Though theMortal Kombatseries is cartoonishly gory, the graphics of Netherrealm Studios' longtime series have constantly pushed the bar. Even the 3D games from the late 90s and early 2000s, whichMortal Kombat 1often refers to for inspiration, pushed what the relatively small studio was capable of at the time, even if the visuals haven’t aged gracefully.
ButMK1sets a new graphical bar not only for the series, but for gaming in general. Some of the animations and models players see in the campaign are as close to life asMortal Kombathas ever come, and the gameplay itself looks just as stunning as Johnny Cage’s closeups. One might think this means it doesn’t run well on theSteam Deck– in fact,Mortal Kombat 1on the Steam Deck looks better, and runs better, thanthe official Nintendo Switch version of the game.
MK1 In-Game Graphics Settings For 60 FPS
InMortal Kombat 1there are two in-game graphics menus that can alter the way that the game renders. There is the general Video & Audio menu, which can be accessed on the main menu on the home screen, and the Advanced Graphics menu, which only pops up when prompted while within the Video & Audio screen.
This sub-menu is not normally visible, so players must press their Start button (or equivalent for their consoles) to make the separate Graphics options inMK1show up. These settings should get the game to run at a stable 50 to 60 FPS without making any adjustments to the external Steam Deck settings. Players can also try to use the Auto-Configure setting to let the game choose the right options for them – but it might just set everything to Low, when theSteam Deck can actually handle better than the bare minimum.
Advanced Graphics
Mortal Kombat 1 Steam Deck Settings, Optimized
ThoughMortal Kombat 1is pretty optimized and ready to play without many changes, altering a few settings in the Steam Deck menucan significantly improve performance. For one, the recent 3.5 OS preview fixed some backend issues with the Steam Deck and it now runs games better than it used to, across the board. Other settings can contribute greatly to the game’sability to run on the Steam Deck, too.
To get to the Steam Deck settings menu, press the button with three dots on the right side of the Steam Deck. Then, scroll down to the Performance section, which should contain the following modifiable settings.
Mortal Kombat 1is available for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.
