If you’re looking to play “Need For Speed: Unbound” on your Steam Deck, you should know you’ll be making some concessions. For starters, you’ll want to turn the graphics quality setting all the way down to low, which tops you out at 30 frames per second. According to GameTechPlanet on YouTube, the game can actually run above 30 frames per second on medium during the prologue if you don’t cap the frame rate, but performance can suffer significantly afterward.
You’ll also want to ensure you’re running at the lowest resolution possible, and turn off features like motion blur and dynamic resolution scaling for the best results. This is because the Steam Deck doesn’t have enough power to play the game natively at its full fidelity without serious hiccups and frame drops (via GameTechPlanet).
Despite these measures, you’ll still experience some frame rate dips in high action scenes, and the game can also take up to five minutes to load, which is a lifetime in today’s gaming world. You may also experience a sudden crash – especially on the very first run.
While these might sound like annoying conditions to play under, you won’t find a better way to play the game on a handheld that doesn’t involve streaming, which can be equally problematic.
