Avowed Steam Deck Impressions – Performance, PC Port Features, ROG Ally Settings, and More

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Before its release with advanced access today, I’ve been exploring the fantasy RPG, Avowed, from Obsidian Entertainment and Xbox Game Studios on Steam Deck to assess its performance on handheld devices. Having had early access to the PC (Steam) version, I also tried playing it on my ROG Ally since some users may opt for the PC Game Pass version through the Microsoft Store there. My curiosity was piqued to discover how this Xbox Series X|S generation game would translate onto handhelds and how the third-person mode would fare given that it has predominantly been showcased as a first-person experience.

Before diving into the Steam Deck’s performance and optimal settings, I’d like to discuss some aspects about the PC port based on my pre-release access to the Steam version for review. Upon launch, Avowed on PC displays a building shaders screen. On my Steam Deck, this screen appeared during every boot, but only the first one took a bit longer. Subsequent boots displayed this screen for less than 30 seconds.

Avowed PC graphics options

This release of Avowed, utilizing Unreal Engine 5, offers compatibility with upscaling technologies such as FSR (3), DLSS, and TSR. It further provides adjustable resolution options including 800p and 16:10 support, a frame rate limit ranging from 30 to unlimited, an FOV slider with the default at 90, a motion blur adjustment, a v-sync switch, and a real-time ray tracing toggle. The unique aspect of this real-time ray tracing toggle is that it advises turning it off when playing on handheld devices, suggesting that the game has been optimized or tested for some handheld systems at least.











Additionally, Avowed offers a variety of sophisticated graphic settings and presets. These allow you to choose among low, medium, high, and epic for view distance, shadow detail, texture clarity, shading precision, effect intensity, vegetation quality, post-processing effects, reflection quality, and global illumination quality.

In Avowed, though it’s not categorized as a graphics or display setting, you can customize your camera view in the game options under the ‘camera’ section. Additionally, I’d like to draw your attention to the UI settings. These allow you to tailor aspects such as text size, icons, loot features like shimmer, notification duration, damage numbers, compass options, and more to suit your preferences.

Avowed Steam Deck gameplay impressions

Before its launch, game performance on handheld devices wasn’t optimized, meaning that things could change once it’s released. I’ve based my impressions on the latest version I played yesterday. On starting up and after shaders were built, Avowed initially ran with ray-tracing enabled at high settings, which made it unplayable on Steam Deck. Lowering the preset to low, turning off ray-tracing, and experimenting with different upscaling options helped make it more playable. After spending over a dozen hours playing Avowed on Steam Deck, I’m amazed at how well it functions in some instances, but the visual compromise is noticeable in many situations, as even after reducing performance in certain areas, it still struggles to maintain 30fps.

Avowed Steam Deck gameplay screenshots



















In addition to graphics and gameplay, I appreciated the convenience of using the “Gamepad with Mouse Trackpad” control scheme. This setup was ideal for playing games on Steam Deck, with the right trackpad functioning as a mouse for smooth general navigation. However, it particularly shone during precise aiming situations. For those who typically play using keyboard and mouse, transitioning to a controller might be challenging for aiming, but having the right trackpad function as a mouse significantly improves ranged combat.

Regarding the upscaling, it’s important to note that the game Avowed is quite resource-intensive on the Steam Deck. Achieving reasonable performance may require adjusting settings significantly and employing heavy upscaling techniques.

Similar to how Indiana Jones needed his special artifact in “The Great Circle,” Avowed offers an optional Xbox account sign-in feature. However, I couldn’t manage to make this work on the Steam Deck at all. It seems just as unsuccessful as Indiana Jones’ attempt when I tested it. Let’s hope this issue can be fixed so I can enjoy playing on my Xbox Series X and then seamlessly switch to the Deck for more gaming fun.

