What's your systematic approach to optimizing AAA games on Steam Deck?

[StevenTJ]

I recently got a Steam Deck and love it, but I'm struggling to optimize performance for some of my favorite AAA titles from a few years ago, like "The Witcher 3" and "Elden Ring," to get a stable frame rate without completely destroying the visual quality. I've tinkered with the in-game settings and the Deck's built-in performance overlay, but I'm never sure if I should be lowering resolution, using FSR, or adjusting specific settings like shadows and draw distance first. For fellow Deck owners, what is your systematic approach to optimizing a new game, and which settings typically offer the best performance-to-visual trade-off on the handheld's hardware? I'm also curious about tools like CryoUtilities and whether tweaking the swap file and VRAM allocation has provided a noticeable, consistent benefit in your experience.