The big PC launch of God of War Ragnarok went pretty smoothly, with the PC version even coming with new settings and solid performance across a wide range of hardware. There is a hard limit on 4GB GPUs to account for (luckily there’s a mod that bypasses this), not that this is a problem for the Steam Deck. In fact, the game was Verified on the Deck not too long after it launched and we’ve decided to try it out for ourselves.
One thing you do need to account for is the fact that the file size is huge. There’s 175GB to unpack, with the download size sitting at just about 100GB (100.1GB to be exact). Either way, on our 256GB Steam Deck, it did require a fair bit of disk space spring cleaning to get the download started – something not everyone will be happy about.
Ragnarok’s performance isn’t too bad on the Steam Deck
Steam Deck players were quick to try out GOW Ragnarok on their devices to a surprising amount of success. Over on this Reddit megathread for the game, players report getting a consistent high-40 to 50+ FPS, even while in a busy boss battle. This was achieved with FSR 3.1 set to balanced and every other setting on default.
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Well, we’ve put that to the test and can also report that it’s not too shabby. We were a little dubious about the Verified status considering it doesn’t always equate to top-tier performance, but it seems like the AAA title is well optimized for the PC platform.
God of War Ragnarok gameplay screenshot on Steam Deck, image by PCGuide
With help from AMD FSR 3.1 and frame generation, we were able to hold around 45-60 FPS during our stint of gameplay, making it nicely playable without massively degraded graphics quality. Loading straight into the game wasn’t the most enjoyable experience, but some setting tweaks made all the difference – even settings such as motion blur and film grain, somewhat surprisingly.
Furthermore, we made sure we were running at the maximum 15 Watts TDP to draw the most power out of the deck. Here are a few key in-game settings we recommend using for the best performance:
| Display Mode | Fullscreen |
| VSync | Off |
| Aspect Ratio | Auto |
| Frame Rate Limit | Off |
| Frame Gen | AMD FSR-FG |
| Scaling Method | AMD FSR 3.1 |
| Scaling Quality | Balanced |
| Quality Preset | Low |
| Film Grain | 0 |
| Motion Blur | 0 |
The file size is the biggest downside for us
Now on to the topic of file size. As soon as those system requirements went live and we saw the ‘190GB SSD’ requirement, we knew it would be a hard sell on the Steam Deck (unless you happen to have plenty of additional storage space fitted). Luckily, the final download size wasn’t quite as large, but enough that we had to uninstall a couple of games to make room. So, as of now, Ragnarok takes up a sizeable 176.48GB of our Steam Deck’s total 226.6GB usable storage – not ideal in the slightest.
As we mentioned above, we’re using the (currently in-rotation) 256GB LCD model, so the game certainly restricts what we can do with our library while it’s installed; especially after taking into account Proton downloads, media, and so on. We’re left with just 3.6GB, so maybe we can fit a couple of small indie games or classics. Take me back to when 3GB was considered a normal amount of space for a AAA title.
Anyway, this is one of the reasons why finding a great SSD for your Steam Deck is generally advised, especially if you’re someone with the older 64GB model which has now been phased out. Luckily there are plenty out there and we tend to see deals running on a regular basis.
