Here are some in game settings that you can tweak first for better performance on the Steam Deck.
Here is a small list of them so that you know what to tweak first.
- Anti-Aliasing: If you can set it to FXAA or TAA. SSAA or MSAA are mostly a No-Go because they eat a lot of power.
- Screen Space Reflections and Reflections overall. These are usually expensive. Try to turn those settings down first.
- Ambient Occlusion: This one is a bit tricky. It’s very dependent on the Algorithm that is used. Try playing with the setting. Results can vary widely from Game to Game.
- Tessellation: Off with it. Many Engines and Gamedevs totally misuse it, putting a lot of stress on the GPU. You won’t miss it on a 800p Screen.
- Shadows: Shadows can also be very heavy depending on how they are done. This is also a setting you should try lowering first.
One thing very Positive about the Deck is its HUGE VRAM. You can usually set Texture Detail to MAX without feeling a real Impact. Very High-quality Textures save a lot of the Visual Fidelity lost by the other settings. So that’s also something to keep in mind.
Texture filtering and Mipmaps can be expensive again. I usually don’t go above Anisotropic x2, sometimes even Bilinear or Trilinear if they are available.
