As the Steam Deck approaches its fifth anniversary in February, players are looking for ways to enhance its longevity without investing in pricier alternatives. A recent update to AMD’s Linux drivers appears to address low-end frame drops that can occur when the Steam Deck and similar AMD-based gaming systems operate in Energy Performance Preference (EPP) mode.
David Vernet, a kernel developer, highlighted on the Linux kernel mailing list that games running in EPP mode can suffer from frame drops due to how the AMD driver interprets busy threads that frequently enter a sleep state. This can lead to a lower performance target being set, which results in higher frame latency and delayed frame output.
Shifting from EPP to a "performance" mode solves the frame drop issues but sacrifices energy savings. Supplying a constant performance boost to the affected threads can also degrade performance in low-end scenarios due to the complexities of CPU and GPU boost management.
Vernet’s patch instead dynamically adjusts core performance based on workload demands. When a busy thread could benefit from a higher clock rate, it temporarily switches that specific core to "performance" mode. Once the workload decreases, it returns to the more energy-efficient EPP mode.
Initial testing indicated significant improvements; for example, benchmarks on Civilization VI showed a 31.8% enhancement in the “1% low” frame rate and a 4.1% increase in p99 frame generation times. While the average FPS numbers remained unaffected, optimizing the slowest frames promises a smoother gaming experience in EPP mode.
As it stands, the full integration of Vernet’s patch into the AMD Linux kernel is yet to occur, but it indicates the potential for further performance enhancements in Valve’s aging handheld hardware.
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