Steam Deck gets big FSR 3 performance boost but there’s a catch

Modder LukeFZ’s FSR3 mod is up and running on the Steam Deck, and while it does manage to improve performance, visual quality takes a huge hit.

Valve’s Steam Deck is one of our favorite devices out there at the minute, and it can’t be beaten by contemporaries like the Legion Go and ROG Ally, even though they might be more powerful. But, since the Steam Deck is based on several years old hardware at this point. Its performance in modern, AAA titles can be somewhat lacking, especially if you’re looking to hit 60 FPS in titles.

But, just as we thought when it was announced, FSR 3 is making a huge debut on the humble handheld. Modder LukeFZ’s FSR 3 mod for games is up and running on the Steam Deck in gaming mode, to support titles that have not yet had an FSR 3 upgrade. The results, however, are somewhat mixed, as YouTuber Deck Wizard showcases in their latest video.

Great performance, middling visual quality

Dexerto

Titles that usually fall in the 30-40 FPS mark get massive performance boosts with FSR 3’s frame generation features enabled. In the video, we see Spider-Man: Remastered running at around 90 FPS, with Hogwarts Legacy hovering around 70 FPS. Cyberpunk 2077 also runs at over 60 FPS here too, which is no slouch.

But, there are huge tradeoffs while using the mod. Assuming that this mod also uses FSR 2’s super-resolution features, there’s prevalent aliasing in almost every title tested, with additional ghosting and artifacts while using the frame-generation feature. The UI Artefacts seen are almost certainly due to the mod, but the aliasing and ghosting could be a result of a low internal framerate from the system, too.

This is most noticeable in Robocop: Rogue City, where blood splatters look like, well, a blocky, pixellated mess, for the most part.

There’s also the question of input latency when running titles at under 60 FPS natively, then scaling that up to upward of 60 FPS. Since the mod does not include any anti-lag features, you should expect slightly heightened latency.

So far, the Steam Deck’s FSR 3 performance is far from a slam dunk, but with a handful of tweaks and revisions in officially supported titles, it might become viable in the future.