It appears as though there may be a little trouble in paradise for some people with the new stable update pushed yesterday bringing SteamOS to 3.3.

First reported in our Discord server by user RADAQ during the beta, there appears to be microstuttering in some games. While this does happen when the game is using a 60hz refresh rate, it is much more prevalent when it is set to 40hz. I have personally tested a couple games myself and found this has something to do with dynamic GPU Clock Speed Frequency, caused by the graphics driver.

stutter 3
stutter 2
stutter 1

Notice that the frametime graph in the top right has multiple jumps that go down by 1-2 FPS.

These microstutters can be fixed by setting a static frequency. While this does fix it, this issue shouldn’t be happening regardless and there appears to be some audio stutters in some games as well. GamingOnLinux has started a forum topic as well with people posting which games they have or haven’t noticed the stuttering in, if you want to check your games there or contribute!

Check back soon to see if Valve has updated this issue in a future beta release.

8/3/2022 Microstuttering updateVia Lawrence Yang:

You can head over to system updates on your Steam Deck to get the update - no more microstuttering!

Noah Kupetsky
A lover of gaming since 4, Noah has grown up with a love and passion for the industry. From there, he started to travel a lot and develop a joy for handheld and PC gaming. When the Steam Deck released, it just all clicked.
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