Improving performance on your Steam Deck ultimately comes down to figuring out what settings work best for different games. For instance, in our guide on how to run Palworld on the Steam Deck, we discuss the exact settings that really help the game shine on the handheld. However, there are some things you can do yourself to help improve performance across the board, and that’s what we’ll discuss today.
Before we get started, though, I do want to note that the main way we will discuss today is the usage of CryoUtilities, a third-party collection of scripts and commands that makes the way your Steam Deck manages its memory much smoother. This does require some knowledge of moving around your Steam Deck operating system outside of the Steam app, so you’ll want to be familiar with that before continuing. If you aren’t familiar with it, but are confident you can pick it up, I’ll include detailed instructions of everything you need to do.
Set a Sudo Password
Table of Contents
Before we can start installing CryoUtilities and tweaking things, we need to prepare the Steam Deck for the process. This means you’ll need a Sudo Password, which essentially helps protect your Steam Deck from OS-level changes that you didn’t approve.
By default, you do not have a Sudo Password set up. This is something you’ll need to do manually, so if you’ve never done it, then you can simply follow the steps below.
On your Steam Deck, press the STEAM button to pull up the menu. Select Power > Switch to Desktop. This will take the Steam Deck out of Gaming Mode and allow you to change things in the OS.
Credit: Joshua Hawkins
Once your desktop has loaded, open System Settings > Users. From here, set the email for your user account and then click Change Password.
Credit: Joshua Hawkins
Enter the Sudo Password you want to use. You can pull up the keyboard by selecting the text box with R2 and then tapping X on the Steam Deck. Other places will require you to press STEAM + X to bring up the virtual keyboard. Alternatively, connect a wireless mouse and keyboard to the device to work more easily on it.
Once your Sudo Passcode is set, you’re ready to move on to the next steps.
How to reset Sudo Password if you forgot it
If you have set up a Sudo Password and do not remember it, you will need to reset it. The most straightforward method for this is completely reseting your Steam Deck to factory default, which you can do by pressing the STEAM Button then navigating to Settings > System and scroll all the way down to Factory Reset. This will wipe everything from your Steam Deck, though. If you want to reset the Sudo Password but do not want to lose your data, there are much deeper guides on how to do that, though it’s a bit more involved than I can touch on in this particular guide.
How to install CryoUtilities
The easiest way to install CryoUtilities will require you to make use of the Desktop Mode on your Steam Deck, so make sure to take a moment to get used to controlling the mouse via the touch pads or connect a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard for easier usage.
Before we install it, though, let’s go ahead and change the amount of VRAM (video memory) that your Steam Deck can use. This will help CryoUtilities do its job much easier. First, turn off your Steam Deck. This can be done by pressing STEAM then selecting POWER and SHUT DOWN from the Gaming Mode, or you can select the Start Menu and then Shut Down from Desktop mode.
Once the Steam Deck is shut down, press and hold the volume up button and then press the power button. Continue holding down the volume up button until the boot menu loads. Now, navigate to Setup Utility > Advanced and then change the UMA Frame Buffer Size from 1G to 4G to give it the maximum amount of VRAM the Steam Deck can run. Now reload your Steam Deck and return to Desktop mode.
To continue installing CryoUtilities, head to the official Github page on your Steam Deck. You may need to type the address in manually, or you can search Google for CryoUtilities and try to find it that way. The manual address is https://github.com/CryoByte33/steam-deck-utilities
Once here, find the section marked Simple and then click the Download this link option. This will allow you to download a one-click installer for CryoUtilities. The easiest place to save it is on your Steam Deck desktop; that way you can easily find it.
Now, double-click on Install CryoUtilities and select Continue. This will download some data and then open Konsole. After a few moments, it will complete the installation.
How to use CryoUtilities
Now that you have it installed, find the CryoUtilities icon on your Steam Desktop and then double-click it to open the app. You’ll be asked to enter in your Sudo Password, and a disclaimer about how the developer of CryoUtilities is not responsible for damage to your Steam Deck will pop up. Be sure to read this disclaimer, and DO NOT go clicking random things in the app, as some of these settings can cause issues with your system if you do not know what you are doing.
Make sure to read the disclaimer before accepting it so that you understand the risks associated with using this app.
Credit: Joshua Hawkins
Once you are logged in, the only thing that most people need to do is click the Recommended button. This will make the changes to the Steam Deck’s backend that the developers of CryoUtilities suggest, and from there, you don’t really need to do anything else. If you want to dive deeper into what CryoUtilities can do, you can always check out the in-depth video created by Cryobyte33, the creator of the app. However, I only recommend this for advanced users who are comfortable making more in-depth changes.
Ultimately, CryoUtilities’ recommended settings should make a huge difference in how your Steam Deck performs. Mind you, it won’t make the Deck play top-notch AAA games at the highest settings. But it will eliminate many of the stuttering issues that have long plagued games on these handheld machines. If you plan to play on your Steam Deck a lot, I highly recommend going through this process just for the additional smoothness that it offers.
If videos are easier for you to follow, YouTuber GameTechPlanet has a really great tutorial.
Can you monitor performance on the Steam Deck?
Another thing that I recommend you do on the Steam Deck, if you’re worried about performance, is to make use of the performance monitor that is built into the Steam Deck itself. This can be activated by pressing the … button on your Steam Deck (located on the right side under the touchpad), then navigating to Performance and changing the Performance Overlay Level to something higher than Off.
Level 1 shows you very basic settings, such as the FPS. However, I find that Level 2 can be really useful while still not breaking the immersion of different games, as it provides information on FPS, GPU performance, CPU usage, and even VRAM usage, while also displaying more in-depth information about the battery. Of course, if you want to see even more information, you can also change to Level 3 or Level 4, which provides even more detailed information in a pop-up box. But, as I mentioned above, that tends to block out parts of the games that you are playing, so I don’t particularly recommend it.