If you own an Intel Arc graphics card, prepare for a buggy experience when trying to play the newly released PC game Starfield.
The highly anticipated RPG title held its early access launch on Thursday. But apparently, Starfield struggles to run on Intel’s Arc GPUs because the company neglected to release an optimized driver for the game.
According to some users on social media, the game can fail to launch, suffer from crashes, or display garbled graphics if you try to play it on an Intel Arc graphics cards. “Best I can get is seizure-inducing flashing of broken shaders followed by a hard crash no matter the settings,” wrote one user on Twitter.
In its own tweet, Intel acknowledged the problems. “We are aware of issues with @StarfieldGame on Intel Arc graphics. We are working to improve the experience for the game's general release next week,” the chip maker said.
That means Arc owners will need to wait until Sept. 6, when Starfield is generally released to the public. In contrast, owners of the Premium or Constellation editions of the game can play now through the early access period.
Why Intel didn’t prepare a driver for the early access launch remains unclear. But it’s not a good look for the company as it tries to compete with Nvidia and AMD in the graphics card market. Both Nvidia and AMD have already released their own optimized drivers to play Starfield, which is one of the most hyped up games of the year.
The absence of a game-ready driver is already prompting some customers to regret purchasing Intel’s first-generation Arc graphics cards, which launched about a year ago. “I'm an early adopter and I trusted Intel. This has been a huge disappointment,” wrote one user on Twitter.