10 best Starfield performance mods for maximum framerate on low-end PCs

Starfield mods redefine the gaming experience by elevating it with enhanced graphics, invaluable features, and a host of additional content. These player-made additions include improved aesthetics, performance optimization, gameplay enhancements, and limitless customizability options. By continuously modernizing and rethinking the gaming experience, they ensure the game's longevity.

To implement these additions, Nexus Mods is the way to go. You can use their Vortex installer or manually install mods by downloading and extracting files per the instructions. It is also worth noting that mods are typically better supported on the Steam version of the game compared to the Game Pass version.

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Ship Skip, Potato Mode, and more of the best Starfield mods for low-end PCs

1) Starfield Performance Optimizations

This mod promises better FPS for low-end PCs (Image via Nexus Mods)

If you need a performance boost in the game, this mod is the best solution. It optimizes all the visual presets in the game, making it especially useful for those with older PCs. You'll see significant performance gains, particularly in the Low or "Potato Mode" settings, making your gameplay smoother and more enjoyable even on old-model hardware.

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2) Starfield Upscaler

Improve your gaming experience with this mod (Image via Bethesda)

The mod improves gaming performance and visuals by replacing FSR2 with DLSS or XeSS. It's especially beneficial for older PCs, as it offers smoother gameplay. Furthermore, it's optimized for a better 4K gaming experience.

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3) 60 FPS Smooth UI

This mod enhances your FPS in-game (Image via Bethesda)

A great mod for low-end PCs, 60FPS Smooth UI improves FPS, eliminates choppy UI and menu experience, and enhances overall game smoothness. It significantly boosts FPS by removing the jittery feel in menus and UI, making it a valuable inclusion on the mod list.

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4) Ship Skip

Skip ship animations with this mod (Image via Bethesda)

In many missions, you'll find yourself shuttling back and forth between different spaceships. Initially, the docking animations look good, but as you repeat the process, they start feeling tedious and time-consuming. For those with low-end PCs, this experience is especially grueling.

Ship Skip mod eliminates those repetitive cutscenes, saving you valuable gaming time and keeping the action flowing seamlessly. It allows you to land and take off instantly, removes docking animations, eliminates the pilot seat animation, speeds up ladder climbing, and makes workbench interactions instant.

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5) Starfield Potato Mode

This mod turns textures into 128-bit size (Image via Bethesda)

For those who don't mind playing the game in high resolution, this mod is a great choice. The Starfield Potato Mode by BulwarkHD turns the game's textures into 128-bit size. The full description reads:

"Does your PC have 1gb of Vram? Is it so old your grandpa used it to play Morrowind? Or do you hate high resolution textures and want to get rid of them? Try this mod out and see if it works for you!"

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6) Starfield Performance Texture Pack

This Starfield mod enhances texture performance in-game (Image via Nexus Mods)

Much like the previous mods, the Starfield Performance Texture Pack improves performance by offering lower-resolution textures suitable for low-end PCs. This mod provides both 1k and 512 versions of all in-game textures.

You may select from either of the versions, but the 1k option is already half the size of the default texture. To take it down a notch further, you can choose the 512 version. As per the modder, this weapon mod isn't available for Game Pass versions.

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7) Starfield APU

Starfield APU mod optimizes performance in low-end PCs (Image via Bethesda)

This mod is an essential INI tweak that provides a simple way to implement a highly optimized set of adjustments. These tweaks are designed to improve gameplay on APUs and computers that might struggle to run the game smoothly. Its primary objective is to make Starfield more playable while maintaining specific visual details and clarity.

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8) Starfield Performance Boost

This mod reduces shadow detail to improve performance (Image via Bethesda)

This mod primarily targets shadow detail, significantly reducing it to improve performance. The reduction in shadow detail should not significantly impact visual quality. Newer GPUs may experience a modest five percent FPS boost, while older ones could potentially see up to a 15% increase in performance.

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9) Smooth Ship Reticle

This mod improves UI performance in the game (Image via Bethesda)

Although it doesn't directly enhance overall game performance, the Smooth Ship Reticle mod focuses on improving the performance of the user interface (UI). Specifically, it enhances the smoothness of your ship's targeting reticle, making it significantly smoother compared to the default version.

It also offers settings to increase other HUD elements to 120 FPS, resulting in a smoother appearance for these elements.

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10) Starfield Performance Tweaks

This mod features two notable tweaks that improve the gameplay experience (Image via Bethesda)

While this mod isn't exclusively for those who run the game on low-end PCs, it greatly benefits them. It implements two notable tweaks: the first one adjusting the CPU Priority in Windows. This can lead to a modest improvement of about one to four percent in FPS and the elimination of some bothersome micro stutters.

The second tweak, which isn't really useful for low-end PCs and is only applicable to Nvidia RTX 30- and 40-series GPUs, can result in a substantial performance boost of 10-20%. This tweak revolves around enabling the resizable bar feature, introduced by Nvidia, and subsequently forcing the game to utilize it.