Intel Arc Owners Left in the Cold With Starfield as Advanced Access Begins

[Fouquin]

Starfield Premium owners now have access to the game in full and are testing their internet download limits with its massive 120 GB file size, but a few hopeful gamers are going to have to wait regardless of how much they paid in advance. Intel Arc GPUs currently cannot play Starfield, with varying symptoms ranging from the game not starting to it taking 30-40 minutes before presenting the player with a jumbled cacophany of texture mayhem. Users report that the executable does launch in the background, and that during the half-hour that it's visible in Task Manager it can consume as much as 30 GB of system memory, before either crashing or finally presenting the game menu. If one does manage to get to anything resembling gameplay, their time is short as the game will crash to desktop within only a few minutes.

Intel stated they were aware of the issues shortly after advanced access began opening up, but hopes of a quick fix are not high. In a post by @IntelGraphics on X they state that they are working to improve the experience by the game's full release date on September 6th, roughly a week away. As one might imagine, many Arc owners were not pleased by this. Starfield is an AMD sponsored game and both Bethesda and Microsoft have received some criticism for this. Accusations that this sponsorship "locked out" developers at Intel's graphics division from working on usable drivers have been thrown around the likes of Reddit and X, but no evidence to support them has so far surfaced. Many will be quick to point out that NVIDIA released a preliminary driver for Starfield as early as August 22nd, so such interference is unlikely.



Update: Intel has just released its Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.4672 Beta, adding support and fixes for Bethesda's Starfied game.

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[oxrufiioxo]

That's sucks for intel owners...

 

[ixi]

Allow others to be open alfa testers. Be happy and play something else, like Baldurs Gate 3!

 

[evernessince]

Allow others to be open alfa testers. Be happy and play something else, like Baldurs Gate 3!

Yes, and unlike Starfield Baulder's Gate 3 doesn't use predatory tactics like staggering release dates depending on which edition of the game you purchased. Ridiculous that we have $70 AAA games where you have to pay $30 on top of that to play on what should otherwise be the normal release date.

 

[Solaris17]

It consumes a tonnnnn of RAM. this post is from my system.

Starfield discussion thread

Are you crazy guys? It is Bethsoft... you shouldn't touch it after 10th patch of open alpha test. Yep, I am but only cause' bored with modding former Beth games atm... no one does open world RPGs like these guys.. bugs & all! People buying the premium edition to play early are only supporting...

www.techpowerup.com

A warning for those out there, steam still clocks your time. So with the 2 hour policy if you wait like 40min for a broken splash to appear keep that in mind! I personally wont be returning the game but I know some of you out there might feel stuck!

 

[KrazyT]

Yes, and unlike Starfield Baulder's Gate 3 doesn't use predatory tactics like staggering release dates depending on which edition of the game you purchased. Ridiculous that we have $70 AAA games where you have to pay $30 on top of that to play on what should otherwise be the normal release date.

Ah, the impatience of people ... Nobody impose us to play games days 1, knowing that, we can wait 2 weeks, 3 months or 4 years to play a game ...

Too bad for the Arc owners, but Intel seems to do some good work with drivers lately ...
Hope the fix won't be to long to launch.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

It consumes a tonnnnn of RAM. this post is from my system.

Starfield discussion thread

Are you crazy guys? It is Bethsoft... you shouldn't touch it after 10th patch of open alpha test. Yep, I am but only cause' bored with modding former Beth games atm... no one does open world RPGs like these guys.. bugs & all! People buying the premium edition to play early are only supporting...

www.techpowerup.com

A warning for those out there, steam still clocks your time. So with the 2 hour policy if you wait like 40min for a broken splash to appear keep that in mind! I personally wont be returning the game but I know some of you out there might feel stuck!

Seems like in their quest for less bugs they've upped the system requirements substantially. Although from memory this still runs better than Fallout 4 did.

 

[john_]

Starfield is an AMD sponsored game and both Bethesda and Microsoft have received some criticism for this. Accusations that this sponsorship "locked out" developers at Intel's graphics division from working on usable drivers have been thrown around the likes of Reddit and X, but no evidence to support them has so far surfaced. Many will be quick to point out that NVIDIA released a preliminary driver for Starfield as early as August 22nd, so such interference is unlikely.

Do we need to repeat this propaganda forever? Did sponsoring a game became sudently a thing for criticism after decades of game sponsoring, just because it is AMD??? And yes "many" will point at Nvidia hardware running the game properly. That's not just an counter argument. We throw posts from reddit and X as probable facts and then Nvidia as a somewhat valid counter argument? No. Posts from reddit and X could easily be posts from fanboys and trolls. Nvidia hardware running the game perfectly, is a fact. NO BLOCKING of DLSS and XeSS mod is also true. I think people already downloading those. We might see an official support in the near future.

We all know that Intel's hardware and drivers still need polishing. Give them time. They'll fix it in the end.

PS JMO, sorry if the way put is not the best.

