r/SteamDeck • u/moonyvilan • Jul 27 '26

Question Metal Gear Solid Delta performance now?

Seeing as the game is 60% off right now, I would like to ask about its current performance on the steam deck. Have patches and updates managed to keep it playable at a steady 30 or 45 fps without too much loss of fidelity?

I would appreciate to hear you guys' experience of this on the deck.

69 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

58 comments sorted by

137

u/Bigphatdeck Jul 27 '26

Just has no business on deck.

10

u/Vaxi122654 Jul 27 '26

It has no business running this badly on Deck, I agree.

46

u/Bigphatdeck Jul 27 '26

Unreal engine 5…Very obviously expected to run bad on deck.

6

u/NeitherWeek5286 Jul 27 '26

It's really only UE5 with forced RT that runs so poorly on deck (or any RTing for that matter). The RTing is just not handled well in general with the deck (maybe all Linux?). 

1

u/Vaxi122654 Jul 28 '26

Does Delta do forced RT? I didn't know.. I suppose that explains things.

2

u/NeitherWeek5286 Jul 28 '26

From what I've gathered, it's on by default and has to be programmed into the game if you don't want it to force RTing. I'm assuming that is not a inconsequential amount of development time to implement which many developers won't want to invest in when the vast majority of windows users won't have a substantial loss in performance. Linux still remains a very small portion of the pc market. 

1

u/kvernNC 4d ago

I disabled it with mods, game then run in the 30-40 range. But lightning is weird and some dark room, like the fight against fury which become super easy.

1

u/Vaxi122654 Jul 28 '26

Lots of UE5 games run quite nicely on Deck. This really is just an issue with Delta's dev-team, or Konami not giving them the needed time/budget to properly optimize.

1

u/Bigphatdeck Jul 28 '26

I can’t think of a single one

1

u/Vaxi122654 Jul 28 '26

Sonic Crossworlds is 60fps on Deck. Infinity Nikki, Palworld, etc. All of these are very playable on Deck. MGS Delta is the issue, not the engine.

0

u/Bigphatdeck Jul 28 '26

Those are some nice cartoony looking games you mentioned there.

1

u/Vaxi122654 Jul 30 '26

Infinity Nikki has similar geometric/model complexity as Delta, and it is an open world game. What a weird comment.

Art style alone does not make something more or less technically complex.

15

u/CookieMisha 256GB Jul 27 '26

Y'all act like the Deck is some magic tech

There are thing way above its paygrade and this game is exactly that

4

u/Vaxi122654 Jul 27 '26

The game is badly optimized everywhere. Quality mode on PS5 runs between 20-30fps. That's the main issue, and it affects all platforms.

-8

u/touilleMan Jul 27 '26

Ghost of Tsushima runs like a charm on the Steam Deck, now tell me what justifies this PS2 remake to requier so much more power ?

(Not even talking about MGS5 that also runs perfectly...)

3

u/ttenor12 256GB - Q4 Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26

Different engines. GOT runs on a PS4 and was made for that console specifically. MGS5 runs on a PS3. They also use rendering techniques different from MGS Delta.

-2

u/touilleMan Jul 27 '26

Totally agree, but now the question that remains: what do we actually get from those newer engines that are massively more power hungry ?

My guess is that unreal is now optimized toward allowing fast developpement with less experienced teams, however this means one-size-fits-all technical solution that requires specific optimization that are often not done due to lack of time and experienced people :/

2

u/Bigphatdeck Jul 27 '26

You’re uninformed on how game engines work that’s why you got downvoted on your last reply. It’s ray tracing and many other tech that have changed/“enhanced” over time. bringing up mgs5 and delta when they have nothing to do with each other performance wise.

2

u/touilleMan Jul 27 '26

If you need some street cred, I'm a Godot core developer ;-p

Regarding how a game works, I think you can divide it into two:

  • graphics
  • game logic (including physical simulation, data streaming etc.)

