Steam Deck FPS Issue

[Simonx30x]

Anyone have the same issue I have with FPS on Steam Deck where it is locked to half of the refresh rate? If I set my Steam Deck to 90 frames I get 45 and if I set it to 60 frames I get 30. Doesn’t matter if you lower resolution or disable video effects it seems to always be half of the screen refresh rate.

[langiam]

ditto. it seems like vsync is not working properly.

[Arrowshot]

I'm getting the same issue. I haven't been able to resolve it unfortunately

[PJthePlayer]

Can confirm sale issue on my Deck OLED. Tried various fixes like disabling vsync, etc with no luck. Hopefully we can get a patch for it.

[:Signal:]

having the exact same issue on my desktop

edit: I thought vsync was off but for some reason, something being off checks the box in the settings menu, rather than leaving it blank, odd UI choice.

[PJthePlayer]

Just wanted to bump this so it doesn't get buried. I would really love to see a fix for this issue. Does Nightdive have any place for official bug-reporting?

[Slartibarty]

Yo! We have a Discord, I don't know if Steam lets you post links, but if you google "Nightdive Discord" it's the first result - that's a good place to report bugs. I've added this to our bug tracker too.

[PJthePlayer]

Originally posted by Slartibarty:

Yo! We have a Discord, I don't know if Steam lets you post links, but if you google "Nightdive Discord" it's the first result - that's a good place to report bugs. I've added this to our bug tracker too.

I mentioned it in the Thing chat on the Discord but no one responded. I didn't see an official channel for reporting bugs but may have overlooked it.

[Naromi]

I figured out the issue....I think. Very surprisingly, the deck is actually struggling to run the game with AO and Anti-aliasing on.

I'm using the GOG version..I've tried various compatability layers, borderless/Fullscreen/Windowed.

I've also tried different max fps options thinking somehow the FPS is getting locked at 45.

It turns out there may be some type of forced Double Vsync regardless of the options and the performance drop is causing the game to stick at half refresh rate.

If you turn off Anti-aliasing and ambient-occlusion and look at the sky or look at a direction with no buildings the game will render above the half frame-rate into the 60s and 70s.

This means for whatever reason, poor optimization or something else, the deck is NOT able to run the game at the desired refresh rate in outside scenes and which is forcing the refresh rate in half due to the forced vsync in game-mode.

This behavior seems to indicate that even if the forced vsync issue was fixed these scenes would be below 60 regardless.

The solution right now seems to be to turn down ambient occlusion before starting a new game or loading your save.

It's a shame though because even with the AO the deck should be able to handle this without issue.

[electrifying]

yep need fix

[MrNagasaki]

Originally posted by Naromi:

I figured out the issue....I think. Very surprisingly, the deck is actually struggling to run the game with AO and Anti-aliasing on.

Around 50% GPU load and 10% CPU load. The deck is not at all "struggling". The game is just broken.

[[_HXL_]shaz]

quick and dirty workaround for 60 fps : put resolution to 1152x720 90hz, windowmode, vsync off, steam deck fps limiter to 60, gpu clock 1400mhz, scaling to pixel or fsr (for me, pixel looks better) it somehow unlocks this double buffer vsync and you can play at locked 60 fps at max settings.

[MrNagasaki]

Originally posted by _HXL_shaz:

quick and dirty workaround for 60 fps : put resolution to 1152x720 90hz, windowmode, vsync off, steam deck fps limiter to 60, gpu clock 1400mhz, scaling to pixel or fsr (for me, pixel looks better) it somehow unlocks this double buffer vsync and you can play at locked 60 fps at max settings.

Weird. I applied some of your settings and now it's suddenly working without issue even before I got to change the resolution. I'm currently playing at 1280x800@90 with the in-game fps cap set @60. Somehow the steam deck's frame limiter seems to be disabled, even though I set it to your suggested values.

I'd meddle some more to find out what actually fixed the issue, but I'm to afraid to break it again. lol

Anyway, thanks a lot.

[Gяιмlσ6к]

Found my best balance thanks [_HXL_]shaz.

Game settings:
Everything max
Vsync Off
DOF off(personal preference)
Ingame resolution 1280x800 90HZ
Windowed mode Fullscreen
Max FPS Unlimited

Steam deck Settings:
Frame limit 60FPS
Allow Tearing(personal preference)
TDP limit 10W(personal battery saver preference)
Manual GPU clock 1400

Thats all. Game runs 60 fps full resolution 1280x800.

[PJthePlayer]

I'm confused... there's been no updates per SteamDB and yet today I launched the game on my OLED Deck and... it's running perfectly at 90 FPS. I'm not sure what changed, but I'm not complaining.

[Slartibarty]

We spoke to Valve and they were able to get a quick fix in for us :)