FSR, or FidelityFX Super Resolution, is the secret sauce that can make your gaming experience on the Steam Deck truly exceptional. When you’re playing a game that’s quite demanding, FSR kicks in, scaling up the image quality from lower resolutions while taking it easy on your internal memory.
The result? You get to wave goodbye to low framerates and a constantly whirring fan and say hello to a smoother, calmer gaming session.
But, just like many features on the Steam Deck, enabling and setting up FSR can seem a bit tricky. And in some cases, players get the process reversed.
No worries, though! We’re here to guide you through it step-by-step, so you can start taking advantage of FSR’s benefits in no time.
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How to Enable FSR on Steam Deck
Turns out, enabling FSR on your Steam Deck is surprisingly straightforward.
- Press the quick access menu (the “…” button), then scroll down to the battery icon. Note that the default menu setting is the gear icon for settings, and the battery icon is just one below it.
- Scroll down nearly to the end of the menu where you’ll find a setting called “scaling filter”. Your options here include “linear”, “nearest”, “integer”, and FSR. Simply drag the slider across to FSR, and voila! FSR is now enabled.
Below the scaling filter setting, you’ll find another one labeled “FSR sharpness”. This option controls the clarity of the FSR. Based on our extensive testing, we recommend sliding it all the way up to five for the clearest image.
Simply turning on FSR in the quick-access menu is just the beginning. There are additional steps to take if you want to experience noticeable improvements in your gameplay.
Remember this key principle: Keep the resolution for your system high and the resolution for your in-game settings on the lower end. Ignoring this rule might cause FSR not to work or, even worse, produce distorted, unattractive graphics – and nobody wants that!
Docked FSR Setup
Here’s how to get it going:
- Hook up your Steam Deck for TV use: Connect and configure your Steam Deck so it’s ready for TV play.
- Adjust game properties: Navigate to the properties of the game you want to enhance with FSR. Ensure the game resolution setting is on “default”.
- Tweak Settings: Press the Steam button and choose “Settings”. Look for the “automatically set resolution” setting and uncheck it, then manually choose a resolution higher than what you plan for the game. In our case, we set the Steam Deck resolution to 1920×1080. This tells your Steam Deck to operate in 1080p while docked.
- Lower in-game resolution: Fire up your chosen game and find the setting to adjust the resolution. Drop this setting to a resolution lower than the system resolution you set in the previous step. For instance, if your Steam Deck is set to 1080p, select an in-game resolution of 720p.
At this stage, FSR will kick in and upscale your in-game 720p resolution to match the system’s 1080p setting, delivering an enhanced gaming experience without sacrificing performance. And there you have it! A superior docked gaming experience, all thanks to FSR.