[zaggynl]

Disclaimer: have not played Starfield yet, still on Baldur's Gate 3.

>The game suffers an endless amount of video and audio stuttering issues unless you run it from an SSD or an NVMe

The recommended MINIMUM requirement for storage is to use an SSD, per https://store.steampowered.com/app/1716740/Starfield/ :

System Requirements

    Minimum:
        OS: Windows 10 version 21H1 (10.0.19043)
        Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 2600X, Intel Core i7-6800K
        Memory: 16 GB RAM
        Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 5700, NVIDIA GeForce 1070 Ti
        DirectX: Version 12
        Storage: 125 GB available space
        Additional Notes: SSD Required

My previous PC had an SSD, I would rather not go back to running my OS/applications from a HDD.

That said, ensuring your games run on minimal hardware goes a long way, Blizzard does/did this for their games.