Avowed may run on a 9-year-old GPU, but Steam Deck looks like a no-go unless you like sub-30fps upscaled at minimum settings

Knight in full helmet addressing the player in Avowed.

Obsidian's latest RPG, Avowed, is a real gem, just don't expect to take it with you on the go. In addition to crashing on startup on the ASUS ROG Ally in hardware writer Nick Evanson's Avowed performance analysis, I've found that the game runs booboo at best on the more ubiquitous Steam Deck.

Avowed remains tagged with an "unknown" Steam Deck compatibility rating on its store page, but I decided to give it a shot and see if it could be stretched to a playable frame rate on the handheld. Its minimum required GPU, the GTX 1070, came out all the way back in 2016, and recent RPGs with 10-series minimum specs like Cyberpunk 2077, Baldur's Gate 3, and Elden Ring have all been able to hit 30fps on the Deck. Unfortunately, Avowed is not joining their ranks.