Meanwhile Cryo when publishing his tools showed performance comparisons before and after

The issue is that he’s really the only one who’s properly benchmarked his own tool. Given how prevalent it is I’d have expected someone else like DF to properly look at it.

So, better question would be “I have issues with how game X plays on SD. Will Cryo help or make it even worse?”

That’s the best way to treat it for me. The only game I’ve ever had to use it for was God of War, and I noticed no improvement with anything else I played.

What do Microsoft gain out of this? You can stream it through anything that can run an internet browser, and if you’re desperate for it on the Deck locally it’s easy to install Windows onto an SD card or internal drive. Making it a Steam app also means they forfeit a cut of their subs to Valve. Making it a bit easier for a tiny minority of the gaming market makes very little sense.

I don’t see Valve being overly keen seeing a game service with as many games as Gamepass does on its store either to be honest, considering they kinda want you to buy stuff.