Avowed may run on a 9-year-old GPU, but Steam Deck looks like a no-go unless you like sub-30fps upscaled at minimum settings

Obsidian's latest RPG, Avowed, is a real gem, just don't expect to take it with you on the go. In addition to crashing on startup on the ASUS ROG Ally in hardware writer Nick Evanson's Avowed performance analysis, I've found that the game runs booboo at best on the more ubiquitous Steam Deck.

Avowed remains tagged with an "unknown" Steam Deck compatibility rating on its store page, but I decided to give it a shot and see if it could be stretched to a playable frame rate on the handheld. Its minimum required GPU, the GTX 1070, came out all the way back in 2016, and recent RPGs with 10-series minimum specs like Cyberpunk 2077, Baldur's Gate 3, and Elden Ring have all been able to hit 30fps on the Deck. Unfortunately, Avowed is not joining their ranks.

Just exploring the open world with every setting minimized and FSR performance enabled, I was getting a sluggish 20-25 fps, and I didn't even bother trying to get into a fight with those numbers. I suppose you could go further and try lowering the resolution below the Deck's 1280x800 native res in addition to the upscaling, but at that point we're reaching a state well below the most ambitious, ill-considered Nintendo Switch ports in terms of "you don't have to live like this."

It makes sense with Avowed primarily targeting 30fps on Xbox Series consoles, and the GTX 1070 min spec is a step above the GTX 1060 or 970 demanded by so many games that can reach playable frame rates on Deck. Avowed is still well worth experiencing sitting upright at your desktop, though, and I've found it to have pretty smooth performance at medium-high settings and 1440p on an RTX 3070. For a full breakdown of Avowed's performance across various hardware configurations and resolutions, you can check out Nick's in-depth Avowed performance analysis.