Valve is fixing Elden Ring's 'heavy stutter' on Steam Deck

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It'll officially roll out next week, but you can opt-in to the experimental version right now.

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(Image credit: Bandai Namco / FromSoftware)
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Elden Ring had severe stuttering issues at launch on PC, some of which have since been alleviated, though performance problems still persist. FromSoftware has called for patience as the studio irons out some of the game's more egregious issues, but if you're lucky enough to own a Steam Deck, Valve itself is on the case.

Valve programmer Pierre-Loup Griffais confirmed on Twitter today that the company is working on fixes for Elden Ring's heavy stutter on Steam Deck. "The graphics team has been hard at work on optimizing Elden Ring for Steam Deck," Griffais wrote.

"Fixes for heavy stutter during background streaming of assets will be available in a Proton release next week, but are available to test now on the bleeding-edge branch of Experimental."

Griffais shows how to access that branch in the video embedded below, but here's those instructions in old-fashioned text format. Search for Proton Experimental in the Steam Deck store, then select settings (the cog icon). Scroll to Properties, then Betas, and then select "bleeding-edge - latest and untested dxvk, vkd3d-proton and wine changes".

Good news for Steam Deck owners. For everyone else, Elden Ring publisher Bandai Namco has listed some of its main priorities for fixing the RPG on PC, including mouse sensitivity, "the phenomenon of frame rate and other performance-related issues" and a weird bug with Easy Anti-Cheat that doesn't play nice with certain Steam account names.

Steam Deck finally released last week, and Wes likes it, likening it to a Leatherman, among other things. "The Steam Deck is bulky for a handheld, but makes up for it with unrivaled versatility and a killer price," he wrote.

Shaun Prescott
Shaun Prescott
Australian Editor

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.