Ah, it’s only the Queen/Harvesters and Matriarch maps I avoid as the Deck really starts chugging on those matches. It’s a bit annoying since they’re endgame content (I’ve been playing pretty much since release and still haven’t crafted a single legendary weapon, lol) but after tinkering with the settings, I can usually lock in a pretty stable 35 FPS otherwise.
What’s your model? I got an older LCD one. I can kind of get it to run 40 FPS pretty much all the time, but it gets noisy and hot that way, which I really don’t like and try to avoid, especially in something like ARC Raiders, because it’s a type of game I go in for a couple of hours, maybe “wired” to the socket.
I’ve tried playing the Frozen Trail update at 30 FPS yesterday with these settings:
In-game:
Resolution: Borderless fullscreen at 1280x800, but 50% render scale (so 640x400)
No AA at all
All graphics to Low
SteamOS:
30 FPS, 60 Hz
Allow screen tearing: On - to hopefully get less input lag, which is especially important on FPS this low
Half-rate shading: Off
TDP: 12 (at most)
Manual GPU clock: 700 MHz - to stop the hiccups when it either spikes or drops down
Surprisingly playable. Although I am mostly used to playing shooters with gyro on the Steam Deck and have difficulty using it as a standard controller in such games. Playing gyro in an Embark game is not an option right now, as they’ve been increasingly more reliant on AI for behavioural analysis, which has issued many bans to THE FINALS players that were only admitted and reversed somewhat recently, with some of them being issues again weeks after - ARC Raiders has recently introduced the same system, so I’m taking my chances. What I especially like about these settings is that the device runs much quieter and cooler, which gives me a little peace of mind, helping me think I won’t have to replace it or at least do some costly maintenance that soon.
The new controller scheme they have is also messing with my muscle memory in the most important of moments. lol
But I really hope that practice can make perfect here as well. I’ve gotten somewhat okay at this game with a wired 8BitDo Ultimate (the XBOX layout one), but I guess I just hold my Steam Deck differently. Maybe it’s time to make better use of the back pedals.
As for the end-game content, yeah, I feel you. Gonna be even more difficult now. I’m not spoiling this to you if you want to read the patch notes yourself.
To answer your question: I’m on the 1TB OLED model.
I’ve done a good bit of tinkering with settings myself but I haven’t tried everything on your list yet (disabling AA entirely is definitely something I need to test out). I’ll give your exact setup a go the next time I hop on and see how it performs.
Really appreciate you taking the time to share all those details and warnings, especially regarding the gyro/anti-cheat stuff. I’ll drop an update once I’ve had a chance to test it out out there.
Stay safe, Raider!
Just a quick edit, switching to desktop mode and deleting the compdata file for Arc Raiders (1808500) helped my performance dramatically. I lost all my settings (controller, resolution, everything) but performance has increased. Only tested on a few maps but I’m playing with higher resolution with more FPS.
My pleasure! Happy to see another Raider, on Steam Deck, in the Threadiverse!
That last paragraph is really surprising. I may try that out, though, thanks!
I’m getting used to the 30 FPS and it’s not as bad when you learn to play around it. Big thanks for your comment again - it made me go back to tinkering and discover and nice middle ground for things I care about.
I’m diabolical on Arc Raiders and mostly just run around like a headless chicken. DM me your profile (or I can send you mine?) and we can get wiped out by Pops lol.
On the Steam Deck? I had actually expected much worse from an UE5 title.
That said, we ain’t bringing down no Rocketeers or Vaporizers on them Decks.
Ah, it’s only the Queen/Harvesters and Matriarch maps I avoid as the Deck really starts chugging on those matches. It’s a bit annoying since they’re endgame content (I’ve been playing pretty much since release and still haven’t crafted a single legendary weapon, lol) but after tinkering with the settings, I can usually lock in a pretty stable 35 FPS otherwise.
Best of luck out there, Raider!
What’s your model? I got an older LCD one. I can kind of get it to run 40 FPS pretty much all the time, but it gets noisy and hot that way, which I really don’t like and try to avoid, especially in something like ARC Raiders, because it’s a type of game I go in for a couple of hours, maybe “wired” to the socket.
I’ve tried playing the Frozen Trail update at 30 FPS yesterday with these settings:
Surprisingly playable. Although I am mostly used to playing shooters with gyro on the Steam Deck and have difficulty using it as a standard controller in such games. Playing gyro in an Embark game is not an option right now, as they’ve been increasingly more reliant on AI for behavioural analysis, which has issued many bans to THE FINALS players that were only admitted and reversed somewhat recently, with some of them being issues again weeks after - ARC Raiders has recently introduced the same system, so I’m taking my chances. What I especially like about these settings is that the device runs much quieter and cooler, which gives me a little peace of mind, helping me think I won’t have to replace it or at least do some costly maintenance that soon.
The new controller scheme they have is also messing with my muscle memory in the most important of moments. lol
But I really hope that practice can make perfect here as well. I’ve gotten somewhat okay at this game with a wired 8BitDo Ultimate (the XBOX layout one), but I guess I just hold my Steam Deck differently. Maybe it’s time to make better use of the back pedals.
As for the end-game content, yeah, I feel you. Gonna be even more difficult now. I’m not spoiling this to you if you want to read the patch notes yourself.
Thanks for the tips!
To answer your question: I’m on the 1TB OLED model.
I’ve done a good bit of tinkering with settings myself but I haven’t tried everything on your list yet (disabling AA entirely is definitely something I need to test out). I’ll give your exact setup a go the next time I hop on and see how it performs.
Really appreciate you taking the time to share all those details and warnings, especially regarding the gyro/anti-cheat stuff. I’ll drop an update once I’ve had a chance to test it out out there.
Stay safe, Raider!
Just a quick edit, switching to desktop mode and deleting the compdata file for Arc Raiders (1808500) helped my performance dramatically. I lost all my settings (controller, resolution, everything) but performance has increased. Only tested on a few maps but I’m playing with higher resolution with more FPS.
My pleasure! Happy to see another Raider, on Steam Deck, in the Threadiverse!
That last paragraph is really surprising. I may try that out, though, thanks!
I’m getting used to the 30 FPS and it’s not as bad when you learn to play around it. Big thanks for your comment again - it made me go back to tinkering and discover and nice middle ground for things I care about.
Care to raid together sometime?
I’d love that!
I’m diabolical on Arc Raiders and mostly just run around like a headless chicken. DM me your profile (or I can send you mine?) and we can get wiped out by Pops lol.