A Plague Tale: Requiem, Gotham Knights, The Witcher 3 Next-Gen and more tested.
So how well do these games run on the Valve hardware?
Are theytoo bigfor Steam Deck?
Even so, image quality takes a larger hit.
The upsampling does a decent job of handling opaque surfaces, but transparencies are really messy.
Expect to see a lot of fizzling, popping, and other obtrusive image artifacts on foliage.
However, towns cause issues.
These NPC-dense areas are notorious for hammering CPUs on other platforms, and the same is true here.
Overall though, it’s mostly fine - so this is a qualified success.
We’re actually significantly ahead of the last-gen console versions in environmental asset quality.
Unfortunately this game is very demanding on PC and that causes big problems on the Deck.
Certain areas are mired in the low-to-mid 20s, producing an experience that is tough to play.
Big stutters abound, mostly popping up during traversal.
We’re profoundly CPU-limited in its most troubled moments, while other areas are GPU-bound.
Interiors are a totally different story.
Gotham Knights is a very messy game otherwise though and makes for a poor experience on Steam Deck.
Visually I opted for the medium preset, along with a native resolution target.
We’re not quite on par with current-gen platforms, though the game is attractive enough.
With these prefs and the OS-level 30fps cap, hitting a stable 30fps is very achievable.
There are periodic stutters, however, during intense moments.
The Witcher 3 received a current-gen upgrade last month, which extended to the PC release as well.
I settled on a mixture of medium and high prefs, at a straight 720p with TAA.
Stacked up against the PS4 release, Steam Deck looks very similar.
Across about an hour of capture, the game ran more or less perfectly at 30fps.
I only noticed one or two performance-related dips - everything else was perfect.
Even busy battles play back without a hitch.
Finally it’s worth touching for a moment on how to handle frame delivery across these titles.
There is a way to side-step this issue that can work well.
The problem with more demanding games is that hitting a consistent 40fps is often really tough.
Likewise, playing a huge raft of older software on the go with mostly no compromises, is compelling.
However, the Deck’s headline-grabbing capabilities revolve around running intense eighth-generation and ninth-generation software.
Even when consuming a mere 10 or 11 watts, it wasn’t able to consistently deliver 30fps.
It’s just getting tougher as current-gen software grows increasingly ambitious.
