Steam Deck Gets New Update for October 2024

Valve has launched an enormous firmware replace for its extremely in style Steam Deck hand held gaming PC. Dubbed SteamOS 3.6.19, the replace brings an enormous gamut of enhancements to the Steam Deck, equivalent to enhanced battery lifestyles, upgraded graphics drivers, Bluetooth optimizations, and so a lot more.

The Steam Deck is likely one of the hottest hand held gaming PCs these days to be had. Whilst competing handhelds use Home windows as their working methods, the Steam Deck units itself aside with a slick Linux-based interface (termed SteamOS) that echoes a conventional console’s person enjoy. Many Steam Deck customers laud the intuitive instrument, and Valve has even showed that it’s going to make SteamOS to be had to its competition sooner or later. For now, despite the fact that, the corporate’s sole center of attention is Steam Deck customers, who can now obtain SteamOS 3.6.19.

Comparable

The Steam Deck is Coming to a New Area

Valve proclaims that the Steam Deck shall be to be had on the market in a brand new area that in the past had no direct get right of entry to to the gaming hand held.

One of the crucial headliners of SteamOS 3.6.19 is the new Mesa 24.1 graphics driving force, which improves recreation efficiency and general device responsiveness. The OS itself has been upgraded to a more recent Arch Linux base with an upgraded Linux kernel (6.5), which boosts safety, balance, and compatibility around the device. Valve has additionally adjusted the Steam Deck’s brightness uniformity and colour steadiness within the show settings, which will have to lead to a extra visually pleasant symbol output, in particular in low-light prerequisites.

Maximum Notable Additions in Steam Deck’s SteamOS 3.6.19 Replace

Normal

• Up to date to a newer Arch Linux base, and up to date Linux kernel to model 6.5
  • Those updates beef up {hardware} compatibility, device efficiency, safety, and general device balance
• Advanced pace of next OS updates
• Advanced reliability of positive microSD card utilization situations
• Labored round misdetection of a few SanDisk microSD playing cards
• Mounted some connectivity screw ups with get right of entry to issues supporting WPA3 safety
• Mounted an issue the place Steam Deck could be not able to hook up with positive Wi-Fi 7 get right of entry to issues

Graphics and Efficiency

• Up to date graphics driving force to Mesa 24.1, with many efficiency and different enhancements
• Advanced responsiveness of the Steam UI
• Advanced efficiency and balance in reminiscence drive eventualities
• Moderately advanced chilly boot time

Show

• Advanced show uniformity, underneath some prerequisites (Mura Repayment)
• Advanced show colour steadiness (decreased inexperienced tint) at decrease brightness ranges, underneath some prerequisites
• Advanced gamma uniformity (yellow tint), underneath some prerequisites
• Mounted a subject matter the place the interior show may stay clean after disconnecting an exterior show

Exterior Show

• Mounted a number of problems the place an exterior show may stay clean after resuming
• Mounted a subject matter the place the device may crash on wakeup if an exterior DisplayPort observe was once attached
• Mounted a device crash when hotplugging a 2nd show in Desktop mode

Bluetooth

• Advanced Bluetooth pairing enjoy with Apple AirPods
• Enabled give a boost to for Bluetooth HFP and BAP profiles
• Added mechanism to configure which Bluetooth tool classes are allowed to wake the device from droop
• Advanced connection pace of a few Bluetooth units

Desktop Mode

• Up to date to KDE Plasma 5.27.10
• Mounted a subject matter with desktop use that might motive next microSD card auto-mount to fail

Battery Existence

• Steam Deck OLED simplest
  • Added give a boost to for the Home windows Bluetooth driving force (LCD fashions have already got Home windows Bluetooth give a boost to)
• Steam Deck LCD simplest
  • Advanced battery lifestyles via as much as 10% in gentle load eventualities
  • Added overclocking controls

Battery lifestyles enhancements are any other noteworthy addition in SteamOS 3.6.19. Because of a repair for a reminiscence leak, Steam Deck OLED customers will have to realize higher battery lifestyles whilst gaming, whilst Steam Deck LCD customers will see round a ten% uplift in battery efficiency underneath “gentle load” prerequisites. That is supreme for low-demand duties like downloading video games, which will have to now be much less of a drain at the Steam Deck’s battery. Moreover, Steam Deck LCD customers can now get right of entry to overclocking controls within the BIOS, a function in the past unique to OLED fashions.

Valve has resolved a bevy of balance problems as neatly, equivalent to a black display worm that happened when switching between the Steam Deck’s Desktop Mode and Recreation Mode. Reliability problems for microSD playing cards have additionally been addressed, lowering the chance of issues when the use of positive SanDisk playing cards. The official patch notes for SteamOS 3.6.19 quilt the remainder of the replace’s additions and fixes, so the ones will have to certainly take a look at the checklist.

Despite the fact that the Steam Deck is probably not essentially the most tough hand held gaming PC in the market, many imagine that Valve’s exceptionally robust instrument give a boost to makes up for the deficit. With the Steam Deck heading into its 3rd 12 months, despite the fact that, buzz round a possible successor has begun to unfold. Valve even showed plans for a Steam Deck 2 lately, however the corporate is not concerned with speeding the successor’s building in any way and is looking forward to a “generational” soar in efficiency with out sacrificing battery lifestyles.

Steam Deck

The Steam Deck is Valve’s access into the hand held PC marketplace, the use of a customized Linux-based OS to deliver your Steam library anywhere you move. Introduced in 2022 with an LCD display, an up to date type with an OLED display adopted in overdue 2023.

Logo

Steam (Valve)

Working Gadget

SteamOS 3 (Arch-based)

Garage

64GB eMMC / 256GB NVMe SSD / 512GB NVMe SSD / 1TB NVMe SSD

VR Reinforce

Technically imaginable, however now not designed or optimized for it.

Solution

1200 x 800

App Retailer

Steam

Wi-Fi

Tri-band Wi-Fi 6E radio, 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz 2 x 2 MIMO, IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax

Ports

USB-C with Energy Supply/DisplayPort

HDR Reinforce

No

Authentic Unlock Date

February 25, 2022

Authentic MSRP (USD)

$399–$649

Weight

Approx. 640 grams

Dimensions

298mm x 117mm x 49mm

Processor

Zen 2 4c/8t, 2.4-3.5GHz (as much as 448 GFlops FP32)

Make bigger