Do you have a Steam deck? You are lucky. Either way, if you haven’t already, you should install the newly released SteamOS 3.2 update, which calms the noisy fan and gives you more options to extend battery life along with other improvements.
With version 3.2, the Steam Deck can be switched from the default display refresh rate of 60Hz to 40Hz. You can then set a frame limiter, typically to something like 40, 20, or even 10fps. These settings are per game, so you can keep action-packed games at 60fps, but limit the puzzles to something lower that won’t affect gameplay much.
Here’s an interesting note from Valve on the frame rate. At 30fps, there is a new frame every 33.33ms. At 60 fps every 16.66 ms. At 40fps the frame time is 25ms, exactly in the middle between 30fps and 60fps. This means that the game feels noticeably smoother and more responsive without a massive increase in computing power. Valve also notes that frame stability is very important, so you may want to lock the frame rate to 40fps for heavier titles instead of letting it wobble.
The fan in the Steam Deck was noisy (Image credit: iFixit)
Moving on, SteamOS 3.2 now ships with an OS controlled fan curve. It’s smarter than the old BIOS controlled system, so the fan is much quieter, especially in low usage situations. If you prefer, you can enable the old behavior in the system settings. Valve will continue to tweak the fan control trying to find further improvements.
Another way to reduce power consumption, noise, and heat is to reduce the game’s internal rendering resolution. Version 3.2 now includes more options for this.
There are other improvements too, such as the maximum speaker volume has been increased, there’s an option to quickly format microSD cards, and more. You can find more details in the full patch notes.
Remote Play Together is now supported on the Steam Deck
Another thing is coming today. It is part of the Steam client and is fully supported by Steam Deck – Remote Play Together. You will find all the details here, but in short it allows you to organize parties on the LAN without having to invite people. It allows you to play local multiplayer games with your Steam friends remotely, even for titles that don’t support online play. The feature also supports cross-platform play, so your friends can participate using, for example, their phones or tablets, even if the game isn’t available for that platform.
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