Is Civilization 7 Steam Deck compatible? This latest 4X game from the iconic Sid Meier series follows its predecessor in being a fantastic game to play on the Steam Deck, but goes one step further in gaining official verification. However, once you’re deep into a save and chasing world domination, the turns can get elongated as the dated hardware struggles with the demands.
The Civilization 7 system requirements always gave the impression that the game wouldn’t struggle to run on the best handheld gaming PC, but compatibility isn’t always about graphics. Luckily Civilization 7, like its predecessor, has controller support and adjustable text sizing, meaning it ports over well to the Steam Deck.
Is Civilization 7 Steam Deck compatible?
Yes, Civilization 7 is Steam Deck Verified, as confirmed by Firaxis Games. There are no aspects that require adjusting for the 4X game to run great on Valve’s handheld.
This is the first Civilization game to receive a Verified rating, with both Civ 5 and 6 being rated as Playable for varying reasons. Verification for Civilization 7 suggests that the moment you boot up the game, it should work perfectly with no adjustments needed.
Recommended Civilization 7 Steam Deck settings
The Steam Deck will run Civ 7 on high settings, but you’ll be stuck with at a max of 30fps and slowdown will occur graphically once the game map is heavily populated.
To play it safe, and to prevent having to adjust settings on the fly as a save goes on, it’s best to stick to the Low graphical preset for now, with AMD FSR 3 enabled to boost the frame rate slightly. This will lead to anywhere between 50fps and 80fps, depending on what is happening on screen.
- Upscale/Anti-Aliasing Mode: AMD FSR 3 Quality
- Asset Quality: Low
- Texture Detail: Low
- Particle Quality: Low
- Shadow Quality: Low
- Water Quality: Low
- Image Sharpness: Low
- Screen Space Shadows: Off
- Screen Space Overlay: Off
- Bloom: Off
- AMD FidelityFX Screen Space Reflections: Off
- AMD FidelityFX Ambient Occlusion: Low
- VSync: On
The AI benchmark is far more erratic on the Steam Deck as opposed to PC, with turns taking anywhere from under ten seconds to almost 40 seconds. Having run the benchmark a few times, however, the average time per turn usually comes back at around 21 seconds.
There is no need to force Proton compatibility to get the best out of Civ 7 on Steam Deck, and if you’re using an OLED model, you can expect the battery life to last anywhere between five hours in early game situations, to less than two hours when the entire map is in play and all players are cycling through their turns.
For more on Civ 7, you can check out our Civilization 7 leaders guide and our guide to all the best Civilization 7 mods.
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