Steam Deck Update Adds Per-Game Performance Profiles

An update to the Steam Deck client has added a very welcome feature: letting owners of the handheld to set game-specific performance settings. The update also has several bug fixes.

The per-game performance settings, which means you can set performance options in Steam OS rather than having to fiddle around in individual titles’ settings pages. System-wide performance settings will still apply by default, but players can decide whether to change this for a custom profile. Hopefully, this will be expanded in future updates to include profiles that can be shared among the Steam Deck community (like we saw with Steam Controller profiles in the past), taking away the work involved in working out the best settings for yourself.

Full patch notes are available for the update. Toggles for haptic feedback and rumble - a useful battery saver when out and about - have disappeared from the Quick Access menu, and can now be accessed via Settings > Controller Settings. The ability to re-order controllers has also moved, into the Other section of the Quick Access menu. Transitioning from offline to online mode should be more stable and perform better after this update, and players who go offline will no longer see their friends continue to show as online. 

Remote Play users will be pleased to see that the Recently Played games list will now contain streamed games, and hosts of Remote Play sessions will now have a "stop streaming" option from their Power menu. Users of external displays will see the Deck’s interface scaled into a virtual 1280x800 resolution - a feature that’s receiving more work and will be further updated - and there have been bug-fixes to the inventory, on-screen keyboard, Friends (particularly former friends still appearing as favorites) and in the ability to display non-ASCII characters. Steam Deck owners will also be able to participate in the Steam Hardware Survey from their Decks.

And finally, there's some good news for our many readers in Bulgaria: the Bulgarian Phonetic Traditional and Phonetic keyboard layouts are now available on the Deck.