Performance

Beamline's GPU cost depends mainly on output resolution, look and presentation. Higher resolutions cost more. Curved + Bezel, especially with Reflection, can cost substantially more than Flat. The graphics path also matters.

CRT Core · Flat

CRT Studio · Curved + Bezel · Reflection

A few measured examples

These measurements use a synthetic test scene and show median time spent on Beamline’s GPU work per frame after warmup. The examples used native Vulkan, SDR, AC power and a 60 Hz test cadence. The times exclude the game’s own work and are not direct FPS-loss predictions.

Device	Output	Look and presentation	Beamline GPU time
Steam Deck LCD	1280×800	CRT Core, Flat	3.46 ms
Steam Deck LCD	1280×800	CRT Studio, Curved + Bezel, Reflection on	12.15 ms
RX 6700S laptop	3840×2160	CRT Studio, Curved + Bezel, Reflection on	17.45 ms

At 60 FPS, the game and Beamline share a frame budget of about 16.7 ms. A game can stay capped at 60 FPS while Beamline uses some of the remaining GPU time.

If performance drops

Try these in order, stopping when you are happy with the balance:

1. Turn Reflection off if it is enabled.
2. Choose Flat under Presentation instead of Curved or Curved + Bezel, where available.
3. For CRT, choose Core under Style instead of Studio.
4. If needed, reduce the game's output resolution in its own settings.

Adjust these picture options while checking performance in your game.

Detect Grid is temporary

Detect Grid runs only when requested. Successful controlled runs generally took 2–3 seconds, depending on the device and graphics path. Frame times may briefly increase during detection, then the work stops.