Star Citizen is an ultra-ambitious open-world space game that is being developed by Command Imperium. It has been in development for quite some time. This is because the game promises a lot. It promises stunning vistas, immersive gameplay, and very high-quality graphics. It can sometimes get so intense that even completely specced-out PCs have trouble running this game at around 40 fps. This is a true testament to the quality and effort that have gone into the development of this game. Surprisingly, it also runs on the Steam Deck. However, to get the most out of your Deck while running this game, consider reading this guide until the end.
There are some games that the Steam Deck is just not built for. One can be forgiven for thinking that Star Citizen was one of them. So, can this massive open-world game that can make even top-of-the-line PCs sweat be played on a handheld? It is a lot of effort and not without compromises, but yes. You can play this game on the Steam Deck. Should you be playing it on the Steam Deck? Probably not but hey, if you are already, you might as well optimize it to run well, right?
Best Star Citizen Steam Deck Settings for high FPS & performance
Now, before we even get started, we want to set some very firm expectations here. Two things you need to understand off the bat: first, this game is not going to run well on the Steam Deck. Second, the settings process is the easy part. The hard part is installing it. Once you have gone through the pain of installing the game on your Steam Deck and making all the necessary changes to the roots and other features of your Deck, you are ready to optimize the game.
Settings
The sad truth about optimizing the game to run on your Deck is that you essentially have to bring every single setting to the minimum value. There is no getting around this. Even in the lowest settings, you are only going to get about 20 fps. This is with a custom resolution. Since the Deck really is not built for games like this, you should expect this to happen. Apart from this, there are no real settings tips for this game on the Steam Deck. Since installing this game itself is a nightmare on the Steam Deck, and given the unoptimized state of the game itself, you are not going to get more than 30 FPS in most scenarios.
Should you be playing Star Citizen on the Steam Deck?
This is a complicated question to answer. While we do not discourage you from enjoying any game on any platform, in its current state, Star Citizen is best left to overpowered PCs to handle. In its current state, it is buggy, unoptimized, and not a very good candidate for the Steam Deck.
Anyway, that is all we have on the Best Settings for the Steam Deck if you are playing Star Citizen. If you find this guide helpful and want to read more such content, make sure to visit Android Gram daily.