Resident Evil Requiem: A Technical Triumph on Steam Deck

A Hawaii Vacation Interrupted by Survival Horror

As the golden Hawaiian sun sets over the Pacific, most tourists are trading their flip-flops for beach chairs and cocktails. But not me. While the waves crash just steps away from my hotel, I’m hunched over my Steam Deck, diving deeper into the latest entry in Capcom’s legendary survival horror franchise.

Resident Evil Requiem has captivated players since its release, with our reviewer Elie Gould praising it for “wrapping all the best elements of previous Resident Evil games into one.” And after spending hours with the game, I can confirm—this isn’t just another sequel. It’s a masterclass in how to evolve a beloved franchise while respecting its roots.

The Steam Deck’s Enduring Appeal

Four years after Valve’s handheld gaming PC hit the market, it continues to surprise. In an era where even 30fps can be elusive for new triple-A titles on the modest hardware, Requiem stands as a testament to both Capcom’s technical prowess and the Steam Deck’s staying power.

When the Steam Deck launched, Resident Evil 2 Remake was one of its standout titles. I remember writing at the time about achieving “a genuine ‘wow, this really works?’ moment” with a mix of low and mid settings delivering a smooth 60fps experience on such a relatively new and gorgeous game.

The RE Engine’s Redemption Arc

Capcom’s proprietary RE Engine has had a tumultuous reputation recently. While it’s known for delivering stunning visuals that scale impressively well to lower-end hardware, the engine stumbled badly with open-world titles like Monster Hunter Wilds and Dragon’s Dogma 2, both suffering from major performance issues that took months of updates to address.

But here’s the thing about the RE Engine—it was built for Resident Evil. And Requiem proves that when Capcom sticks to what the engine does best, magic happens.

As PC Gamer’s Nick Evanson noted in his comprehensive performance analysis, Requiem introduces some shiny new tricks like path-traced lighting, but the real triumph is the smooth, consistent performance. “Compared to the disappointment of Dragon’s Dogma 2 and Monster Hunter Wilds, in terms of graphics and performance, Resident Evil Requiem is a breath of fresh air,” he wrote. “But then again, it should be, as it’s not an open world game and the levels are generally quite compact.”

My Steam Deck Optimization Journey

While Nick encountered major issues running Requiem on the Windows-based ROG Ally, I’ve experienced zero problems on the Steam Deck at a very playable framerate. Initially, I let Requiem set the graphics options automatically, which defaulted everything to the lowest settings.

Through experimentation, I discovered a sweet spot that locks the framerate at a stable 40fps with meaningful visual improvements:

• Hair Strands: On (from main menu)
• Screen space reflections: On
• AMD FSR 3.1.5 upscaling: Balanced
• Volumetric fog: Low
• Shadow quality: Normal
• Ambient occlusion: Low

As YouTuber Santiago Santiago demonstrates in his comprehensive breakdown, Requiem can maintain 40fps even during Leon’s action-heavy sequences on the Deck, though you’ll notice some shimmering from AMD FSR 3 upscaling.

Why 40fps Over 30fps?

You might wonder why I’m targeting 40fps instead of simply bumping up some graphics settings and locking at the 30fps that consoles have delivered for decades. The answer lies in the sweet spot between responsiveness and performance.

Human perception is complex, but there’s something noticeably better about the lower frame times at 40fps—exactly halfway between 30fps’s 33.33ms and 60fps’s 16.66ms. While the math isn’t everything, it at least feels true that you can achieve a meaningful bump in responsiveness with only a modest performance cost.

The First Half: Smooth Sailing

If you’re playing in the more confined first-person view, maintaining a consistent 40fps with few dips is surprisingly achievable. I noticed more framerate fluctuations when switching to the expansive third-person camera, particularly with the fast camera movement from over-the-shoulder aiming.

Much of the game has you playing as Grace in confined hallways with just one or two enemies around at a time, making 40fps a very reasonable target for at least the first half of Requiem.

A Perfect Match

If I were at home, I’d undoubtedly prefer playing Resident Evil Requiem on my OLED monitor with its inky blacks and a 120fps framerate cap. But as distractions from the boundless beauty of the natural world go, it turns out that Resident Evil and the Steam Deck are still an eerily good match.

Seven years after the Resident Evil 2 Remake proved the Steam Deck’s potential, Requiem demonstrates that this handheld gaming PC still has plenty of life left—and that Capcom hasn’t forgotten how to optimize for it.

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