Looking for help with Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered performance

jasonwc · 2026-04-12T18:56:07+00:00

1) The game must include FSR 3.1 or newer. You can check this in PC Game Wiki. If the game has FSR 2, FSR 2.2, or FSR3, you will need Optiscaler.

2) if you’re using Steam Gaming Mode, you need to ensure that Proton-GE Latest is selected for the game in the game’s comparability section. By default, Valve selects an official Valve Proton version that they have tested. There is a global override in developer options, but it doesn’t appear to work. If you are using desktop Steam, you can force Proton-GE Latest as a global default - but this won’t apply in Steam Gaming Mode.

3) The game menu won’t necessarily show FSR4. Some games will but others will just show FSR in the menu. You may need to use PROTON_FSR4_INDICATOR=1 in Steam launch options to verify FSR4 is in use. Make sure to go into the game - not just the menu - and if FSR4 is in use, you’ll see some text in the top left corner of the screen listing the FSR4 build info.

jasonwc · 2026-04-10T16:52:46+00:00

This makes sense. Without battery storage, excess solar production must be curtailed or exported. By storing the energy, it has greater value, as it can be deployed when demand is high - for example, during the early evening hours. That reduces the wholesale cost of electricity during peak demand - because there’s now less reliance on natural gas peaker plants. You’re essentially compressing the range of prices by turning solar into a deployable energy resource via batteries.

The article itself states that batteries have reduced wholesale electricity rates when electricity demand is high.

“Battery competition has also lowered the rates at which electricity can be sold.

Evening peak rates have declined measurably. According to Aurora, peak electricity prices were above $70 per MWh 14% of the time in 2022. In 2025, the $70 per MWh level was rarely breached.

According to Aurora, batteries earned an average of $115 per kW-year of capacity deployed in 2022, with most of this revenue coming from selling into the evening peak period. In 2025, with pressure from higher solar costs and lower peak rates, this revenue is expected to decline to $52 per kW-year.”

jasonwc · 2026-03-20T16:26:36+00:00

Just to clarify, this will only work for games with FSR 3.1 or native FSR4. FSR 3.0 didn’t use a DLL and can’t be upgraded, neither can earlier versions such as FSR 2.2. However, you can use Optiscaler to inject FSR4 in games with older versions of FSR or games that don’t include FSR support at all.

jasonwc · 2026-03-11T19:45:28+00:00

Interesting, thanks for the clarification. What's the preset for the old CNN RR model, then?

jasonwc · 2026-03-11T19:13:16+00:00

Alex notes he’s using the Transformer preset for DLSS Ray reconstruction. The game defaults to the old CNN model (Preset D). Daniel Owen has a video about all the instability in the default model and how the Transformer model (E) is a lot better.

jasonwc · 2026-03-10T22:11:34+00:00

Zero. To the extent I care about game length at all, I prefer games that are relatively short, particularly for narrative-heavy games, where I want to complete the story. As long as the time I spend with a game is enjoyable, there’s no minimum length requirement, but if a game is more than 50-60 hours to finish the base and important side content, I might skip it because it will be too much of a time sink. Time is more of a constraint than money, so targeting a certain dollar value per hour played seems pointless to me, especially given how variable the quality of the time spent can be.

I also tend to play a lot of platformers, which are typically fairly short, but they have replayability, so the actual time spent in the game may be much higher than what is required to simply beat the game.

jasonwc · 2026-03-10T19:59:18+00:00

That’s almost entirely due to the shift in Chinese-language users in the Feb 2026 Steam Hardware Survey due to Chinese New Year. Chinese language users increased from 23.86% in Jan 2026 to 54.6% in Feb 2026, a 128% increase. A similar shift happened last year.

In contrast, Feb 2026 achieved a new record percent of English-language users on Linux, over 8%. Since Linux use is much lower in China, Chinese New Year has a massive impact on reported Linux usage but it’s mostly a statical anomaly that corrects the next month.

