Baldur's Gate 3 on Steam Deck: Best settings to get it running

Love gaming? Listen to our podcast One More Life!

Larian Studios themselves has said how much it loves the Steam Deck - and its previous games, Divinity: Original Sin and its sequel, run exceptionally well on the handheld powerhouse.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is significantly more demanding than those titles, though, so you can expect a fair bit more tinkering.

The latest Baldur's Gate launched in a pretty technically stable state, fortunately, so compared to other releases in this year alone it’s been an absolute breeze getting a good experience on most systems.

But enough preamble from us, there’s a whole adventure awaiting you - so read on to get the scoop on how to get Baldur’s Gate 3 to play nice with the Deck!

Does Baldur’s Gate 3 run on Steam Deck?

Yes, Baldur’s Gate 3 runs on the Steam Deck and is certified by Valve on their Steam Deck verification programme as being playable.

This isn’t without nuance, though, as users are reporting that the default settings can leave a lot to be desired.

There are frequent dips below 30fps and by only having AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) 1.0, the image quality is quite blurry as FSR 1.0 just sharpens the whole image - as opposed to FSR 2, Nvidia’s DLSS or Intels XeSS, which all use very clever algorithms and machine learning to create a much better image.

The controller set-up is very nice, though, so you won't have any trouble interacting with the game, and performance is set to improve soon when Larian Studios implement FSR 2.2 in an update that is slated to come out in early September - in step with the PS5 launch.

This will massively increase the visual fidelity and should help keep the Deck running BG3 above 30fps.

Best settings to get Baldur’s Gate 3 running on Steam Deck

Below are currently the best settings to get Baldur’s Gate 3 running on the Steam Deck.

These settings opt for quality visuals at a mostly consistent 30fps, but you unfortunately will see drops below that. At these chosen settings, you can expect around one hour and 45 minutes of gameplay before you’ll need to charge.

By opting to turn off things such as Depth of Field and Subsurface Scattering, you are losing a lot of what makes the game look great - but if you want to squeeze a little more performance out then you could always turn these settings off.

When patches are rolled out, such as when FSR 2.2 becomes available, we will update you so you can have the most optimum handheld experience.

• Launcher – DirectX 11

• Model Quality – Low

• Detail Distance – Ultra High

• Instance Detail – Ultra High

• Texture Quality – Ultra High

• Texture Filtering – Trilinear

• Animation Level of Detail – Ultra High

• Dynamic Crowds – On

• Shadow Quality – Low

• Cloud Quality – Low

• Fog Quality – Low

• AMD FSR 1.0 – Ultra Quality

• Anti-Aliasing – TAA

• Ambient Occlusion – Off

• Depth of Field – Circular

• Depth of Field Quality – Quarter Denoise

• God Rays – On

• Bloom – On

• Subsurface Scattering – On

Subscribe to our free Gaming Newsletter for weekly insights, and follow us on Twitter for all the latest updates.

Looking for something to watch? Check out our TV Guide or Streaming Guide.

Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only £10, PLUS a £10 John Lewis and Partners voucher delivered to your home – subscribe now.