The boost isn’t huge. It’s within 2-3 FPS in most places I’ve seen vids of any difference. Sometimes there isn’t much or any difference.

But with the higher refresh rate, it will feel smoother. Because with frame-doubling/tripling, depending on how much FPS you are getting or are capped at, your screen will be refreshing twice or three times per frame; which will feel better to your brain/eyes.

Well, I thought that issue was fixed because I haven’t had a crash in ages. But it’s possible that it’s a mix of not being as bad as it used to be, plus my work-around from way back still being in place.

So of course, you know that the game crashes when the memory leak eventually fills up the memory and you run out.

But a long time ago, when it was so bad that it would crash in 10 minutes, I did a work around which involved simply increasing the swap size to 64 GB (or 32GB… i forget, whichever was the max selection in cryoutils). This way, my usually sessions (1-2 hours) would be shorter than it would take the game to run out of memory with that swap size.

Like another commenter said, the UbiConnect client is the culprit. And turning off the in-game overlay by opening it in desktopmode and changing the settings would help. Also be sure to use Proton Experimental or Proton Hotfix as your selected Compatibility layer.

I have both the UbiSoft Connect version and the Steam version installed, and both work fine for me these days.

The whole OS seems so damn thought through

Go to the file explorer, open a directory; let’s say the "home
directory. Make the size column visible. What’s this? It says how many items are in it. Now sort by size. What? It’s sorting by how many ITEMS are in the directory, not the actual storage size of the contents?

Remember:

The whole OS seems so damn thought through

Now try saying that again…

It’s a robust and customizable OS, yes. But there are ton of things that are counter-intuitive, or require more than the average casual computer user should need to do. I can use it, but I wouldn’t give a non-techy family member that OS to use.

• Protective case with a kickstand and hardshell front cover. It used to be $10. They probably raised the price from the surge in news since the OLED release.
• x-in-1 USB-C Dock with HDMI, Ethernet etc. Easier to keep out of view under the desk etc so only one cable (USB connector to steam deck) is on your desk. If you case has a kickstand like above, the base from a dock is already redundant. Only thing exclusive to a dock is if you need one that has a built-in SSD or something like that.
  (that’s just my personal prefs tho. Some people rather have a “dock” form-factor even though you have to manually connect the cable either way)
• If like me you prefer using the deck as a controller after getting used to always having the trackpads, you can get an extension like this. Even when docked to my external display I use the deck as my controller.
• USB to 3.5mm Audio Adapter if needed; so you don’t have to unplug anything other than the USB-connector to the deck

The only things you really get with a dock format is they usually have a display port connector, and a base-built in. The cases I use all have kickstands, so I prefer USB-C hubs myself. Also way easier to carry around in your case/bag than a dock.

In the emulators you usually have to go into the control settings and set which controller/device it sees as controller 1, and controller 2 etc.

While in Desktop Mode, try opening the Steam app then enable Big Picture mode. You’ll have a UI similar to gaming mode, and it may have the item you’re looking for.

Checked on amazon but couldnt find that model.

Yep it works great. And as a matter of fact, you can set the emulator (like Yuzu) to launch at a higher resolution like 1920x1080 without any performance cost. And this way it looks extra nice when displayed on your deck, and is appropriate for when you run on the external display.

Go to the Steam Properties for the game/app, and set the resolution there. But also toggle the setting for internal and external display to ON, so it is forced. If you do not see it after selecting the resolution, just flip between the compatibility tab and back.

Can anyone see this comment? Reddit is doing weird things.

OK after sleeping, I realized what your issue probably is.

So by default, in the Steam Properties for a game, the resolution is set to “Default”. So when you plug it in to and display on an external monitor like a 1080p one, it uses the closest appropriate resolution to the steam deck’s display (1280x800) but with the new ratio (which is 16:9, as your external display). This is 1280x720; ie. 720p.

