Steam update introduces important feature for users wanting to squeeze more out of their hardware

Steam users, particularly those playing on Steam Deck, now have a brand new feature to use which will help you to understand how games will play on handheld hardware.

The Steam Deck is one of the best deals in gaming if you want to take your PC games and play them on the go, but with the hardware now being almost five years old, many newer games are struggling to run on it.

We've found that recent games like Phantom Blade Zero, Valor Mortis, and Onimusha: Way of the Sword struggle with the aging Steam hardware, with some gamers getting less than satisfactory framerates even after reducing graphical settings.

For Steam Deck users who want a bit more information about what to expect when it comes to performance, using ProtonDB has been a godsend for finding benchmarks and recommended settings, and now a new option for that exists within Steam itself.

The latest Steam update adds a new option to see the average framerate for a specific game on that game's store page, breaking it down by average FPS as well as providing a chart tracking how often the framerate may drop or rise in certain circumstances.

These numbers are calculated using data provided by customers who have opted in to tracking. Their average framerate is collected by Valve, and then presented as an average number on the Steam store. The feature is available for all games that have been tested for the Steam Deck, including those with Verified, Playable, and Unsupported status.

As of right now, there are thousands of games on the Steam store which have framerate data, and Valve promises that the number will grow as it continues to collect more performance metrics.

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Where to find new framerate metrics on Steam

You'll find this data on any supported game's Steam Store page. Scroll down to Steam Deck Compatibility, and click Learn More. From here, you'll find the average FPS underneath the compatibility information, as well as the chart which breaks down the framerate distribution. A notice of when it was last updated is also included, in case game patches improve or decrease performance.

Valve

"The current Steam Deck Verified compatibility rating is based on standardized test criteria, but it may not match every customer’s bar for acceptable gameplay," says Valve regarding why it decided to add this feature. "This is especially true around performance - a game with an Unsupported rating due to unstable performance may be considered playable by some customers, and a Verified game may not reach a framerate that some customers prefer to play at. By providing average framerate data for each game, customers now have a more complete picture of how the game performs on Steam Deck and can make more informed purchase and play decisions."

The new data will also be available for all Steam Deck users in their game libraries on the next major update to the client, but it's currently available for people to check out if they're opted into the Steam Client Beta.