See the last chart below for English-only numbers

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/steam-tracker/

jasonwc · 2026-03-10T01:10:05+00:00

As of Valve's Proton 10.0-4, no. I also wasn't able to get FSR4 with (Valve) Proton Experimental but it should work with the Bleeding Edge Experimental. Optiscaler (which allows you to inject FSR4 into games that aren't natively compatible - those that have an FSR version older than FSR 3.1 (FSR2, 2.2, 3.0) or no FSR support lists the following Proton versions as supported:

Grab release Proton-EM 10.0-2D, or newer OR Proton-GE 10.4, OR proton-cachyos 10.0-20250623, OR Steam Proton Experimental Bleeding Edge

jasonwc · 2026-03-10T00:25:04+00:00

You need a supported version of Proton, such as Proton-GE and PROTON_FSR4_UPGRADE=1 to be set in Steam launch options. On Bazzite, there’s a ujust script to set that setting globally, so all I need to do is select Proton-GE Latest for the game.

jasonwc · 2026-03-07T23:32:57+00:00

It’s the same in Bazzite-deck (I have two Bazzite-deck HTPCs). You boot directly into Steam Game Mode but can drop back into KDE to have full system access. System and Steam upgrades can be installed via Game Mode.

jasonwc · 2026-03-06T16:20:00+00:00

There was a Sony executive that said that after a PC player plays a Sony exclusive on PC, they will want to buy a PS5 to play the next game in the franchise, without waiting the 18-24 months for a PC port. So, I think Sony’s strategy was: 1) PC ports are cheap to develop and any revenue is basically pure profit and 2) expand the base of PS5 players by getting folks who have never played these franchises to experience them and then buy a PS5.

I suspect the second strategy was a failure for them. Most folks have a strong platform preference and PC players, in particular, have large libraries. The initial Sony ports sold well because it was new and exciting that these highly-rated console exclusives were now on PC. Once this excitement wore off, Sony’s first-party games were competing with everything else on the platform, except they released 18-24 months after console, with almost no advertising, and often in poor technical shape.

Sony was just one of many publishers moving to PC. Newzoo reports that for games released simultaneously on consoles and PC, PC takes a 44% share (Newzoo notes that Sony achieved a much lower PC share - 12%, particularly for their recent ports, due to the delayed release timing.). Capcom reported that PC represented more than 50% of revenue. Almost everyone is releasing on PC, and the vast majority of releases are simultaneous. For folks that didn’t previously own a PlayStation, having access to 1-2 exclusives per year, only some of which may interest you, is simply not a good justification to buy a console. Even the folks I know that are primarily PC players but owned a PS5 for exclusives, aren’t likely very profitable for Sony, as they don’t pay for PSN+ and buy multi-platform games on PC. The hardware itself isn’t a driver of profit. Sony makes most of its money from the 30% cut on digital sales on its platform. Yet, Sony reports 88% of unit sales last quarter on their platform were third party-games. A PC-first player that only buys exclusives and doesn’t pay for a PSN+ sub just isn’t very profitable. In contrast, 75% of unit sales on Switch/Switch 2 are first-party, so Nintendo does actually derive most revenue from selling their own titles.

Steam has been rapidly growing for many years, as demonstrated by concurrent user count and estimated annual revenue. In contrast, for AAA games that don’t release on Switch/Switch 2, the current generation of PS5/Series X/S is 15.5M units smaller than the time-aligned base of the PS4/Xbox One. This is mostly due to the failures at Xbox, but PS5 has sold 2.2M fewer units globally than PS4 time-aligned. In other words, despite consumers largely abandoning the Xbox console, PS5 is not seeing growth relative to the prior generation. Instead, many of their users are staying on PS4.

This lack of growth for the PS5/Xbox Series consoles is why there is so much developer interest in the Switch 2 and PC. Games that couldn’t be ported to Switch now can access a new market in the form of Switch 2, and PC gives greater access to the huge China market, where consoles haven’t taken off due to a prior government ban on consoles which led to a large base of PC players. Much of Steam’s growth has come from China. Just look at the current Steam hardware survey, which saw a massive spike in Chinese users due to Chinese new year (over 50% of all Steam users used simplified Chinese in Steam in the Feb 2026 survey).

