Resident Evil Requiem landed only a few days ago, and Steam Deck owners quickly noticed something odd: Valve currently lists the game as Unsupported. That label usually signals a major problem, such as the game failing to launch or suffering from serious performance and compatibility issues. In this case, though, real-world testing suggests the Steam Deck rating doesn’t tell the whole story.
Valve’s Steam Deck verification system is meant to guide buyers by showing whether a game is Verified, Playable, Unsupported, or still Unknown. It’s a helpful idea in theory, especially for anyone who doesn’t want to spend money on a title that won’t run well on Valve’s handheld. The downside is that the system can be inconsistent, and Resident Evil Requiem is shaping up to be another example where the rating may be more misleading than useful.
Independent testing from SteamDeckHQ indicates Resident Evil Requiem is actually very playable on Steam Deck, even before making big changes. Their results show that performance varies depending on the environment. Indoor scenes are much easier for the handheld to handle and can push beyond 60 FPS without too much trouble. Outdoor areas are tougher, particularly early sections where Leon is outside, which puts more strain on the hardware.
Out of the box, the game defaults to FSR 1 and caps the frame rate at 30 FPS on the Steam Deck. That conservative setup likely contributes to the perception that it’s not a great handheld experience. But a few sensible settings tweaks appear to make a noticeable difference. SteamDeckHQ reports better results by switching most graphics options to low, moving to FSR 3.1.5 on Balanced or Quality, and setting texture filtering to 16x anisotropic to sharpen image quality without a major performance hit.
With those adjustments, they were able to target 45 FPS at 90Hz on the Steam Deck OLED while keeping HDR enabled. Power draw during gameplay reportedly sat around 16W to 18W, which is a reasonable range for good performance on the device. When the frame cap was removed, indoor sections could climb as high as roughly 80 FPS, although that higher frame rate came with a cost, pushing power usage above 22W.
Based on these results, Resident Evil Requiem might not meet the stricter standards to earn a Verified badge, but it also doesn’t seem to belong in the Unsupported category. It looks much closer to Playable, especially for users willing to spend a minute adjusting settings for smoother performance.
This also highlights a broader issue Steam Deck owners have run into for a while: Valve’s verification labels aren’t always a reliable snapshot of how a game performs in the real world. Some games marked Verified can still run poorly, while others labeled Unsupported may work fine after minor changes. The takeaway is simple: before buying a new release on Steam Deck, it’s smart to check recent gameplay tests and user impressions instead of relying only on the official rating.
