0.1, 33.9^P1) fps ∼48%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX XMG Pro 15 E23	37.2 (26.4^min, 26.6^P0.1, 28.1^P1) fps ∼42%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Laptop GPU, i7-12700H Acer Predator Helios 300 PH315-55	36.2 (19.5^min, 20.3^P0.1, 24.9^P1) fps ∼41%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX XMG Pro 15 E23	32.5 (20.2^min, 21.2^P0.1, 24.5^P1) fps ∼37%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX XMG Focus 15 E23	28.9 (21.4^min, 21.6^P0.1, 22.6^P1) fps ∼33%

UHD (3,840 x 2,160)

Once again, the 4K range is the real deal. A mixture of 3,840 x 2,160 pixels and the Ultra preset even demands Nvidia's current notebook leader, the GeForce RTX 4090.

Starfield
3840x2160 Ultra Preset
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT, i9-13900K Desktop-PC Asus ROG Strix Z790-F	59.6 (44.1^min, 45.3^P0.1, 49.3^P1) fps ∼100%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, i9-13900K Desktop-PC Asus ROG Strix Z790-F	55.3 (42.6^min, 43.4^P0.1, 45.4^P1) fps ∼93%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX XMG Neo 17 E23	46.5 (36.3^min, 36.8^P0.1, 38.6^P1) fps ∼78%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX Schenker Key 17 Pro E23	38.4 (24^min, 25.6^P0.1, 28.2^P1) fps ∼64%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU, i9-12900H Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 G733ZX	27.3 (22.4^min, 22.5^P0.1, 23.4^P1) fps ∼46%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX XMG Pro 15 E23	24 (18.5^min, 18.5^P0.1, 19.4^P1) fps ∼40%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Laptop GPU, i7-12700H Acer Predator Helios 300 PH315-55	23.5 (14^min, 14.6^P0.1, 16.1^P1) fps ∼39%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX XMG Pro 15 E23	20.3 (13.5^min, 13.7^P0.1, 14.4^P1) fps ∼34%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX XMG Focus 15 E23	17.4 (14.3^min, 14.3^P0.1, 14.6^P1) fps ∼29%

Note

Since gaming tests are very time-consuming and often restricted by installation or activation limits, we can only provide you with a part of the benchmarks for the publication of the articles. Further graphics cards will be installed later.

Overview

All Test Systems

Notebook	Graphics card	Processor	Memory
XMG Neo 17 E23	Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 @175 W TGP (16 GB GDDR6X)	Intel Core i9-13900HX	2 x 16 GB DDR5
Schenker Key 17 Pro E23	Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 @175 W TGP (12 GB GDDR6X)	Intel Core i9-13900HX	2 x 16 GB DDR5
XMG Pro 15 E23	Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 @140 W TGP (8 GB GDDR6)	Intel Core i9-13900HX	2 x 16 GB DDR5
XMG Pro 15 E23	Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 @140 W TGP (8 GB GDDR6)	Intel Core i9-13900HX	2 x 16 GB DDR5
XMG Focus 15 E23	Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 @140 W TGP (6 GB GDDR6)	Intel Core i9-13900HX	2 x 16 GB DDR5
Asus ROG Strix Scar 17	Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti @150 W TGP (16 GB GDDR6)	Intel Core i9-12900H	2 x 16 GB DDR5
Acer Predator Helios 300	Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti @150 W TGP (8 GB GDDR6)	Intel Core i7-12700H	2 x 8 GB DDR5
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14	AMD Radeon RX 6800S (8 GB GDDR6) & AMD Radeon 680M	AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS	2 x 16 GB DDR5

Tower-PC	Grafikkarte	Prozessor	Arbeitsspeicher
Custom I / Asus ROG Strix Z790-F / G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB	Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 (16 GB GDDR6X) AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT (20 GB GDDR6)	Intel Core i9-13900K	2 x 24 GB DDR5
Custom II	Palit GeForce RTX 4090 GameRock OC (24 GB GDDR6X) Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 FE (24 GB GDDR6X) Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (8 GB GDDR6X) Nvidia Titan RTX (24 GB GDDR6) Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super (8 GB GDDR6) Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Super (8 GB GDDR6) KFA2 GeForce GTX 1660 Super (6 GB GDDR6) PNY GeForce GTX 1660 (6 GB GDDR5) KFA2 GeForce GTX 1650 Super (4 GB GDDR6) AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT (16 GB DDR6) AMD Radeon RX 6800 (16 GB DDR6) AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (12 GB DDR6) AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (8 GB GDDR6) AMD Radeon RX 6600 (8 GB GDDR6) AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT (8 GB GDDR6) AMD Radeon RX 5700 (8 GB GDDR6) AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT (6 GB GDDR6) AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT (8 GB GDDR6)	AMD Ryzen 9 7950X	2 x 16 GB DDR5

