Red Dead Redemption has finally released on PC today well over a decade after it first came out. With it being the same, largely unchanged game from the Xbox 360 and PS3, many assumed it would work just fine on Valve’s Steam Deck. Whilst the game has been able to be played anywhere thanks to the Nintendo Switch version last year, the Steam Deck is far more powerful with a ceiling that allows for 60FPS, better graphics and more.
Red Dead on PC does have higher minimum and recommended system requirements than what hardware was in the Xbox 360 and PS3 but nothing above what the Steam Deck has at its disposal. Let’s take a look at how the game is running on Valve’s handheld gaming PC.
To start with the game can be purchased on various PC storefronts: the Rockstar Store for Rockstar Games Launcher, Steam, and the Epic Games Store. With it being on Steam, it means it’s almost seamless installing and launching on Steam Deck. It still requires to sign into the Rockstar Games Launcher upon booting the game however.
The game has not yet been rated by Valve and given a “Verified”, “Playable”, or “Unsupported” tag. It is simply listed as “Unknown”. That said, I have tested the game on a standard Steam Deck and it runs just fine at 60FPS with low to medium settings and FSR set to Quality. A short video of the game running on Steam Deck can be found here.
Below are the settings I used. If you’d like to view the full list of PC exclusive features and settings included in this port, here’s an article covering them all here.
You can certainly tone down the visuals more and increase image clarity rather than using FSR if you wish to do so. Or, run the game at 30 or 40FPS with even better graphics. At the end of the day, one of the joys of PC gaming is the freedom you have to choose how you play.
Given this game has not been on PC for 14 years and is only less than 9GB in size, it should prove to be a hit on Steam Deck. GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2, far more demanding games, have been routinely in the most played games on Steam Deck every month since the handheld’s release.
Are you going to be getting Red Dead Redemption on PC? Will mods tempt you? Let us know down in the comments. To keep up to date with every Red Dead Redemption news update, make sure to check back to RockstarINTEL and sign up to our newsletter for a weekly round-up of all things Rockstar Games.
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