AMD kernel developer David Vernet has submitted a Linux driver patch that could significantly reduce frame hitches on the Steam Deck and other AMD-based gaming handhelds when running in Energy Performance Preference (EPP) mode, the setting designed to balance performance and battery life. The fix targets a long-standing quirk where the driver misreads brief sleep periods in busy threads as a cue to lower performance, causing threads to wake at reduced clock speeds and produce laggy, stale frames—a problem that previously could only be avoided by switching to full "performance" mode and sacrificing energy savings.

Rather than permanently raising a thread's minimum performance target, which Vernet found actually worsens low-end performance, the patch monitors individual cores and briefly switches just the affected core to "performance" mode when needed, before reverting to EPP once the workload eases. In early Civilization VI benchmark tests, this approach delivered a 31.8 percent improvement in "1% low" frame rates and a 4.1 percent gain in p99 frame generation times, without affecting average FPS. The patch has not yet been merged into the mainstream AMD Linux kernel, so its effect on other games remains to be seen, but it offers a promising way to extend the performance of Valve's ageing handheld as it approaches its fifth anniversary.