this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2025
70 points (92.7% liked)

Steam Deck

17902 readers
312 users here now

A place to discuss and support all things Steam Deck.

Replacement for r/steamdeck_linux.

As Lemmy doesn't have flairs yet, you can use these prefixes to indicate what type of post you have made, eg:
[Flair] My post title

The following is a list of suggested flairs:
[Discussion] - General discussion.
[Help] - A request for help or support.
[News] - News about the deck.
[PSA] - Sharing important information.
[Game] - News / info about a game on the deck.
[Update] - An update to a previous post.
[Meta] - Discussion about this community.

Some more Steam Deck specific flairs:
[Boot Screen] - Custom boot screens/videos.
[Selling] - If you are selling your deck.

These are not enforced, but they are encouraged.

Rules:

Link to our Matrix Space

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Is the Steam Deck performance struggling with new AAA games? Should I be concerned buying a Steam Deck now?

I'm guessing/hoping not because most game developers would optimise the games for the Switch 2 and Xbox Series S which have similar performances as the Deck.

I think 30 fps (consistent) is perfectly fine, and I don't mind medium details.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago

The next gen steam deck likely isn't coming out for quite awhile still, so it's probably not worth waiting for next gen.

Performance wise, the Steam Deck does struggle to run new AAA games if they're poorly optimized, use UE5, or have mandatory ray tracing for lighting. It's still possible to play most of these games, but it will depend on your tolerance for graphics quality or your willingness to install performance mods. There's also no shortage of good games to play, slightly older AAA games generally work flawlessly and nearly all AA/indie games run great. I have enough good games in my library where I could never buy another game and always have something good to play.

The switch 2 in portable mode has nearly identical power to the Steam Deck, so if it sells anywhere close to Switch 1 I think we'll see a lot of games target being able to run on it. The switch 1 was far enough behind modern platforms to not be worth optimizing for, for most AAA games/devs. But the switch 2 and steam deck generally have enough power to run new games at an almost acceptable level, and that makes optimization a much more appealing target.

Also worth considering is local streaming. If you have a decent PC/PS5 you can stream games to the deck. It can be a good compromise for the games that don't run great natively.