[Updated] Starfield audio & performance issues surface; Early Access crashing or freezing also reported (workarounds inside)

New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….

Original story (published on September 1, 2023) follows:

The highly anticipated Sci-Fi RPG Starfield is reportedly experiencing severe audio and performance issues, primarily on PC and Xbox.

Moreover, many reports claim that frequent game crashes are significantly impacting the gaming experience.

On the official Reddit page, numerous reports emerged highlighting persistent audio and performance problems during early access.

Anyone else having weird performance issues? Like characters’ lips moving, then speech following after? And just general freezing and audio skips? (Source)

Anyone else getting this? I’m using Audeze Maxwells and getting audio crackling / stuttering when shooting or using a laser. (Source)

Starfield, a next-gen AAA game with decades of alleged development, raised player expectations significantly. But now that early access is available to select players, the game’s true issues are becoming apparent.

Although the game has garnered somewhat positive feedback so far, the community’s biggest concern remains the many bugs and crashes.

Early access players report (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) that the game is having various audio-related issues. These include sudden drops, low-quality output, and more, but audio isn’t the only issue.

Various reports (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) have suggested that the game also has performance issues. From lagging, frame drops, texture loads, and many more.

There hasn’t been any official statement of a fix regarding these issues yet.

However, community members suggest that moving the game from an HDD to an SSD is crucial for smoother gameplay.

They also suggested that downloading the DLSS mod could be a great improvement.

Seriously – I was getting 60+ anyway but DLSS is just so much smoother and now I’m getting 100+ in some areas. Crazy improvement (Source)

But this is not where the issues end.

Several early access players are reporting that the game is crashing, freezing, or not properly loading for them.

Very odd… when starting the game… after hole in the wall is created… trying not to spoil anything… but after the hole is created my game lags for 20 seconds then crashes. (Source)

When I boot the game I make it to the screen just before the main menu, then the application crashes. (Source)

Most of the reports claim the game is crashing just after the launch screen.

However, instances of mid-game crashing are also apparent in some cases. So far there hasn’t been any official acknowledgment or fixes issued by the developers.

However, players have suggested that updating the game’s drivers and tweaking with AMD sliders could be a solution.

Another player offered a fix especially to PC users suggesting that locking the framerate could be a fix.

Open the Nvidia control panel via desktop and lock the framerate. Test it, though it seems 60 FPS lock eliminates the crashes (Source)

We’ll keep track of the situation and post an update if and when there are any further developments on the matter.

12:47 pm (IST): Recently a player has shared a potential workaround that could help fix the performance issues on PC:

What finally worked for me was turning FSR2 ON, setting Render Resolution Scale to 60 and Sharpening to 30%. Then, I set all the other graphic settings back to MEDIUM. This made the game look BETTER than it did with Render Resolution Scale at 80% with all settings on LOW and gave me an fps increase as well as my GPU dropping about 10-15 degrees on average. (Source)

Feature image source: Steam

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