Steam Deck

NBA 2K23 Best Steam Deck Settings

Enjoy a slam dunk gaming experience on the Steam Deck with these NBA 2K23 settings.

NBA 2K23 delivers a thrilling virtual courtside experience with a rich roster of NBA stars, explosive gameplay, and a rehauled MyCareer mode that's more immersive than ever. Now you can build your pro basketball career on the go with the Steam DEck. Here, we'll break down the optimal Steam Deck settings for NBA 2K23, for the the ultimate basketball experience to take with you on the road.

NBA 2K23 Best Steam Deck Settings

Compatibility Settings
Proton Version Default
BIOS Settings
UMA Frame Buffer Size 4G

NBA 2K23 is officially Steam Deck Verified. Now, there's been some controversy as to what that means exactly, as some Verified games run better out of the box than others. In the case of NBA 2K23, you can expect the game to run locked at 60 frames per second out of the box.

It's important to note that the version of NBA 2K23 that was released on PC is not the next-gen edition, so don't expect any of those extra features on the Steam Deck.

Unfortunately, at the time of writing, NBA 2K23 doesn't support the Steam Deck's native resolution of 1280x800, so you'll have to accept playing the game at 720p and a 16:9 aspect ratio. The game does do a good job of scaling the graphics so that you don't have to deal with the black bands that typically appear in games that run at 16:9 on the Steam Deck screen.

NBA 2K23 is a big game, weighing in at a hefty 125GB. The majority of that is taken up by the game's huge textures, so I suggest going into your Steam Deck's BIOS and increasing the device's UMA Frame Buffer Size to 4G. This guarantees up to 4GB of VRAM for smoother texture streaming.

Troubleshooting Audio Issues

Many users have complained about issues with audio levels in NBA 2K23. User jack on ProtonDB found a solution:

  • Go into Desktop Mode

  • Go into audio device settings by clicking on the volume button in the taskbar

  • Turn the volume for the "Echo Cancel-Sink" device

  • Go back into Game Mode and relaunch NBA 2K23

Recommended — Performance Settings (720p@60fps | ~2h30m)

The developers did a great job optimizing NBA 2K23 for the Steam Deck. You can expect a locked 60 frames per second out of the box, but we can push the Deck even further to get cleaner visuals without sacrificing performance.

Video Settings
Display Resolution 1280x720(16:9)
Window Mode Full Screen
Anti-aliasing Level 4
Refresh Rate 60.0Hz
Vertical Sync Off
Dynamic Vertical Sync Off
Overall Quality High
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

Quality Settings (720p@50fps | ~2h)

We can push the Deck even further by bringing up the in-game graphics preset to Ultra. The Steam Deck even manages to hit 60 frames per second most of the time, though I prefer framerate stability, so these settings force a refresh rate of 50Hz. Personally, I find the difference between 50 and 60 frames per second is barely noticeable on the Steam Deck's screen.

I don't recommend this setup because the greater power draw reduces playtime and the lower framerate introduces a bit of input delay. While it's not game-breaking, you can still feel it, especially if you recently played the game at 60 frames per second.

Video Settings
Display Resolution 1280x720(16:9)
Window Mode Full Screen
Anti-aliasing Level 4
Refresh Rate 60.0Hz
Vertical Sync Off
Dynamic Vertical Sync Off
Overall Quality High
Steam Deck Performance Menu Settings
Refresh Rate 50
Framerate Limit 50
Allow Tearing On
Half Rate Shading Off
Thermal Power (TDP) Limit Off
Manual GPU Clock Control Off
Scaling Filter Linear