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Valve has released a fresh Beta and Preview update for the Steam Deck, which tweaks some existing features like the refresh rate and frame limit sliders to merge them into one slider to rule them all.

So now the performance menu by default will look like this on SteamOS 3.5 Preview:

However, you can disable this if you wish in the Display Settings to get it back to the original split-slider:

The full changelog:

General

  • Fix visual glitches when dismissing a context menu in main BPM UI while a game is running

Steam Input

  • Adjusted size/layout of the controller support information section in the configurator
  • Fixed the "Enable Steam Input" button not being shown on Deck when manually opting controllers out of Steam Input
  • Default shortcuts into Steam Input in the new PlayStation controller support mode instead of requiring each one to be manually opted in.

Preview Only

  • Unified the Refresh Rate and Framerate Limit settings in the Performance tab into a single slider. Using a single slider will enable the system to pick options that were previously not exposed, e.g. frame tripling a 20FPS game to display it on a 60Hz screen.
  • Added a toggle to opt-out of the unified refresh rate slider to Settings->Display->Advanced.

What do you think to these changes?

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17 comments
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Stunlocked Nov 7, 2023
Finally. Always found this confusing.
Jpxe Nov 7, 2023
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Quoteframe tripling a 20FPS game to display it on a 60Hz screen.
Is this for Baldur's Gate 3
dpanter Nov 7, 2023
"frame tripling"? What.
Mar2ck Nov 7, 2023
Does the slider jump straight from 30 to 40 fps? Because the screen can't run at 31-39 hz and with frame duplication the screen would have to run at 62-78 hz.
RavenWings Nov 7, 2023
Options are always nice, but since I run most games at 30 FPS and I´d asume 30hz to have noticable flickering (I´ll have to try that out later today), it wouldn´t be of use to me. Would be nice to have something like 3 tabs for this option to quickly switch to what I need. First tab is the one-bar-solution, second tab the two bars and the third could offer some common "1-click-preset" options like 60/60, 30/60 and 40/40.


Last edited by RavenWings on 7 November 2023 at 1:51 pm UTC
BOYSSSSS Nov 7, 2023
I don't know what "frame tripling" is, but I hope they implement Black Frame Insertion in gamescope.
Brokatt Nov 7, 2023
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Quoting: dpanter"frame tripling"? What.

Quoting: BOYSSSSSI don't know what "frame tripling" is, but I hope they implement Black Frame Insertion in gamescope.

My guess would be that the GPU renders a frame three times for every refresh in the case of 20 fps on a 60 Hz display. It would still not be an optimal experience but an improvement over the alternative. I imagine there would a a lot of input lag but there is only so much you can do at 20 fps. I'm not experienced enough to talk about this but yeah it sounds like a "Baldurs Gate 3 feature" :)


Last edited by Brokatt on 7 November 2023 at 3:18 pm UTC
damarrin Nov 7, 2023
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I’m quite happy with this, I always used to have to adjust both sliders to get the fps I wanted.


Last edited by damarrin on 7 November 2023 at 5:34 pm UTC
japzone Nov 7, 2023
Why would you triple the frames of 20fps to reach 60Hz, when you can just double them to hit 40Hz? Wouldn't that be a better option for the SteamDeck?
KingKrouch Nov 7, 2023
Considering 40Hz mode I can tell that the screen is strobing with bright lighting conditions, I hope they are just doing half or quarter refresh rate framerate limits for stuff like that. I'd be fine with this change on that condition, especially if it doesn't affect the refresh rate of external displays.

Half and quarter is fine for framepacing on non-VRR displays.
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