TECH NEWS – Some PC gamers are voicing their frustration on social media, reporting that Starfield is virtually unplayable on Intel Arc graphics cards.

Starfield is only days away from its full release. Some early access players have reported on social media that the game is unplayable on Intel Arc graphics cards. A few added that the game window refuses to appear at all on any of Intel’s Alchemist family of GPUs. Following the reports, Intel responded, but the response was not what Starfield players wanted to hear before the game’s release.

Users who purchased the Starfield Premium Edition started playing on August 31 and agreed that Bethesda’s new IP is similar to Skyrim and Fallout 4 in both gameplay and technical aspects.

Ahead of Starfield’s full release on September 6, AMD and NVIDIA have also released graphics driver updates to ensure compatibility with the game. Some gamers have claimed that Starfield’s opening is more difficult compared to Skyrim. But Intel Arc users were unable to experience the game’s opening at all.

Intel Arc graphics cards, such as the A750, were reportedly unable to load the game. The Windows Task Manager showed the Starfield window open in the background and took up significant system resources. However, attempts to bring it to the foreground proved futile. This naturally led to Intel users voicing their complaints on social media. Intel responded to this on X. Intel said it was aware of the problems with Starfield on Arc GPUs. But at the time of writing, there is still no patch available for the affected graphics cards.

Intel has said that an updated graphics driver for Arc GPUs will be available with the full release of Starfield. However, this has not stopped users from expressing their disappointment with Intel. For not having a gaming-ready driver for Starfield at the same time as AMD and NVIDIA. With Intel lagging behind in GPU sales, the problems with Starfield are the latest problems Intel is facing in selling the Arc product line.

As Starfield reviews are still limited to media organs and Steam curators at the time of writing, it is unknown how many more disgruntled Intel users will voice their complaints.

Despite the Intel Arc GPUs struggling with Starfield during early access, the game remains one of the most anticipated titles of 2023. Only time will tell how well the game will perform on Intel Arc GPUs. Of course, once updated drivers are released.

Source: TechRadar

We are aware of issues with @StarfieldGame on Intel Arc graphics. We are working to improve the experience for the game's general release next week.

— Intel Graphics (@IntelGraphics) August 31, 2023