If you’re curious how FSR3 performs on Steam Deck (primarily the frame generation), there’s a way to demo it yourself for free.

  • Download the Immortals of Aveum demo on your Steam Deck
  • Launch the demo once
  • Navigate to the following folder on your Steam Deck

Home\.steam\steam\steamapps\compatdata\2555360\pfx\drive_c\users\steamuser\AppData\Local\P3\Saved\Config\Windows

  • Open the file called “Engine.ini”
  • Copy and paste the following at the bottom of it

[/Script/Engine.Engine]
bSmoothFrameRate=False

[SystemSettings]
D3D12.PSO.DiskCache=1
D3D12.PSO.DriverOptimizedDiskCache=1
gc.MinDesiredObjectsPerSubTask=20
gc.NumRetriesBeforeForcingGC=5
gc.TimeBetweenPurgingPendingKillObjects=300
niagara.CreateShadersOnLoad=1
r.AllowOcclusionQueries=1
r.CreateShadersOnLoad=1
r.GPUParticle.Simulate=1
r.GTSyncType=1
r.ShaderPipelineCache.BatchSize=50
r.ShaderPipelineCache.Enabled=1
r.ShaderPipelineCache.GameFileMaskEnabled=0
r.ShaderPipelineCache.LazyLoadShadersWhenPSOCacheIsPresent=1
r.ShaderPipelineCache.ReportPSO=1
r.ShaderPipelineCache.StartupMode=3
r.Shaders.Optimize=1
r.Tonemapper.GrainQuantization=0
r.Tonemapper.Sharpen=0.4
r.XGEShaderCompile.Mode=1
r.XGEShaderCompile.Xml.BatchGroupSize=256
r.XGEShaderCompile.Xml.BatchSize=16
r.XGEShaderCompile.Xml.JobTimeout=0.500000
r.XGEShaderCompile=1
s.ContinuouslyIncrementalGCWhileLevelsPendingPurge=0
s.ForceGCAfterLevelStreamedOut=0
r.AllowLandscapeShadows=0
r.AmbientOcclusionLevels=0
r.BloomQuality=0
r.DepthOfFieldQuality=0
r.LensFlareQuality=0
r.MipMapLODBias=3
r.MotionBlurQuality=0
r.ParticleLODBias=3
r.ReflectionEnvironment=0
r.RefractionQuality=0
r.SSR=0
r.SSS.Quality=0
r.SceneColorFringeQuality=0
r.Shadow.CSM.MaxCascades=1
r.Shadow.DistanceScale=0.001
r.Shadow.MaxResolution=2
r.ShadowQuality=0
r.SkeletalMeshLODBias=2
r.StaticMeshLODDistanceScale=0.4
r.ViewDistanceScale=0.4
r.VolumetricFog=0
 
[ConsoleVariables]
AllowAsyncRenderThreadUpdates=1
AllowAsyncRenderThreadUpdatesDuringGamethreadUpdates=1
AllowAsyncRenderThreadUpdatesEditor=1

This will severely downgrade the graphics because the Steam Deck can’t even hit 30 FPS in Immortals of Aveum by default.

  • Setup done. Open the “Immortals of Aveum” demo and mess around with the settings. FSR3 can be enabled under “display”, NOT graphics.

Believe it or not, I find FSR3 30 FPS to 60 FPS a totally playable experience. Feels much more responsive than I anticipated.