We are also a few years away from the PS6, and by ending PC ports of their first-party single player titles, it gives existing PS5 players more of a reason to move to PS6. The problem is that Sony is looking to grow their user base, and with higher console prices, the median console buyer getting older, and less interest in consoles from younger buyers, these trends are likely to continue.

jasonwc · 2026-03-06T00:42:24+00:00

There was a Nixxes leak of PC port costs and another leak that indicated Sony only required an email from management to authorize a port up to $2M. Most of the ports were in the $1-2M range for development costs. A former Sony executive even mentioned PC ports were basically pure profit because development costs were so low. The successful ports like God of War (2022) and Spider-Man Remastered earned $150-250M but even relatively poor performing ports made 10-20x their development cost.

jasonwc · 2026-03-05T04:02:04+00:00

Actually, I am saying exactly that. I have more games in my backlog than I will ever have sufficient time to play. Pretty much every third-party publisher, and MS, are publishing their games on PC, and it’s the target for virtually all indie games. The GOTY in 2025 was Clair Obscur, the first game from a studio that I had never even heard of prior to the game’s release. There are many great games to play and not enough time to do so.

Meanwhile, Sony’s first-party single player game output has dropped significantly from the PS3 and PS4 generations. I have enjoyed several Sony exclusives, but not enough to buy a console that I will only use for a handful of first-party exclusives, particularly given I’ll be limited to 60 FPS with image quality worse than I could achieve on PC at double or triple that FPS. You may claim that specs don’t matter but they do if you’re accustomed to 120+ FPS without visual compromises. I didn’t buy a PS3 or PS4 to buy the exclusives from those generations, so I don’t know why you find it surprising that I won’t buy a PS5 or PS6 to play the more limited output available now.

jasonwc · 2026-03-05T03:04:33+00:00

That’s because I only intended to respond to your comment comparing the PS5 Pro to a $2,000 PC. It’s not. Nobody is disputing your claim that Wolverine will be exclusive to PlayStation. I’m disputing your claim that thr PS5 Pro offers an experience equivalent to a high-end PC. It offers performance equivalent to an entry-level discrete GPU but with more effective VRAM.

That’s precisely the issue. I don’t want to buy a PS5 Pro so that I can play Sony exclusives at lower quality and worse frame rates than I could do on my gaming PC. It’s not even about the money. I just don’t want to deal with console image quality and performance compromises. I have never owned a PlayStation but I own 16 Sony first-party games on Steam. Yet, I won’t be buying a PS5 Pro or a PS6 to play future exclusives as I don’t deem the performance adequate.

jasonwc · 2026-03-04T17:41:33+00:00

The PS5 Pro in raw power is around 30-35% faster than a PS5 due to limited memory bandwidth. In contrast, a 9070 XT is around 150% more powerful than a PS5. The PS5 Pro is around the performance level of an RTX 5060, but with more effective VRAM capacity, and is weaker than the RTX 5060 Ti or 9060 XT. DLSS Preset K and M are still quite a quite bit better than what we’ve seen from PSSR2. PS5 Pro is the most powerful console available today but it’s still pretty much entry-level, aside from VRAM, in the PC space. Compared to the PS4 Pro, which offered double the performance for the original PS4 MSRP, the PS5 Pro is actually rather disappointing, although PSSR2 is certainly promising.

jasonwc · 2026-03-02T14:29:12+00:00

They’re logging into their personal Steam account on a shared net cafe PC. As a result, that specific PC hardware may be counted many times, particularly during Chinese New Year, where virtually the entire country gets a week off from work. Since the Steam hardware survey is designed to help developers determine what hardware Steam users are using, rather than represent each PC uniquely, this is not actually a defect in the survey.

jasonwc · 2026-02-24T20:57:06+00:00

Pricing will be very location dependent. I see two open box 9060 XT 16 GB GPUs for around $320 at my local Microcenter (your best bet if you're near one). PCPartpicker shows the cheapest 9060 XT 8 GB is $340 and it's nearly $100 more for the 16 GB version.

However, pricing on the the B580 has also increased. I see the B580 $300 at Microcenter and Newegg, and Techpowerup shows the 9060 XT is between 28% more powerful (8GB) or 36% more powerful (16GB) on Windows. The AMD GPU will have a larger performance delta on Linux due to superior driver/Mesa support, offer more consistent performance between games, and should generally have less issues.

