Steam Deck Optimization Guide Ep. 1 - FSR all the Games

[@TheTerk]

In preparation for episode 2 - fill out this form and let's see what games you want optimized for the Deck forms.gle/RGrVZxTR2cKyPF7K8 *EDIT* - I misspoke about the sharpness slider. on the Steam Deck, 5 is the highest, most sharp, setting.

[@TheTerk]

And if there's a game I missed and enough people like your comment, I'll add it

[@ZaberfangX]

@@TheTerk FSR is better have the tool then not have the tool. I don't see any problem with your video, only part should of test FSR on is 1080p screen in dock as part of this video.

[@TheTerk]

@@ZaberfangX I did that in my previous FSR Steam Deck video. kzbin.info/www/bejne/hnrcZXacrat3mZY

[@Jaylou88]

I finally understand how fsr is used and how I can implement it in most of my games. thanks for the explanation!

[@Moshugaani]

If I can get a game running at a stable 40 fps on the Deck, then I'm good. At that point I'll choose graphics quality over pushing a game over 40 fps. The variable refresh rate screen is so revolutionary for mobile gaming. Truly, 40 fps on 40 Hz is a revelation! I hope the inevitable Switch 2 has this option as well.

[@J.Wick.]

Agree. I try to aim for 40-45. Such a great device. I've been astounded by what it can do with so little.

[@z1nky_aqz_Lascar]

Ye its the sweet spot, instead of increasing graphics quality for me after a locked 40 FPS, I like to lower the wattage to get insane battery life

[@Deathscythe91]

runs cyberpunk better then the ps4 xD

[@User71956]

Ain’t that the sad truth lol

[@adrienross8458]

I mean if it's the slim your talking about the deck has more computing capability I believe

[@oo--7714]

It doesn’t unless you like 540p gaming 😂

[@pizvi]

this is the video i was looking for!! still waiting for my deck and wanted to learn how FSR is working on steam os and it looks promising.. thank you for your research kind sir

[@hyposlasher]

Steam deck built in FSR gives much cleaner picture then game built-in FSR's

[@wordonwatches]

Best video yet on steamdeck FSR. Super helpful. Thanks a lot!

[@retro_ed746]

0 is the softest image and 5 is the sharpest image on Deck`s FSR levels.

[@TheTerk]

Good catch, this could be a UI bug that might have been resolved. But in the FSR documentation, 5 is the least sharp. steamcommunity.com/app/1675200/discussions/1/3186864655209411978/

[@mystertom100]

@@TheTerk from what I have seen in my use 0 is definitely the softest and 5 is no doubt the sharpest

[@TheTerk]

@@mystertom100 yep, I tested it out and added it to the pinned comment. It's definitely backwards from the documentation.

[@Moshugaani]

I've noticed that the Deck's internal FSR doesn't increase the perceived resolution at all on edges but it makes surfaces significantly more clear. It can even increase perceived detail on older games that have a low texture resolution to begin with. It's a bit of a shame that you can't take advantage of this without lowering the resolution of the game ~ If you reduce the resolution of a game then text and UI elements can become illegible.

[@shahtayyib]

That's because FSR isn't great at anti-aliasing, more so texture resolution. It's upscaling, after all.

[@dubonstin8676]

FSR is adding information to a picture which wasnt there before. This may lead to a better picture quality for some textures, but also to artifacts (especially for textures which have thin details). If you turn on FSR on Fallout New Vegas for example, grass will turn out really ugly.

[@smidlee7747]

When you get older seeing things blurry becomes the norm especially on a 7 inch screen. For me no matter how powerful a handheld becomes the screen size is a major factor if a PC game is enjoyable or not on them. I like AI War 2 and it runs on the Deck but the game is clearly meant to play on a much larger screen. Even FPS it's harder to spot targets in the distance. I've seen a You-tuber mention that it's amazing to play Elden Ring on the Deck but it does add some difficulty to a game that's already difficult enough. He still recommend playing it on a PS5 or a gaming PC first.

