Steam Deck

Halo: The Master Chief Collection Best Steam Deck Settings

Crush the Covenant on the go with these optimized settings for the best portable Halo: MCC experience.

Halo is a seminal series in shooters, known for its addictive sci-fi shooting and iconic armor-clad hero (and for setting an industry-wide standard for gamepad controls in shooters). Now all the series' mainline titles up to Halo 4 can be snagged in one go with the Master Chief Collection. So strap in, Spartan, and prepare to drop into the

Halo: The Master Chief Collection Best Steam Deck Settings

Compatibility Settings
Proton VersionExperimental

The Master Chief Collection used to crash a lot in the early days of the Steam Deck, and for a time, multiplayer was borked due to Anti-Cheat incompatibilities. Thankfully, those issues are (largely) gone, thanks to a major update from the developers that helped make the Collection compatible with the Deck.

When firing up the Collection, be sure to choose the option that disables Anti-Cheat. This option lets you play the multiplayer game modes and also grants a small but noticeable performance improvement.

Don't forget to disable Anti-Cheat before jumping into the Master Chief Collection.

All the games in Halo: The Master Chief Collection are at least a decade old by now, and the Steam Deck has more than enough horsepower under the hood to run them all at full speed. We've tested each title extensively and found these are the best settings for each game:

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary (Native@60fps | ~2h)

In-game screenshot of Master Chief in Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary.

Source: Steam

Halo: Combat Evolved is the only game in the collection that requires a bit of tinkering to get running perfectly. With the default settings, the game suffers from frequent stuttering and frame drops, and you can get rid of them with these changes:

  • Switch from the default Proton version to Proton Experimental

  • In the Steam Deck Performance Menu, turn the Frame Rate Limiter off and enable Allow Tearing.

  • In the in-game settings, turn V-Sync off and set the in-game framerate limit to unlimited.

These settings are only necessary for Halo: Combat Evolved. You'll want to turn the Steam Deck's Frame Rate Limiter on for the other games to keep the system from pushing itself harder than necessary.

With these settings, you'll still get some dropped frames in large, open areas. Thankfully, you can toggle between the remastered and original graphics by pressing the View (Select) button. When the framerate starts to sputter, turn off the remastered visuals to get a performance boost.

Video Setup
Resolution 1280x800
Refresh Rate 60 Hz
Framerate Unlimited
Specular Yes
Shadows Yes
Decals Yes
Particles High
Texture Quality High
Gamma Set to personal preference.
Steam Deck Performance Menu Settings
Refresh Rate 60
Framerate Limit Off
Allow Tearing On
Half Rate Shading Off
Thermal Power (TDP) Limit Off
Manual GPU Clock Control Off
Scaling Filter Linear

Halo 2: Anniversary (Native@60fps | ~2h)

Two Blue Spartans on a Warthog riding into battle in Halo 2: Anniversary.

Source: Steam

Halo 2: Anniversary Edition runs like a dream on the highest settings. You'll occasionally get a few dropped frames here and there, but overall, it's a smooth and nearly flawless experience. The Steam Deck easily handles anything this game can throw at it, and you can turn everything up to enjoy Halo 2 with enhanced visuals. We don't recommend raising the Resolution Scale beyond 100% though, as the Steam Deck's screen isn't big enough for this setting to make a huge improvement in image sharpness or quality.

If you want to improve battery life, consider turning on the Steam Deck's refresh rate and framerate limiter. We've found 40 fps/Hz to be the sweet spot for a balance of both battery life and visual fidelity.

Video Settings
UI Gamma 5*
Window Mode Borderless
Monitor Monitor 1
Aspect Ratio Native
Resolution Scale 100%
Graphics Settings
UI Graphics Quality Enhanced
Video Settings
Gamma 5*
Field-of-View 110*
Vehicle Field-of-View 90*
V-Sync Off
HUD Anchoring Centered*
Unified Media Display On
Experimental Settings
Framerate Limit 60 FPS
Graphics Settings
Graphics Quality Original
Graphics Quality
Anti-Aliasing (AA) On
Details Quality High
Effects Quality High
Lighting Quality High
Shadow Quality High
Anisotropic Filtering High
*Set to personal preference.
Steam Deck Performance Menu Settings
Refresh Rate 60
Framerate Limit 60
Allow Tearing On
Half Rate Shading Off
Thermal Power (TDP) Limit Off
Manual GPU Clock Control Off
Scaling Filter Linear

Halo 3 (Native@60fps | ~2h)

Side profile of Master Chief shouldering an assault rifle in Halo 3.

