Tweaking SteamOS For Better Steam Deck Performance

Written by Michael Larabel in Linux Gaming on 2 October 2023 at 04:20 PM EDT. Page 3 of 3. 13 Comments.
Xonotic benchmark with settings of Resolution: 1280 x 800, Effects Quality: High. SteamOS 3.5 Pre + Tweaks was the fastest.
Xonotic benchmark with settings of Resolution: 1280 x 800, Effects Quality: Ultra. SteamOS 3.5 Pre + Tweaks was the fastest.
Xonotic benchmark with settings of Resolution: 1280 x 800, Effects Quality: Ultimate. SteamOS 3.5 Pre + Tweaks was the fastest.

Xonotic was another lightweight game that did benefit from these published tweaks for the SteamOS / Steam Deck.

Blender benchmark with settings of Blend File: BMW27, Compute: CPU-Only. SteamOS 3.5 Pre + Tweaks was the fastest.
Blender benchmark with settings of Blend File: Classroom, Compute: CPU-Only. SteamOS 3.5 Pre + Tweaks was the fastest.
Blender benchmark with settings of Blend File: Fishy Cat, Compute: CPU-Only. SteamOS 3.5 Pre + Tweaks was the fastest.
IndigoBench benchmark with settings of Acceleration: CPU, Scene: Bedroom. SteamOS 3.5 Pre + Tweaks was the fastest.
IndigoBench benchmark with settings of Acceleration: CPU, Scene: Supercar. SteamOS 3.5 Pre + Tweaks was the fastest.
Chaos Group V-RAY benchmark with settings of Mode: CPU. SteamOS 3.4 was the fastest.

Outside of gaming tests on the Steam Deck, these tweaks did help SteamOS 3.5 Preview recover from some of the performance regressions previously noted in relation to SteamOS 3.4. With these tweaks the performance in some of the demanding CPU benchmarks were aligned to their higher performance seen back on SteamOS 3.4 stable/

See this article for more details on these unofficial SteamOS tweaks if trying to maximize your Steam Deck performance. Depending upon the games/software you mostly enjoy, for some areas these tweaks proved to be worthwhile.

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Michael Larabel

Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.