We now have a clear picture of Starfield‘s resolution and frame rate.
In an interview with IGN after the recent Xbox Games Showcase, Todd Howard, the executive producer of Bethesda Game Studios, revealed the resolution/frame rate Starfield runs at on the Xbox Series X/Series S: 4K/30fps on the Series X and 1440p/30fps on the Series S.
Todd Howard goes on to say that his team set these benchmarks to ensure “consistency” of performance.
“I think it’ll come as no surprise, given our previous games, what we go for,” said Howard during the interview with IGN. “Always these huge, open worlds, fully dynamic, hyper detail where anything can happen. And we do want to do that. It’s 4K in the X. It’s 1440 on the S. We do lock it at 30, because we want that fidelity, we want all that stuff. We don’t want to sacrifice any of it.”
It’s unclear if the 4K/1440p resolution is dynamic and scales down to maintain a consistent frame rate. On the PC side, Howard mentions that the game sometimes runs at 60fps. However, on console, his team aimed for a setup where players aren’t “even thinking about it [resolution and frame rate].”
With this quote in mind, there likely won’t be a fidelity mode that offers 60fps and a lower resolution. While somewhat disappointing, given what we know about Starfield‘s massive world and its 1,000 planets, I’m not surprised. I imagine that, given I play most games at 60fps, I’ll find 30fps jarring for a brief period before forgetting about it entirely.
With Redfall not living up to expectations, partly due to its technical glitches/limitations and, overall, just not being a great game, and Halo Infinite continuing to falter, Microsoft has a lot riding on Starfield’s release.
During Microsoft’s Xbox Games Showcase, we got an extended look at Starfield during a Direct that showed off the game’s massive world, ships and its unique “NASA Punk” aesthetic.
You can find IGN‘s full interview with Todd Howard here. Starfield releases on Xbox Series X/S and PC on September 6th (it’s also part of Xbox Game Pass.
For all of the news from the Xbox Games Showcase, follow this link.
MobileSyrup may earn a commission from purchases made via our links, which helps fund the journalism we provide free on our website. These links do not influence our editorial content. Support us here.