 

[AusWolf]

Starfield is an AMD sponsored game and both Bethesda and Microsoft have received some criticism for this. Accusations that this sponsorship "locked out" developers at Intel's graphics division from working on usable drivers have been thrown around the likes of Reddit and X, but no evidence to support them has so far surfaced. Many will be quick to point out that NVIDIA released a preliminary driver for Starfield as early as August 22nd, so such interference is unlikely.

Yeah, AMD had to do evening they could to lock Intel out from providing support for the game, because they're (Intel) such a big player in the GPU market. Obviously. Boy, I love conspiracy theories!

 

[Fouquin]

Do we need to repeat this propaganda forever? Did sponsoring a game became sudently a thing for criticism after decades of game sponsoring, just because it is AMD??? And yes "many" will point at Nvidia hardware running the game properly. That's not just an counter argument. We throw posts from reddit and X as probable facts and then Nvidia as a somewhat valid counter argument? No. Posts from reddit and X could easily be posts from fanboys and trolls. Nvidia hardware running the game perfectly, is a fact. NO BLOCKING of DLSS and XeSS mod is also true. I think people already downloading those. We might see an official support in the near future.

We all know that Intel's hardware and drivers still need polishing. Give them time. They'll fix it in the end.

PS JMO, sorry if the way put is not the best.

Sponsoring games has always attracted criticism. You must not have been around with the "The Way it's Meant To Be Played" era. When everyone lovingly referred to it as "The Way It's Meant To Be Paid"

 

[oxrufiioxo]

Yeah, AMD had to do evening they could to lock Intel out from providing support for the game, because they're (Intel) such a big player in the GPU market. Obviously. Boy, I love conspiracy theories!

You know AMD are the evil overlords swatting Intel Drivers with one hand and DLSS with the other while sporting a shite eating grin going muahhahaahha!!!!

All joking aside my bet is on Intel screwing this up.

 

[Fouquin]

You know AMD are the evil overlords swatting Intel Drivers with one hand and DLSS with the other while sporting a shite eating grin going muahhahaahha!!!!

All joking aside my bet is on Intel screwing this up.

Complete hearsay which is why it's not in the OP: apparently Intel didn't have access to an early copy for evaluation.

No source for it, and it's really hard to justify why they wouldn't get an advanced copy. But Bethesda was sending out press kits in shotgun fashion and generally bungling the launch of Starfield, it really would not surprise me if they simply forgot. No malice, just awful execution.

 

[evernessince]

Sponsoring games has always attracted criticism. You must not have been around with the "How It's Meant To Be Played" era.

I feel like that's a fair assessment. Ultimately a financial connection between a GPU manufacturer and a game dev inherently has the potential to create friction with a portion of the playerbase. Particularly when that processes is completely opaque.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

Complete hearsay which is why it's not in the OP: apparently Intel didn't have access to an early copy for evaluation.

No source for it, and it's really hard to justify why they wouldn't get an advanced copy. But Bethesda was sending out press kits in shotgun fashion and generally bungling the launch of Starfield, it really would not surprise me if they simply forgot. No malice, just awful execution.

Maybe.... Influencers had it two weeks early. Would be kinda funny if they didn't send any copies to Intel.

 

[john_]

Sponsoring games has always attracted criticism. You must not have been around with the "The Way it's Meant To Be Played" era. When everyone lovingly referred to it as "The Way It's Meant To Be Paid"

That was a whole program, not just a game. Like the GeForce Partner program for AIBs. They are different. Here we have a simple game, something that was happening forever. "The Way it's Meant To Be Played" and "GeForce Partner Program" where clearly anti competitive moves.

apparently Intel didn't have access to an early copy for evaluation.

That's how AMD got that bad reputation. Before AMD got the consoles, games where written and optimised on Intel and Nvidia hardware. The first demo XBOX machines from Microsoft where PCs running Intel and Nvidia hardware. So, games where coming out with no optimization on AMD hardware and probably minimal testing on AMD hardware. Radeon cards where experiencing crushes and non optimal performance and everyone was accusing AMD for that. A month latter drivers where out, a patch or two where out, everything was working on AMD, but apparently the damage was done.

In 2023 Intel shouldn't be having the same problems and facing the same restrictions. I don't think it's bad execution. They might had access but the game might be programmed in such a way that it is too difficult to fix everything in drivers and game code to work flawlessly with ARC. I doubt they forgot it. Nvidia was making such a mess with DLSS on Starfield that there is no way Intel somehow forgot.

Another theory could be that Starfield runs so slowly on ARC, that Intel is sabotaging it until first benchmarks are done without ARC GPUs.

 

[Solaris17]

It is wild to me, that some like 20yr/o kid streaming on twitch can get a copy of the game early but Intel's engineering division cannot.

