Dragon Age: The Veilguard's System Requirements Revealed - And I Am Still Worried About Steam Deck Performance

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EA shocked me recently with Dragon Age: The Veilguard getting a Steam Deck Verified badge. It wasn't because of the upcoming action RPG itself getting it, but moreso that the game didn't have a release date and did not have minimum system requirements listed yet! That made it quite hard to compare and verify for ourselves if it could really run, and it made me doubt the green checkmark. Well, the requirements are here, and while I can see why the Verified badge was given, I do still have some worries.

The requirements for Veilguard are within the Steam Deck's power, but it does start to cross the line a little in some areas:

Dragon Age: The Veilguard Minimum System Requirements:

• Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
• OS: 64 bit Windows 10/11
• Processor: Intel Core i5-8400 / AMD Ryzen 3 3300X* (see notes)
• Memory: 16 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 970/1650 / AMD Radeon R9 290X
• DirectX: Version 12
• Storage: 100 GB available space
• Additional Notes: SSD Preferred, HDD Supported; AMD CPUs on Windows 11 require AGESA V2 1.2.0.7

Now there are a couple of things here that worry me. First, the CPU and GPU requirements. These are within the power that the Deck can handle, but it does push it. Baldur's Gate 3 has a GTX 970 listed for its minimum GPU requirement, and while it's playable, it isn't the greatest experience. And while the CPU is also within the power, it is a heavier requirement than most others, which means it will take more power away from the GPU that it may need.

But with some tweaking, I could see this all being playable. The part that really worries me is RAM requirements. The Veilguard has a requirement of 16GB of RAM, the exact amount that the Steam Deck has. This has unfortunately led to game crashes, which we have experienced in other games with the same requirements. For example, the upcoming Black Myth: Wukong and No Rest for the Wicked both have 16GB RAM requirements, and both have or had crashes due to RAM usage. No Rest for the Wicked did optimize it a bit, but the usage is still relatively high.

So what does this mean exactly? Well, we aren't 100% sure yet, but from the specs listed, it does give me pause before celebrating the green checkmark. Theoretically, the game should be playable, which is great, but there are some caveats. The power drain could lead to dropped frames or 30 FPS stable, while the RAM requirement may lead to crashes. The latter can be avoided with using a 4GB UMA Buffer and CryoUtilities, but that Verified badge still shouldn't be there in that case. It's possible SteamOS 3.6 may help as well, but that is still in beta. Hopefully, it will release before Veilguard is out and we can see for ourselves!

Even with the pessimism, I do want Dragon Age: The Veilguard to run on Steam Deck. I love the series and I have hope that it will be playable, so here's hoping!

You can pre-purchase the game on Steam for $59.99 ahead of its October 31st release date.

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