Boosting Minimum VRAM on Steam Deck Using UMA Frame Buffer Size Adjustment

Valve’s Steam Deck is a fascinating piece of hardware that automatically tweaks its minimum VRAM allocation on its Linux-based OS. However, if you’re running Windows 11 or simply want to fine-tune specific games in SteamOS, you can manually set the VRAM from 256MB to 4GB. Let’s dive into the details on how you can adjust the UMA Frame Buffer Size on your Steam Deck and enhance your gaming performance across different operating systems.

### Adjusting ‘UMA Frame Buffer Size’ on the Steam Deck

To modify the Steam Deck’s minimum VRAM allocation, you’ll need to poke around in the BIOS. Start fresh from a complete shutdown, not just putting it to sleep with a quick tap of the power button. Here’s your step-by-step guide:

– Hold down the power button to bring up the ‘Power’ menu in ‘Gaming Mode.’
– Select ‘Shutdown’ and let your device turn off completely.
– Once it’s off, press and hold the volume up (+) button and tap the power button.
– Release the volume up button as soon as the Steam Deck icon appears.

You’ll now be in the BIOS menu. Here’s where the magic happens:

– Use the touchscreen or touchpad to select ‘Setup Utility.’
– Navigate to ‘Advanced’ in the submenu on the left.
– Tap on ‘UMA Frame buffer Size’ and set it to whatever suits your needs, from 256MB to 4GB.

Make sure to double-check your adjustments in the ‘Advanced’ menu. Then, save your changes:

– Select ‘Save and Exit’ or simply hit the ‘View’ button to save.
– Confirm with ‘Yes’ when prompted by the ‘Exit Saving Changes’ dialog.

### Checking VRAM in SteamOS

Now, let’s make sure everything has synced up correctly in SteamOS. Here’s how you verify the VRAM settings:

– In ‘Gaming Mode’, press the STEAM button and go to ‘Settings.’
– Hop over to ‘System’ on the left menu and scroll down to confirm the ‘VRAM Size’ reflects your changes.

For reference, a default ‘UMA Frame buffer Size’ of 1GB appears as 1,024MB in the system menu, while setting it to 4GB will display as 4,096MB.

### Checking VRAM in Windows 11

Switching gears to Windows 11, here’s how to confirm your VRAM settings:

– Right-click on your desktop and choose ‘Display settings.’
– Scroll to ‘Advanced display’ in the menu and select ‘Display adaptor properties for Display 1.’
– Look for the ‘Dedicated Video Memory’ field to see the value listed in MB.

Windows 11 is a bit more finicky with VRAM allocation compared to SteamOS, so it should match what you set in the BIOS. You can repeat this process to verify any future changes or even revert to the original 1G default if needed.

Switching the VRAM allocation isn’t a magic bullet for boosting performance, but it can help stabilize certain games. The change is more prominent when your Steam Deck is running Windows 11, as SteamOS automatically adjusts RAM and VRAM regardless of the UMA Frame Buffer Size. For instance, playing Red Dead Redemption shows negligible differences in SteamOS, maintaining about 2.1GB of VRAM usage whether set at 1G or 4G.

That said, graphically demanding games like The Witcher 3 might gain from a higher VRAM minimum, though you’ll need to balance this against the RAM needed for other games. Although tweaking the BIOS isn’t very complex and loads quickly, the benefits of extra VRAM lean towards Windows 11 users compared to those on SteamOS.

Always tread carefully when making BIOS adjustments. If you run into trouble, check out our guide on how to restore factory settings on the Steam Deck.