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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?

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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17 comments
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Mountain Man Nov 7, 2023
I've never understood why refresh rate and frame rate were separate settings.

But, man, this update is a long time coming. Of course Valve has never been one to rush development.
damarrin Nov 8, 2023
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There's an update to this. I noticed yesterday fps limiting no longer worked correctly on my TV and today it is fixed.
damarrin Nov 8, 2023
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Quoting: Mar2ckDoes 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.

Yes it does.
EzioTheDeadPoet Nov 9, 2023
Quoting: japzoneWhy 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?
This is for games that reach between 30-20 FPS to makes the drops to 20 in some areas feel less bad. If you game can't reach above 20 FPS and you are fine with that then you probably will still prefer going with 40Hz but if the game for a lot of sections could hit kinda stable 30 as well then you might want to play at 60Hz and not 40Hz.
Tau Nov 9, 2023
I hope this fixes the god-awful latency when limiting to 30 FPS, maybe the could just lie with gamescope to the game that the screen is 30Hz and set the screen to 60Hz
GetBeaned Nov 9, 2023
Quoting: Mountain ManI've never understood why refresh rate and frame rate were separate settings.

But, man, this update is a long time coming. Of course Valve has never been one to rush development.

Weirdly, after the Deck actually launched, it felt like a new update hit every week. Substantial updates too. But since they absolutely borked an update just before Christmas, it's been glacially slow ever since. Not that I really mind; the Deck is in a great spot, but it does feel like we've been waiting for this update forever.
japzone Nov 11, 2023
Quoting: EzioTheDeadPoet
Quoting: japzoneWhy 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?
This is for games that reach between 30-20 FPS to makes the drops to 20 in some areas feel less bad. If you game can't reach above 20 FPS and you are fine with that then you probably will still prefer going with 40Hz but if the game for a lot of sections could hit kinda stable 30 as well then you might want to play at 60Hz and not 40Hz.
Ah, that makes a lot of sense. Thanks for explaining.
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