Starfield Steam Deck: Is it verified & how well does it run?

All hands on Deck.

By Cole Luke

Published: Friday, 08 September 2023 at 12:13 PM

Valve’s handheld gaming PC, the Steam Deck, has been a revelation for many players who used to be confined to their desks – but its small and efficient chip has meant that AAA games as of late have struggled on the diminutive device.

So today we’ll be taking a look at Starfield on the Steam Deck, asking is it verified and how well does it run.

With a game as long as Starfield and its sprawling mission list, being able to chip away at Starfield while commuting or travelling would be a great way to get through it – rather than reading a book or something dreadful like that.

Whether or not you’ll enjoy your time with Starfield on the Deck will largely depend on how much you’ll be able to stomach performance drops – especially during more hectic and busy scenes.

All shall be revealed, though, so read on to see how the venerable Deck fares!

Is Starfield on Steam Deck?

Starfield is verified as “Playable” on the Steam Deck, which is a step down from the top “Verified” status – meaning it isn’t necessarily the best experience.

Fortunately, Bethesda put out a patch for Starfield to increase the readability of text in the game on the small screens found on gaming handhelds, so this aspect of the game works rather well.

The title will feel mostly OK if you’re doing more mundane tasks like playing about in the ship builder, building your outpost or just doing some exploring without too much combat.

How well does Starfield run on Steam Deck?

Performance can drop closer to 20FPS in settlements such as New Atlantis, which will make for pretty choppy and sluggish-feeling gameplay.

You’ll also only see around an hour of battery life if you’re playing untethered away from the plug ,which isn’t ideal if you’ve got a long train journey you were hoping to make good gaming use with.

Given that much of the enjoyment of Starfield is its visual spectacle, it’s a shame to drop below medium settings – as doing so gives you a pretty lacklustre image.

That said, you will hit that 30FPS mark more often which, to be fair, is what the Xbox Series X and S target.

Our recommended settings for Starfield on the Steam Deck are as follows:

This will see you mostly hover around the 25FPS mark, which isn’t hugely ideal – but we think the sacrifice in performance is worth it for the visuals.

An alternative is to stream it from your main PC to your Steam Deck if you’ve got good enough Wi-Fi or mobile data if you’re out and about.

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