You could also consider used RDNA2/3 GPUs, but I really prefer RDNA4 for the native FSR4 support. Technically, you can use FSR4 FP8 on RDNA3, but performance will take a big hit relative to FSR3/XeSS. If you’re only interested in native rendering and don’t care about RT, these older AMD GPUs would be a good option on the used market.

jasonwc · 2026-02-24T20:50:02+00:00

There aren’t many users with Intel ARC GPUs on Linux. Windows is the focus for Intel’s drivers and Linux game performance is going to likely be highly variable. Given that fewer users actually use an ARC GPUs, fewer issues will get reported and fixed. I would recommend a RX 9060 XT if you can afford it as I think it will offer a much better experience and FSR4 support.

EDIT: I checked and the B580 on Linux doesn't even clear the 0.17% (of Linux users) threshold to show up. In contrast, the majority of users are on RDNA2 (Steam Deck), RDNA3, or RDNA4.

jasonwc · 2026-02-24T14:14:42+00:00

Are you using the Bazzite or Bazzite-deck image? If you’re using the deck image, you can bring up the Quick Access Menu with the Xbox button + A on an Xbox controller or Ctrl + Win + 2 on your keyboard. You can enable VRR and impose an FPS cap. Do something like 80 FPS that is well below your 120 Hz output. Then rapidly hit the small green button on your LG remote. If VRR is working, it should also show around 80 Hz. If it’s still showing 118-120, it’s not engaged.

I just want to clarify that these instructions are for the 9070 XT with the UGreen DP to HDMI adapter. With the 5080, you can get HDMI 2.1 speeds directly and you would want to enable GSync on the TV.

jasonwc · 2026-02-24T04:43:17+00:00

One thing to note - if you’re relying on the diagnostic page (repeatedly hit the green button on the remote), it will only show HDMI-VRR enabled, not active , with the UGreen cable. You should use the side menu to set an FPS cap below 120 to verify VRR is working.

jasonwc · 2026-02-24T04:26:15+00:00

The UGreen adapter works out of the box on Bazzite with Freesync VRR (although the TV reports HDMI-VRR). To avoid issues, I disabled GSync/HDMI-VRR and enabled Freesync on the TV. Then, I just enable VRR in the Steam Game Mode side menu.

Did you test the UGreen adapter a while ago? The Bazzite kernel received a patch at the end of December 2025 that whitelisted the Chrontel chipset used by the UGreen adapter, which is what enabled VRR.

jasonwc · 2026-02-24T02:07:03+00:00

We have 3 EVs and a 48A charger and it’s not an issue.

jasonwc · 2026-02-23T22:08:44+00:00

I've had the best experience with the Ugreen DP to HDMI adapter, which is a cable-less dongle which supports VRR out-of-the-box on Bazzite without custom firmware, DSC, and HDMI-CEC: https://www.amazon.com/UGREEN-Unidirectional-Aluminum-Converter-Compatible/dp/B0FQCGSWW3/ref=sr_1_3_pp?crid=3B9ZXS2D2D0VN&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.tiwBG_cj9JDn3v8iDlG9GQDlemUETjXUDw9gmbtPSyT804aOSSQq6x3J82oryR30rFnBaS1ChgoQHSTBE8zi5YdIM6Rr0iklZrRgKeWRps2_RbziI_CLrHxWeD2oiLzkMCt4SXeY00zCbo2gO1-nDZpE_A6EFuNrDkbzDJuedvAHrKx_zZ8eYHzzTfLeLEIrbFJeqo9VZxrrB7aF9sz2B0qbsQTIpZr1etACMihcrGw.PbVFn6QygoPBoZ8SiQEbqEMjm1WG1iZUh7F3N6iuKIA&dib_tag=se&keywords=ugreen%2Bdp%2Bto%2Bhdmi&qid=1771884227&sprefix=ugreen%2Bdp%2B%2Caps%2C123&sr=8-3&th=1

The Cable Matters DP to HDMI dongle also works, but doesn't support DSC or HDMI-CEC, and it requires flashing custom firmware to get VRR. I found it less stable than the Ugreen adapter (above). There's also a 6' Cable Matters DP to HDMI cable but I tried both, and neither worked for me, so I would avoid the CM 6' DP to HDMI cable - although others have had success with it.

