Path tracing on the Steam Deck is possible, as video of Portal RTX running at 30 FPS shows

Path tracing requires powerful hardware to run, even with tools like DLSS and Frame Generation. Rendering fully path-traced environments shouldn't be possible yet, but here we are - with the path-tracing transforming games like Cyberpunk 2077, Alan Wake II, and Portal with RTX. The latter is a mod created by NVIDIA using its new and powerful RTX Remix platform - and when it debuted, you needed a GeForce RTX 4080 or RTX 4090 for it to be playable.

At a higher resolution with 'ultra' settings, that is, because someone managed to get a playable version of Portal RTX running on a Steam Deck - Valve's portable gaming PC handheld powered by a custom AMD mobile SoC.

The video demonstration by NightSightProductions is a great reminder that when you can tweak settings, you can get a demanding game to run on a wide range of hardware. However, in the case of Portal with RTX, there's some serious tweaking going on alongside the resolution being dropped to 864 x 486 to hit a playable 30 FPS.

In addition, secondary bounces for the path-traced lighting are turned off (by default, multiple bounces are required to give the game its impressive visuals) - the full 'ultra' version has four bounces per ray. So, the lighting isn't up there with a version running on a GeForce RTX 4090. Or even a GeForce RTX 4060.

This darker, low-res version of Portal with RTX still looks good, which is a testament to what path tracing brings to the table. When it comes to ray-tracing and path tracing, lowering the resolution and pairing the tech with upscaling tools like DLSS and FSR is the key to unlocking performance.