CachyOS Apps

gamescope on CachyOS: install, first run, settings and fixes

SteamOS session compositing window manager.

From the official CachyOS repo. Install with pacman, no AUR helper needed.

Written from the sources listed at the end · Nov 2, 2026 · gamescope app page, reviews and trust score

Install gamescope with pacman

  1. Install gamescope from the official cachyos repo. pacman checks the package signature before it installs.
    sudo pacman -S gamescope

First run

  1. In Steam, set a game's launch options to run it inside gamescope. This example upscales a 720p game to 1440p with integer scaling.
    gamescope -h 720 -H 1440 -S integer -- %command%
  2. See the full list of options.
    gamescope --help

Key settings

  1. -W and -H set the gamescope output resolution. -w and -h set the resolution the game sees. The default is 1280 by 720.
  2. -r sets a frame rate limit, and -o sets a limit for when the game is not focused.
    gamescope -r 30 -- %command%
  3. -F fsr, -F nis or -F sgsr picks the upscaler. -S integer or -S stretch picks the scaling mode. -b makes a borderless window and -f a fullscreen one.
  4. Keyboard shortcuts: Super + F toggles fullscreen, Super + U toggles FSR upscaling, Super + Y toggles NIS, Super + I and Super + O change FSR sharpness, Super + G toggles keyboard grab, Super + S takes a screenshot to /tmp.

Common fixes

gamescope does not start on NVIDIA

The proprietary NVIDIA driver needs version 515.43.04 or newer, with the nvidia-drm.modeset=1 kernel parameter set.

Corrupted image on older AMD cards

With RadeonSI on GFX8 and older cards, set R600_DEBUG=nodcc, or corruption appears until the stack supports DRM modifiers.

Higher latency with shader effects

Reshade effects add latency because they run on the general graphics and compute queue. The README advises against them for simple transformations.

Uninstall gamescope

  1. Remove gamescope and the dependencies nothing else needs.
    sudo pacman -Rns gamescope

Sources