You can make the deck do it (long post)

[Diet Sausage]

Steam won't let me post it as a guide so here you go

!!!!!!!!!! EVERYTHING I WROTE DOESN'T MATTER ANYMORE YOU CAN FIND IT ALL HERE WITH NICER FORMATTING: https://www.nexusmods.com/stalker2heartofchornobyl/mods/971 !!!!!!!!!!!!

So, before I lay it out, imo your best bet for this is to do Remote Play if you have both a deck and a PC. The game looks *amazing* and plays fine if your connection works for that. With respect to running natively, think something like a decent Switch port of a ps4 game. It runs ok and looks kinda rough, but it's still got the look the game is going for.

Here is what I did:

First, before you do anything go get a controller profile. I made one called "Nuttin but Buttins" if you want something quick. Download/set the profile and then launch the game.

Set everything to Low. Make sure Vsync is turned off, 1152x720, unlimited frame rate. In the steam menu, make sure you are not limiting your framerate, TDP, or GPU clocks. You have to run this one at full blast, it's just how it is.

Exit the game, and then follow this video's guide to update DLSS and enable DLSS Frame Generation: https://youtu.be/wPSMWii0T7g?si=alQGbsz_24-lbwUl. That one shows you all the steps, there's also written guides on steam for doing this. My suggestion is to enable DLSS Frame Generation in-game, and pair it with TSR UltraQuality set at 75% resolution scale. Try starting with Sharpness 50 and adjust that back/forth for a nicer image.

Now, we're going to make an engine.ini for the game to use. Go to Desktop Mode.

Start by downloading this mod: https://www.nexusmods.com/stalker2heartofchornobyl/mods/343. Extract the "Balanced" preset. Open it in a text editor.

DELETE these lines:
r.NT.Lens.Distortion.Intensity=0
r.NT.Lens.Distortion.Stretch=0
r.DisableDistortion=1

Then, find "r.Distortion=0" and change the value to 1. This is so the grav anomalies don't go invisible on you.

Then, under the section for [System Settings], add these lines:
csv.trackWaitsGT=0
csv.trackWaitsRT=0
fx.Niagara.DebugDraw.Enabled=0
r.EyeAdaptation.ExponentialTransitionDistance=2
r.InstanceCulling.OcclusionCull=1
r.Nanite.Streaming.MaxPageInstallsPerFrame=16
r.Refraction.OffsetQuality=1
r.TSR.History.ScreenPercentage=200
r.TSR.ShadingRejection.Flickering.Period=8

Put this file in SteamLibrary/steamapps/compatdata/[numbers - sort by Date Modified and you should be able to find it quickly]/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Local/Stalker2/Saved/Config/Windows

If there's already a file there, overwrite, otherwise just put this there and head back to gaming mode.

On the OLED model, out in the Lesser Zone the framerate mostly stays around 40-45, sometimes higher, sometimes lower. NPC's and firefights don't seem to bring it down much out in the wild. Towns are really inconsistent, but not unworkable. If you go into it with fairly low expectations it's fine. You can try other mods for input lag/latency too.

good hunting cheeki breeki

EDIT: I have continued with this and have a few extra tips. If you know how to access your BIOS and use the settings for undervolting, the more you can accomplish the better it will perform. It won't improve you FPS necessarily, but it will help out with your 1% lows, which helps it feel smooth/less stuttery. I can't tell you what settings to use, just start with -10 on each setting (CPU, GPU, SOC). Test it by playing the game for 10-15 minutes, and then use the next setting and test again until you witness instability. It won't wreck anything, if it crashes just boot back to the BIOS and change the settings back. Should help with 1% lows in other games too.

You can also implement these changes in Desktop Mode to get a little more performance out of everything (read it first!): https://medium.com/@a.b.t./here-are-some-possibly-useful-tweaks-for-steamos-on-the-steam-deck-fcb6b571b577

Finally, on nexusmods, folks are starting to put out downsampled texture packs - a 1k texture pack is going to still look quite good on the handheld's screen, and will help you out the more stuff gets covered by it.

I know it's a lot but if you're halfway insane like me it's fun to see what you can make the handheld do, and turns out there's more room to make this work than I expected.

[Kilrinn]

This right here, is the best guide hands down! Stalker 2 works a lot better on my steam deck. Thanks for the guide!

[Diet Sausage]

No problem! Currently checking out 1.1 to see if anything needs to change/doesn't work anymore

Edit: 1.1 seems just fine. In addition, you can make the game feel a little more responsive/look a bit smoother. The first thing, is you can try reducing your deadzones in the Steam settings (steam button -> Settings -> Controller -> Calibration & Advanced Settings). I prefer 6192 on both sticks, but just try moving them around and see what you think.

The other thing is weird but you'll see the difference immediately. In-game, hit the 3-dot button and go to your Refresh Rate. Try setting it at 50, and see what you think. Lower seems to introduce an insane amount of input lag with framegen enabled. Higher appears more stuttery/inconsistent. For whatever reason, 50 seems to be a sweet spot.