Starfield in test: Laptop and desktop benchmarks
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
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 | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, i9-13900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU, i9-12900H | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Laptop GPU, i7-12700H | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX | |
AMD Radeon RX 6800S, R9 6900HS | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX | |
AMD Radeon 680M, R9 6900HS |
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 | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, i9-13900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU, i9-12900H | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Laptop GPU, i7-12700H | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX |
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 | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, i9-13900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU, i9-12900H | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Laptop GPU, i7-12700H | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU, i9-13900HX |
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 |