Can you play Starfield without a graphics card? Yes, it works, but only with huge drawbacks. Another option performs even better.
Starfield’s system requirements are quite demanding, demanding decent hardware even on low settings. But can you still play Starfield with weak hardware?
Yes, in principle you can also play without a fast graphics card from AMD, Nvidia or Intel Starfield, but the game then looks anything but nice. An alternative option would be at least cloud streaming.
Starfield without a graphics card runs at a stable 30 FPS with everything turned off
How to play without graphics card? Both AMD and Intel have processors in their range that come with a graphics chip. We then speak of an APU, even if the term actually comes from AMD and is not officially used by Intel.
When gaming, the graphics chip of the processor then takes over the tasks of the graphics card: graphics are rendered and data is calculated.
How well does Starfield run on a weak system? YouTuber Christo Gevedjov tried out Starfield on a Ryzen 5600G (via youtube.com). This is the current mid-range CPU from AMD with a “Vega 7” graphics chip. We have embedded the video for you here:
The game runs surprisingly smooth and stable between 25 and 30 FPS on the lowest settings at a resolution of 1280×720. Almost 40 FPS are even achieved in closed rooms, but the values sometimes drop to 19 FPS in open areas. However, the graphics chip runs at its limit all the time with 98% utilization, while the processor tends to get bored at 30% utilization.
Incidentally, the upscaling technology FSR is also behind the surprisingly good performance. The game is calculated in a low resolution and then scaled up.
Do you really want to play Starfield? But let’s be honest: Starfield really doesn’t look nice anymore on these shots. Textures are washed out, faces are blurry, and the resolution is very low.
If you really want to enjoy the game, then you should rather play the game on better hardware. The cheapest “right” hardware for Starfield would be an Xbox Series S, and experts have already explained: Starfield also runs really well on the Xbox Series S and looks good.
Cloud gaming as a possible alternative
What are the possibilities? With Game Pass Ultimate you also get the option to play Starfield via the cloud. This service is called Xbox Cloud Gaming and is included in the Ultimate subscription. So completely without powerful hardware.
This is not yet possible via GeForce Now, but it is not unlikely that Starfield will also be available via GeForce Now in the near future.
What’s the problem with that? The problem, however, is that at the current time (September 1, 2023) neither Xbox Cloud Gaming nor GeForce Now Starfield offer streaming. We cannot tell you whether this will change with the official release on September 6, 2023.
Another disadvantage of cloud gaming is that you need a very fast internet connection. A speed of at least 10 Mbit/s is recommended for streaming to work well. But you also need this to download the 120 GB of Starfield to your PC or Xbox.
More games for old systems: You can find tips and recommendations for players who only have slow or weak hardware in the following article directly on MeinMMO:
8 Free MMORPGs on Steam that run on weak computers