Fallout: New Vegas is hands down one of the best RPGs ever made, and thanks to Valve's Steam Deck, fans have been able to play it for a while. But how exactly does it fare on the handheld, and what are the best settings to use? Well, keep reading.
Can Fallout New Vegas run on the Steam Deck?
The Fallout: New Vegas Steam page lists the game as “Playable” on Steam Deck, but as with many titles with this tag, it actually runs without problems. Well, almost: you have to play with the trackpads and launcher every time you fire it up (a real pain if playing in docked mode), but luckily, there's a fix for that (more on that below). You also have to change the resolution when you first turn it on, but this is as minor a sin as it gets.
How to disable the launcher for Fallout: New Vegas on Steam Deck
You can do this with trackpads and the on-screen keyboard, but it will be much easier with a dock and a mouse and keyboard. In any case, follow these instructions:
- Switch to Desktop Mode
- Open Steam
- Right click on Fallout: New Vegas
- Choose Properties
- Choose Installed Files (left side of the screen)
- Choose to browse (top right)
- In the folder that opens, locate Fallout NV.exe and FalloutNVLauncher.exe
- Remove or backup FalloutNVLauncher.exe (the latter if you want to be safe)
- Rename FalloutNV.exe to FalloutNVLauncher.exe
From then on, launching the game will skip the launcher. Of course, you only want to do this after you've changed the settings to your liking (see below).
Related: Does Fallout 3 work on Steam Deck? (Best Settings)
Best settings for Fallout: New Vegas on Steam Deck
Since it's an older title and even for its time the graphics weren't exactly cutting edge, Fallout: New Vegas will run at a buttery smooth 60FPS at max settings on Steam Deck. As such, there's nothing really recommended in terms of game settings if you're looking for a healthy balance of performance and graphics—just max everything out. That said, you have to be careful to tune Antialiasing to 8 samples and resolution to 1200×800, because the Ultra prediction won't do it for you; doing so will ensure smoother edges on NPCs, weapons and basically anything in the game.
However, I recommend turning off V-Sync in the launcher menu to reduce input lag, which means the game can feel more responsive to your inputs (the cost is potential screen tearing, but I didn't notice any in my playtime). For the same purpose, you can open the Performance menu by clicking the three dots (…) button in the lower right section of the Deck and clicking the lightning bolt symbol. From there, click on 'Disable Frame Limit' and 'Allow Tearing'.
The other consideration is of course battery life. In my testing, you will deal 4 hours at maximum settingsand about an hour more if you fall to the low Default, 45 minutes on Medium, and . The difference in graphics is surprisingly not bad, so if you are on a long trip without a battery and desperate for some extra juice, it will serve you quite well.
Looking for more Fallout content? Check out Shady Sands in Fallout 4? here in Pro Game Guides.