What will happen then is the Steam Deck will use the built-in OS scaling method, to upscale this from 720p to 1080p. In your side performance menu (the button with the “…”), you can set this to FSR with a Sharpness of about 2 to make it looks better. The issue with this method is that everything is using upscaling, including the UI; which makes everything a bit blurry.

But you can also instead do it another way, which is to force the game to launch at 1080p, and use the in-game FSR2 so that only the 3d game engine will use upscaling and the UI will be sharper.

• In Steam Properties, set the Resolution selection to “Native”; this will launch the game and allow for it to see the native resolution of the display you’re using, whatever that is (Steam Deck or the external one).
• After Launching Baldur’s Gate 3, go into the game settings, use Windowed Fullscreen (this will use whatever resolution the full screen window is at; so 1280 on your steam deck and 1920 on your external display), and then set FSR2 to ON with Performance or Quality setting. Also put the Sharpness Slider about 80%.

So the above setting should run the game in a manner where the UI looks sharp, and you still get performance similar to when you run it on your steam deck native screen.

I’m pretty sure they just mean “when docked”…

It’s a tool that hooks into (intercepts) the DirectX renderer to apply/enable post processing effects (shaders).

It only works with games that use DirectX because of this (so it doesn’t work with any linux native games etc; Shadow of the Tomb Raider for example).

I made a guide on how to setup ReShade on Steam Deck some time back.

Vibrant Deck (or Steam OS 3.5) plus ReShade with HDR shader looks very good. The HDR shader really does a good job of recovering those drap grays into darker shadows and blacks; similar for the highlights.

Here is some old screenshots:

• Elder Scrolls Online: Default Screen View | With ReShade/Vibrant Deck
• Control: Default Screen View | With ReShade/Vibrant Deck
• Hellblade Senua’s Sacrifice: Default Screen View | With ReShade/Vibrant Deck

With Hellblade you can really the difference.

It’s not as good as real HDR of course, especially with the huge jump in vibrancy from the OLED. But it’s much better than stock visuals.

​

Also most of my games looks even better now, because I have improved the reshade settings I use since then.

Well, I am not sure it will the same day as it is ordered. Especially since it is 1PM or later in some places when the ordering becomes available. It may actually physically ship the next day or something.

It’s not less FPS overall. It showed that in some cases it gave less FPS/performance at lower power. ie. when lowering the TDP.

But since the new OLED steam deck has improved battery life, you’d be able to run it at a higher TDP for the same performance and more battery life.

I don’t agree that the difference is huge. You can tell of course. TO the discerning eye you can tell the orange in the middle has a better hue. But this also comes with a lot of reflectiveness and distraction depending on your environment lighting.

I’d still lean toward using the etched glass myself and seeing reflections or rather having what they are reflecting distract you can take you out of the gaming experience at times.

But it is nice to know and see the difference.

Personally I tinker and add ReShade (mostly for HDR shader) to just about every game I can get it to work on (which hits for 2-3 FPS), along with Vibrant Deck.

So that is a lot of time spent over time, which it would be nice if I didn’t have to or need to do. Along with the other improvements like OLED, Battery life, and a smidge extra FPS sometimes… I think I’m upgrading.

I put up my Diablo Eternal Edition Nintendo Switch for sale, which will balance out the cost of the upgrade for me. I pretty much never use it anymore, and don’t see myself using it any time in the future.

For any upgrade or purchase, getting in on it a early as possible ensures the most use out of it before any potential next upgrade. So it’s best I do this right out the gate, and not wait to it gets closer to v2 release.

There has been before yes. TomToc made one, and there are others I think. That is probably part of the reason Valve did that or got the idea from.

That limited edition is calling my name. I really dug the orange accents on the Stadia controller, and I’m really liking it on that too. Though to be honest only the thumbstick is going to be visible; but still.

I don’t think it’s going to sell out. Many people like me are hyped by the reality distortion field of a new product announcement, but some may cool off by the time of launch and realize the upgrade relative to the cost may not be worth it for their historical usage.