Red Dead Redemption Runs Like A Charm On Steam Deck - First Impressions

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Finally, after waiting so long, the original Red Dead Redemption is finally on PC with its fantastic Undead Nightmare expansion. It's great to be able to play it all on PC, even if it is a bit pricey, and that means we can get it on the Steam Deck! So, I decided to test it out for myself after purchasing it, and I was a little surprised at how well it is running.

I know Red Dead Redemption is a much older title, but I was still a bit worried that it would be hard to play on the Steam Deck. I am so happy to be so wrong. Red Dead Redemption seems like it will be a joy to play on the Deck, and I am shocked at how well it is running and it doesn't need really any compromises to look amazing and run like a charm.

I tested this with the opening of both the regular story and Undead Nightmare, which ran around the same as each other. There is definitely more testing needed to give a full assessment, but we wanted to give our opinion based on what we have played so far. I tested at both Ultra and Medium settings, since I wanted a solid example of how it is pushed and how it can play at lower quality. And on both fronts, I was impressed.

At Ultra settings, we can hit around 35 - 40 FPS, which fluctuated as I went into town and shot at people. I was a bit surprised it could run as well as it did, and the game looks beautiful. This is the default Ultra setting, which has FSR 3 on at Native AA.

I also tried Medium quality settings, which is able to stick to around 55 - 80 FPS depending whether you are in a town. Again, this has FSR 3 on at Native AA, and it is fantastic how great the game still looks and how fast it is running.

With FSR 3 on at Native AA, it looks wonderfully smooth and beautiful, but I wanted to see how it could be improved. By turning it to FXAA, we can increase performance enough to play Ultra quality at almost 60 FPS. It is phenomenal. You can also enable HDR for the game on your OLED Steam Deck, which is a nice treat.

The one knock against it is you still have to go through the Rockstar Launcher. It isn't the worst launcher to go through, but logging into my account was a bit of a nuisance. However, once done, it should automatically log in, so you don't have to do it again. I can also confirm that, unfortunately, the game looks like there may be some issues when playing offline. When I disabled WiFi, I could get into the game, but I encountered an "Access Violation" error when trying to go into Undead Nightmare. I was able to start the original game just fine right after, and I was able to get into Undead Nightmare after that, but I still encountered that error. If you do, just exit and reopen the game.

Red Dead Redemption is a little bit pricey at $49.99 on Steam, but if you are worried about playing it on the Steam Deck, and playing it well, I am happy to put those worries to rest. I am not the biggest fan of needing to go through the launcher, but otherwise, the game runs great, looks wonderful, and HDR is supported nicely. This is definitely going to be a great portable experience no matter what!

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