Is 40 acceptable? All I ever see is people complaining if it’s not 120 and I can’t tell if it’s just a meme or not. I play on console primarily for ease of use (I have toddlers), but I do have a pc that’s mid range that does well but I just feel so isolated from my family every time I sit at the computer. Thinking about the steam deck but I know next to nothing of it.
What you find acceptable is entirely based on your personal preference, how much you’ve already been exposed to higher specs, and how privileged you are in hardware, so some people are memeing and others are serious based on these.
If console and mid-range pc gaming is all you know, the Steam Deck provides similar performance, and it’s a full on pc (with all the customization potential and non-gaming software availability you’d expect from a pc) in a handheld form factor, and a fairly console-like stock OS, if that’s appealing to you.
But if you want 120-240 fps on latest AAA games, no, you won’t find the Steam Deck’s performance acceptable, but then also you wouldn’t be the target audience.
40 is a sweet spot between 30 and 60: feels much more smooth than 30, is much less demanding than 60. And by the way, 30 is acceptable too as long as it’s stable. Sure it will almost certainly feel less smooth than other options, but especially as you say you’re playing on console mostly… chances are you are already used to 30 fps. I, for example, feel the difference between 30 and 60 in Forza Horizon 5 (and the magic 40) but that’s not preventing me from doing well.
The one thing that I’m not sure has been mentioned yet, is that the Steam Deck targets 720p. The screen is small enough for that to work out fine.
The reason why 40 fps feels better is because even though its only 10 fps higher, the frame latency is half(25 ms) compared to 30(33.3 ms) and 60(16.6ms) on the two ends. So you work 33% harder for half the latency.
To put in perspective, the drop in latency (8.3 ms), is the same for example going from , 40 to 60, or 60(16.6) > 120(8.3 ms)
Steam Deck is only a 60Hz display (which your TV almost certainly is too) so anything over 60 fps isn’t actually going to make a difference visually. That being said, if you’re playing on a display capable of 120Hz, 120 fps will absolutely make a difference visually.
I use mine for indie games, mostly. I have a gaming computer for AAA titles. You can stream games from steam on your pc, but I haven’t fucked with that much.
It performs way better than I expected, but I am one of those that requires higher frame rates for some titles so.
The Steam Deck has roughly the same gaming performance as a PS4, but it’s an actual PC so it can run all kinds of other software without hacky mods. It runs a version of Linux by default, but you could install Windows on it if that tickles your fancy.
Is 40 acceptable? All I ever see is people complaining if it’s not 120 and I can’t tell if it’s just a meme or not. I play on console primarily for ease of use (I have toddlers), but I do have a pc that’s mid range that does well but I just feel so isolated from my family every time I sit at the computer. Thinking about the steam deck but I know next to nothing of it.
What you find acceptable is entirely based on your personal preference, how much you’ve already been exposed to higher specs, and how privileged you are in hardware, so some people are memeing and others are serious based on these. If console and mid-range pc gaming is all you know, the Steam Deck provides similar performance, and it’s a full on pc (with all the customization potential and non-gaming software availability you’d expect from a pc) in a handheld form factor, and a fairly console-like stock OS, if that’s appealing to you. But if you want 120-240 fps on latest AAA games, no, you won’t find the Steam Deck’s performance acceptable, but then also you wouldn’t be the target audience.
40 is a sweet spot between 30 and 60: feels much more smooth than 30, is much less demanding than 60. And by the way, 30 is acceptable too as long as it’s stable. Sure it will almost certainly feel less smooth than other options, but especially as you say you’re playing on console mostly… chances are you are already used to 30 fps. I, for example, feel the difference between 30 and 60 in Forza Horizon 5 (and the magic 40) but that’s not preventing me from doing well.
The one thing that I’m not sure has been mentioned yet, is that the Steam Deck targets 720p. The screen is small enough for that to work out fine.
The reason why 40 fps feels better is because even though its only 10 fps higher, the frame latency is half(25 ms) compared to 30(33.3 ms) and 60(16.6ms) on the two ends. So you work 33% harder for half the latency.
To put in perspective, the drop in latency (8.3 ms), is the same for example going from , 40 to 60, or 60(16.6) > 120(8.3 ms)
I love how technical the answer is
Steam Deck is only a 60Hz display (which your TV almost certainly is too) so anything over 60 fps isn’t actually going to make a difference visually. That being said, if you’re playing on a display capable of 120Hz, 120 fps will absolutely make a difference visually.
I use mine for indie games, mostly. I have a gaming computer for AAA titles. You can stream games from steam on your pc, but I haven’t fucked with that much.
It performs way better than I expected, but I am one of those that requires higher frame rates for some titles so.
Framerates are mostly a personal preference.
The Steam Deck has roughly the same gaming performance as a PS4, but it’s an actual PC so it can run all kinds of other software without hacky mods. It runs a version of Linux by default, but you could install Windows on it if that tickles your fancy.