By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
sc94597 on 17 June 2023
Edit Thread
curl-6 said:
sc94597 said:

Yes, running the game at 30fps gives you more time. That doesn't necessarily mean "you will always be able to process twice as much per frame at 30fps as you can at 60fps."

"Big and complex" doesn't necessarily mean that performance will be affected. It does matter in which ways it is big and complex, and that is why it also matters what Bethesda is doing to optimize the title. If they are targeting 30fps and leaving performance on the table (because for example their engine and development team aren't utilizing the full CPU resources) then that is a very different scenario from optimizing the game and then using "big and complex" as an excuse for the performance target. 

Given their track record, I think the latter scenario isn't entirely unlikely. 

It's possible, but I wouldn't jump straight to blaming the team (or the engine, since frankly we know little about its current makeup) when it's entirely likely we're simply seeing the limits of what now 2 and a half year old hardware can do at 60fps. Xbox Series isn't cutting edge any more, there was always going to come a time when the games started to move passed what it could comfortably breeze through.

We'll of course know upon release of the PC version. I suspect that a Ryzen 3700x (non-overclocked) + RX 5700xt will be able to reach a 60fps target at 1080p (internal resolution) with medium settings, either before or after mods release to improve performance. That's hardware that is about (slightly worse than) the Xbox Series X's. 

1.If it can do it without a CPU bottleneck, then the game is probably GPU bound and 60fps was definitely doable with enough effort and likely very little loss in perceived visuals. (Note: The internal resolution of Starfield on Series X is 1296p, only about 1.44 times the pixel-count of 1080p.)

2. If it can't do it, but very little of the CPU is utilized (note: many console -> PC ports scale very well with core count these days), then yes we can blame the development team and/or Bethesda leadership's insistence on sticking to their decades old proprietary engine. 

3. If it can't do it and the CPU is well-utilized, then it is genuinely an optimized, CPU-bound game. 

Hopefully if it is #2, Bethesda gets the right criticism before they go full-production on ESVI, and Microsoft gives them more resources to fundamentally revamp their engine expediently so that ESVI doesn't get delayed. Microsoft has the resources to enable Bethesda to increase head-count significantly.