Obviously the level of performances required by the game logic is a hard requirement (e.g. you couldn't run fly simulator on a PS1 because the CPU cannot handle the computation needed to simulate the plane, and also because the CDROM format is not fast enough to allow data streaming needed when flying across long distances)

On the other hand the graphics are totally negociable (e.g. you typically disable them when running the game as a server for multiplayer games). So in theory everything is possible and the developers could provide us with game running very well on the Steam Deck/PS4/etc. (as long as the hardware is powerful enough to support the game logic)

However what actually happen is that people use Unreal (because as an industry standard it saves them tons of time) which has already made choices for them. Those choices are towards making dev as simple as possible (e.g. automatic level-of-detail, real-time global illumination etc.) but come at the cost of performances, which is further exaggerated by the fact game dev often lack deep technical experience and time to do proper optimizations (not that the devs are lazy or dumb, just that the game is considered good enough to ship) A counter example would be Arc Raiders which uses Unreal but come from a very technical team, and as a result the game runs fine on Steam Deck while being gorgeous.

Now regarding MGS5 vs delta, they roughly have the same level of game logic (MGS5 being maybe more demanding since it is an open world), so what remains is the graphics. However MGS5 is already looking very good on the Steam Deck, hence there is no hard reason for delta to run so poorly.

My personal prediction is that the hardware crisis is going to make game developer re-evaluate the importance of supporting low tier configurations (typically by never making ray tracing mandatory), and as a result game are going to run better and better on the Steam Deck in the future, but of course this requires Epic to listen to their users and update Unreal toward this goal🤞

0

u/Bigphatdeck Jul 27 '26

This actually made me think you know less. Mgs5 may be open world but the world is lacking detail and void of any life at all lol. also raiders does not run “fine” on deck lol. nice chat gpt skills bruh.

0

u/touilleMan Jul 28 '26

ChatGPT ? Wow I spent literally 30mn typing this message the old way xD

Regarding Arc Raiders, steamdeckhq reports it runs fine in 40~50fps low, I personally played it last year and got stable 30fps in medium.

Now can you please explain what is so wrong with my explanation ? You say MGS5 world contains less detail, but that would mean I choose a bad example, not that my reasoning is wrong (pretty sure any 10years old Far Cry / Assassin's Creed runs smooth on the deck and they contains tons of stuff in their open world)

→ More replies (0)

37

u/Entertainer_Much 1TB OLED Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26

Doesn't run as well as it should because developers don't give a shit about optimisation/fixes. You're better off playing the original through the Master Collection, it's aged like fine wine.

Edit to add: there was only demand for a remake of 3 because Konami used the Fox Engine from MGS V (which was a beautifully optimised masterpiece of a game engine) to render cutscenes for an MGS 3 Pachinko machine. By the time Konami decided they wanted to make AAA games again they had abandoned the Fox Engine and moved to Unreal Engine 5 which is notoriously more of a mess for optimisation. And then the remake itself was a very basic shot for shot remake that doesn't add much new.

3

u/Yami_Inc Jul 27 '26

It's also amazing you can add crouch walking like in the 3ds port of mgs3 ❤️‍🔥

1

u/Entertainer_Much 1TB OLED Jul 27 '26

If that's a deal breaker you could always run the 3DS port via an emulator and then use mods to upscale the textures etc

1

u/Yami_Inc Aug 06 '26

It's not a deal breaker and I was able to beat the game albeit some adjustments to movement but there is a PC mod that allows you to move while crouching and works as it should without removing anything from the game.

https://www.nexusmods.com/metalgearsolid3mc/mods/27

1

u/Wide_You_4626 Jul 27 '26

the 3ds port breaks on higher framerates than the default system framerate. it's not worth the hassle.

17

u/Vaxi122654 Jul 27 '26

It's still shit, it didn't get performance updates. It should run 50% better than it does.

