An AMD partnership for Starfield has incited outrage with PC owners who think this will make it even buggier than it might have been.
At first glance, Starfield looks to be one of the most anticipated games of the year. It’s certainly a big deal for Microsoft and Bethesda, as it’s the former’s next major Xbox exclusive and the latter’s first new IP in over a decade.
While there is a lot of excitement surrounding it, recent updates about the game have instilled a sense of dread in Bethesda’s fans, if not outright anger.
First it was the locked 30 frames per second on console, then it was the apparent lack of a physical release, and now Bethesda has said it’s partnered with AMD for the PC version.
In an announcement video from Bethesda’s Todd Howard and AMD’s Jack Huynh, they talk about how this partnership will ‘unlock the full potential of Starfield.’
There’s a lot of technical jargon but all you need to know is that AMD exclusivity will allow Starfield to ‘look great and run great’ on PC – according to them.
A quick look at the fan response, though, and you find that many are disappointed with the decision to partner with AMD. At the time of writing, the video announcement has 3,500 dislikes – more than double the 1,600 likes.
The reason for this is because PC games supported by AMD don’t offer support for Nvidia’s DLSS technology, which is widely considered to be superior to AMD’s own upscaling tech.
As a result, many argue that games without DLSS simply don’t perform as well, have less than optimal visuals, and suffer from a lot of technical jank. Considering Bethesda games tend to launch buggy anyway, there are fears the AMD exclusivity will make things even worse.
Some point to the PC versions of The Last Of Us Part 1 and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor as prime examples of this. Both those games also have AMD exclusivity, and both were riddled with bugs and technical issues at launch that their respective developers later had to apologise for.
There’s admittedly no confirmation that Starfield won’t support DLSS, but given the track record with previous AMD sponsored PC games, it’s easy to assume this’ll be the case.
‘AMD is committed to doing what is best for game developers and gamers, and we give developers the flexibility to implement FSR into whichever games they choose.’
Although not every fan will be aware of the controversies surrounding AMD, ironically it’s the AMD subreddit that’s the most outraged.
‘Get ready for a (possibly) really, really bad FSR implementation like in Jedi Survivor and no DLSS support at all,’ says fnjjj.
‘At this point I expect any game that has the AMD Rewards sticker to be completely broken at launch and many month after that,’ says johnieboy82. ‘The Callisto Protocol, Forspoken, The Last Of Us 1 and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor made a very lasting impression in this regard.’
The Nvidia subreddit, meanwhile, is more dejected than angry and is mentally preparing itself for Starfield to be a mess on PC.
‘If we are relying on DLSS for the game to be playable then it’s already not a good sign,’ says ThiccSkipper13.
‘Completely agree that AMD sponsored games usually blow performance wise and purposely hinder Nvidia users. Look at Jedi Survivor for example. It’s a shame, all games should include all technologies if possible,’ says Archangel9731.
Starfield launches for Xbox Series X/S and PC on September 6.
Follow Metro Gaming on Twitter and email us at [email protected]
To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here.
For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.
Source: Read Full Article