Bethesda’s Starfield was generally a well-regarded RPG, but the game’s 30fps target on consoles was the subject of some controversy. The game’s massive scope arguably justified that 30fps refresh rate, with only high-end PCs capable of hitting 60fps and higher, but now Bethesda has changed course and opened the floodgates on Xbox Series X consoles following significant optimisation work. Players can now independently select performance and visuals modes at arbitrary frame-rates. How exactly do these new combinations fare, and is 60fps really a possibility after it was explicitly ruled out before?
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 30fps, 40fps, 60fps, and uncapped frame-rates, with different availability depending on your display type and system settings. Plus, there’s an on/off toggle for v-sync, allowing for lower input lag at the expense of screen tearing.
Let’s start by untangling the visuals and performance modes. Beyond making for different-looking procedurally generated terrain, there’s consistently more ground clutter in the visuals mode with more shrubs, small rocks, grass and other incidental details, especially at a distance. I also noticed that some distant objects use lower LODs in the performance mode at a distance, and some texture mips are higher resolution in the visuals mode. More significantly, the visuals mode uses higher resolution cubemaps for refections, providing a noticeable improvement to detail and clarity. Neither mode gives especially convincing results with a flat reflective at point-blank range, but undulating water or rougher metals can look quite passable.
Other basic visual settings appear to be more or less matched between the two modes. Shadows, for example, exhibit similar detail and draw-in, though it’s hard to get an exact match with Starfield’s constantly shifting time of day. There’s also no discernible difference in crowd density, which is a quality option on PC. 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 here. Indirect lighting quality is also similar between the two modes, though you may notice dramatic lighting changes when switching between modes – most likely due to the GI solution taking some time to accumulate the data it needs.