gamesteam

One line in your Steam launch options. Every game, every GPU, tuned right.

gamesteam %command%

That's the whole setup. gamesteam reads your hardware straight from the kernel, picks the correct GPU, forces the game onto it, applies current Proton/DXVK/VKD3D tuning, runs it under gamemode, and puts the system into a performance power profile for the session — then puts everything back the way it was when you quit. No per-game fiddling, no PRIME env-var incantations, no wrapper soup.

The core is a single, standalone, distro-agnostic Bash script — every external tool is optional and probed at runtime, so it degrades gracefully anywhere. The repo also ships a man page, bash/zsh/fish completions, install.sh/uninstall.sh for non-NixOS distros, and a thin Nix flake with a NixOS module.

Why it's good

• Never pick a GPU again. GPUs are read from /sys (no lspci), the discrete card is preferred, and the game is forced onto it with the correct vendor mechanism — NVIDIA PRIME offload, or Mesa DRI_PRIME + MESA_VK_DEVICE_SELECT, plus gamescope --prefer-vk-device. Offload only engages when a second GPU actually exists, so desktops aren't touched.

• The same command adapts to the machine. On a discrete card gamesteam gets out of the way and runs native. On an integrated GPU (Iris Xe, Radeon 780M/Vega, …) it automatically drops into gamescope and renders at 75% with FSR upscaling to your native resolution — so the exact command that's invisible on your RTX desktop quietly turns a thin-and-light into a playable handheld. Zero flags. Force it either way with --gamescope / --no-gamescope.

• A whole-system race tune, cleaned up after. Performance power profile (restored on exit and on Ctrl-C / SIGINT), gamemode, fat shader caches, and up-to-date Proton/DXVK/VKD3D environment — every piece individually toggleable.

• Fluent in CachyOS. Auto-detected via /etc/os-release, a *-cachyos kernel, or a game-performance binary — so it lights up even on a stock distro running the CachyOS kernel/Proton. The CachyOS-Proton knobs (NTSYNC, DLSS / FSR4 / XeSS auto-upgrade, borderless fixes) are gated by GPU vendor, so you never ship a no-op or a footgun to the wrong card.

• Actually shippable. One-liner install, a real man gamesteam, bash/zsh/fish completions, config files for persistent defaults, input validation, and --dry-run / --list-gpus / --verbose to see precisely what it will do before it does it.

Requirements

Everything is optional and skipped if absent: gamescope, gamemode (gamemoderun), mangohud, power-profiles-daemon (powerprofilesctl), and — on CachyOS — game-performance. For the PROTON_*/VKD3D_* tuning to take effect you need a Proton build that implements those variables (Proton-CachyOS or Proton-GE); stock Valve Proton ignores the CachyOS-specific ones harmlessly. gamescope is what powers the automatic iGPU upscaling, so integrated-GPU users will want it installed — the installer offers to do that for you.

Install

Quick install — non-NixOS (one-liner)

Installs the script, man page, and shell completions, and offers to install the optional dependencies with your package manager:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/grenudi/gamesteam/main/install.sh | sh

or with wget:

wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/grenudi/gamesteam/main/install.sh | sh

System-wide install goes to /usr/local (uses sudo). For a no-sudo install into ~/.local instead, pass --user:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/grenudi/gamesteam/main/install.sh | sh -s -- --user

install.sh flags: --user, --prefix DIR, --no-deps. To remove everything:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/grenudi/gamesteam/main/uninstall.sh | sh

(The installer detects pacman / apt / dnf / zypper / xbps / emerge. On NixOS it refuses and points you to the module below.)

Manual — any distro, no Nix

It's one self-contained script:

curl -fsSLO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/grenudi/gamesteam/main/gamesteam.sh
chmod +x gamesteam.sh
./gamesteam.sh --help

Install gamescope, gamemode, mangohud, and power-profiles-daemon with your package manager for full functionality.

Nix — standalone

nix run github:grenudi/gamesteam -- --help
nix profile install github:grenudi/gamesteam

NixOS flake — module

Add the input and the module to your system flake:

{
  inputs = {
    nixpkgs.url = "github:nixos/nixpkgs/nixos-unstable";

    gamesteam.url = "github:grenudi/gamesteam";
    # Safe to follow here: the NixOS module builds against *your* pkgs, so this
    # follows only affects gamesteam's own standalone package outputs.
    gamesteam.inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
  };

  outputs = { nixpkgs, gamesteam, ... }: {
    nixosConfigurations.YOURHOST = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
      modules = [
        ./configuration.nix
        gamesteam.nixosModules.default
      ];
    };
  };
}

