For Starfield, Bethesda requires a fast SSD. A YouTuber has conducted a counter-test and installed the game on a slow hard drive. We explain what he discovered.
Starfield takes up a lot of space on your system. More specifically, according to the manufacturer Bethesda, it requires 125 GB, which the role-playing game allocates on the selected data storage for installation. As if that weren’t enough, the game developer asks you to install Starfield on an SSD.
Players without the appropriate drive feared that they would miss out on the game. They felt compelled to upgrade to a suitable drive or to directly purchase a new gaming PC.
A YouTuber named “RandomGaminginHD” has addressed this issue. He demonstrates in a video how Starfield plays when installed on a regular hard drive.
A few gameplay highlights from Starfield can be seen here in the video:
YouTuber shows why Starfield needs a fast SSD drive
Many developers of AAA games recommend an SSD (Solid State Drive, flash memory) as the installation location for their newer titles. However, Bethesda is one of the first studios that already demands an SSD drive for storage space in the minimum requirements. The YouTuber “RandomGaminginHD” questions this and conducts a self-test in a video.
How did the YouTuber proceed? For his test, he took a 10-year-old HDD (Hard Disk Drive, mechanical hard drive) from Western Digital out of the drawer. He previously checked the 1 TB storage device for errors with a diagnostic tool. Despite 50,000 operating hours, the mass storage is, according to his statement, in good condition.
He then connected the drive to his computer. His system includes the following components:
- Processor: Intel Core i5-12400, 2.50GHz
- Graphics card: Nvidia RTX 4060TI
- RAM: 32 GB RAM
- Storage: Kingston M.2 NVME SSD, unknown size
Did the game need to be reinstalled for the test? In Steam, game files can be moved between different drives. “RandomGaminginHD” took advantage of this option and transferred the approximately 125 GB installation of Starfield from the SSD to the HDD. This process took about 25 minutes.
Different test scenarios in comparison
What gameplay elements were used for the test? To obtain meaningful comparison values, he decided to examine various aspects of the game more closely. Here are his findings regarding the loading times in the game.
Loading a save file from the main menu:
- SSD: 14 seconds
- HDD: 1 minute, 30 seconds
Loading time when entering/exiting a building:
- SSD: 3 seconds / 5 seconds
- HDD: 8 seconds / 17 seconds
Starfield is full of loading screens. Whether entering and exiting a building or fast traveling with your spaceship, both drives take a little longer here as more details need to be loaded when switching from buildings to the open game world.
How does the hard drive affect gameplay? While playing, the YouTuber regularly noticed stuttering in the milliseconds range. At times, Starfield seemed to be completely frozen, which fortunately was not the case. After a few seconds, the game continued.
Depending on the action occurring on screen, the space RPG is more or less playable from the old hard drive. In heated battles, the stuttering gameplay, including unwanted pauses, is not very advantageous. However, this is less disturbing during less exciting tasks such as exploring planets.
When taking off from a planet with your spaceship and the landing animation on another celestial body, weather effects are sometimes displayed very late on the monitor. For example, clouds pop up out of nowhere.
What effects does switching to a different area have? Once the hard drive has loaded all the data and environmental details after a loading screen, the performance is better in areas with lower population density.
NPCs as performance bottlenecks
What is going on with the NPCs? Curiously, encounters with NPCs in Starfield cause problems that disturb the immersive gameplay. When “RandomGaminginHD” approaches quest givers and conversation partners in the game world, his screen freezes for a few seconds. During the interaction with various characters, he repeatedly notices that the characters do not speak in sync and would make good ventriloquists.
The YouTuber is not sure if this is due to the use of the hard drive or if it is a general problem with Starfield. Players with German voice output also report audio delays. It is assumed that Bethesda’s role-playing game generally has a technical problem.
In summary, “RandomGaminginHD” would not describe the game on an HDD as completely unplayable. However, it could be very frustrating to play on a low-end PC with less performance and then be further bottlenecked by a slow HDD. This would make the gameplay experience a very negative one.
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