AMD Linux Patch Boosts Steam Deck Game Smoothness by Up to 32%

A new driver patch for AMD’s P‑State controller, called epp_boost, has been proposed by programmer David Vernet. The patch temporarily raises the performance state of CPU cores that have been recently busy, aiming to prevent latency spikes caused by short pauses in game threads.

In tests on Valve’s handheld Steam Deck using the game Civilization VI, the patch increased the 1 % low FPS metric by 31.8 % and reduced the 99th‑percentile frame time by 4.1 %, while leaving average frame rate unchanged. The boost disengages after 300 ms of inactivity to preserve battery life. The changes are still under review in the Linux kernel and have not yet been independently reproduced or released in official Linux or SteamOS distributions.