[@tedged]

i hear you. I'm 51. my deck gets here tomorrow. but i was seriously thinking about getting an older (2021) rog zephyrus 14" gaming laptop instead of going so small and limited. I like madden, cod, and elite dangerous. hopefully the steam deck gets me into some basic optimized games that are fun. the reviews are so good i went steam deck.

[@tedged]

even warhammer total war is harder to play on steam deck than i thought

[@mmgbtv]

I think 45fps is pretty ideal on this screen size. NIce breakdown

[@kirby0louise]

On the topic of improving battery life - While it doesn't help today, Steam Deck 2 really needs to have all those power saving features that are part of Zen3+. Recently got a Ryzen 6000 laptop and to my surprise those feature basically all work just like AMD said they would. Using only 10%-15% of my battery over an hour on a 17" laptop and 4K120Hz panel just feels impossible, yet it's right in front of my eyes

[@TheTerk]

Yep, even AOKZOE and other handhelds will be there. Let's not forget the kernel level updates if you're using 5.18

[@Nikdeckreviews]

at 7:10 i thought its a pipe which FPS character is holding lol

[@tw8e60]

Very interesting, I was really wondering about this feature

[@SHMlKE]

You seem very knowledgeable. Would love a video of best settings possible. Right now I uncapped frames on ultra and leave it alone. Typically 35-120 fps on low and high end titles.

[@TheTerk]

Check back tomorrow, I'm optimizing five different AAA games

[@SHMlKE]

@@TheTerk hell yeah!

[@CaptRobau]

Another idea for a series might be how many fps or battery life you can get on older games like Half-life 2. Could be fun to see how much you can push those potato graphics!

[@ar568]

Older games like hl2 run perfectly at max settings, also you can't get any higher fps than 60 on the sd.

[@dwaynethemineraljohnson412]

​@@ar568but lowering the resolution and graphics will increase the batery life

[@JalapenoPrime]

You listened to me! 😭 Keep it up!

[@JalapenoPrime]

Also, got my steam deck this week and I love it, I don't mind playing at 600p or 540p @40, battery life is never really a problem for me

[@rafaisbg6783]

Thank you!

[@xAddi01x]

You can change the game resolution in the steam deck ui setting for the game.

[@jebo4jc]

Helpful video. Thanks!

[@VaporwaveSunset]

I never really understood what FSR is or what it does despite hearing it everywhere, this video does a great job of explaining how it works and how to use it effectively My deck is arriving in a couple of days and I think I'm prepared to start tweaking settings to squeeze the most out of my game

[@TheTerk]

Make sure you vote in that pinned comment. That'll be next week's video.

[@ojiij94102]

I would recommend FSR mostly for TV-/Monitor Setups, where you want to display the games 800p Content to FullHD or 4k

[@ElementalTJ]

Great video. Subscribed

[@GruppeSechs]

The fact alone that Cyberpunk hits anything over 40 FPS at native settings on a $400 handheld is pretty amazing.

[@dralberthofmann]

Someone probably mentioned this (actually you may have mentioned this as I was multitasking while listening and could have missed some stuff) but where FSR may really shine for the Steam Deck is when playing docked and outputting the video to a TV at 1080p or higher. Have you experimented with this?

[@TheL1arL1ar]

It works on my 55 inch 4K…titanfall 2 720p and it looks amazing….it looks like ps4 resolution…and mgs5 900p and fsr is enabled as well..some games when you stand still and fiddle with the fsr, you can notice it on the floor and other objects…especially fences on dying light.

[@tedged]

mine gets here tomorrow 😊

[@laurenbray3106]

You deserve a like so I gave you a like 👍

[@АнтонДавыдкин-и7м]

you can set resoluion in steam properties of the game for fsr

[@SHMlKE]

Also do you think a pd charger can keep game going longer than it drains? Got a 65w portable charger to charge deck+other things.

[@smokegames1179]

bought a steam deck 64gb earlier its freaking awesome

[@TheTerk]

Welcome to the club!

[@kewlztertc5386]

Have you tried editing the .ini files to lower resolution on games that don't have menus for it? What about using windows mode instead of full screen?

