The Steam Deck has an “optional built-in FPS limiter” for better battery life

When the valve and IGN revealed last Thursday that the new Steam Deck handheld will target 30Hz gameplay, not everyone was impressed with that low bar – but Valve’s Pierre-Loup Griffais took to Twitter to clarify his comment original and reveal a new feature of the handheld console.

First of all, he says 30 fps is more of a minimum bar than anything else:

@ Plagman2 (Twitter)

“The 30 FPS goal refers to what we consider to be playable in our benchmarks; the games we have tested and shown have always met and exceeded this bar so far, ”he writes.

In other words, when Griffais said in that IGN video interview that “we haven’t really found anything that we could throw on this device that he couldn’t handle,” you shouldn’t assume that all modern games run at 60 fps. Expect less.

Oddly, a 30 fps mode will be something you can proactively activate to get more battery life as well. “There will also be an optional built-in FPS limiter to fine tune performance in relation to battery life,” he writes. The company once said you can play Gate 2 up to six hours at 30 fps, compared to four hours normally.

Will it be a Well But in 30 fps mode? It is to be determined. In the responses, Digital foundry Richard Leadbetter says Valve confirmed to him that the Steam Deck does not have a Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) display, and escapes the idea this V-sync could end up creating nasty frame rate issues if you try to lock 30Hz games on the Deck screen. (Digital foundry would know; he has covered the problem several times on PC and console. Dark souls and Chopped developer From Software is known for its inconsistent frame rate, for example.)

Griffais has not yet responded. We will see!