It’s been a momentous week with Bethesda’s Starfield finally hitting the gaming scene on Xbox Series X, Series S, and PC. A new universe to explore after 25 long years of waiting — sounds incredible, right? Well, mostly. Some PC users are feeling a bit left out in the cold as they’re facing some serious performance issues. In an interview with Bloomberg Technology, Todd Howard, the maestro behind Starfield, hinted that it might be time for a hardware upgrade.

Is Starfield Optimized for PC?

One of the first questions asked by Bloomberg anchor Ed Ludlow was on the minds of many gamers: “Why did you not optimize this game for PC?” Howard’s response was straightforward: “Uh, we did. It’s running great. It is a next-gen PC game. We really do push the technology, so you may need to upgrade your PC for this game. But it’s got a lot of great stuff going on in it, and the fans are responding awesome.”

While this response thrilled some, it didn’t sit well with others.

As with any major game release, the gaming community is a mixed bag of emotions. Some players are on cloud nine, while others are stuck in a space-time rift of frustration. Comments like “Ah yes, the ‘next-gen’ game that can’t even handle small interiors without needing a loading screen first” and “The game is not optimized at all; my 4090 can’t even reach 60fps in so many zones” have been making the rounds on social media.

The Reality Check: Hardware Upgrades

Let’s face it; it’s always a tough pill to swallow when you realize your trusty PC isn’t up to snuff for the latest games. Todd Howard’s advice to consider a hardware upgrade might sting, but it’s not uncommon in the gaming world. Just think about how often we’ve shelled out for new consoles every few years.

Bethesda, in an attempt to be helpful, has laid out some minimum hardware recommendations for playing Starfield on PC. These include an AMD Ryzen 5 2600X or Intel Core i7-6800K processor, an AMD Radeon RX 5700 or NVIDIA GeForce 1070 Ti graphics card, and 16GB of RAM. But remember, these are just the minimum specs, and they won’t deliver the full experience of a CPU-intensive game like Starfield.

Starfield‘s PC performance might require a little extra oomph from your rig. But in the grand scheme of things, it’s all part of the gaming journey. Whether you choose to upgrade or wait for further optimizations, the vast cosmos of Starfield is waiting for you to explore. And trust me, it’s worth it.