Mini-PC	Graphics card	Processor	Memory
MinisforumNUCXi7	Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 @125 W TGP (8 GB GDDR6)	Intel Core i7-11800H	2 x 8 GB DDR4
Minisforum HX99G	AMD Radeon RX 6600M @100 W TGP (8 GB GDDR6)	AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX	2 x 16 GB DDR5
Morefine S500+	AMD Radeon RX Vega 8	AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX	2 x 16 GB DDR4

4K monitors	operating system	Nvidia drivers	AMD drivers
Gigabyte M32U	Windows 11	ForceWare 537.34	Adrenalin 23.9.2

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Editor of the original article: Florian Glaser - Managing Editor Gaming Laptops - 590 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2009

I discovered my interest in computers in my childhood, growing up with MS-DOS and Windows 3.1 in the early 1990s. I was especially fascinated with computer games, even from an early age. From Monkey Island through Lands of Lore to Doom, I tried every game I could get my hands on. I have been working for Notebookcheck since 2009 with my focus mostly being on high-performance gaming laptops.

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> Notebook / Laptop Reviews and News > Reviews > Starfield in test: Laptop and desktop benchmarks

Florian Glaser, 2023-09-25 (Update: 2023-09-27)

Legend
5	Stutters – This game is very likely to stutter and have poor frame rates. Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, average frame rates are expected to fall below 25fps
	May Stutter – This graphics card has not been explicitly tested on this game. Based on interpolated information from surrounding graphics cards of similar performance levels, stutters and poor frame rates are expected.
30	Fluent – Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, this game should run at or above 25fps
40	Fluent – Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, this game should run at or above 35fps
60	Fluent – Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, this game should run at or above 58fps
	May Run Fluently – This graphics card has not been explicitly tested on this game. Based on interpolated information from surrounding graphics cards of similar performance levels, fluent frame rates are expected.
?	Uncertain – This graphics card experienced unexpected performance issues during testing for this game. A slower card may be able to achieve better and more consistent frame rates than this particular GPU running the same benchmark scene.
	Uncertain – This graphics card has not been explicitly tested on this game and no reliable interpolation can be made based on the performances of surrounding cards of the same class or family.
The value in the fields displays the average frame rate of all values in the database. Move your cursor over the value to see individual results.

Pos	Model	< Prev Next > Starfield (2023)
Pos	Model	low 1920x1080 Low Preset	med. 1920x1080 Medium Preset	high 1920x1080 High Preset	ultra 1920x1080 Ultra Preset	QHD 2560x1440 Ultra Preset	4K 3840x2160 Ultra Preset
1	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090	149.95ⁿ²	143.25ⁿ²	130.75ⁿ²	124.3	108.5ⁿ³	77.9ⁿ²
3	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080		123.3	105.1	94.1	80.6	55.3
5	AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT		105.7	101.5	95.1	88.3	59.6
9	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU		105.4	89.3	80.5	67.2	46.5
11	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090	103.1	91.6	80.5	73.7	63.5	42.1
18	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU		90.5	75.1	67.1	56.3	38.4
26	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU		64.5ⁿ²	51.75ⁿ²	46.6ⁿ²	37.2	24
29	AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT	100.5	90.4	73.6	68	55.1	36
30	NVIDIA Titan RTX	70.6	61.5	54	50.7	41	28.2
31	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti	86.4	74.9	61.7	56.3	46.7	31.8
32	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16G	94.9	81.7	65.7	57.7	46.6	29.4
34	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU		70.3	58	51.8	42.2	27.3
42	Intel Arc A770	48.9	42.8	36.3	33.6	28.8	20.5
46	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Laptop GPU		61.7	50	44.8	36.2	23.5
49	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU	70.75ⁿ²	61.4ⁿ³	47ⁿ³	39.8ⁿ³	32.55ⁿ²	20.3
60	AMD Radeon RX 6800S	63.9	54.6	44.6	39.4
135	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU	63.8	54.05ⁿ²	42.1ⁿ²	36ⁿ²	28.35ⁿ²	17.4
137*	Intel Arc A730M	34	30.1	24.8	22
231*	AMD Radeon 780M	30.7	26.3	21.3	19.1
Pos	Model	< Prev Next >Starfield
Pos	Model	low	med.	high	ultra	QHD	4K
232	AMD Radeon 680M	23.2	19.4	14.8	12.7
262*	AMD Radeon 760M	14.3	7.99	5.04