How to Undervolt the Steam Deck and Test for Stability? CPU, GPU, & SoC Steam Deck Undervolting
In this video I walk you through how to undervolt the CPU, GPU, and SoC of your Steam Deck along with testing it for stability.
Written Tutorial
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https://steamdeckexplained.com/underv...
My Steam Deck Accessories (affiliate links below)
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Summary
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If you're looking to reduce the thermal numbers when playing indie games on your Steam Deck
Or if you'd like to squeeze out a bit more performance from those triple A games.
#steamdeck #steamdeckoled
These are both possible while also gaining a bit of extra battery life in some situations thanks to under volting.
So in this video, I'll be showing you how to undervolt your Steam Deck and squeeze out as much from the hardware as possible.
Not only that, but I'll also point you in the direction of two stability testing tools that you can run. . .if you're interested in that sort of thing.
But before we can begin this guide, you will need to know how to access BIOS on your Steam Deck.
This is something I have already created a dedicated video on, so in an attempt to not make this video longer than it needs to be.
Please go and check out that guide if you're not familiar with booting the Steam Deck into the BIOS Utility Tool menu.
Now that you're here, lets dive into the Advanced section
Then you just want to scroll through this list until you get to the CPU, GPU, and SoC Voltage Offset entries.
Now there are going to be different approaches to undervolting your Steam Deck.
Some will suggest to just go hog wild and set all three of these to -50.
Reboot your Steam Deck and then test things out and see how they run.
You would likely immediately know whether or not you hit the silicon lottery as the device may have difficulty booting up. . .you may see your favorite game crash when trying to play it. . .or you may end up seeing artifacts on the screen.
If you notice any of those issues then your hardware is unable to cope with the reduced voltage and you'll need to reboot back into BIOS and try again.
So that one way of seeing what the limits of your Steam Deck under-volting are.
Another way is to take the slow and steady approach.
This requires us to start with small changes and then doing a full suite of stability tests to find out if it works well.
I prefer this approach so I would set all of these to -10mV and then reboot out of BIOS and back into Steam OS.
Remember to save your changes each time you adjust something in this menu.
After doing some testing, if I notice that my Steam Deck is handling this undervolting configuration well, then I would reboot back into BIOS and increase it again. Maybe I would bring all three of them up to -20mV and then do some more testing.
It's a good idea to do this bit by bit as that will help you to see just how far you can take your device.
I've seen comments from some Steam Deck owners who were able to hit -50mV across the board and had no issues playing a game they were interested in.
Many people are only able to adjust these down to -20mV without any issues.
Now, the last things I want to point out are a couple of ways to test your undervolting changes.
Most casual users are likely only going to test their hardware by playing a game. . .or at most. . .running a benchmark of a popular game they like to play.
And while that's a great way to test the Steam Deck undervolt on that particular game. . .that is in no way a complete and thorough test.
So if you're wanting to really stress test the hardware then I can recommend a program called mprime, which can be downloaded from the Discover store via Desktop Mode
I've also seen the Unigine Benchmark suggested, with the Superposition test being great at making sure your undervolting hasn't introduced any stability issues.
You may find that your Steam Deck can only handle -50, -30, and -40
While others will notice theirs can will only remain stable at -20 -30 -20
The quality of the hardware inside of your Steam Deck will vary compared to a different one.
So don't expect to be able to undervolt your Steam Deck to the same level that you see from someone else in the community.
The process of zeroing in the exact limit your Steam Deck can handle can be long and tedious.
Some folks will be happy to set these three to -20mV and call it a day so they get some benefits without having to put in a lot of time
But others will take their time in finding out the exact numbers their hardware is happy with.
I hope this video has been helpful to show just how easy it is to undervolt your Steam Deck.