After years of anticipation, Starfield finally released on PC and Xbox Series X|S a few months ago. Though critic and fan feelings on the game are somewhat mixed, one criticism that the game faces from all sides is its performance. Starfield is not a terribly well-optimized game, especially for low-to-mid-tier PCs – and nowadays, the Steam Deck falls somewhere in that category.

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The Steam Deck is a powerful little device that offers a surprising amount of power, but it does struggle with Starfield. Compared to other AAA games of the last year or two, like Elden Ring, Starfield has a hard time running on the system. But with the right in-game graphics and external Steam Deck settings Starfield becomes relatively playable

Starfield In-Game Graphics Settings

Starfield Player Notices Neat Detail When Exiting Cockpit

To best optimize performance for Starfield on the Steam Deck, players can use two different settings menus: the graphics menu in-game, and the external Steam Deck settings themselves.

The settings below should be enough to get Starfield playable on the Steam Deck, but don't expect 60 FPS – especially not in cities like New Atlantis, Neon, and other open-world city hubs. These settings should get the game to at least a relatively stable 30 to 45 FPS, before adjusting external Steam Deck settings.

To get to the in-game Graphics settings menu, open up the main menu, select "Settings" then scroll down to "Display." Not all settings in the menu are listed below, only the Starfield Graphics settings that players can actually adjust directly.

Display

  • Borderless Fullscreen: On
  • Dynamic Resolution: Off
  • Render Resolution Scale: 50%
  • Shadow Quality: Low
  • Indirect Lighting: Low
  • Reflections: Low
  • Particle Quality: Low
  • Volumetric Lighting: Low
  • Crowd Density: Low
  • Motion Blur: Off
  • GTAO Quality: Low
  • Grass Quality: Low
  • Contact Shadows: Low
  • VSync: Off
  • Upscaling: FSR 2.0
    • Sharpening: 80%

  • Enable VRS: Off
  • Film Grain Intensity: 50%-100%
  • Depth of Field: On

Starfield Steam Deck Settings

Starfield on Steam Deck

The external settings on a Steam Deck aren't necessarily game-changing, but they can have an effect on how well a game runs – and can be manipulated to enhance the Steam Deck's ability to run Starfield.

The settings below are recommended settings to make Starfield relatively playable, though the GPU Clock can be manually changed and set to a higher refresh rate to boost the Steam Deck capabilities. Don't set this too high or it could damage the Steam Deck's lifetime by overworking the GPU.

To get to the Steam Deck settings menu, press the button with three dots on the right side of the Steam Deck. Then, scroll down to the Performance section, which should contain the following modifiable settings.

  • FPS Limit: 60
  • Refresh Rate: 60
  • Allow Tearing: Off
  • Half-Rate Shading: Off
  • TDP Limit: Off
  • Filter Scaling: Linear
  • GPU Clock: Disabled
  • Proton Layer: Proton GE 8-15 (After downloading Preview for OS 3.5)

Starfield is available for PC and Xbox Series X|S.