Other than specific games that using ge proton boosts up the fps or “unsupported” games. Do not use ge proton. Do not use any 3rd part stuff at all if the case is not what I described

I haven’t had to force a non default version of Proton for a single game yet, to get it running perfectly.

It’s worth it for game that are barely playable.

Cryo + steamdeckessentials + latest version of proton ge = starfield running at 30 fps with dips down to 27 fps.

(Dips into the 20’s in space with a gigantic player ship)

Medium settings with 67% resolution scale and no dynamic resolution btw.

Also, 9/10 a game unplayable ok regular proton will run with GE if the issue is tied to anticheats. (Granted, because GE is launching the game without anticheat…)

You can use it if you want. It is not going to hurt anything

There are some games I’ve found like Fallout 4 that perform much better with GE instead of regular proton or experimental. Just watch out that switching GE proton on your game sometimes will move your save files if the game doesn’t have cloud saves. You can still usually find it in desktop mode though

Proton Experimental is the way. Haven’t had to use GE for anything in ages

Any Multiplayer game with an Anti Cheat. As Proton GE can flag it.

A question I have: could using different proton version (or wine) have different impact on performance?

it’s a case by case basis. Some games run better with GE, some run better on regular proton. Some run better on old versions of proton

Use whatever version the Deck picks first, if that doesn’t work then try a different version. I’ve rarely had to force a different version, even with unupported games.

ProtonDB is great, I post on it myself, but you have to remember every comment is out of date by the time you read it. What was necessary 6 months or more ago is not necessarily the case today.

Yes. You shouldn’t use GE Proton for most Steam games. It takes more disk space and doesn’t provide any significant benefits. Especially, you shouldn’t be using it for Verified/Playable games, since those games have been tested on a well supported Proton version and there may be regressions in GE Proton since it’s a community project and not tested as well.

Yes. In Mini Ninjas for example, if you force any other version of Proton other than the default, you will have no sound.

Unless you are experiencing issues right from the start, it is best not to force any specific version of Proton.

You most likely won’t need to use it anyways, at least I don’t, except:

I play a lot of itch games which are almost all Unity K&M games, and I have to use GE on all those games. I’m grateful for it.

So what is “Proton GE”? I understand that proton is the compatibility layer between Linux and the windows based game so API calls get properly directed. But, what is the difference between the two? And why is this considered better?

How often should you delete the old Proton GE packs? I tend to use the older ones if the game runs smoothly