Valve has added a new frame rate data point to its game compatibility pages for Steam Deck, giving users a more precise idea about the performance they can expect. This feature is currently exclusive to Steam Deck LCD and Steam Deck OLED devices, but future iterations may include laptop and desktop PCs.
Based on the frame rate reporting tool Valve made for developers to collect and optimise game performance, this new feature lets regular users access that data and see for themselves how well a game runs on their machine. Now, Steam Deck LCD and Steam Deck OLED owners can find exactly how many frames per second they can expect from their handhelds before purchasing, instead of a vague compatibility report.
This frame rate data is displayed as an average at the bottom of the Steam Deck compatibility screen, including the date it was last updated. This average is calculated using data from users who have opted in to providing frame rate data, available for games that have been tested for Deck compatibility (Verified, Playable, and Unsupported). Valve says there are thousands of games with frame rate data, and this number will grow as it continues to gather more.
Clicking the dropdown menu opens a more detailed histogram showing each game’s frame rate distribution, which is useful to see how often users are running into hitches or stuttering (which show up as small columns in the lower frame rate values). Note that the data used to produce the average frame rate and histogram is filtered to only show data from Steam Decks that are set to the default frame limit, in order to maintain a consistent performance bar.
Valve has also confirmed that this update is just a starting point, focusing on Steam Deck handhelds due to their fixed hardware configurations. In other words, it looks as though the company plans a widespread implementation of this feature covering laptops and desktop PCs. In fact, Valve has already started prompting desktop users to opt into anonymised frame rate data collection with the latest Steam Client Beta, presumably so it can start building similar systems for more devices.
