Though it launched to critical acclaim and fan adoration, FromSoftware's Elden Ring isn't without its issues. The majority of these problems stem from the game's technical implementation, which leaves much to be desired on almost all platforms, short of playing the PS4 version of the game on PS5 via backward compatibility.The new Steam Deck, however, seems to have a particularly rough go at running Elden Ring properly, and it's not due to hardware limitations. One of Valve's engineers has now announced that this may well change with the next version of Steam Deck's Windows compatibility layer, Proton.Specifically, this piece of news comes from Pierre-Loup Griffais, one of Valve's coders working on Steam Deck software. Griffais said that his team is working on deploying fixes for Elden Ring's well-documented stuttering issues, which seem to be caused by the game streaming assets in the background, in real-time. The lucky few that already have a Steam Deck at hand may test these changes out via the bleeding-edge Experimental branch of Proton, should they wish to do so.
On their own, these issues may seem like they're being caused by the device's hardware not being able to keep up with the game, but since Elden Ring is Steam Deck verified, this shouldn't be the case. Not only are virtually all platforms experiencing stutter problems in Elden Ring to a different extent, but the framerate itself also seems to be reasonably stable on the Deck. 30 FPS, at least, should be easy to achieve.
Further still, there are plenty of benchmarks available showing off how capable the device is. Even the infamously hardware-hungry Cyberpunk 2077 runs well on Steam Deck, meaning that the device should deliver solid performance once the stuttering issues are resolved.
While the vast majority of Steam Deck buyers are yet to receive their devices, some users have reported that Valve CEO Gabe Newell is delivering Steam Decks himself, though it's likely safe to assume that this isn't going to be a common thing moving forward. It's unknown how many Decks may already have been delivered to their owners at this time, but owners looking to enjoy Elden Ring on the go should have a better experience with the next version of Proton, which is set to launch sometime next week.
Elden Ring is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
