The best graphics settings for The Last of Us Part 1 on the Steam Deck

The Last of Us Part 1 includes a slew of new graphics enhancements. It expands on the game from the PlayStation 3 era by introducing a number of improvements to meet current-gen standards and expectations. These enhancements, however, come at a price; the game fails to operate correctly on PC, even on contemporary hardware. Many people blame poor optimization.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlWgZhMtlWo

Introducing Steam Deck (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlWgZhMtlWo)

Valve’s entrance into the handheld gaming market is the Steam Deck. It is powered by an AMD APU, which consists of a Ryzen Zen 2 CPU and an RDNA 2 GPU. Despite its small size, it packs a punch and can play most new titles, including Hogwarts Legacy, Resident Evil 4 Remake, Atomic Heart, and others.

This article will go over the optimum graphical settings for The Last of Us Part 1 on the Steam Deck.

The Last of Us Part 1’s Steam Deck isn’t perfect yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuaeF2tCQ24

The Last Of Us Part 1 On Steam Deck! Playable? 🤔 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuaeF2tCQ24)

The Last of Us Part 1 has yet to acquire a ‘Playable’ or ‘Verified’ rating for the Steam Deck, despite being playable. It is currently under-optimized for all PC platforms, including the Deck, resulting in crashes, performance difficulties, stuttering, and other concerns.

Most of these performance concerns, however, can be alleviated to some extent by using suitable graphics settings. This article recommends settings that provide a good balance of playable framerate and nice visuals. However, the following are the optimum visual settings for The Last of Us Part 1 with the Steam Deck:

Display

General

Display: 1
Display Mode: Fullscreen
Display Ratio: Auto
Display Resolution: 1280×720
Ultrawide Pillarboxes: Off
V-Sync: Off
Framerate Cap: Unlocked

Resolution scaling

Scaling Mode: AMD FSR 2
Render Scale: Locked
Quality: Performance
Sharpening: Between 30 and 40

Effects

Field of View: As per the user’s preference.
Camera Shake: As per the user’s preference.
Motion Blur: As per the user’s preference.
Chromatic Aberration Intensity: As per the user’s preference.
Film Grain Intensity: As per the user’s preference.
Gore: As per the user’s preference.

Graphics

Graphics Preset: Custom
Animation Quality: Medium

Geometry Settings

Draw Distance: Low
Dynamic Object Level of Detail: Medium
Character Level of Detail: Medium
Environment Level of Detail: Low

Texture Settings

Dynamic Object Texture Quality: Locked
Character Texture Quality: Locked
Environment Texture Quality: Locked
Visual Effects Texture Quality: Locked
Texture Filtering: Anisotropic 2x
Texture Sampling Quality: Medium

Lighting Settings

Ambient Shadow Quality: Quarter Resolution
Directional Shadow Resolution: Low
Directional Shadow Distance: Low
Image Based Lighting: Off
Spotlight Shadow Resolution: Low
Point Lights Shadow Resolution: Low
Bounced Lighting: Off
Screen Space Shadows Quality: Low
Dynamic Screen Space Shadows: Off
Contact Shadow Quality: Medium
Screen Space Ambient Occlusion: Off
Ambient Occlusion Denoise Quality: Low
Screen Space Directional Occlusion: Off
Screen Space Cone Tracing: Off

Reflections Settings

Screen Space Reflections: Off
Screen Space Reflections Accuracy: Locked
Screen Space Reflections Distance: Locked
Glossy Reflections Quality: Locked
Real-time Reflections Quality: Low
Real-time Cloud Shadow Reflections: Off

Shading Settings

Screen Space Sub-Surface Scattering: Low
Refraction Quality: Half Resolution

Post-Effects Settings

Depth of Field: As per the user’s preference.
Depth of Field Quality: As per the user’s preference.
Motion Blur Quality: As per the user’s preference.
Motion Blur Resolution: As per the user’s preference.
Bloom Resolution: As per the user’s preference.

Visual Effects Settings

Volumetric Effects Quality: Low
Lens Flare: As per the user’s preference.

Given that The Last of Us Part 1 was only launched yesterday, March 28, the game’s current flaws are expected to be rectified shortly. In the meanwhile, you might try the aforementioned settings for a more stable experience.