You can now play Starfield at 120 frames per second on Xbox Series S, with a small sacrifice

What you need to know

• Starfield is a space-faring role-playing space sim that puts players at the helm of their own ships across one thousand planets.
• Bethesda, the creators of Starfield, are also the makers of Elder Scrolls and Fallout.
• Since release, Starfield has only been playable at 30 frames per second on Xbox Series S.
• Now, with mods, players can achieve framerates as high as 120 frames per second!

Starfield is a space-faring role-playing space sim that sees players explore the galaxy in an effort to answer questions encompassing far more than this article is going to tackle. Starfield is the latest creation of Bethesda, the studio behind the award-winning franchises of The Elder Scrolls and Fallout. Having launched in September of 2023 to a warm mix of reviews, the only playable framerate on consoles was a locked 30 fps experience. 

Out of the blue, Bethesda unveiled additional features for Xbox players in May. The update introduced a new performance mode, along with options for uncapped, 60 fps, and 40 fps targets. Needless to say, this was a massive win for players across the Xbox platform, and many celebrated the news. However, gamers on the Xbox Series S console were left without any performance options of their own. 

Boost Starfield FPS on Xbox: How it’s done

While they still don’t officially support it, at least on one of the two consoles, Xbox Series X|S players can now enjoy Starfield at both 60Hz and 120Hz. Thanks to the Creation Kit launching on June 9, a series of mods have come out that allow players the flexibility to reduce a mixture of settings to up their framerate to previously unattainable levels! Yes, you read that right; not only can Xbox Series X players achieve these framerates, but Series S holders can, too!

Note: Enabling these will sadly disable Xbox achievements. 

First, check out the video done by Fuzion Xbox Testing, where they benchmark the mods and offer the Series S versions of them. Here’s a direct list of the mods needed for Xbox Series S players:

• Uncap FPS for Series S
• Inquisitor Project FPS Plus
• Performance Shadows(Series S)
• Performance Tweaks(Series S)
• Remove Grass
• Crowd Reducer
• No God Rays

The good and the ugly

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Mods enabled – The grass is completely gone and the resolution drops to something resembling 720p internally. Lighting is also significantly reduced.

For Xbox Series X users, the same mods are available, with the exception of the Uncap FPS mod and the Performance Series S mods. Instead, there are separate Series X versions of these mods that you can download.

The above changes are especially noticeable on either console in cities. The Inquisitor project brings the FPS up to a stable 60 in New Atlantis! When it comes to the other mods on the list, mods like the grass removal and performance tweaks leave a fidelity palette that might be hard to swallow.

As you can see from the above screenshots, the comparisons are almost painted in watercolor. To attain the 120Hz look, you’ll have to forego the whimsy of graphical fidelity. However, it’s a buttery smooth experience.

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Mods enabled –  The outdoor scenery is especially noticeable.

The only thing that genuinely bums me out is that these mods disable achievements. Visual overhauls of any nature should never turn off achievements, and a lot of the other mods shouldn’t, either. Bethesda is releasing Creation Kit mods that still support achievements, so why can’t others?

The mods that cost credits on the Creation Store are specially curated by Bethesda as part of the Game Studios Verified Creator Program. Mod authors need to apply in order to attain royalties. For mods that don’t change gameplay, why are they being restricted from achievements?

It wouldn’t bother me so much if it wasn’t for the fact that one of the Creation Store releases by Bethesda included an extremely overpowered suit. It absolutely trounces any other armor you’ll get for quite a while in the game, and it’s free. This mod alone, if released by any other author, would sabotage achievements, so why does a grass removal mod do it instead?

Is this something you’re willing to try out? Let us know in the comments below if you’ll be testing some of these mods out for yourself.