[@TheTerk]

Gamescope FSR doesn't work in windowed mode as far as I've tested. that might have changed, but not sure. As for .ini tweaks, I've recommended not doing that, as most people are not familiar enough with Linux to navigate and perform the edit. Last thing I want to do is recommend something that breaks someone's game/experience.

[@blendpinexus1416]

i've love fsr for when i want to run on battery for a while.

[@my2randomcents]

For 3d games what is the difference between linear vs fss

[@Zel912]

As i test, Reduce resolution lower than 900x600 and the image starts bad. Colors not blend smoothly.

[@goldfingerhardcore]

Why bothering going above 60 fps when the screen only goes up to 60Hz? By the way, I love my Steam Deck

[@TheTerk]

the more buffer you have, the less the GPU will have to work when capped at 60Hz.

[@Xbot4Life]

cant you manually select a resolution through the steam prompt?

[@veterangamer955]

Wait so my one comment is I’ve been using FSR wrong this whole time? So the lower the number the more sharper it is and the higher the number the less sharper it is….?

[@TheTerk]

No you are correct. Check the pinned comment. This implementation doesn't follow the FSR spec which is what I followed

[@lmaoroflcopter]

Anyone understand what resolutions he's talking about with 400p, 500p and 600p Like not even 480p but 400p!? Google turns up naff all with those descriptions. Wtf.

[@Imagination972]

Should my fps match my hz? E.g. play cyberpunk on a solid 35-40fps with 35 or 40hz refresh rate of the deck? Or will it be smoother playing these fps on 60hz?

[@bonkgameing]

40fps at 40hz is much much smoother than 40fps at 60hz

[@k_dotnet3197]

As always you're videos cover the details that are vital when dealing with SD and PC gaming you got a new sub😃👏✊

[@CrazyGamerDude17]

Sorry if I didn't pay attention to this part if you said it but how does this affect battery life? Also is that a vault boy stand for the steam deck?

[@TheTerk]

Yes that's a Pip Boy stand. As for battery life, I just uploaded an entire video about it. kzbin.info/www/bejne/hGe4hqKbrZKMbKc

[@jasonl1184]

I think there was a huge feature you missed maybe you’ll cover later. I can’t actually think of a situation where fsr is currently useful and the whole video is on the fsr feature and frames. 40 frames is the magic fps number since you can change the steamdeck’s refresh rate to 40hz. This is great for its battery life and improves image quality at the cost of frames. 40fps/40hz vs 60fps/60hz is maybe debatable but forreals take a look side by side it’s not a huge nerf.

[@TheTerk]

This is an entire series... of course I talk about 40hz mode

[@chewjunvoon5195]

how did you get the specific resolution 985x615 for steam deck? the closest I can find is 960x600 which is between ultra quality and quality.

[@TheTerk]

Which game?

[@chewjunvoon5195]

@@TheTerk horizon zero dawn, or is it just the built in FSR?

[@TheTerk]

@@chewjunvoon5195 if you are referring to 1:49 - those are just calculated values using AMD's scaling factors. if you're referring to 10:00, this uses the internal game FSR settings compared against their calculated resolutions. The game might use a setting above or below that, but it's not visible to me (I think God of War does show you the configured resolution when set up this way). The tilda ~ symbol represents "approximate". I hope this helps.

[@chewjunvoon5195]

@@TheTerk yeah this helps a lot thank you. didnt know horizon have internal fsr support

What are you talking about? Fsr with a level of 5 is sharper than 0

[@glovedcop69]

I love my steam deck! My problem is storage even after putting a 1TB micro SD and internal of 512MB.

[@k_dotnet3197]

You must play a lot of games

[@glovedcop69]

@@k_dotnet3197 yeah my main thing is emulation that takes a lot of space

[@EmotiveShark110]

666 like

[@ravenblaze99]

Please elaborate on how you get 50-60fps on Cyberpunk 2077 I barely get a stable 30fps with Low setting and Quality FSR 🫡

[@afistfulofpimples1745]

No, don't please