Don't Expect Metal Gear Solid Delta To Run on Steam Deck

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Metal Gear Solid is easily one of my favorite series to have ever played, and it is one of the reasons why I love story-driven games. It's iconic and revolutionary in many ways, which is why I was so excited about the upcoming remake of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, aptly renamed Metal Gear Solid Delta. So far, it looks gorgeous, and it sounds like it's going to be extremely detailed with rendering that allows you to see rich facial animations.

Recently, the system requirements for Metal Gear Solid Delta were released, and it is a hefty one. With how detailed the game looks, I wouldn't have been surprised seeing it need some pretty powerful components, especially with Unreal Engine 5, but this is much higher than I was expecting, and it doesn't look like it will be playable on the Steam Deck.

While the RAM could still technically be within the Steam Deck's range, the CPU and GPU requirements are going a little over. CPU-wise, we have a Ryzen 5 3600 or Intel i5-8600 as the minimum, while on the GPU side, we have the NVIDIA RTX 2060 Super as the minimum. The Ryzen 5 3600 has more cores and cache than the Steam Deck's APU, and the RTX 2060 Super is much higher than what the Deck can handle.

For some reference, the CPU minimum is the same as the one for Monster Hunter Wilds, which is a bottleneck on the Steam Deck, stopping it from being playable. The GPU minimum is higher than Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, which is also just playable because of specific optimizations that Square Enix implemented. Unless Konami has something special up its sleeve, there's no way this is going to be playable on the Steam Deck.

There may still be hope in the form of cloud streaming, whether it be from a more powerful PC or GeForce NOW, but it doesn't look like this will be playable from local downloading. I would even say it's dicey for handhelds to keep this at a playable framerate. I am a bit more optimistic for the newest handhelds that have the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 chips, like the AYANEO 3, but without the extra CPU and GPU power, it's going to be a tough call.

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater can be pre-purchased on Steam for $69.99.

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