Source: Steam

The Anniversary editions of Halo 1 and 2 are actually the most recent releases in the Master Chief Collection, so it's not surprising that they have some stability issues. Thankfully, the rest of the Collection is free of those problems, and you can expect a mostly 60-fps experience in each of them. Halo 3 is amazing on the Steam Deck (the trackpads and gyro are incredible) and a personal favorite of the Collection.

Video Settings
UI Gamma 5*
Window Mode Borderless
Monitor Monitor 1
Aspect Ratio Native
Resolution Scale 100%
Graphics Settings
UI Graphics Quality Enhanced
Video Settings
Gamma 5*
Field-of-View 110*
Vehicle Field-of-View 90*
V-Sync Off
HUD Anchoring Centered*
Unified Media Display On
Experimental Settings
Framerate Limit 60 FPS
Graphics Settings
Graphics Quality Enhanced
Graphics Quality
Anti-Aliasing (AA) On
Details Quality High
Effects Quality High
Lighting Quality High
Shadow Quality High
Anisotropic Filtering High
*Set to personal preference.
Steam Deck Performance Menu Settings
Refresh Rate 60
Framerate Limit 60
Allow Tearing On
Half Rate Shading Off
Thermal Power (TDP) Limit Off
Manual GPU Clock Control Off
Scaling Filter Linear

Halo 3: ODST (Native@60fps | ~2h)

Two Spartans in a Warthog take on a incoming Covenant dropship in Halo 3: ODST.

Source: Steam

As expected, Halo 3 ODST ran just as well as the base Halo 3 on my Steam Deck. Dropped frames were rare but more frequently occurred in open areas.

Video Settings
UI Gamma 5*
Window Mode Borderless
Monitor Monitor 1
Aspect Ratio Native
Resolution Scale 100%
Graphics Settings
UI Graphics Quality Enhanced
Video Settings
Gamma 5*
Field-of-View 110*
Vehicle Field-of-View 90*
V-Sync Off
HUD Anchoring Centered*
Unified Media Display On
Experimental Settings
Framerate Limit 60 FPS
Graphics Settings
Graphics Quality Original
Graphics Quality
Anti-Aliasing (AA) On
Details Quality High
Effects Quality High
Lighting Quality High
Shadow Quality High
Anisotropic Filtering High
*Set to personal preference.
Steam Deck Performance Menu Settings
Refresh Rate 60
Framerate Limit 60
Allow Tearing On
Half Rate Shading Off
Thermal Power (TDP) Limit Off
Manual GPU Clock Control Off
Scaling Filter Linear

Halo 4 (Native@60fps | ~2h)

Master Chief looks on as soldiers prepare for a mission in Halo 4.

Source: Steam

Halo 4 looks and runs incredibly on the Steam Deck, a fact that at least partially makes up for it being the weakest game in the Master Chief Collection. In fact, it's the best-performing game of the bunch, easily hitting 60 frames per second throughout the campaign with barely any hiccups.

Video Settings
UI Gamma 5*
Window Mode Borderless
Monitor Monitor 1
Aspect Ratio Native
Resolution Scale 100%
Graphics Settings
UI Graphics Quality Enhanced
Video Settings
Gamma 5*
Field-of-View 110*
Vehicle Field-of-View 90*
V-Sync Off
HUD Anchoring Centered*
Unified Media Display On
Experimental Settings
Framerate Limit 60 FPS
Graphics Settings
Graphics Quality Original
Graphics Quality
Anti-Aliasing (AA) On
Details Quality High
Effects Quality High
Lighting Quality High
Shadow Quality High
Anisotropic Filtering High
*Set to personal preference.

Halo: Reach (Native@60fps | ~2h)

A Red-team Spartan hurries back home with the Blue Team flag, accompanied by a Red teammate in Halo: Reach.

Source: Steam

Many Halo fans swear that Reach was the series' peak. They're wrong (it's Halo 3), but it's not hard to see why they love it. I enjoyed it when I first played it back in 2010, and it's a great experience on the Steam Deck, too. Performance is silky smooth and the multiplayer is still loads of fun.

Video Settings
UI Gamma 5*
Window Mode Borderless
Monitor Monitor 1
Aspect Ratio Native
Resolution Scale 100%
Graphics Settings
UI Graphics Quality Enhanced
Video Settings
Gamma 5*
Field-of-View 110*
Vehicle Field-of-View 90*
V-Sync Off
HUD Anchoring Centered*
Unified Media Display On
Experimental Settings
Framerate Limit 60 FPS
Graphics Settings
Graphics Quality Original
Graphics Quality
Anti-Aliasing (AA) On
Details Quality High
Effects Quality High
Lighting Quality High
Shadow Quality High
Anisotropic Filtering High
*Set to personal preference.