How to run Cyberpunk at 60 FPS on the Steam Deck

In this guidde, I'll show you a bunch of mods to improve the upscaling and frame gen technologies used in the game.
This guide is also applicable for regular PCs, I'm getting more than 120 FPS with the low RT preset on my mid tier desktop.

How does this work?

Basically, we're using two mods (the other ones are libraries to make these two mods work) that will update the FSR implementations of the game and also will let us use Intel XeSS with FSR Frame Gen.
The FSR 3 version that comes by default with the game is pretty bad. The upscaler doesn't really improve the performance, and the Frame Gen creates a lot of input lag and texture shimmering.

This mod uses FSR 3.1, which doesn't have as many problems as the vanilla implementations of FSR.

Before starting with the guide, I must say that my native language is not English, so if you notice any misspellings or anything that can be improved lmk in the comments :)

[OPTIONAL] Proton GE

Proton GE[github.com] is a modified version of Proton. It includes many fixes for different games and could improve performance in others.
I did not test how true this is, but I always used it for Windows games on my Steam Deck.

There are three different ways of installing it:
- Manually, which is explained in the GitHub.
- With Decky Loader, using the Wine CE plugin.
- Using Proton UP-qt, available on the Discover store.

I personally use the Wine CE plugin, but the easiest way of installing Proton GE would be using ProtonUP.

As I explained earlier, just go to the Discover store in Desktop mode and download this app.
Once it's downloaded, open it and you'll see something like this:

Select Steam on the drop-down menu at the top, then Add Version and install the latest Proton GE. Easy as that.

Now, go back to the Steam Client (can be done in Desktop mode), left click on Cyberpunk and go to the "Compatibility" section in side the Properties menu.
Check the "Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool" option and select Proton-GE from the drop-down menu.


As I said earlier, you can use Proton-GE for every Windows game that you have. So if you're experiencing some bugs in other Windows games (Lag spikes, input lag, texture shimmering...) I would recommend trying this thing.
Also, go back to ProtonUP from time to time and update ProtonGE. The developer is constantly updating and improving his compatibility layer.

Mods needed

You'll need to download all of these mods thorugh the Desktop Mode:

• ArchiveXL[www.nexusmods.com]
  
• Cyber Engine Tweaks[www.nexusmods.com]
  
• RED4ext[www.nexusmods.com]
  
• redscript[www.nexusmods.com]
  
• FSR3 Frame Gen for Cyberpunk 2077 (DLSS Enabler 2077 Edition) [Download the Arc/Radeon package][www.nexusmods.com]
  
• FrameGen Ghosting Fix Contextual Frame Generation[www.nexusmods.com]

Installation of the mods

Go to the Steam Client, left click on Cyberpunk 2077 and click on the option "Show local files". Now that you're there, drag and drop the contents of the zip files downloaded from all the mods.

Now, we'll need to change the registry of Cyberpunks files. For this, we'll need to download "Protontricks" from the Discover store.
Open it and you should see something like this:

Double click Cyberpunk > Select the default wineprefix > Run regedit > registry (top bar) > Import registry > and now you'll have to search for the Cyberpunks' installation folder, then go to "Cyberpunk 2077\bin\x64" and import "DisableNvidiaSignatureChecks.reg".
This will ONLY affect Cyberpunk, nothing is changed on the system or for the other games.
Once it's imported, you can close everything.

Go back to the Steam Client, left click on Cyberpunk, go the the Propeties of the game, and add "WINEDLLOVERRIDES="version,dxgi=n,b" on the Launch options.

Configuring DLSS Enabler

Last step, configuring DLSS Enabler to our liking. Open the Cyberpunks instalaltion folder, then go to bin, x64. There, you'll find a file called "nvngx.ini". Open it.

In the [FrameGeneration] section, change auto for fsr31.
In the [Upscalers] section, specifically for Dx12Upscaler, we'll use fsr31 once again. Don't worry, you'll still be able to use XeSS+FG if you want to.

Congrats! You installed all the mods. Now go back into the Gaming Mode and open Cyberpunk. Remember to enable mods in the REDLauncher:

Graphic and Performance settings

Now the intresting part, the graphic settings.

First of all, go to the Display settings and enable Max FPS to 60. This is REALLY important. On the Steam Decks performance menu, disable the FPS limit, enable "per-game profile" and "Allow tearing", enable the TDP limit and manual GPU clock to the maximum possible.

For the graphics pressets, I would recommend using either Medium settings or the Steam Deck preset. I got better performance with the former.

For the upscalers you can either use:
XeSS in balanced mode for a better image quality.
DLSS (mod, FSR 3.1) for better performance.

Me, honestly, I can barely see any difference between the Steam Deck/XeSS graphics and Medium/DLSS. So I went with the latter.

As an extra, disable Motion Blur.

The End

Thanks for reading the guide, if you found it useful pls leave a like and give me some awards :)
As I said in the beginning, if you need help or have any suggestions, leave them down in the comments section. Thanks in advance.

If you're experiencing input lag or texture shimmering, try lowering down your graphic settings or upscalers quality. I've never had those problems using these mods, but I'm letting you know just in case.

This also works on regular PCs too, I have a Ryzen 3600, RX 6650 XT and 16gb of RAM and im getting 120 FPS+ using the RT low preset, XeSS (auto) with the DLSS frame gen. I also recommend enabling the FPS limiter here.

[other90]

Well Stinkys I followed this guide, it's helping with FPS for sure, stable steam deck lcd 40-50 fps, earlier it was 25-40 fps. I have played for about 20 hours and unfortunately I didn't get any achievements. I think that mods are blocking them. But FPS gain is too sygnificant, I prefer playing with higher fps without achievements.

[Stinkys]

As other90 asked, will achievements still work? I am guessing no.

[Wizarsh]

I have most of “Welcome to Night City 2.2” mods, some performance optimisation mods, PLUS followed most of this guide (flib’s comment below is essential). Averaging 50fps, and enjoying everything Cyberpunk provides all on my steam deck and docked

[other90]

It's not working with latest 2.2 update, isn't it? I have error " RED4ext could not be loaded.".

[other90]

Will achievements work with these mods?

[flib]

Guide is good, although the launch parameter is incomplete and doesn't include the DLL override to get RED4ext to start correctly

Full launch option should be

WINEDLLOVERRIDES="winmm,version,dxgi=n,b" %command%

[TouristicPeach5]

Does this still work after the 2.2 update? My game is not starting after following steps

[mbsoft]

Thanks for the guide!