The newest Steam Deck preview tests VRR, HDR, and improvements for Starfield

15.09.2023 - 23:05 / theverge.com / Jay Peters / Deck

By Jay Peters, a news editor who writes about technology, video games, and virtual worlds. He’s submitted several accepted emoji proposals to the Unicode Consortium.

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Valve’s next major SteamOS update brings some significant new display settings as well as some new performance improvements to Steam Deck. You can read all about the SteamOS 3.5 update in a blog post on the Steam website.

Two major new features are support for variable refresh rates (VRR) and HDR if you’re using your Steam Deck with supported hardware. Valve says that HDR can be enabled if you have a compatible display while VRR can be enabled if you have a compatible USB-C adapter. The company has also changed the Steam Deck’s default color rendering to “emulate the sRGB color gamut,” which Valve says will result in “a slightly warmer and more vibrant color appearance.” If you don’t like the change, Valve has also added settings that let you tweak the display’s color vibrancy and color temperature.

There are some welcome changes that aren’t related to display settings, too. The update includes “updated graphics drivers, with many performance and functionality improvements.” Valve says the update brings “improved performance for Starfield;” Bethesda’s excellent space RPG isn’t verified for Steam Deck, but that hasn’t stopped people from playing the game on the handheld gaming PC anyway.

Valve also promises that the new update adds “slightly improved sleep resume speed.” Every second helps!

If you want to try the SteamOS 3.5 preview, go to Settings > System > System Update Channel > Preview. If the preview is too unstable for you, you can always switch back to the Stable channel.

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