The good news for Diablo fans on the go is they are not limited to only having to play the lackluster Diablo Immortal on their phones. Diablo 4 is available to play on Steam Deck and has the green Verified symbol of approval to boot.
For a while, players had to jump through extra hurdles to play Diablo 4 on Steam Deck given that the game wasn’t released on the Steam platform until the middle of October 2023, months after the game’s original release. But those extra steps can now be skipped, and you can download the game right to your Steam Deck.
Want to maximize performance and your demon destruction? Here are our recommended settings for playing Diablo 4 on the Steam Deck.
Best Diablo 4 graphics settings for playing on Steam Deck
The settings we’ve put together for running Diablo 4 on Steam Deck prioritize a high frame rate and clear visuals, and ideally won’t be too taxing on the CPU to maximize as much battery life as possible.
Best Screen settings for Diablo 4 on Steam Deck
Within the game, go to Graphics under Options, and change this setting under the Performance section:
- Resolution Scaling: AMD FSR 2
This is the best resolution scaling option for playing Diablo 4 on Steam Deck. It gives you a much-needed boost to performance and FPS as this setting is designed with smaller resolution screens (like the Steam Deck’s) in mind. With the game open, hit the ellipsis button (…), go to the Performance section with the battery icon, and set it to 60 FPS.
Best Quality settings for Diablo 4 on Steam Deck
With the AMD FSR 2 resolution scaling option enabled, you can run a high-quality preset and get a consistent 50 to 60 FPS, even in some of the more dense areas. But running it on High will drain your battery life faster.
Within the Diablo 4 menus, go to Graphics under Options, and plug in these settings under the Quality section to get some slightly better battery life.
- Texture Quality: Medium
- Anisotropic Filtering: 8x or 16x
- Shadow Quality: Low or Medium
- Dynamic Shadows: On
- Soft Shadows: On
- Shader Quality: Medium
- SSAO Quality: Medium
- Fog Quality: Medium
- Clutter Quality: Medium
- Fur Quality Level: Medium
- Water Simulation Quality: Low
- Anti-Aliasing Quality: High
- Geometric Complexity: Medium
- Terrain Geometry Detail: High
- Physics Quality: Low
- Particles Quality: Low
- Reflection Quality: High
- Screen Space Reflections: On
- Distortion: Off
- Low FX: Off
With all of these settings applied, you should get a steady 50 to 60 FPS, see reduced lag, enjoy a high level of visual quality, and not completely drain your battery within a couple of hours. Of course, the game will look and run even better on the upgraded Steam Deck OLED, but these recommended specs should do well with either model.
