Bypass the CPU Bottleneck: Force 99% GPU Usage in Starfield (2026)

Originally published by Darby in September 2023 | Updated & Fact-Checked by the Arenaoftech Editorial Team on April 25, 2026

If you happen to be someone with a high-end gaming rig in 2026 and your GPU is sitting at just 45% usage while your gameplay is stuttering when you are in New Atlantis, then your build/laptop isn’t a problem at all; it is Bethesda’s Creation Engine 2. 

Even in 2026, Starfield is still notorious when it comes to gameplay and optimization, even on high-end specs. The biggest sole optimization problem with the game is that, due to its poor optimization, your CPU fails to send instructions and information to your GPU on time. 

This causes a bottleneck, which disrupts your GPU from doing its job. Here are all the tested fixes that have worked for fellow gamers around the globe. Although there’s no permanent fix for the game, these fixes just do the job, which aligns your CPU and GPU resources for proper utilization.

The Shadow & Crowd CPU-Killer 

Most of our repeat visitors at Arenaoftech have previously voted for a poll on our site, which shows that most users have a logical understanding of GPU and usage. As per people, when there’s low GPU usage, then reducing overall graphics helps. This is completely wrong.

When there’s low GPU usage, it is usually due to a processor bottleneck. Reducing the overall graphics will be much worse than what people expect. 

Reduce Shadows: It is one of the heaviest CPU usage settings. Set shadows to Medium even if you are using an Intel Core i9 chip. If your shadow is set to high/ultra, then it requires your CPU to work like a horse in the background. 

Crowd Density: This too shall always be kept on medium unless you are testing out the details; each NPC generated has its own AI pathing and physics. Once this is lowered, your CPU can quickly push frames to sync with your GPU. 

Force Enable Re-Sizeable BAR (The Re-BAR Hack) 

Considering how resource-intensive Starfield is, it of course loves VRAM bandwidth. Once you enable Re-Sizeable BAR, your CPU, which was connected to your GPU with a tiny Data Pipe, immediately becomes a huge data pipe, easing out your CPU load.

To check if this setting is on, head to your graphics card control panel, such as AMD Software or Nvidia Control Panel, and check system info.

Or you can also use Nvidia Profile Inspector. Just search for the Starfield profile and ensure the Re-sizeable BAR is set to 0x00000001 (Enabled) 

Process Lasso & The E-Core Problem 

There’s this specific problem with the 12th-14th+ Gen chips, sometimes starfield dumps critical render threads onto Efficiency Cores (E-cores) instead of Performance Cores (P-cores). This causes extreme stuttering and low GPU usage on many systems.

To fix this, you need to force the game to only use performance cores, so that the game doesn’t stutter and GPU usage is moderated. 

• Download and install Process Lasso.
• Right-click Starfield.exe > CPU Affinity > Always > Disable Hyper-Threading (SMT) or Uncheck E-Cores.

Try out Mods

If you don’t mind modding the game, then try out the Starfield Performance Texture Pack, which optimizes the texture streaming, along with lowering graphics. This has helped many players and fixed their problems at once.

Clear the Pipeline Cache

If you have recently updated your graphics drivers, then you may need a new shader cache. Updated drivers are generally much better in optimization and gameplay. Follow the steps below to clear and rebuild your shader cache.

• Navigate to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Starfield.
• Delete Pipeline.cache.
• Launch the game and wait at the main menu. 
• Let the shader compilation finish 100% before you load your save.

Legacy Optimizations

Here are a few legacy optimizations and tips to help you stay on the greener side.

Always run Starfield in Borderless Fullscreen mode on Windows 11, as this will allow the system to optimize the game for a windowed view, while the gameplay will be Full-screen. 

Starfield strictly requires an NVMe SSD to process the transfer faster. If you are using a SATA SSD, then it may impact your gaming performance for such games.

Turn on the Ultimate Performance Plan on your system. If you aren’t sure how, just check out our guide here.