Starfield system requirements: you're gonna need a 125GB cargo hold

Starfield's shipbuilding tool screens and customisation

(Image credit: Bethesda)

If you've been struggling to manage your PC storage in the last year or two, you might want to look away now: Starfield's system requirements demand 125GB of your SSD, making it the data equivalent of a red giant. Remarkably, this isn't the largest game we've seen recently: Jedi Survivor required a whopping 155GB of storage, adding a whole Prey on top of what Starfield asks of your drive. But it still puts it firmly in the category of +100GB games, which is becoming the norm for PC gaming blockbusters.

Potential Starfielders should also note the phrase "SSD required" in the requirements. So if you're still mucking about with a drive that requires—gasp—moving parts, time to toss it out the window and grab yourself a li'l data brick.

Meaty girth aside, Starfield's system requirements are otherwise reasonable. Minimum requirements demand an Intel Core i7 6800K or AMD Ryzen 5 2600X, and a Nvidia GTX 1070 Ti or AMD Radeon RX 5700. To get optimal performance, you'll need an Intel i5 10600K or AMD Ryzen 5 3600X, and a Radeon RX 6800 XT or Nvidia RTX 2080. That's more or less my current rig, which I built back in 2019. On paper, therefore, Starfield shouldn't be too demanding, although as we've seen with numerous games recently, that's no guarantee it will run well.

Minimum

OS: Windows 10 version 22H2 (10.0.19045)
Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 2600X, Intel Core i7 6800K
Memory: 16GB RAM
Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 5700, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 Ti
DirectX: Version 12
Storage: 125 GB available space
Additional notes: SSD required

Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims.

Minimum

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