Starfield CPU performance reviews

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Now a few reviews have come out,I thought it will be useful to have the information in one thread.

CPU benchmarks

1.)PCGameshardware(05/09/23)

CPUs run at default RAM speeds

Starfield: 24 CPU-Benchmarks - Welcher Prozessor reicht aus?

Starfield ist da und PCGH prüft mit CPU-Benchmarks, welche Anforderungen das Spiel an den Prozessor stellt.

www.pcgameshardware.de

2.)Hardware Unboxed(05/09/23)

AM5 CPUs(6000MHZ DDR5),Intel 12000/13000 series(7200MHZ DDR5),rest 3600MHZ DDR4.

3.)Gamersnexus(05/09/23)

DDR5 6000MHZ for all supported CPUs and 3200MHZ DDR4 for other CPUs.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

RAM scaling benchmarks
1.)PCGameshardware(05/09/23)

Starfield RAM-Skalierung wirklich so gut? Mit Ryzen 7700X und Core i9-12900K untersucht

PCGH prüft die RAM-Skalierung in Starfield. Liefert schneller Arbeitsspeicher eine höhere Performance und wenn ja, wie viel?

www.pcgameshardware.de

2.)Hardware Unboxed(05/09/23)

3.)Gamersnexus(05/09/23)

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Conclusions


So far from the initial data,the scaling looks similar to Fallout 4:

Fallout 4 CPU benchmark thread(need some Zen3 and Zen4 results!)

Background A few of us still play some of the old Creation Engine based games such as Fallout 4. Annoyingly a lot of reviewers don't seem to test older games anymore,and these generally benefit the most from better single threaded performance,faster memory speeds,etc. Fallout 4 tends to be...

forums.overclockers.co.uk

Basically Zen3 was around the same performance as Intel 10000/11000 series parts.

The main difference is the X3 parts don't show as much of an uplift over the normal Zen3/Zen4 parts. Memory scaling seems less extreme. With DDR5 platforms,performance does seem to scale to higher frequencies but not as severely as Fallout 4 did.

BTW,all the charts are here:

imgur.com

Discover the magic of the internet at Imgur, a community powered entertainment destination. Lift your spirits with funny jokes, trending memes, entertaining gifs, inspiring stories, viral videos, and so much more from users.

imgur.com

So take away notes so far:
1.)Intel does better in the game
2.)Decent speed RAM is important,but less important than in Fallout 4 so far
3.)Even 4 cores can run the game with reasonable averages,but with poor minimum FPS
4.)8 cores are required if you want to have good average and minimum FPS. Six cores might suffice.
5.)X3D CPUs are better than the normal Zen counterparts,but not as much as they were in Fallout 4

The CPU benchmarks won't be a worst case scenario. Once people start building more outposts,expect even worse performance!

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Without someone with the hardware and time and skill to totally trace and debug this, we will probably never know. AMD engineers could probably have done so but sponsorship doesn't seem to mean they do anything deep!

Could be anything:
from a compiler flag - but Bethesda no longer leave things in x87 fall back mode!
Maybe even a single instruction Intel does better with and which is used a lot by, e.g., the Papyrus runtime.
Or some branch where Intel's branch predictor is better.

Just hope that whatever it is doesn't get fixed to prevent some speculative execution exploit!

It does seem there is RAM scaling. Also the performance profile is similar to Fallout 4,except the X3D CPUs do worse now.

Edit!!

The Ryzen 7 5800X3D is still 15% to 20% faster than the Ryzen 7 5800X.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Seems to me like it just loves single core performance, hence why the 13900k is well ahead in all the benches.

Certainly looks like RAM speed has an impact, but not as significant as expected.

Clearly doesn't give a **** about threads/cores that much looking at the 7600 - 7950 spread...

It shows similar scaling to the results in the Fallout 4 thread,except:
1.)Less extreme RAM scaling
2.)X3D CPUs have less of a performance uplift
4.)8 cores has an effect,ie,better 1% lows but six cores might be enough.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Even the 8700k is giving a spanking to many of the chips there. I knew it was at least similar if not better than Zen 2 in games but didn't expect it to do quite as well as that today.

If you followed the Fallout 4 benchmark thread I created,it's not as surprising as you would think:

A tweaked Core i9 9900K beat almost all the Zen3 CPUs on the list. I am more surprised how "badly" the X3D chips do.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

BTW,if anyone sees more CPU benchmarks please put them in here. At some point maybe me and @KompuKare will attempt to make a community benchmark. But I first need to play the game,and see what others find out about the most CPU intensive areas of the game.

I expect the user made outposts might end up being that situation,just like in Fallout 4.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The exact spot that pcgameshardware shared with their save game file is ideal if you decide to use that. It's extremely CPU heavy and as long as the user doesn't move the mouse, it should be suitable for purpose.

In our previous benchmark thread we used an ENB profiler to normalise to drawcalls. But we can use that save file.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Looking pretty depressing for my 5800X, maybe time to upgrade soon.

Well I wanted an upgrade for my RTX3060TI,seems like AMD doesn't want my money! Oh well!

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Going by this, it seems a 14900k with a possible 6ghz core boost will fare really well in this, plus the extra L3 cache that brings as well. Looking at possibly pairing it with 7200mhz ram but i think looking at some of those slides, timing also plays a part in it too so tightening those up should net more performance too.

It also makes me think the Core i5 14600KF will be also solid in this.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Theres quite a few factors to consider, not just plainly smashing up ram speed. Need to give this more thought though Starfield is abit of a isolated scenario with it using its older revamped engine. Good to know that increasing ram speed among other things will actually net you quite abit more performance.

Just check the results in the Fallout 4 benchmark thread. I am still surprised the X3D CPUs don't perform any better.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

@CAT-THE-FIFTH
A bit tricky to add as it's dynamic but deeper than most screens, but that Russian site did set it through their test process:

Starfield: PC Performance Benchmarks for Graphics Cards and Processors | Action / FPS / TPS | GPU TEST

We tested Starfield at the highest graphics settings, on video cards from the GEFORCE RTX and RADEON RX series. Also, in the course of our tests, we evaluated the performance and quality of the gra

gamegpu.tech

and 12C Zen2:

and an i3 and a Ryzen 3:

So it spreads out but still seems to be 2 or so main threads.

Heavily modded with tons of NPCs is going to be as performance zapping as FO4 and Skyrim then.

It looks like it!

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I know its a bit of a unknown still, but what do you think i should expect FPS wise, with a 5800x3d and a GTX1080 with 16gb RAM (Halfway through my upgrade cycle)

I have a Ryzen 7 5700X and an RTX3060TI and even in New Atlantis in the most CPU limited area,I am more GPU limited.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

But but, mr painal face said otherwise

https://twitter.com/x/status/1699655687809470971

My mate and I have the same Ryzen 7 5700X,and their RX6700XT is generally quicker than my RTX3060TI in the game using the same settings in the same locations.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Yeh, just make sure to have HT off, don't make sense, beth needs to fix this.

On Intel CPUs,not AMD ones. But this is no different than in Cyberpunk 2077 where HT caused problems for CPUs too and AMD CPUs over six cores had issues:

Cyberpunk 2077 might force you to upgrade your CPU | Digital Trends

If you want to play the new Cyberpunk 2077 expansion, Phantom Liberty, you may need to make sure your PC is ready for it first.

www.digitaltrends.com

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Do you think this will be fixed thou in a future update ? thx

Maybe,but it still took CDPR a while!