Avowed Steam Deck recommended settings so far

I’ve been toggling between two different configurations, but they essentially involve setting all advanced graphics options to low, 800p resolution, a frame rate cap at 30, enabling v-sync, and either FSR 3 or TSR. When I tried FSR 3, I discovered that the game would occasionally drop below 30 frames per second in larger areas with numerous NPCs, even when using FSR 3 at Ultra Performance. This significantly degrades image quality, but if the performance doesn’t greatly surpass other upscaling options, there’s little point to it. I ultimately decided to use FSR 3 at Quality, accepting occasional drops to the high 20s for better overall visual quality. These drops don’t occur in smaller or more enclosed areas, or even specific portions of open zones. They primarily appear in places such as the first major city or similar locations. I opted for FSR 3 Balanced for greater stability, though it doesn’t offer a significantly enhanced experience. On a smaller screen, these differences are less apparent than when playing on my monitor.

Migrating to TSR allows you to modify the TSR Screen Percentage. Choosing the minimum setting of 33% provides greater stability compared to FSR, however, it introduces noticeable shimmering and in some cases, ghosting is apparent when using TSR at lower rates.

To put it simply, I took an early performance test by sprinting through the city of Paradis. Despite using Ultra Performance FSR 3, it frequently dipped to around 20 frames per second during gameplay. When I adjusted TSR to 33% screen percentage, I noticed only a slight improvement with a 1-2 frames per second advantage. It’s clear that demanding sections like Paradis won’t consistently achieve 30fps on Steam Deck, even when set to the lowest possible settings in Steam.

With Avowed on Steam Deck, you’ll have to accept frame rate drops to approximately 25-27 frames per second in busy areas, and run it using FSR 3 Balanced or TSR with about 50% of the performance. This setup offers improved image quality that looks visually appealing on a handheld screen.

Additionally, I tried adjusting the GPU speed manually to 1600 MHz, which resulted in the GPU utilization decreasing from 99% to around the 80s, while the CPU usage increased. Despite setting Ultra Performance upscaling and enforcing this specific GPU clock speed, maintaining a steady 30fps is not achievable. To enjoy Avowed on Steam Deck, you’ll likely need to adapt to playing at frames rates in the high 20s or around 30fps with occasional drops to approximately 27-28fps for now.

After experimenting with the third-person perspective, I found that overall performance significantly decreased. In the end, I decided to revert back to the first-person view for my gaming session.

Avowed on ROG Ally 

Over the past few months, playing Unreal Engine 5 games on my ROG Ally has not been a satisfying experience for me. I’ve noticed several instances where global illumination effects and lighting are missing in games such as Silent Hill 2, Still Wakes the Deep, or even the latest Life is Strange game. Upon starting Avowed, it initially ran smoothly, advancing past the shader screen. However, when beginning a new game, ray tracing was activated by default, resulting in dismal performance. Disabling ray tracing significantly improved performance as anticipated. While the game used to crash frequently before release, with the latest update today, it has become playable on ROG Ally.

Avowed ROG Ally screenshots











If you intend to play Avowed on the ASUS handheld device, make sure to disable ray tracing right away. In my tests on the Z1 Extreme model (with VRAM set at 5GB and in turbo mode), I had to reduce the resolution to 720p for any reasonable performance. At 720p with the lowest settings and no upscaling, Avowed’s frame rate frequently dropped into the low 20s. Enabling TSR (Temporal Super Resolution) improved visual quality, but I found a visually acceptable minimum to be around 50% TSR Screen Percentage, at which point I encountered stuttering, although the frame rate stayed above 30fps. You can play at Ultra Performance FSR 3 for a higher average frame rate at 720p, but there’s significant shimmering, and I wasn’t able to achieve a consistent 30fps. The results are promising on the ROG Ally, but Avowed needs further optimization before it can be confidently recommended for the device.

I’ve found Avowed to be captivating to play, and I’m eagerly anticipating revisiting it in the coming days to explore all its features. Additionally, I plan to experience it on my Xbox Series X. Although I didn’t think it would be playable on Steam Deck due to being an Xbox Series X|S generation game without an Xbox One version, it’s almost ready for a smooth performance on this handheld device with some minor optimizations. At the moment, the visual compromise is quite noticeable as you can’t achieve a stable 30fps on Valve’s handheld.

(Updated on February 19 after testing the game on ROG Ally following patches).

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2025-02-19 18:27