Best Modern Warfare 3 settings for Steam Deck

Modified Oct 14, 2023 22:39 GMT

Modern Warfare 3 Steam Deck — The Steam Deck can play Modern Warfare at the lowest settings (Image via Activision and Valve)

The Steam Deck is one of the most popular handheld gaming consoles currently available. However, this device doesn't pack the most powerful hardware, which makes playing new games like Modern Warfare 3 on it pretty difficult. High framerates are crucial in shooters like this Call of Duty title. Hitting higher than 60 FPS on the handheld is impossible without going for the lowest settings in MW3 at a low resolution.

That said, with sufficient fine-tuning, the Steam Deck can play Modern Warfare 3 pretty well at 30 FPS. The game still won't look the best on this device, even when it's running at 30 frames per second.

However, thanks to a decent framerate, it can yield a satisfactory experience on Valve's handheld offering. That said, this article will list the best MW3 settings to get 30 FPS and 60 FPS on the Deck.

Best Modern Warfare 3 (MW3) graphics settings for 30 FPS on Steam Deck

Hitting 30 FPS in Modern Warfare 3 on the Steam Deck isn't particularly difficult. You won't have to rely on some crazy upscaling to achieve this framerate, either. It is recommended to use a mix of low and medium settings in this game for the best experience.

The following settings combination works best for MW3 on the Steam Deck:

Display

Display mode: Fullscreen exclusive
Display monitor: Primary monitor
Display adapter: AMD VANGOGH
Screen refresh rate: Maximum supported by the display
Display resolution: 1200 x 800
Aspect ratio: Automatic
V-sync: Off
Custom frame rate limit: Custom
Display gamma: 2.2 (sRGB)
Brightness: As per your preference
Focused mode: Off
Nvidia reflex low latency: N/A

Quality

Quality presets: Custom
Render resolution: 100
Dynamic resolution: Off
Upscaling/sharpening: Off
Anti-aliasing: SMAA T2X
VRAM scale target: 90
Variable rate shading: On

Details and textures

Texture resolution: Low
Texture filter anisotropic: Normal
Depth of field: Off
Detail quality level: Medium
Particle resolution: Medium
Bullet impacts: On
Persistent effects: Off
Shader quality: High
On-demand texture streaming: Off

Shadow and lighting

Shadow quality: Medium
Screen space shadows: Medium
Ambient occlusion: On
Screen space reflections: On
Static reflection quality: High

Environment

Tessellation: Near
Terrain memory: Max
Volumetric quality: High
Deferred physics quality: High
Weather grid volumes: High
Water quality: Wave wetness

View

Field of view (FOV): 120
ADS field of view: Affected
Weapon field of view: Default
Vehicle field of view: Default

Camera

World motion blur: Off
Weapon motion blur: Off
Film grain: 0.00
1st person camera movement: Default (100%)
Spectator camera: Helmet camera
Inverted flashbang: Off

Best Modern Warfare 3 (MW3) graphics settings for 60 FPS on Steam Deck

60 FPS can be pretty hard to hit in Modern Warfare 3. Gamers will have to crank down this title's settings to the absolute lowest at 800p for such high framerates. The visuals take a significant hit this way. If that isn't a problem, the Deck can play the Call of Duty shooter pretty well at 60 FPS.

The detailed settings list for the Steam Deck is as follows: