Steam Deck Settings/Performance Guide 17Aug2022

[Loyalist]

TLDR
-Set Dynamic Shadows Off, this has the biggest FPS boost, 31fps vs 60 in flooded forest
-Set Processing Reduction via Model Swapping = Off, this causes most stuttering
-Set a manual GPU Clock (1200-1400), the frequency adjusting causes stutters
-You can force FSR on, but it comes with frame time stuttering

So after getting tired of lagging while playing with friends i decided to really dig and find what settings work well and to stop the dreaded stuttering i was dealing with.

I run without any stutters at 60fps with the following settings:
Under the Steam Deck Quick Access Menu->Performance
Use per-game profile = On
-Framerate Limit = 60
-Refresh Rate =60
-Half Rate Shading = On
***Manual GPU Clock = On (set to 1200-1400)

Under the Title Menu->Options ->Display->Advanced Graphics Settings
***Dynamic Shadows = Off (33fps vs 60fps flooded forest spawn) TURN THIS OFF
-Equipment Shadows = On
***Processing Reduction via Model Swapping = Off(causes stuttering while swapping)
-Mesh Quality = Average

Under the In-Game->Menu->Options ->Display->Advanced Graphics Settings
-Image Quality = 100%
-High Resolution Textures = On
-Texture Filtering = Low
-Ambient Occlusion = On
-Shadow Quality = Low

{If you need more performance you can also to the following to force fsr on at the cost of frame time stuttering}
Under the Steam Deck Quick Access Menu->Performance
-Scaling Filter = FSR
-FSR Sharpness = 1 (or as you prefer)
Under the Title Menu->Options ->Display
-Resolution Settings = 1152x720 or less(this forces FSR to turn on)
With FSR running you can turn up a lot of settings at the cost of resolution, the lowest resolution I would recommend is 928x580.

I hope this helps anyone struggling with stuttering and low framerates