We are less than a week from the release of Baldur’s Gate 3 on PC, so will it work on Steam Deck? Larian Studios has been known to make expansive and refined RPGs. Its latest game is its biggest to date so it will be tasking for Valve’s handheld device. Impressive games have been known to run on it, whether it takes a lot of tweaking or it’s smooth from the start. Let’s look at the game and the Divinity: Original Sin games to see if we can get a glimpse into how things will look for the latest Baldur’s Gate installment.
Looking at the Steam page for Baldur’s Gate 3, it is labeled to be playable on Steam Deck. Whether it is now or on release day, if you play on Steam Deck, you will want to go into the options to determine the best settings to get the performance you want.
One of the biggest hurdles is the download size. On both the recommended and minimum specs, it is 150 GB SSD download size. You will want to ensure you have a solid SD card to maintain that amount and be fast enough to handle the massive world. As the game releases on August 3, you will want to look into a good SD card if you don’t have one.
Some significant adjustments need to be made if you jump into Baldur’s Gate 3 in its current state on Steam Deck. Proton settings will not need to be altered, but some big things are required before booting up. In the launcher, make sure to set it to DirectX 11, as the default Vulkan version has been known to crash the game. The Larian launcher can make your cursor troublesome or disappear entirely, so use the right analog stick and press the right trigger to start the game. The other thing you may want to do is skip the launcher and make DirectX 11 default by following these steps:
- Select the game.
- Go to the gear icon to get into the properties.
- Find Launcher Options at the bottom of the General tab.
- In the text box, type –skip-launcher.
The developers have had plenty of Steam Deck experience beyond Baldur’s Gate 3. The Divinity: Original Sin games are verified on the device. From our time playing Divinity: Original Sin 2 on the handheld system, we can confirm that it runs as smoothly as consoles and PC. It takes tweaking settings, but you can play at a respectable graphics setting to see the beauty.
This makes us confident that after some time after release, Baldur’s Gate 3 will get in a similar ballpark regarding its performance. No matter what game you play, ensure you have settings that balance battery life, graphical fidelity, and frame rate to your liking. These games are intensive, so they should always be on your mind for the best experience.
Baldur’s Gate 3 will release on August 3 on PC and Mac. It will come to PS5 on September 6.
