Developer Bethesda and AMD have faced backlash from the community over their partnership for the upcoming game “Starfield”. Concerns have been raised about the perceived preference for AMD hardware, leading AMD to release its own system requirements for the game on their website. The recommendations differ from Bethesda’s requirements on Steam, with AMD suggesting their Ryzen 5 7600 as the minimum requirement for a “heroic experience” in Full HD resolution. Bethesda, on the other hand, lists the older Ryzen 5 2600X or an Intel Core i7-6800K as the minimum requirements, without mentioning compatibility with Intel hardware in AMD’s recommendations.
The system recommendations provided by AMD and Bethesda cannot be directly compared. Bethesda outlines the absolute minimum requirements without specifying resolution, frame rate, and graphics settings, while AMD mentions “great graphic effects and frame rates” in their “heroic experience” suggestion. It is unclear what settings or frame rates are implied by AMD’s description. Cheaper processors can still provide smooth frame rates, but AMD would need to advertise older CPUs as there are no cheaper options in the 7000 series than the Ryzen.
Additionally, AMD suggests different motherboard chipsets in their recommendations, despite them not affecting gaming performance. All AM5 mainboards can adequately power the suggested processors and connect with the graphics card and NVMe SSD using at least PCI Express 4.0. The community has expressed skepticism towards AMD’s specs due to these discrepancies.
Another point of contention is the possibility that AMD may restrict the use of competing technologies in “Starfield” due to their partnership with Bethesda. Nvidia’s DLSS upscaling technology and DLSS3 frame generation technology are potentially excluded from the game, leaving only AMD’s alternative, FSR, for players to use. Many consider FSR inferior to DLSS, and AMD has not provided an alternative to DLSS3. It remains unclear whether AMD is blocking the use of Nvidia technology in “Starfield”.
The situation has raised concerns and frustration among gamers eagerly anticipating “Starfield,” and the community awaits further clarification from Bethesda and AMD.
