If you were disappointed by the performance of Starfield on Xbox Series S, then I have some good news. Although the game launched with a 30fps cap on the platform, the recent introduction of mod support has paved the way for you to double or even quadruple that figure.
In a recent analysis of a handful of Starfield mods by Digital Foundry, it was shown that players can easily increase the framerate by installing community created performance fixes. One prominent example is the ‘1280x720 Resolution’ mod by user ‘GarBusGarBear’ which removes the game’s framerate limit and locks the internal image quality to 720p.
With this mod enabled, some smaller internal environments were able to reach a staggering 120fps - with that figure dropping down to around 100fps during intense combat scenes. Some of the busiest areas in the game hovered slightly above 40fps, though with some visible dips here and there, which is still a bit of an improvement compared to the original version.
That said, the shift from the standard 900p internal resolution to 720p does noticeably impact the overall image quality. Everything appears much blurrier, which might be just about acceptable if you game on a small 1080p monitor but will undoubtedly look quite unpleasant on a higher-resolution TV screen.
That’s just one of the mods on offer though; there are countless others that aim to improve performance without such obvious downsides. This includes one that simply removes the 30fps framerate cap, allowing the game to run at around 40fps. Provided that you already own a copy of Starfield on Xbox Series S, there’s very little reason not to spend a little bit of time playing around with everything on offer to see what kind of performance you can achieve.
These mods are also available on Xbox Series X and could be a good way to squeeze out some extra frames. Just be aware that the use of any mods will create a new set of saves where your ability to earn in-game achievements is disabled.
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