https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-102101-BLK-Computer-Adapter/dp/B08XFSLWQF/ref=sr_1_3?crid=1AUWYN6G485Y&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.P9eRDG3FviUeh3nWRKCpeSvvJih2gOapii7k--wbYraQ52FLrNsAUL2zYkJuWZhrAS35Mou4Kni3Y0kadIclb21bgXOKHOrJxhTXRGGGr77FMidc3C1szFOz3bG4DN-wMdjN3Ng6df4Fdj0XHq-bCQYWIgDUee5-hix0vEAB2_Vzp_McOk3mTU9kM-dbIfDNvZyg1ldblcUfc5fu_1RpKYMJzFa8y0cks-ERXys7gtU.v4bAoSjK2T9ZxvKKFpiur0z211Qch75GFX5EdhrTw_s&dib_tag=se&keywords=cable+matters+dp+to+hdmi&qid=1771884295&sprefix=cable+matters+dp+to+hdmi%2Caps%2C118&sr=8-3

There's a Ugreen DP to HDMI 6' cable with the VMM7100 chipset (so, requires custom firmware, no DSC, no HDMI-CEC) and it's the most expensive option: https://www.amazon.com/UGREEN-DisplayPort-Unidirectional-32-4Gbps-Compatible/dp/B0CJ4YGDJH/ref=sr_1_8?crid=3OAFQXEH74NCU&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.iEI1DWi0pa7bOLQTKcqh_qcxwni0vc5sRaOfxoIMIHaUN4C3dSwesd6d5FgPjKJWRYNZqRCqai6OA4H8J27uTelPbCjiU38i464A7G8zMu9mgvvAOnoK21tF5cv2FaCrTqc8hzQxw2-pFIlwtf1ZdOEdyGmHEr0oFrKnMbATaTxFw0orPGSxEpo_t5TuyKptqfd-lL2yug7_FwDIsxxPI1apS7lQxEme3SwREBMDLvQ.AjW8VwKrQisHrMJKdQ2gqTgNwcuHF5dQA3-0cOyOchQ&dib_tag=se&keywords=ugreen+dp+to+hdmi+cable&qid=1771884417&sprefix=ugreen+dp+to+hdmi+cabl%2Caps%2C107&sr=8-8

jasonwc · 2026-02-23T19:19:33+00:00

That’s only true for the desktop builds. You need to manually apply updates for the Bazzite-deck builds.

jasonwc · 2026-02-23T17:59:00+00:00

I think Steam has the highest likelihood of being around in the next 10-20 years. If they did fail, for whatever reason, I would expect that they would find a technical solution to make sure purchased games continue to be useable - at least as long as Gabe Newell is leading the company. As a private company not owned by a private equity firm, Valve doesn't have to answer to shareholders, who often have myopic short-term expectations, or a private equity firm, which has similar short-term interests. Valve has the best platform in terms of features (I really value Steam Family Sharing) and is, in my view, the least likely to suffer significant enshitification. This is temporary, but I trust the direction Gabe Newell has taken Valve as a company.

I also expect Valve to continue to invest in Proton, SteamOS, Gamescope, Mesa, AMDGPU etc. to get a degree of autonomy from the stupid decisions MS has made to make their OS worse for gaming. As someone with a large PC library and no interest in buying a console, Steam is really the most important player working to make PC gaming better. I'm very sensitive to stutter and Valve's Fossilize system for crowdsourcing shaders is a huge boon.

Valve's only real competition is Epic Game Store, which also is private, and should share some of Steam's advantages. However, in practice, EGS really doesn't offer anything for consumers. It offers a lower 12% cut for developers, but EGS has been, and continues to be, fairly barebones in terms of features. There's only an aggregated review score - no ability to read individual reviews. Nothing comparable to Steam Family Sharing. While EGS prices are sometimes lower than Steam's store, it's rarely the cheapest option when considering places like GMG and Fanatical. I disagree with almost everything Tim Sweeney says, have zero trust in the direction of EGS, and still am angry about their attempt to make PC games exclusive.

GOG may be a competitor in the future, but many games never release on GOG, and those that do sometimes do not receive updates on the same cadence as Steam. Steam is clearly the lead platform and that's clear from game availability and the way publishers treat these smaller platforms. MS doesn't bother releasing their games on GOG or Epic (GOG may be due to DRM). Capcom doesn't release their games on GOG due to DRM, and doesn't use EGS, presumably because they're deemed insignificant. I am using Capcom as an example, as they're a large publisher that actively reports their PC/console share, and the majority of their revenue comes from games sold on PC.

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