Important: Helldivers 2 does not currently support FSR, so its performance on the Steam Machine will depend entirely on raw hardware strength and the game’s Render Scale option.
Valve casually dropped an absolutely wild announcement yesterday, a new console with performance closer to an entry-level gaming PC, and it’s capable of running many games at 4K 60 FPS with FSR.
Valve Steam Hardware Announcement
Valve’s new Steam Machine is a compact, console-style PC designed to bring PC gaming to the living room without the price tag of a full desktop rig. It’s six times more powerful than the Steam Deck and lets you run SteamOS or your own preferred operating system, along with any apps and programs you like.
Will the new Steam Machine be able to run Helldivers 2?
That begs the question: how well will Helldivers 2 perform on the new Steam Machine? With Arrowhead prioritizing performance and optimization, hitting 4K at 60FPS might be entirely possible.
Historical Data: The Steam Deck
Helldivers 2 is capable of running on the Steam Deck (Valve’s popular handheld console) thanks to a dedicated graphics preset designed specifically for the device.
While Helldivers 2 lacks native FSR, the Steam Deck uses the Render Scale setting to maintain decent performance. Even with render scaling, the game tops out at around 30 fps, with dramatic frame drops during Super Helldive missions thanks to the sheer number of explosions and enemy units.
What is FSR?
FSR (FidelityFX Super Resolution) is AMD’s open-source upscaling technology designed to improve performance by rendering a game at a lower internal resolution and then reconstructing it into a higher-resolution image.
FSR enables less powerful systems (such as older GPUs and handheld devices) to run modern games with better visual quality and higher frame rates. However, it comes with trade-offs. These can include increased latency, which matters in competitive games, and ghosting or trailing artifacts, where moving objects may leave faint afterimages during fast motion.
Does Helldivers 2 Support FSR?
Helldivers 2 does not have an FSR option in the Graphics or Display settings menu, but it does have a Render Scale option, which some players theorize is an older version of FSR.
Render Scale allows you to still run higher graphics settings without as much of a performance impact.
The problem is it does make your game look smudged.
If Helldivers 2 is really using an older version of FSR, that means it’s relying on outdated spatial upscaling tech instead of the newer temporal versions available. Marvel Rivals, for example, offers plenty of scaling options in-game including the new FSR3, but it’s built on UE5, not Stingray like Helldivers 2.
Newer versions of FSR (2.x and 3.x) use temporal data (motion vectors and previous frames) to create a much sharper reconstructed image than the older spatial-only versions.
Verdict
Helldivers 2 will likely run on the new Steam Machine at the marketed “4K 60 FPS,” but it won’t be native 4K, it will be upscaled. This is standard for modern consoles.
Although Helldivers 2 doesn’t support FSR, the Steam Machine’s stronger APU should allow it to maintain a much higher internal resolution through the game’s Render Scale option. This results in a 4K output that isn’t fully native, but still looks significantly sharper than what the Steam Deck can achieve.
Performance should be solid overall, though occasional frame drops during heavy Super Helldive segments in dense City missions are still likely.