The Steam Deck battery problem would have caused Valve to react and their console would let us change a lot of impressive parameters that neither SONY nor Microsoft allow on their PS5 and Xbox. Is it the future of all portable consoles?
Steam Deck, the greatest evolution of consoles
It has always been said that software is as important as hardware in an allusion to the famous ad “power without control is useless”. And it’s true, it cannot be denied that although Steam Deck’s hardware is clearly superior in performance to that of the competition, without up-to-date software it could do little. Valve was slow to see it, it has worked in silence and apparently according to what was leaked in a Bilibili Steam Deck video it will bring so many customization options that are really exciting.
Especially if we take into account that we can adapt the performance of the console and the SoC in general, as well as the screen according to the type of game we are playing and possibly creating profiles for it. The leak is in Chinese, so it has been difficult to translate it into motion, but it reflects the good work of Valve and why they are going to take the market ahead of Nintendo Switch in not too many years.
Logically, not all users understand the options that we are going to see, therefore, and being more striking, Valve offers what it has called “Performance Interface” with three settings: Off, 1, 2 and 3. We understand that mode 1 is power saving, 2 normal mode and 3 high performance mode. But it is that apart we can configure everything on our own.
Performance interface and settings: variable resolution
Starting with the GPU settings as a menu, we will have automatic, low, medium and high performance, where it also seems that it has a customization option of the mode in which we are.
If this were not already a real advance, the console will also allow us to configure the FPS rate at which we want to play as maximum, where curiously the bar is fixed in the center of the slider at 60 FPS, giving the impression that we could reach 120Hz, something that Valve has not commented on.
Another advance is having a variable resolution that keeps the FPS rate always where we want it, which is a good point that will help with gameplay. At the same time we can opt for a variable panel refresh rate through FreeSync, although it is not specified as such, which introduces smoothness when playing.
Finally, we can see an adjustment of the TDP of the console, something unheard of until now that if we think about it well, it cannot be understood that it is not present as such in all its rivals, and those that are not. Nothing else is shown in the video, but what is certain is that all your competition will take note, because it’s not just another step forward, it’s a race away.
