Intel Drops Third 'Starfield' Driver as Bethesda Claims A770 Doesn't Meet Min Specs

It's been three days since Starfield launched, and Intel already has a third driver update live to fix even more Starfield bugs for its Arc A-series graphics cards. This latest driver, version 31.0.101.4676 Non-WHQL, specifically fixes several graphics and stability-related problems that previous drivers have not addressed, including one addressing missing eyebrows. However, Bethesda thinks Intel's cards are below the minimum requirements, and you should upgrade your GPU to an Nvidia or AMD card instead — more on that later.

Intel's patch notes specifically report that Starfield stability has been improved in different game areas — but the company neglected to tell us which areas were affected. Incorrect rendering of glass surfaces and objects has also been fixed, along with a wild character model fix that prevents a character's eyebrows from being ripped off their face. Spooky stuff!

Sadly, there are still several driver-related issues with Starfield. Intel's patch notes report four known issues with the game, including sporadic game instability in some areas of the game, game corruption when using dynamic resolutions scaling, inappropriate texture quality on certain objects, and texture flickering on light objects during gameplay.

Issues related to Starfield and Intel's Arc graphics cards began a week ago when the game entered its early access period. When the game debuted, Intel failed to release a game-ready driver in time for the game's early access launch. Due to a lack of driver support, reports began to crop up from Arc gamers about series instability issues with the game, to the point where some Arc gamers couldn't even open the game without it crashing. 

Thankfully, Intel is now on the ball, releasing its third driver in under a week to fix problems with Starfield. But there's still a way to go before Arc gamers can expect to have a smooth experience running Starfield. Not only are there more bugs that Intel found, but Intel has also not released a driver with a "game-ready" badge for Starfield yet.

Bethesda Support Representative Says Intel's Arc A770 Does Not Meet Starfield's System Requirements

In other Starfield and Intel-related news, a hilarious Bethesda customer support ticket was recorded and shared on the r/IntelArc subreddit by u/GeneralAkAba, revealing Bethesda's opinion on Intel's Arc Alchemist graphics cards running Starfield.

The post shows a response from a Bethesda support representative replying to a customer issue regarding game crashes with their Arc A770 graphics card. The support representative couldn't find an immediate solution, saying the A770 does not meet Starfield's minimum requirements, which include the Radeon RX 5700 and GTX 1070 Ti.

This statement is quite absurd, given that the A770 and the Arc A750 are substantially newer cards compared to the RX 5700, especially the GTX 1070 Ti. Performance-wise, the A770 competes favorably with AMD and Nvidia's latest and previous generation mid-range GPUs, like the RX 6600 XT and RTX 3060. So it has enough GPU muscle to power its way through Starfield, especially at lower resolutions like 1080p. For more details on Starfield's gaming performance, check out our performance review of Starfield.

Of course, Intel also has several recent GPU drivers that specifically address Starfield compatibility with Arc GPUs.

We doubt Stafield director Todd Howard or any of his Starfield team members would say the same thing about the Arc A770. Nonetheless, this is a serious error made by the Bethesda support team and needs to be remedied as soon as possible. Bethesda's support representative implied that all Arc GPU owners with problems must upgrade to an AMD or Nvidia card to run the game.