First, I’m not looking to compare the games. Both of them look interesting. Im going to be in the market for a new PC in the next few months and was wondering which of these two needed the better hardware. I haven’t bought a new computer in a long time so I’m going to have to re-learn what different things mean. I figured this would be a good place to start.
The recommended specs are virtually identical.
Baldur’s Gate 3 Recommended PC specs
GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Super / AMD Radeon RX 5700 xt (8GB+ of VRAM)
CPU: Intel Core i7-8700K / AMD Ryzen 5 3600.
RAM: 16GB.
OS: Windows 10 64-bit.
Storage: 150GB available space.
DirectX: Version 11.
Notes: SSD required.
Starfield Recommended Specs
Operating System: Windows 10 / Windows 11 with updates.
Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X, I5-10600K.
Memory: 16GB Ram.
Graphics Card: AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080.
Direct X: Version 12.
Storage 125GB available space*
SSD Required.
Virtually identical they are not. Starfield recommends a 10600 with a 2080, which is a significantly higher bar to clear than BG3’s 8700 with a 2060.
I will grant you, however, that both recommended specs are very high. So they are similar in that regard.
Starfield is probably 2x - 3x “heavier” than BG3. Like I can run BG3 at 200 fps at 4K and Starfield chugs under 100 fps at 1440p. I don’t think people have a great sense of what’s going on with Starfield yet, but it seems quirky around what it wants from a CPU.
But you should just get a 7800X3D and then whatever GPU you can afford. If you move fast, a 6800XT might be a great deal since it basically equals a 7800XT and no one is going to pay the same money for both. If a 7800X3D is too much, see if a 5800X3D is still available.
As I said, it’s been a few years since I shopped for a PC. The specs above mean nothing to me right now.
Don’t worry about the specs for games. You just want the most power for your money, right?
The big story in the PC space is that a lot of upgrades all happened at once and your choice is to either take the best platform of yesteryear (aka DDR4) or the sweet spot of today (aka DDR5.) The other big innovation is that AMD developed a way to stack a ton of cache on their CPUs, which they identify with their X3D tag. A lot of cache makes a CPU fantastic for gaming. That’s why everyone says either get a 5800X3D (DDR4) or 7800X3D (DDR5). Keep in mind, a 7800X3D is faster than a 7950X3D.
The problem right now is that Nvidia decided it’s not going to repeat the error of the 3080, which offered a ton of performance at a relatively low price. So, all the modern GPUs are a disappointment in terms of cost. There is no great choice out there. AMD wasn’t about to leave money on the table and raised their prices to match the lousy value that Nvidia offers. If you can find a 3080 or 6800XT, those are both decent cards at what’s likely to be a decent price.
I might have your budget wrong here. You might have US$3k to spend and you can get a 7800X3D + 4090 and never worry about what spec a game requires because you’re sitting on 4x the power of a PS5.
Both are looking for mid-to-high range components from about two generations ago.
RTX 2060/ RTX 2080: Nvidia’s GPUs from 2018. The first two digits represent the generation (20, they’re on 40 now, 30 was around 2020) and the second two are where it falls in the stack (60 is low/mid range, 80 was flagship at the time though now they make 90s)
i7-8700/i5-10600: Same general thing. i5 is a standard consumer model level CPU, i7 is a more premium tier. 8xxx & 10xxxx represent generation (Intel is on 13th gen now with 14th in the wings). In this case, you’re comparing a high end 8th gen CPU to a mid-range 10th gen chip and the two actually perform pretty close to one another. The i7-8700k came out in 2017.
So, they’re looking for hardware roughly equal to a high end system from five years ago.
I do think that comparing the two games is sort of a mistake. Not on the merits of the game play but because they play very differently. Framerate, for example, matters less in BG3 due to its turn based combat and overhead maps. I’m guessing you could have a decent experience in BG3 at 30 frames per second but feel a lot less happy about Starfield at 30fps.
Right now, pretty much everyone I find is talking about how Starfield has raised the bar on system requirements. So I would definitely choose it as your baseline, even if it gets some further optimizations.
As for how to determine what to get? I’d look at benchmarks for both games. You’re probably going to go for the latest generation, so you should be able to find pretty much exact specs.
I don’t follow AMD, but for modern graphics cards a NVIDIA 4060 is a little slower than the 2080 and a 4060Ti is a little faster:
I have a 3060Ti and I can run BG3 at Ultra on all settings on my 1K monitor. Unless you’re running a 4k monitor (twice the resolution) a 4060Ti should be plenty for Starfleld.
FWIW I have both games and both games run pretty well on my PC at high settings or better. They look great and play smoothly. My system is about 5-years old. Maybe a tiny bit less.
Specs:
Windows 10
1440p resolution
- Intel i9 9900KF
- Nvidia 2080Ti
- 32 GB memory (DDR4) (I forget the timings but pretty fast…not the absolute fastest but…pretty fast)
- Samsung SSD 960 EVO (hard drive)
I’d think Starfield needs more graphic oomph and I thought my 2080Ti would be insufficient but it seems to be doing pretty well in Starfield. It runs all things maxed (I think…near enough) in BG3 and most settings in Starfield are on high.
Of course, YMMV.
(you definitely want an SSD hard drive for these…the faster the better…I can’t imagine the pain running this off a slow hard drive)
NOTE: My 2080Ti is able to run DLSS which helps a lot in BG3. I am not sure if anything below an Nvidia 2080 can run DLSS (hopefully another Doper will check me on that).
Thanks for all the replies. I’m a few months out from buying and I’m not exactly sure what budget I have.
Just my $0.02…
Aim for 1440p gaming. My personal opinion is 4k is NOT worth it. 1440p is a sweet spot of performance, quality and price. If you want to spend more for 4k gaming go for it. Just costs more.
TBH: 1440p at max settings can probably do 4k on high settings. There is overlap there.