System Shock Steam Deck Performance - 1.1 vs 1.2 Update Comparison

When it first came out, I knew that System Shock's remake was going to be a Steam Deck essential. Not only did it play extremely well, but it perfectly fits the handheld with its immersive sim gameplay and gorgeous 3D + pixel texture visual style. It was already running quite well, so when I heard about the new 1.2 update and all the improvements being made under the hood, I was shocked. It made me want to play the game all over again to see for myself.

On the surface, we do have some content changes, like a female choice as the hacker you play and a completely reworked final fight with new mechanics, and both of these are awesome, but some of the best changes came in the background. We have obvious things like cloud save support and enemies having new attacks, and we even have some great smaller changes like save file numbers being counted incrementally instead of randomly assigned numbers. However, my two favorite improvements have been the optimizations and changes to the gamepad.

The gamepad ones are fantastic and allow you to use the inventory menu and others much more easily, making playing on the Steam Deck 10x better. The optimization floored me, and I how much more playable System Shock is now. So, I had to do a look to see exactly how much performance improved, and I was floored by the results.

System Shock Version 1.1 Vs 1.2 Steam Deck Performance Comparison

Both versions were tested on Steam Deck OLED models with no CryoUtilities and a UMA Buffer set to 1G (default).

I did have access to the 1.2 version a little before the patch came out, but when I initially tried it, I only noticed minimal improvements that didn't warrant an article like this. But I decided to check it out again after release, and I am so glad I did. Where I first saw 5% higher FPS, I now saw almost 50% better frame rates, which made playing at 90 FPS throughout the game possible on low settings and playing at Ultra quality settings at 30 FPS a possibility as well.

The most impressive part of these optimizations was easily Ultra Quality's performance. Pre-1.2, System Shock tended to perform around 20 FPS throughout, with some drops below when running around the floors. However, after these optimizations, I have not seen any drop below 33 FPS, with some areas even getting up to 40. It isn't enough to justify shooting for a higher framerate than 30 FPS, but it's impressive nonetheless.

And if you are looking for higher framerates with lower graphical quality, you will be pleasantly surprised with the results! Across the board, the new 1.2 update has a great improvement on framerates while maintaining the visual quality from before. The only difference in quality is in the Medium and Low-quality settings with their shadows. It can be pretty jarring to see such a massive difference, considering how big of a deal shadows play in a space station:

But in the end, the pros outweigh the cons, and getting a stable 60 FPS, and even a mostly stable 90 FPS, is possible now. Even at the lowest level, this wasn't possible before 1.2 due to some drops when running around a lot. This doesn't happen nearly as much with 1.2; I am all here for it. I also noticed that without any limits, the new 1.2 version would drain a battery by 1W less, capping a 22W over 23W. I can't say why, and it doesn't make a massive difference, but it's something!

Ultra Quality:

High Quality:

Medium Quality:

Low Quality:

I have always loved System Shock's remake and felt it was one of the best games to play on the Steam Deck, but the new update makes it significantly better, which I didn't think was possible! Playing on the max quality settings (Ultra) at 30 FPS is definitely the way to go for me, but being able to play at 60 FPS on Medium settings and 40-50 at High is phenomenal, too.

With the better performance, more legible text, and gamepad improvements, this is the perfect time to get back into System Shock on the Deck, and if you haven't bought it yet, it is 55% off until April 25th to celebrate the new 1.2 patch! If you own a Steam Deck, or just like good games, do yourself a favor and buy this one.

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