How to play on Steam Deck and the best settings
Many games can be played on the Steam deck with official support. However, not all titles work yet. Call of Duty: Warzone 2 is one of those games not yet on the list, partly due to Ricochet’s anti-cheat software, which requires a Windows operating system. You can still play war zone 2 on the Steam Deck, and this guide provides the workaround for setting it up. You should also make some changes to various device and in-game settings to avoid low fps and stuttering.
game guide war zone 2 on steam deck
Because Steam Deck Support is not official war zone 2, you need to use the dual boot method to load the Windows OS to meet the anti-cheat. Read our guide to installing Windows on Steam Deck if you haven’t already.
you can play war zone 2 via Battle.net or via Steam. We recommend the steam version, as it automatically recognizes the Steam Deck as a controller and offers input support. We can now talk about two device settings that need to be configured before loading war zone 2.
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UMA buffers and virtual memory optimizations
You must first access the device firmware. Hold the volume up “+” button and press the power button once. Keep holding the volume up button. This will boot into the UEFI (aka BIOS) where you can make the advanced device changes you need.
Once the Steam Deck firmware is loaded, select the “Setup Utility” option at the bottom right with the gear icon. In it, go to the “Advanced” tab and navigate down to “UMA Frame Buffer Size” to set it to 4GB. This ensures that the device allocates the maximum amount of VRAM war zone 2 so that he doesn’t run out of memory and stutter unnecessarily. You can exit the firmware after applying this setting.
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The next step is to provide additional virtual memory for the game to draw from and run smoother overall. You need at least 10GB of free space to use as virtual memory. Also remember to never fill your storage drive over 90% otherwise things will slow down and the storage drive will be affected. If you need to install a larger storage device in your Steam Deck, see this SSD replacement guide.
Let’s set up additional virtual memory. Open Windows File Explorer and navigate to the This PC icon, right-click the icon, and then select Properties to bring up these options. Next, go to “Advanced system settings” and open it. Click on the “Performance” tab and then on the next prompt “Settings”. From there you will see the “Virtual Memory” option, which you can change from 2GB to 10GB. Apply the changes and restart the device.
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begin war zone 2
You can walk now war zone 2 and go to the in-game settings menu. This is quite a demanding game, but it’s possible to get a playable experience averaging 60 fps in certain areas. Most gamers don’t want frame rate drops, so we recommend using low (Basic) settings and AMD FSR upscaling in the highest quality mode. You can also set the texture resolution to low and the video memory scaling to 75.
You’ll get decent performance in with these settings Call of Duty: Warzone 2 on the Steam deck, but you have to keep in mind that the device has limited performance potential. You can at least complete some challenges and work on Season Pass activities while getting some kills along the way, but that’s not how you play war zone 2 competitive on PC. Also keep in mind that unofficial support means that crashes and errors can occur, but that’s impressive nonetheless war zone 2 runs as good as on this handheld device.
The Steam Deck is a versatile device that allows you to play almost anything you want. Check out our picks for 38 great games to play on Steam Deck. You can even play PlayStation Plus games.