Will Starfield Support Ultrawide Monitors?

Starfield and Ultrawide would surely be a match made in heaven

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UPDATE 1st September: With Starfield now entering early access, we can confirm Ultrawide support is included as standard. Anyone with a 21:9 monitor can enjoy that buttery smooth space experience. There are however a few caveats, sadly there’s currently no FOV sliders, without modding (you can find the latest at Nexus Mods), and sadly there’s no support for 32:9 just yet either.

Ok, so Bethesda has a bit of a history with not supporting ultra-wide monitors at launch. It’s a thing, and with Starfield about to crest gently over the horizon, it’s a question that we need answering sooner rather than later. Because let’s face it, whether that’s Skyrim, or Fallout 76, or any of the other AAA titles the company has launched over the years, the vast majority of them haven’t had ultrawide support at launch, if at all. So what’s the chances of Starfield having it? Well, it’s not looking good.

This is a problem, particularly for the ultrawide community. As for many years, we’ve struggled, and suffered, under the oppressive glare of that 2560×1440 resolution imposed upon us. Or worse still, been promised “support” for ultrawide at launch, only for it to turn out to be a graphics setting for 3440×1440, that not only forces your GPU to render every single one of those 4.953M pixels at least 60 times a second, but also places a set of black bars over the top of the edges, effectively limiting you back down to 2560×1440. All while simultaneously sucking out GPU performance as it does so. No I don’t have a grudge against Elden Ring, I don’t know what you’re on about.

Ultrawide Starfield Struggles

In fact, as a people, us 21:9 ultrawide lovers have had to resort to mods, to .ini file configuration, to begging developers to add it after launch, to unofficial patches, you name it (please Starfield, please). Because for whatever reason, the devs have decided that, despite being a multi-million dollar company, (admittedly under a lot of pressure, I think we can certainly appreciate how dogged that grind culture is), there’s just no point justifying the dev time on ultrawide support.

But Starfield is different. Starfield is massive. It is without a doubt the biggest game to launch this side in 2024, and nothing in the PC gaming ecosystem speaks more to ultrawide monitors, than the beautiful vistas found in any space-sim you can lay your eyes and GPU on. Star Citizen, and No Man’s sky being prime examples of that. Yes you need one of the Best GPUs out there to run a game like Starfield with that level of detail, but for the enthusiast that’s not a big ask. And heck, there’s enough pre-built gaming PCs to fix that problem too. But it’s a problem that’s decidedly more muted, if Starfield doesn’t support ultrawide at launch.

What Have the Starfield Devs Said?

The short answer is sadly “nothing”. But we can make some fairly justifiable assumptions on the matter. Namely, that Starfield is still taking advantage of the Creation Engine (Bethesda’s bespoke game engine), that was used on Skyrim, and Fallout 76. Sadly however, neither of those games had Ultrawide support on launch.

The thing is though, that unlike when those games first released, a lot has changed in the world of the Ultrawide. The number of 21:9 monitors on the market has grown year-on-year, as more and more gamers embrace the brilliance of one of the most immersive and versatile form-factors out there. 

The Bad News – Steam Survey

There’s one major negative for those of us hoping Starfield will support ultrawide at launch however. One that you should definitely be aware of. If you take a quick glance at the latest Steam Hardware Survey you’ll spot some very unfortunate news for us ultrawide lovers. Namely, we still only represent a grand total of 3.21% of the total screen resolutions reported as primary displays. That’s errr, not a lot. By contrast, traditional 16:9 resolutions (1920×1080, 2560×1440, and 3840×2160 in this case) represent a staggering, 78.98% of all screen resolutions, not including the wonky laptop resolutions below that.

From a purely financial perspective then, adding dev time specifically for Starfield for Ultrawide support, for such a small subset of your gaming audience would be fool-hardy. And let’s be clear, the devs and folk in charge, will be more than aware that if they don’t support Ultrawide, it’ll likely be modded by a member of the community, for free, within a few weeks.

It’s a sad state of affairs, but when 4K resolutions alone outstrip the vast bulk of our 21:9 brethren on number, it’s safe to say, we never stood a chance with Starfield. Hopefully we’re wrong, and in a few days time we’ll be updating this article, with a glowing new addition, stating how Bethesda surprised all of us, with day one support, but, it doesn’t look like it right now.

How Can I Get Starfield Working with Ultrawide

The best bet is to wait for the community to build a patch, or a mod specifically to enable it in Starfield. We’ll keep a weather eye on the horizon, and make sure we update this article when they do. For the time being though, keep an eagle eye on Nexus Mods, as that’s where we’ll likely see it land when it does go live.

Will it take up GPU performance yes? But let’s be fair, the system requirements for Starfield are actually fairly well-balanced, even for the 21:9 enthusiasts, who should be more than acquainted with trading GPU framerates for more pixels.

Should I Buy an Ultrawide Monitor Then?

Honestly, yes. It’s by far, in this humble editor’s opinion, one of, if not the best, monitor spec out there. Particularly if you’re using it during the day for work. Having that extra real-estate for spreadsheets, word docs, internet tabs, and Spotify just vastly enhances your productivity levels. And sitting down on your lunch break and cranking out some TV or film with proper ultrawide support is utterly glorious.

And then there’s the gaming. Oh ultrawide gaming. It’s so good. Witcher 3 at 21:9, Star Citizen, any of the Total Wars, World of Warcraft, Stellaris, Doom Eternal, Elden Ring (when modded) it’s just fantastic, nothing compares. With the likes of Alienware launching its incredible OLED series, and a number of super affordable IPS and VA panels from Gigabyte, MSI, Asus and others, it’s just the best spec if you want to enjoy every form of content out there, Starfield included. In fact with compiled a list of the Best Ultrawide Monitors here (seriously that Alienware AW3423DW is legitimately a king).

Ok, so I have to get a mod every now and then when a game doesn’t support ultrawide (Starfield or otherwise), or edit a .ini file once in a while. That’s just nothing, certainly compared to the pure and unadulterated enjoyment you get immersing yourself in these beautiful gaming worlds we call home.

Alienware AW3423DW

Refresh rate

175Hz

Response time

0.1ms GtG

Screen size

34″

Resolution

3440 x 1440

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