Red Dead Redemption 2

I’ve been playing Red Dead Redemption 2 on my SteamDeck and it’s been a really great exerience. For a game that is over 3 years old, I will spare you a review of the actual game. We all know it’s a well made game that is very loved by the community. This is a review of the game on my SteamDeck.
Skip to My Recommended Settings

SteamDeck Experience

I’ve been playing this game mostly docked at 1080p simply because I feel it’s so gorgeous looking it deserves to be seen on a larger screen. I use the SteamDeck’s native FSR 1.0 upscaling from 720 to 1080p because I feel it looks slightly nicer than the in game FSR 2.0. I recognize that the in game FSR might net you a couple extra FPS, but I feel it muddies things a bit and I happily let the minor FPS boost go for the benefit of visual fidelity.

Most of my gameplay has been in the single player campaign, but do have a Red Dead Online character and have done some minor gameplay and feel the performance and fidelity are the same as the single player campaign (less the aspects of playing with other humans).

My SteamDeck settings below below give me a really nice balance of enjoyable FPS and amazing visual fidelity. Let’s be real, you can play this game and get super FPS by lowering the settings, but if you are not seeing rainbows in the waterfall mists, then you are really missing out on the visual experience.

I rate it Almost 5 Stars because it crashed a couple times and it requires an online connection to play. Since this is my review, I dont weight the online requirement very heavy as I just play at home and it doesn’t effect my gameplay.

ProtonDB

Red Dead Redemption 2 currently has a ProtonDB Rating of Gold. The current Deck Verified Status is ‘Playable’. The biggest complaint could be seen as requirments of an Active Internet Connection for setup as well as online and single player.

This game’s launcher/setup tool may require the touchscreen or virtual keyboard, or have difficult to read text
Some in-game text is small and may be difficult to read
All functionality is accessible when using the default controller configuration
This game shows Steam Deck controller icons
This game’s default graphics configuration performs well on Steam Deck
This game’s first-time setup requires an active Internet connection
Singleplayer gameplay requires an active Internet connection

SteamDeck Settings

I play mostly docked at 1080 but also play on deck.
When I do I just change the resolution from 720 to 800.

I am also using CryoByte33 Utilities on my SteamDeck (using recommended settings). I am a fan of his work and he has a nice YouTube Channel that goes deep into game and deck settings.

SteamDeck Settings: Configuration for SteamDeck in GameMode

Get CryoByte33 Utilities. Use the recommended settings. (Not required but I recommend it as it does a couple nice things to the deck/os)
Go into the SteamDeck Settings (left menu) and set the resolution to your display. Mine is 1920x1080@120. This is the video signal resolution the deck will generate.
Go into the RDR2 SteamDeck Settings (gear icon, then settings): General - Game Resolution: Native

Change the Scaler: Use the Native FSR

When in Game, press the (…) button to bring the left menu up.
Go to the Performance Menu (the one that is a battery)
Change ‘Scaling Filter’ to FSR.
Select a value for FSR Sharpness. (I’m using 5 for RDR2)

As I said above, I prefer the visual differences the system FSR gives over the FSR implementation in the game itself. The tradeoff is a couple of FPS, but I feel FSR 2.0 looks a tad bit muddy in comparison.

In Game Settings: The actual ‘In Game’ settings of RDR2

I’m no expert but I went for a higher fidelity choice, you could prob go all medium settings for some extra frames but then you don’t get all the rainbows in the mist and the extra pretty stuff.

Resolution 1280x720 This is the frame size it will actually render.
This will make the game render at 720p and then the deck will upscale it to 1080p.
Refresh Rate: 120 (my monitor)
Full Screen
VSync: On
Trippel Buffering: On

Preset: Custom

Texture Quality: Ultra
Anisotropic Filtering: 16x
Lighting Quality: High
Global Illumination Quality: High
Shadow Quality: High
Far Shadow Quality: High
Screen Space Ambient Occlusion High
Reflection Quality: Medium
Mirror Quality: Medium
Water Quality: Medium (This could probably be High)
Volumetrics Quality: High
Particle Quality: High
AMD FRS 2.0: Off
TAA: Medium

Where to Buy

I recommend purchasing from Steam directly as that makes everything easiest on SteamDeck. I’m not sure about this game, but technical bits like shadercaches have me recomending acquiring games directly from Steam.

^{Disclaimer: Amazon links are my affiliate links to keep the lights on for JB’s Lab.}

Box Text

From the creators of Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption, Red Dead Redemption 2 is an epic tale of life in America at the dawn of the modern age.
America, 1899. The end of the wild west era has begun as lawmen hunt down the last remaining outlaw gangs
Winner of over 175 Game of the Year Awards

Join Me

Join me at my Steam Group or Reddit and check out my Steam Review of RDR2 as well as other games on my Steam Curator Page. Likewise click on any of the screen shots above to view them at my steam profile.