Best Elden Ring graphics settings for Steam Deck

Elden Ring plays fairly well on the Steam Deck. Although Valve's handheld is severely limited in terms of graphics rendering hardware, it is perfect for playing slightly older titles like the souls-like. Players are returning to the game thanks to the new Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. With some tweaks to the graphics settings, you can get decent framerates. However, getting there requires spending some time on the menu.

Like most other AAA titles, the game bundles a ton of customization options, which can complicate things. To help you get started quickly, we have prepared a guide with a list of settings that work best for the Steam Deck. You can apply these based on what you want: higher framerates or better picture quality.

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Elden Ring graphics settings for better picture quality on Steam Deck

Elden Ring can look quite good on the Steam Deck (Image via FromSoftware)

Elden Ring isn't optimized well on PC and is locked to 60 FPS, which means you don't need the best graphics hardware to get decent performance. On the Steam Deck, you can get 30 FPS with Medium graphics settings applied. The detailed settings recommendation is as follows:

Game options

• Toggle auto lock-on: Off
• Auto-target: off
• Manual attack aiming: Off
• Controller vibration: 0
• Ray tracing: Off
• Performance settings: Prioritize frame rate

Display

• Display blood: As per your preference
• Subtitles: Off
• HUD: Auto
• Show tutorials: On
• HDR: Off
• Mark new items: Off
• Show recent items tab: Off

Advanced settings

• Texture Quality: Medium
• Antialiasing Quality: Medium
• SSAO: Medium
• Depth of Field: On (Personal preference)
• Motion Blur: On (Personal preference)
• Shadow Quality: Medium
• Lighting Quality: Medium
• Effects Quality: Medium
• Volumetric Quality: Medium
• Reflection Quality: Medium
• Water Surface Quality: Medium
• Shader Quality: Medium
• Global Illumination Quality: Medium
• Grass Quality: Medium

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Elden Ring graphics settings for higher framerates on Steam Deck

You can get up to 50 FPS in the Elden Ring on the Steam Deck (Image via FromSoftware)

Elden Ring runs at up to 50 FPS on the Deck with some compromises to the visual settings. The game doesn't look great with these options applied but is recommended if you are chasing performance.

We recommend using Low settings and turning off all effects. The detailed settings list is as follows:

Game options

• Toggle auto lock-on: Off
• Auto-target: off
• Manual attack aiming: Off
• Controller vibration: 0
• Ray tracing: Off
• Performance settings: Prioritize frame rate

Display

• Display blood: As per your preference
• Subtitles: Off
• HUD: Auto
• Show tutorials: On
• HDR: Off
• Mark new items: Off
• Show recent items tab: Off

Advanced settings

• Texture Quality: Low
• Antialiasing Quality: Low
• SSAO: Low
• Depth of Field: Off
• Motion Blur: Off
• Shadow Quality: Low
• Lighting Quality: Low
• Effects Quality: Low
• Volumetric Quality: Low
• Reflection Quality: Low
• Water Surface Quality: Low
• Shader Quality: Low
• Global Illumination Quality: Low
• Grass Quality: Low

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Overall, the Steam Deck keeps up extremely well in Elden Ring. Being a few years old, the game is also optimized well and all handhelds play the title at decent framerates.