Baldur’s Gate 3 is Steam Deck Verified, meaning you can enjoy the game on the handheld without too much fiddling. It is a very resource-demanding game, so you won’t be getting 4K 60 FPS gameplay while playing on the Deck. Nevertheless, you can get to a relatively stable 30 FPS without tanking your visuals too badly.
This guide will outline some of the best settings to get the most out of Baldur’s Gate 3 on the Steam Deck.
Best settings for Baldur’s Gate 3 on the Steam Deck
The first thing you’ll want to do is make a few adjustments at the system level. While the game is open, press the options button on the right side of the Deck. It’s the one with three dots. Once here, scroll down to the Performance tab, then scroll down to the Performance Settings section. Here, you can create a settings profile for Baldur’s Gate 3. Limit the framerate to 30 FPS, as you won’t get stable gameplay at higher framerates.
Next, head into Baldur’s Gate 3 and open up the in-game menu. Head to the video tab, where you’ll be met with a few options. Here are the ones you need to pay attention to:
- VSync – Off
- Framerate Cap – On
- Maximum Framerate – 30
- Model Quality – Medium
- Detail Distance – Medium (set to low if you’re still having framerate issues)
- Instance Distance – Medium
- Texture Quality – Medium
- Texture Filtering – Anisotropic x2
- Animation Level of Detail – Medium
- Slow HDD Mode – Off
- Dynamic Crowds – On (turn off if you’re still having framerate issues)
- Shadow Quality – Low
- Cloud Quality – Medium (set to low if you’re still having framerate issues)
- Fog Quality – Low
- AMD FSR 1.0 – Off
- FidelityFX Sharpening – Off
- Anti-Aliasing – None
- Ambient Occlusion – Off
- Depth of Field – Gaussian
- Depth of Field Quality – Quarter Denoise
- God Rays – On
- Bloom – On
- Subsurface Scattering – Off
With these settings, you’ll have a game that looks good and hovers around 30 FPS for most gameplay. You can expect two to three hours out of your Deck before you have to plug it into a power source.
Lastly, keep in mind that Baldur’s Gate 3 is a huge game and at times there are several enemies, party members, and interactable items on the screen at once, which can cause the performance to dip. Fortunately, BG 3 isn’t a particularly fast-paced game, so a few framerate dips won’t diminish your gaming experience too badly.
