Returnal can be played on Steam Deck, but the former PS5 exclusive puts so much strain on the device’s GPU that the image quality and fps aren’t very good.

Can Returnal run on Steam Deck? Valve’s handheld PC seems particularly suited to roguelike games, allowing you to resume your current run or start another (or maybe thirty) on the go. As such, Returnal seems on paper to be the perfect choice for a portable powerhouse, but in reality this is sadly not quite the case.

Given Returnal’s installation size of 60GB, some will be in need of one of the best Steam Deck SD cards to fit the game in the base model. Apart from that, the micro machine is largely up to Returnal’s system requirements, but the GPU remains a weak point.

Is Returnal Steam Deck compatible?

Yes, Returnal is playable on Steam Deck. However, neither Valve nor the game’s developers have commented on whether the game is considered playable or will receive a fully verified verified certificate.

Based on our testing, the best Returnal settings for Steam Deck are essentially a combination of pre-setting the game to ‘Low’ alongside FSR in ‘Performance’ mode. Even with these perceived trade-offs in visual quality, we strongly recommend using the 30fps upper limit for a smoother frame rate and increased battery life.

Future improvements may help Returnal run more smoothly on Steam. As things stand, it’s not a great experience and we don’t really recommend playing on the system. That said, we shouldn’t stop hoping that things will change, as this would be a cracking addition to any portable library. If you already have it for PS5, it’s worth streaming the game rather than buying the PC version.

Source : PCGamesN