Frame rate drops to 20 fps with minimal graphics settings
Unfortunately, Steam Deck owners will not be able to fully enjoy the new Starfield RPG.
Early reviews of Starfield report disappointing results with the Steam Deck. Destructoid reports long loading times, multiple crashes, and unstable framerates with huge drops during gameplay and combat.
TouchArcade writes that the only way to play the game at all right now is to set everything to “low” and enable AMD FSR2. Even then, the game’s frame rate can drop to 20 seconds when exploring large cities. The publication reports that Bethesda recommended not playing it on Steam Deck.
Steam Deck simply doesn’t handle Starfield
Bethesda’s Todd Howard seemed to know this back in June when he was hesitant to confirm whether the game would be playable on Steam Deck. When asked if the game would be compatible with Steam Deck, Howard was noncommittal and replied, “We’ll talk about that later.”
Perhaps something will change in the future with patches, but it is unlikely that the situation will change radically.
