Struggling to maintain stable FPS in AAA titles on Steam Deck

[PenelopeSM]

I've had my Steam Deck for a few months and love it, but I'm consistently struggling to get stable performance in newer AAA titles, even after adjusting the in-game settings to their recommended presets for handheld. For example, in a recent open-world game, I'm getting frequent frame rate dips into the 20s during action scenes, which really breaks the immersion, and the battery drains incredibly fast. For other Deck owners, what's your process for optimizing Steam Deck performance on a per-game basis? Do you rely more on the built-in frame limiter and TDP controls, or do you find third-party tools and community-created performance profiles more effective? How do you balance visual fidelity with a smooth 40 FPS target, and are there specific graphics settings you almost always turn down first that have the biggest impact on both performance and battery life?