Best Atomic Heart graphics settings for Steam Deck

Atomic Heart is a first-person shooter title that takes place in a once utopian world that soon turns into a dystopian one. The game's graphics are impressive, fully utilizing the current-gen hardware. Developers Mundfish did a brilliant job bringing the game's world to life by using the latest graphical technologies and creating detailed character models and environments.

Steam Deck is a handheld gaming device from Valve and doesn't come with the best hardware. However, thanks to its 800p display and the optimizations made by the developers, the Deck can handle most new launches conveniently. Its processing capabilities go beyond playing video games and can be used for many other purposes.

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Atomic Heart runs exceptionally well on Steam Deck

Atomic Heart is yet to receive certification from Valve. This means it hasn't been listed as either Playable or Verified. However, it is fully compatible and runs better than many other 2023 releases, some of which were Steam Deck Verified.

Despite the Steam Deck's hardware limitations, the game runs almost flawlessly, delivering players an experience beyond what they would expect from the handled gaming system. However, in some instances, Atomic Heart might drop a frame or two, especially in open-world scenarios or when the combat gets intense.

Therefore, to ensure that players enjoy a stable experience, this guide suggests settings that bring the best of both worlds - graphics and framerates - to the table. Keeping those objectives in mind, here are the best graphics settings to use when playing Atomic Heart on the Steam Deck:

Display

• Brightness: As per the user's preference.
• Image Sharpening: 1
• Window Mode: Fullscreen
• FPS Cap: 60
• Screen Resolution: 1280x800
• Display Selection: 1

Quality

• Preset: Custom
• Depth of Field: Low
• Motion Blur: Low
• Anti-Aliasing: Medium TAA
• DLSS Super Resolution: Off
• DLSS Frame Generation: Off
• Nvidia Reflex: Off
• FidelityFX Super Resolution: Off
• Animation Quality: Low
• Shadows: Low
• Ambient Occlusion: Low
• Visual FX: Low
• Number of Objects: Low
• Materials: Low
• Volumetric Fog: Off
• Postprocessing: Low
• Textures: Low
• Texture Anisotropy: Disable
• 3D Model Quality: Low
• Vegetation Density: Low
• Hard Drive speed: SSD
• Shader Cache: On

These settings should give players an almost stable 60 FPS experience in the game. However, as mentioned earlier, during intense scenes or in open-world scenarios, the framerate might drop to the low 50s. Nevertheless, these are the optimal settings that should help enhance a player's overall gaming experience and give them a solid triple-A experience on their Steam Decks.

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This concludes the best graphics settings for Atomic Heart on the Steam Deck. However, if players aren't satisfied with the results and desire more visual quality, they can turn up a few settings, such as textures and vegetation density.

On the other hand, if players are looking for higher framerates, they can avail of the framerate boosts by turning on FildelityFX Super Resolution.

Atomic Heart was released on February 21, 2023, and is now available for PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, and PlayStation 5.