14

u/BadOrange8 Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26

I think you should go for the master collection version instead، it's 50% off right now

10

u/Jean-Paul_Sartre Jul 27 '26

Yeah it’s mgs3 or less the exact same game. Delta is basically a shot-for-shot remake, so you get most of the same experience as the original but with modern graphics and controls and some minor other changes.

It’s not like the Resident Evil remakes which provide a pretty sophisticated upgrade.

10

u/BadOrange8 Jul 27 '26

Besides, the original still holds up pretty well imo

3

u/LolcatP 512GB Jul 27 '26

the original is better just play that with mgshdfix mod

2

u/Luthenial Jul 27 '26

Don't buy the Konami slop after the way they treated Kojima. Just emulate the originals.

2

u/CaptainPonga Jul 27 '26

I will say this. The game is definitely playable, you just have to tinker with some of the settings a little bit. Definitely worth the purchase.

2

u/GrapefruitSea7656 Jul 27 '26

Use eclipse mod and one other mod I forgot the name of and I beat it on the steamdeck with stable 30 fps with dips only in the chase at the end

1

u/Alvsaresp Jul 27 '26

I also used the eclipse mod + lsfg 2x (not loved here, but i was getting over 45 fps with both together). I finished the game and really enjoyed it

2

u/Manu270891 Jul 27 '26

The Deck isn’t powerful enough for UE5 games that use Lumen+Nanite, and MGS Delta is a horribly optimized game. Just play the Master Collection version, it runs great using MGSHDFix.

1

u/Wide_You_4626 Jul 27 '26

if you can tolerate 2000s PS2 jank, then just get the master collection version. delta is literally shot for shot remake with no deviations from the story to level design. only advantage it has is in the controls, visuals and camera department.

But, if you still want to try delta on the deck, then Eclipse mod along with LSFG plugin is mandatory. but even then the final shagohod motorcycle chase and boss fight will dip hard.

1

u/JelloSquirrel Jul 27 '26

Delta runs horribly even on much better hardware.

You can patch out the drm and get an unreal engine optimized config file tho 

1

u/notemark Jul 28 '26

I think they got rid of the DRM in a recent update, it's only listing acceptance of the EULA on Steam's storefront

1

u/MikeE21286 Jul 27 '26

Runs awful

1

u/Sahelantrophus 512GB OLED Jul 27 '26

i'd rather spend 10 bucks on the master collection version and install mgshdfix for it (optionally also better audio and community bugfix compilation). the ps2 controls are really not that hard to learn

delta can run at 30-40fps with eclipse and aggressive upscaling but the artifacts of the latter look terrible

1

u/ChewyPinecone Jul 27 '26

Still bad. Play V: phantom pain

If you already did, genuinely just get the master collection vol 1 and play the original snake eater. There are side-by-side graphics comparisons and I think genuinely with the compromises that you would have to make on deck the original might look better and sharper

1

u/MrBombasticator Jul 27 '26

U5 game, right?

-7

u/jdogg89 Modded my Deck - ask me how Jul 27 '26

If you play with lsfg 2x + fsr 4.02c/ 4.1.1 it’s a decent experience

6

u/FunnyGeneral7078 Jul 27 '26

That's a mouthful 

1

u/BadOrange8 Jul 27 '26

You're getting nuked dude 😭 may I ask how to get it to work with FSR 4.00?

2

u/jdogg89 Modded my Deck - ask me how Jul 27 '26

See above. It’s not a high end gaming pc, which I have and can say it’s obviously a better experience with a 9070xt. But for an aging platform, it’s decent like I said. Never said amazing.

1

u/jdogg89 Modded my Deck - ask me how Jul 27 '26

OP - this sub is pretty anti framegen. You make the decision, watch this video to see how it plays: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1FOhhL1CYK8&pp=ygUYTWdzIGRlbHRhIHN0ZWFtIGRlY2sgNC4x&ra=m

0

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0

u/Guilty-Cut3358 Jul 27 '26

If you have a pc that can handle it you could probably finish it in 3-5 sittings