Use CryoUtilities to Improve Your Steam Deck Experience
Improving your Steam Deck’s performance ultimately comes down to figuring out what settings work best for different games. For example, in our guide to running Palworld on Steam Deck, we discuss the fine-tuning that really helps the game look better on handheld devices. However, there are some things you can do yourself to improve productivity across the board, and that’s what we’ll discuss today.
Before we get started, however, I want to point out that the main way we’ll discuss today is using CryoUtilities, a third-party set of scripts and commands that makes managing your Steam Deck memory much easier. This requires some knowledge of how to navigate the Steam Deck operating system outside of the Steam app, so you’ll need to become familiar with that before proceeding. If you’re not familiar with it but are confident you can master it, I’ll include detailed instructions on everything you need to do.
Set the Sudo password
Before we can begin installing CryoUtilities and setting it up, we need to prepare the Steam Deck for this process. This means you’ll need a Sudo password, which essentially helps protect your Steam Deck from OS-level changes that you didn’t approve of.
By default, you don’t have a Sudo password set. This is something you will have to do manually, so if you have never done this, you can simply follow these steps.
On the Steam Deck, press the STEAM button to open the menu. Choose Power > Switch to Desktop . This will take the Steam Deck out of game mode and allow you to change something in the OS.
After loading the desktop, open System Settings > Users . From here, provide an email address for your account and click Change Password .
Enter the Sudo password you want to use. You can open the keyboard by selecting the text field with R2 and then pressing X on the Steam Deck. Elsewhere, you’ll need to press STEAM + X to bring up the virtual keyboard. Alternatively, connect a wireless mouse and keyboard to your device for a better user experience.
Once your Sudo password is set, you are ready to move on to the next steps.
How to reset your Sudo password if you’ve forgotten it
If you set a Sudo password and don’t remember it, you need to reset it. The easiest way to do this is to completely restore your Steam Deck to factory settings, which you can do by pressing the STEAM button, then going to Settings > System and scrolling to Factory Reset . However, this will erase everything from your Steam Deck. If you want to reset your Sudo password but don’t want to lose your data, there are much more in-depth guides on how to do it , although it’s a little more complex than I can touch on in this particular guide.
How to install CryoUtilities
The easiest way to install CryoUtilities will require you to use desktop mode on your Steam Deck, so be sure to take the time to get used to mouse controls using the touchpad, or connect a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard for a more comfortable experience.
However, before we install it, let’s go ahead and change the amount of VRAM (video memory) your Steam Deck can use. This will help CryoUtilities do its job much easier. First turn off the Steam Deck. This can be done by pressing STEAM , then selecting “POWER” and “SHUTDOWN ” in Game Mode, or you can select the Start Menu and then “Shut Down “ in Desktop Mode.
After the Steam Deck turns off, press and hold the Volume Up button and then press the Power button. Continue holding the Volume Up button until the boot menu loads. Now go to Setup Utility > Advanced , and then change the UMA framebuffer size from 1 GB to 4 GB to provide the maximum amount of video memory that the Steam Deck can run. Now reboot your Steam Deck and return to desktop mode.
To continue installing CryoUtilities, go to the official Github page on your Steam platform. You may have to enter the address manually or you can Google CryoUtilities and try to find it that way. Manual address: https://github.com/CryoByte33/steam-deck-utilities .
Once here, find the section marked “Simple” and click the “Download from this link” button. This will allow you to download the CryoUtilities installer in one click. The easiest way is to save it to your Steam Deck desktop; this way you can easily find it.
Now double click on Install CryoUtilities and select Continue . This will download some data and then open the console. After a few seconds, the installation will be completed.
How to use CryoUtilities
Now that it’s installed, find the CryoUtilities icon on your Steam desktop and double-click it to open the application. You will be prompted for your Sudo password and a disclaimer will appear stating that the developer, CryoUtilities, is not responsible for damage to your Steam Deck. Be sure to read this disclaimer and DO NOT click random items in the app as some of these settings may cause problems on your system if you don’t know what you’re doing.
Once logged in, the only thing most people need to do is click the Recommended button. This will make the changes to the Steam Deck backend that the developers of CryoUtilities suggest, and after that you won’t need to do anything else. If you want to take a deeper dive into what CryoUtilities is capable of , you can always watch the in-depth video created by Cryobyte33, the creator of the app. However, I only recommend this to advanced users who are comfortable making deeper changes.
Ultimately, the recommended CryoUtilities settings should make a significant difference in the performance of your Steam Deck. Keep in mind, this won’t allow the Deck to play top-notch AAA games at the highest settings. But it will eliminate many of the stuttering issues that have long plagued gaming on these portable machines. If you plan to play frequently on your Steam Deck, I highly recommend going through this process simply for the extra smoothness it offers.
If you find it easier to follow along, YouTuber GameTechPlanet offers a really great guide.
Can you track Steam Deck performance?
Another thing I recommend you do on your Steam Deck if you’re concerned about performance is to use the performance monitor built into the Steam Deck itself. This can be activated by pressing the … button on the Steam Deck (located on the right side below the touchpad), then going to the Performance section and changing the Performance Overlay Level to a value higher than Off. .
Level 1 shows you the most basic settings such as FPS. However, I believe that Level 2 can be really useful without breaking the immersion of various games as it provides information about FPS, GPU performance, CPU usage, and even VRAM usage, as well as displaying more detailed information about battery. . Of course, if you want to see even more information, you can also go to Level 3 or Level 4, which provides even more detailed information in a pop-up window. But as I mentioned above, this does block some parts of the games you play, so I don’t particularly recommend it.