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Valve is targeting 30fps for Steam Deck hardware

Valve is targeting 30fps for Steam Deck hardware

PC giant Valve has said that its upcoming Steam Deck console will be aiming for 30 frames-per-second.

Valve developer Pierre-Loup Griffais took to Twitter – as spotted by GameRant – saying that this frame rate is "the floor" of what the company considers playable as a result of its performance testing for the hardware. He goes on to say that the titles it has tried out have "consistently met and exceeded that bar" to date.

Steam Deck will also apparently come with a built-in frame rate limiter so that users can balance performance and battery life.

This follows Griffais telling IGN that Steam Deck was targeting this frame rate with a native resolution of 800p, also saying that the hardware was running games released this year "without issues."

Valve revealed Steam Deck earlier in July and since the company has insisted that it has done a load of testing on the hardware. This includes reliability testing for the console's thumbsticks to ensure that they don't have similar stick drift issues that Microsoft and Nintendo controllers have experienced in recent years.

The Steam Deck's UI is also going to be replacing Steam's Big Picture mode, which allows users to navigate the service with a controller.


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.