SteamOS 3.2 Beta Brings Improved Fan Control, Experimental Refresh Rate Switching

[Awesomeness]

"SteamOS has" should be replaced with "Linux and KDE have". That ain't gonna change anytime soon.

You have no clue. Plasma on openSUSE does not have the same issue with translations and such.

[skeevy420]

Valve brought us PC gaming to Linux just look at all the investments in DXVK, RADV und Proton in the last 2-3 years, i think that is the biggest advance, not the Steam Deck Distro. I don´t even want it to be instalable on my normal desktop, there is no real reason, it´s a distro made especially for that device, with all it´s hardware buttons and hardware features.

The distro itself is just Arch with a few Valve extras to make it even more gamer friendly. The part of SteamOS 3 that's Steam Deck optimized is the updated version of the Steam Client that the Deck uses. That's the part that may or may not work on desktops -- the Steam Client itself; not the OS. You can actually try the updated client right now from any distribution and you may or may not get lucky. I was unlucky.

And because I know some of y'all will be interested in this -- Some kind soul, bhaiest, put it all together and made an installer for desktops.

[Spacefish]

Valve brought us PC gaming to Linux just look at all the investments in DXVK, RADV und Proton in the last 2-3 years, i think that is the biggest advance, not the Steam Deck Distro. I don´t even want it to be instalable on my normal desktop, there is no real reason, it´s a distro made especially for that device, with all it´s hardware buttons and hardware features.

[skeevy420]

"calling it a beta"? Huh? 3.2 is the beta. Stable branch is still 3.1.

Just a tongue-in-cheek joke about being at what could be considered the third point release of the OS without a non-deck release. That's .0, .1, and now .2.

SteamOS has enough rough edges at the moment. It's pointless to waste development resources on random PCs while basics like non-English languages in desktop mode are not even working properly, yet.

"SteamOS has" should be replaced with "Linux and KDE have". That ain't gonna change anytime soon. That's why I think Valve should just get on with it and de-deck and generic-ify SteamOS.

Does anyone else get an earwig of Holy Grail from the phrase get on with it?

[CochainComplex]

NGL, at this point I'd rather them call it the SteamDeckOS than SteamOS. Just feels like a big tease when we're at version 3.2 without a general purpose installer while calling it a beta. Come on now.

I really wish they'd make me look like an asshole by releasing an ISO today. Finger's crossed.

Im also waiting...

[Awesomeness]

Just feels like a big tease when we're at version 3.2 without a general purpose installer while calling it a beta

"calling it a beta"? Huh? 3.2 is the beta. Stable branch is still 3.1.

Come on now.

SteamOS has enough rough edges at the moment. It's pointless to waste development resources on random PCs while basics like non-English languages in desktop mode are not even working properly, yet.

[ntropy]

Havent updated to the latest beta update, but the last one already had the fan curve adjustments on. Now the device is perfect. Been gaming Fallen Order on it, down tuned to 30 fps with 3:30 hours of battery time at 60 degree Celsius. Fan was pretty loud, to loud to game in bed with the wife sleeping. Now the temps are up to 68 degree Celsius but the device is silent. There was a suspend issue, when the new curve got lost after suspend, the latest update tho prolly ruled that one out. I did too by using a custom systemd script.

Device is perfect now

[nranger]

So, Steam Deck doesn't have freesync?

No it does not. It uses a portrait native panel most likely originally designed for 60fps tablets. Freesync arguably wouldn't be that useful with such a limited VRR range.

I get that a lot of games hover in the forties or fifties FPS range and could potentially take advantage of VRR, but such games would also be pegging the CPU and/or GPU, thus being a worst case in terms of battery life. Better to just lock the framerate at 40 or 44, get a much smoother gameplay experience, and save some battery while you're at it.

[arun54321]

So, Steam Deck doesn't have freesync?

[arboy84]

Are they ever going to upgrade KDE to 5.24.x? I feel like a lot of bugs that are relevant to Steam Deck have been fixed and will continue to receive fixes since that release is an LTS.