Major Steam Deck Update Adds New Performance Options, Big Desktop Mode Improvements, Storage Changes, and More

Today, Valve pushed out one of the biggest updates for SteamOS on Steam Deck since launching the device. This update has tons of behind the scenes improvements and upgrades, but the other highlights include massive improvements for Desktop Mode, new performance profile options like enabling Screen Tearing for improved latency, a horizontal HUD that fits in the black bars for 16:9 games, TRIM for storage to improve write performance, and much more. While the system has changed a lot since launch, see what Jared thought of it’s back then here. If you recently bought a Steam Deck, check out my features on the best accessories for it and the best games to play on Steam Deck here.

The new screen tearing option is shown in the screenshot above from when I was playing PowerWash Simulator earlier today on Deck. The full patch notes for SteamOS 3.4 on Steam Deck are here. One thing to note is that Valve pushed out another small update to fix issues thanks to changing the SD card path. This change was reverted and will be implemented in the future with SteamOS 3.5. I’m glad that Valve shipped this before the holidays. The new horizontal HUD, also shown in the screenshot above, is great for not cluttering the gameplay. Stay tuned for more Steam Deck coverage as we begin our Game of the Year features in the near future. If you’ve gotten a Steam Deck recently, what do you think of it?