Steam Deck - Better performance in desktop mode?

[Eddie Van Helgen]

Hello,

I need some advice with an unusual quirk I've found in dolphin for steam deck.

For background, I have the 512 model. I have dolphin installed via flatpack from the discovery store. I also have my games installed to steam through emudeck and steam rom manager.

I've noticed that when I'm in desktop mode, games will run very smoothly- starfox and timesplitters 2 appear to run at a locked 60 fps, or at least as well as they did on original hardware. I can push timesplitters to 720p but keep starfox at native.

After doing quite a bit of testing I have spotted what appears to be frame pacing or micro stutters only when running in game mode. Performance is noticeably not as smooth as desktop mode.

As far as I know, both modes are using the same version of dolphin with the exact same settings, although I've not tweaked anything to make sure this is the case so that may well be my mistake.

I am also using power tools to disable SMT for a performance boost. I have tried running gpu at 1600 as well.

Is there any reason anyone can think of as to why I would be getting stutters in one mode but not the other?

I'm happy to provide any extra info if needed, and I can test things out if anyone has any suggestions. I'm happy playing in desktop mode since that seems to be better so it's not a major issue, but I'd like to fix this if possible.

Thanks

[ExtremeDude2]

Post your dolphin graphics settings. Also make sure you are using the latest beta version.

[Eddie Van Helgen]

Post your dolphin graphics settings. Also make sure you are using the latest beta version.

Everything is on default bar resolution set to 2x native. I'm not sure its a settings issue as I'm not changing them between modes. The settings stay the same, the only difference is bad frame pacing when in game mode. 

I've got the latest flatpack version, is that the beta?

Thanks