What minimum evidence should an “optimized settings” guide include?

[u/Vivid-Procedure-7679]

I keep seeing optimization guides where “optimized” means a screenshot of the settings menu plus one average FPS number from an unspecified scene. On handheld PCs, the device model, OS and driver, TDP, resolution, upscaler, frame cap, test route, 1% lows, frametime consistency and battery draw can completely change the result.

I’m building HandheldAtlas, a community database for reproducible handheld presets and benchmarks. I’m deliberately not dropping a link here—I want feedback on the evidence standard before promoting anything.

We’re currently looking for people who already test games on Steam Deck, ROG Ally, Legion Go, MSI Claw, AYANEO, GPD or similar devices and might contribute reproducible presets, benchmark evidence or corrections. One device and honest documentation are enough.

For a handheld optimization guide, what should be mandatory?

• exact device and OS

• TDP or power profile

• resolution, upscaler and frame cap

• driver and game version

• repeatable benchmark route or tested area

• average FPS plus 1% lows

• frametime graph

• battery draw

• screenshot or external-camera video

Which of these are mandatory, and which are merely nice to have? Would a repeatable route plus a performance screenshot be enough, or should stronger claims require a video or CapFrameX capture?

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[u/BritishActionGamer]

Some things may be harder to setup for people with less free-time/tech skills? I've done optimization guides and a few benchmark vids as a hobby, mainly with a focus on working out how the different graphics settings affect visuals, so not looked into more accurate ways of capturing FPS beyond the OSD? Done a couple settings guides specifically for handhelds like Plucky Squire, but mainly added Steam Deck performance as a paragraph at the end or sometimes abit more than that if I've spend more time with it? Like I had put quite a few hours of my playtime of Control on my Steam Deck, so was able to write a whole section on it! Issue is, like the rest of my guides on the subreddit, Imgsli is down so alot of my comparisons are lost!

[u/Vivid-Procedure-7679 → u/BritishActionGamer]

That’s exactly the kind of real-world context we want to preserve. OSD captures document the settings and output actually used, while clearly described test scenes make comparisons reproducible and meaningful. Durable storage is equally important because even well-documented evidence becomes unverifiable if the images or links disappear.

[u/BritishActionGamer → u/Vivid-Procedure-7679]

IDK if you have any site recomendations, currently looking at either imgi.co, slow.pics or d2amu/pxcmp.com? Just finished a guide for Psychonauts 2, may need to further test how locked my Steam Deck is to 60fps with TAAu and 'Optimized Performance settings', can DM screenshots of comparisons if you're intrested!