You are playing the new Starfield and experiencing sound issues? Then try the following options to fix the problems.
Starfield is now playable and testers praise the excellent performance. Nevertheless, there are a few annoying problems. Many players suffer from a strange audio bug that causes dialogues to be missing or the sound to sound strangely distorted.
But with a few tricks, you can manage most problems. The issue: This isn’t a permanent fix, but it alleviates the annoyance until Bethesda releases an update.
Restart your game on PC or Xbox
Properly close Starfield on your PC or on your Xbox. This means that you also have to turn off the “Quick Resume” feature on Xbox. Otherwise, the problems will persist. On Xbox, proceed as follows:
- Press the Xbox button on the controller to open the menu.
- Select Starfield in the menu and click the menu button (the hamburger menu).
- Select “Quit” to fully close the game.
If you close the game without this detour, the game remains open in the Xbox’s memory so that the Xbox can quickly start the game again. However, the problems will also persist. If the trick doesn’t help, then restart your Xbox.
Disable graphical rendering options
Disabling various graphical settings such as upscaling, vertical sync, motion blur, and variable rate shading (VRS) can positively affect how the game handles sound output.
Certain graphical effects or settings impact your hardware and put a strain on your graphics card or processor. Some users recommend turning off motion blur in particular. Here, it seems that the GPU favors graphics, and audio quality suffers accordingly. Motion blur is anyway one of the least popular features in games, but it still has a reason for existence:
Install Starfield on an SSD or install an SSD
Both the developers and testers have explained that an SSD is essential for Starfield. And there are several reasons for this. Your hardware needs to retrieve a lot of game data from the SSD.
Your graphics card and processor can read and process audio files from an SSD much faster than if you have installed the data on a conventional hard drive.
Move game with Steam: If you installed the game via Steam, you can also move the game to another partition. The prerequisite is that you have created a folder for Steam on another drive:
- Open the settings menu of the Steam client.
- Select the “Storage” tab.
- Select the drive where Starfield is located that you want to move.
- Highlight the game and click on “Move.” This may take some time.
Update drivers and software
AMD, Nvidia, and Intel provide an updated driver for their hardware with every major release. If you have sound or other issues, you should definitely install the update for your hardware.
But keep a backup of your old software in the background: In case the problems become significantly worse after the update, you can reinstall your old software. AMD, Nvidia, and Intel also offer older software versions for download.
Exclude defective hardware: In some cases, your hardware may also be damaged or broken. In the following article, we explain on MeinMMO what to look for to find out if your graphics card is broken:
5 signs that warn you that your graphics card is about to die