"Forgot"

Starfield discussion thread

Your the one on a public forum telling people what to spend their hard earn money on.... Guess what it's none yo business. I'm not telling people what to spend their money on, I'm pointing out the problem with encouraging predatory monetization. This is a public forum and elaborating on one's...

www.techpowerup.com

 

[oxrufiioxo]

It is wild to me, that some like 20yr/o kid streaming on twitch can get a copy of the game early but Intel's engineering division cannot.

They must have accidentally pre ordered the standard edition....

 

[AusWolf]

You know AMD are the evil overlords swatting Intel Drivers with one hand and DLSS with the other while sporting a shite eating grin going muahhahaahha!!!!

All joking aside my bet is on Intel screwing this up.

Sounds plausible, but nah... I'm pretty sure the reptile people overlords are behind this.

That's how AMD got that bad reputation. Before AMD got the consoles, games where written and optimised on Intel and Nvidia hardware. The first demo XBOX machines from Microsoft where PCs running Intel and Nvidia hardware. So, games where coming out with no optimization on AMD hardware and probably minimal testing on AMD hardware. Radeon cards where experiencing crushes and non optimal performance and everyone was accusing AMD for that. A month latter drivers where out, a patch or two where out, everything was working on AMD, but apparently the damage was done.

You know how it is. If the game runs worse on AMD, it's AMD's fault because "drivers are bad" or whatnot. If it runs better on AMD, it's also AMD's fault for locking everyone else out of the game. Because they rule the entirety of the gaming industry with a 101% market share. Obviously.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

Sounds plausible, but nah... I'm pretty sure the reptile people overlords are behind this.


You know how it is. If the game runs worse on AMD, it's AMD's fault because "drivers are bad" or whatnot. If it runs better on AMD, it's also AMD's fault for locking everyone else out of the game. Because they rule the entirety of the gaming industry with a 101% market share. Obviously.

They worried Nvidia enough to drop the 4060ti 16GB 50 usd in the states at least I was mildly surprised.

 

[Chrispy_]

Thanks for beta-testing it for me chaps. I'll install once it's had a couple of months of major bugfixes.

 

[AusWolf]

They worried Nvidia enough to drop the 4060ti 16GB 50 usd in the states at least I was mildly surprised.

Does that mean that I am actually getting a 7800 XT after all (because it's not that bad)?

Seriously, though... Nvidia's prices are more than ridiculous these days, so it's time they dropped some prices.

 

[Chrispy_]

Yes, and unlike Starfield Baulder's Gate 3 doesn't use predatory tactics like staggering release dates depending on which edition of the game you purchased. Ridiculous that we have $70 AAA games where you have to pay $30 on top of that to play on what should otherwise be the normal release date.

Ridiculous indeed, but MILLIONS OF IDIOTS ACTUALLY PAY EXTRA TO BETA-TEST AN UNFINISHED, BROKEN GAME.

Betas used to be free, because the feedback was valuable to the developer. It's still valuable to the developer but somewhere along the line they worked out that plenty of gamers with fat wallets, zero self-control, and no patience will throw money at them to beta test.

Don't blame the developer, blame idiot gamers who not only support this with their wallets, but are the original source of the problem in the first place.

 

[Vayra86]

Ridiculous indeed, but MILLIONS OF IDIOTS ACTUALLY PAY EXTRA TO BETA-TEST AN UNFINISHED, BROKEN GAME.

Betas used to be free, because the feedback was valuable to the developer. It's still valuable to the developer but somewhere along the line they worked out that plenty of gamers with fat wallets, zero self-control, and no patience will throw money at them to beta test.

Don't blame the developer, blame idiot gamers who not only support this with their wallets, but are the original source of the problem in the first place.

This. Predators exist because they get fed.

Its rather similar to trolls and social media. 'Muh pre loaded game'... yeah. Idiots.

 

[AusWolf]

This. Predators exist because they get fed.

Its rather similar to trolls and social media. 'Muh pre loaded game'... yeah. Idiots.

It's not just the why's, but also the how's that I don't understand. I mean, I've got about 2-300 games on Steam that I've never played, and there's currently about 5-10 waiting in line for me to finish Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Even when I finish a game, my backlog just keeps growing and growing. By the time I get to actually playing Starfield, it'll probably be on sale for 5 quid. I barely have time to play anything, and I've only got a normal 40-hour job, nothing fancy. How other people have time to play everything on day one is beyond me.

 

[Vayra86]

It's not just the why's, but also the how's that I don't understand. I mean, I've got about 2-300 games on Steam that I've never played, and there's currently about 5-10 waiting in line for me to finish Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Even when I finish a game, these lists keep growing and growing. By the time I get to actually playing Starfield, it'll probably be on sale for 5 quid. I barely have time to play anything, and I've only got a normal 40-hour job, nothing fancy. How other people have time to play everything on day one is beyond me.

The key driver for most of this bullshit is younger generations. I remember myself back then, I wasn't much different I managed to burn over 2000 hours in WoW in a single year, go figure; that's equal to the 'load' of a full school year (so yes, sleeping wasn't a priority to make that fit).

I also remember parents saying what we're saying now