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Starfield: How to Fix the Graphics Card Does Not Meet Minimum Requirements Error

The "Graphics card does not meet the minimum requirements" error may cause some panic, but it's likely due to an issue with Windows.

Starfield‘s minimum requirements are lower than most releases these days and most rigs can meet them easily. Despite this, and somewhat mysteriously, some players who have computers that far surpass the minimum requirements are running into an error on launch telling them they don’t meet them. Don’t panic if you’re one of these unlucky few. This is an error that has a solution. In this guide, we’ll go over how to fix the “Graphics card does not meet the minimum requirements” error in Starfield.

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How to Fix the Graphics Card Does Not Meet Minimum Requirements Error in Starfield

Starfield reading the wrong system requirements seems to be related to a software dependency on Windows being able to read your system requirements properly. It’s a baffling error for avid PC gamers since it’s rare for a game not to be able to determine your hardware accurately. Whatever the dependency is, it’s a problem. But it’s a problem that can be fixed by updating Windows to the latest version.

This applies to both Windows 10 and Windows 11. Either operating system can give the exact same error, regardless of your actual specs. It’s a slightly different process to update them, so we’ll go over both here.

How to Update Windows 10

Updating Windows 10 to fix the “Graphics card does not meet the minimum requirements” error is as simple as the following steps:

  1. Open the Start menu.
  2. Click on Settings.
  3. Choose Update & Security.
  4. Click Windows Update.
  5. Choose to check for updates, then download and install.

This should handle the process for you, outside of some prompts and a reboot. This should sort out the graphics card error on machines still running Windows 10.

How to Update Windows 11

As for Windows 11, it’s possible the update to version 22h2 (or above, if you’re reading this far later than it was written) using a similar method as the one in Windows 10. To update Windows 11, you:

  1. Open the Start menu.
  2. Click on Settings.
  3. Click on the Windows Update button on the top right of the window.
  4. Choose to check for updates, then download and install.

After a reboot, try to run Starfield and see what it does. All signs point to this issue being rooted in Windows rather than the game. Regardless of the cause, this does seem to be a solution to the graphics card error for most.

Hopefully, this “Graphics card does not meet the minimum requirements” error fix works for you. Be sure to keep your graphics driver up to date as well, though that seems to have no bearing on this particular issue. Check out our other Starfield guides here on GameSkinny.


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Ashley Shankle
Ashley's been with GameSkinny since the start, and is a certified loot goblin. Has a crippling Darktide problem, 500 hours on only Ogryn (hidden level over 300). Currently playing Darktide, GTFO, RoRR, Palworld, and Immortal Life.