Then enable it anywhere in your config:

programs.gamesteam.enable = true;

That installs the gamesteam binary (with its man page and completions) and enables programs.gamescope (with capSysNice, so the automatic iGPU gamescope gets realtime scheduling), programs.gamemode, and services.power-profiles-daemon. Opt out of any of those:

programs.gamesteam = {
  enable = true;
  powerProfilesDaemon.enable = false;  # e.g. if you use TLP (they conflict)
  # gamescope.enable = false;
  # gamemode.enable  = false;
  # package = pkgs.gamesteam;          # override the wrapped package
};

Usage

Set it as your Steam launch options (per game, or globally under Settings → Compatibility):

gamesteam %command%

Examples:

gamesteam %command%                          # dGPU native, or auto-gamescope an iGPU
gamesteam --no-gamescope %command%           # force native even on an integrated GPU
gamesteam -g nvidia %command%                # pin a specific GPU
gamesteam --gamescope --res 2560x1440 --refresh 144 --hdr %command%
gamesteam --no-power-profile --no-gamemode %command%   # just the GPU/Proton env

Inspect the full plan for any machine without launching anything:

gamesteam -n -v -- /bin/true     # detected GPUs, selection, env, final command
gamesteam --list-gpus
man gamesteam                    # or: gamesteam --help

Options

Group	Option	Meaning
GPU	-g, --graphics <t>	auto·discrete·integrated·nvidia·amd·intel·integrated-intel·integrated-amd
	--force-discrete / --force-integrated	aliases for -g discrete / -g integrated
	--list-gpus	list detected GPUs and exit
gamescope	--gamescope / --no-gamescope	force gamescope on/off (default: auto — on for integrated GPUs, off for discrete)
	--res <WxH> --refresh <Hz>	output resolution / refresh cap (auto-detected otherwise)
	--render-scale <f> --native	internal scale 0.1–1.0 / render at output res
	--fsr / --no-fsr --hdr	FSR upscaling toggle / enable HDR
system	--gamemode / --no-gamemode	wrap in gamemoderun (on when available)
	--power-profile <p> / --no-power-profile	session power profile (default performance)
	--hud / --no-hud	MangoHud overlay (or MANGOHUD=1)
tuning	--cachyos / --no-cachyos	CachyOS-Proton tuning (auto-detected)
general	-n, --dry-run -v, --verbose -q, --quiet	inspect / explain / silence
	-h, --help -V, --version	help / version

The gamescope resolution/upscaling options only take effect when gamescope is active (automatically on integrated GPUs, or forced with --gamescope).

Config files (persistent defaults)

Set defaults once instead of passing flags every time. Both files are shell fragments assigning the option variables; command-line flags always override them:

• /etc/gamesteam/config — system-wide
• ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-~/.config}/gamesteam/config — per user

# ~/.config/gamesteam/config
GRAPHICS=nvidia
USE_GAMESCOPE=off      # auto | on | off — e.g. force native everywhere
POWER_PROFILE=performance

How it works

GPUs are read from /sys/bus/pci/devices, classified by vendor and boot_vga, and the discrete one is chosen by default. gamesteam applies vendor-correct device-selection environment and, on hybrid systems, gamescope --prefer-vk-device. Around the game it sets the performance power profile and runs gamemoderun. When the selected GPU is integrated it also enables gamescope automatically, auto-detects the display's native resolution, and renders at 0.75 scale with FSR upscaling (tune with --render-scale, --native, --no-fsr, or turn it off with --no-gamescope). Discrete GPUs render native unless you pass --gamescope.

No DirectX version is forced — the game selects its own renderer. To force one for a single game, append -dx11 / -dx12 / -vulkan in that game's own launch options.

Caveats

• gamescope --adaptive-sync (VRR) only passes through when nested if your compositor has VRR enabled (on GNOME: the experimental variable-refresh-rate feature).
• NVIDIA + gamescope wants a recent driver (≥ 555). This mostly matters if you force --gamescope on an NVIDIA discrete card; the automatic path only enables gamescope for integrated GPUs.
• Intel Arc (discrete) is not auto-distinguished from an Intel iGPU — pass -g intel and it is selected regardless. (Note it is then treated as integrated for the auto-gamescope decision; use --no-gamescope for native.)
• services.power-profiles-daemon conflicts with TLP; see the module option above.

License

GPL-3.0-or-later. Add the license text as LICENSE when you publish:

curl -fsSL https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.txt -o LICENSE

(or pick "GNU General Public License v3.0" in GitHub's license picker). Replace the YOUR NAME <idunerg@gmail.com> placeholder in the copyright headers of gamesteam.sh and gamesteam.1, and grenudi throughout.