Running Warhammer 40k Space Marine 2 on the Steam Deck is no easy feat, given that the game is quite demanding in nature – thanks to its steep minimum system requirements. While the game does indeed boot and work on Linux-based operating systems (such as the Steam Deck’s own SteamOS), there exist a myriad of performance related issues that can sour the overall experience.
Regardless, a set of ‘Steam Deck optimized’ settings can be found detailed below, for reference, taking an 800p image and a base target of 30 FPS into consideration.
Optimized Warhammer 40k Space Marine 2 Steam Deck settings
In-game settings
- Display Mode: Borderless
- Render Resolution: Native
- Display Resolution: 1280×800; set as your native, default display resolution
- Resolution Upscaling: FSR 2
- Dynamic Resolution FPS Target: Disabled
- Quality Preset: Custom
- Vertical Synchronization (V-Sync): Off; always keep this disabled
- Motion Blur Intensity: Off; recommended to keep disabled to avoid blurriness while in motion
- FPS Limit: 30 FPS; do not push this higher
- Texture Resolution: Low; recommended with a 4 GB VRAM preset
- Shadows: Low
- Screen Space Ambient Occlusion: Default
- Screen Space Reflections: Off; very GPU heavy and should be kept disabled
- Volumetrics: Low
- Effects: Low
- Details: Low
- Cloth Simulation: Low
Steam Deck specific settings
- Frame Rate Limit: 30
- TDP: 15 W
- Battery Drain: 25-30 W
Space Marine 2 runs between 20 to 30 frames per second on the Steam Deck, depending on the intensity of battle. Longer, drawn out battles with tons of enemies (and thus more demanding game physics) will most definitely tank your FPS into the low 20s, and as such can make for quite a frustrating experience.
It might be worth disabling the Steam Overlay if your game refuses to boot.
Lower than average visual quality does not help either, and the Steam Deck is currently ill-equipped to play this particular title. It might be better to play this on alternative handheld gaming PCs, such as the ROG Ally or Legion Go instead – or to wait until Focus Entertainment and/or Valve release a set of Steam Deck specific optimizations later down the line.
