Skip to main content

You can mod DLSS into Starfield, but it won't make the game run better

If you're going to manually mod DLSS into your Starfield installation, don't do it to get a performance uplift.

A ship in Starfield sits on a dusty outcrop of rocks on one planet as the stars, a ship, and a moon hang promisingly overhead.
Image credit: Bethesda

Starfield is yet another major release, sponsored by AMD, which does not support Nvidia's DLSS upscaling tech. Starfield is a Bethesda game, however, so whatever the developer didn't put into the game, modders always come to the rescue.

One of the first mods for Starfield makes it easy to add DLSS to the game, which replaces the default FSR2 tech it shipped with. The mod is pretty simple to install, but obviously only makes sense for players using Nvidia GPUs.

But is it actually worth it? Well, not if you want to improve your framerate!

Starfield has been the subject of numerous tests from the wider PC benchmarking and hardware reporting community, and everyone agrees that the game runs poorly for how it looks, and seems to favour AMD GPUs over Nvidia when it comes to framerate.

While DLSS can sometimes offer better performance compared to FSR, the real reason most players prefer it has to do with image stability and detail retention. DLSS is almost always better at removing jagged edges, resolving detail at a distance, and generally making for a much sharper presentation compared to FSR.

Despite DLSS not being officially supported by Starfield, modding it into the game still manages to produce a similar effect. As you can see in the video below from MxBenchmarkPC, the difference in image quality is clear. The performance, however, not so much.

Since modding DLSS into Starfield is fairly simple, you should definitely do it if you use an Nvidia GPU. Starfield is out September 6 on PC, and Xbox Series X/S, but players have been so eager to get into the early access launch they made the Premium Edition Upgrade the Xbox store's best-selling item.

Starfield Xbox Series X box art Starfield Xbox Series X/S and Windows box art Starfield Premium Edition upgrade box art

Buy Starfield Standard Edition for Xbox Series X

Buy Starfield Standard Digital Edition for Series S/X and Windows

Buy Starfield Digital Premium Upgrade for Xbox Game Pass



Read this next