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Can you play Starfield on the Asus ROG Ally?
Bethesda’s Starfield may be the most anticipated game of 2023, owing to its hard sci-fi theme and the developer’s track record with games like The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim and Fallout 4. But can it run on something like the ASUS ROG Ally, which puts PC games in handheld form?
QUICK ANSWER
The Ally may be able to run Starfield on-device with minimal graphics settings, but don't expect high framerates. Your best bet for preserving framerate and graphics detail may be Xbox Cloud Gaming.
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Can the ROG Ally run Starfield?
Technically, but if you want to run it on-device, you may have to scale down graphics settings as far as they’ll go. The GPU in the Ally is similar in performance to an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060, or possibly a 1650 — which is good for a device the Ally’s size, but doesn’t match Starfield’s listed GPU minimum, which is a GTX 1070 Ti. That’s a particular problem given that the Ally’s screen is a sharp 1080p.
What might compensate somewhat is CPU performance. The current Ally model uses the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme, a system-on-chip that exceeds the specs of Starfield’s recommended Ryzen 5 3600X or Intel Core i5-10600K.
If you’re going to give the game a shot, we suggest cranking down graphics and plugging in your Ally, or else turning to cloud streaming.
Will Starfield be on Xbox Cloud Gaming?
Yes. You’ll be able to play Starfield using Xbox Cloud Gaming, so long as you have an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription. In fact this should make the game playable on devices that would otherwise have no hope of running it, such as the Xbox One, and Windows PCs with specs below those of the Ally.
The game isn’t streamable during the Early Access period, but that’s due to change when Starfield launches wide on September 6.
Bear in mind that while the device requirements for Xbox Cloud Gaming are low, the networking requirements are actually pretty high. You’ll need an internet connection rated at 20Mbps or higher, and more importantly, a stable one — there’s already minor input lag inherent to cloud gaming, so any extra lag may impact both gameplay and video quality. If you’re using an Ally on Wi-Fi, you’ll want to connect to your router’s 5GHz or 6GHz bands, and probably avoid playing at the same time someone else is streaming a 4K movie.
FAQs
No. It’s intended to be a solo role-playing experience, much like Skyrim.
Since Bethesda is owned by Microsoft, the game will only be available on Windows PCs, the Xbox Series X and S, and Xbox Cloud Gaming.
On Xbox, yes, since Bethesda wants to maintain both a consistent framerate and high detail. PCs are allowed to exceed 30fps, since of course they might have CPUs or GPUs more powerful than the Xbox Series X.
Over 1,000, spread across 100 star systems. Only some of these have been touched by human designers, however — the rest are procedurally generated, much like the planets in No Man’s Sky.