If running many games in very good quality at 60 Hz is within the ropes of the Valve console, Phawx recommends for a net gain in autonomy to go down to 40 Hz. However, the operation is not without many disadvantages, at least at present.
Autonomy refresh
The few lucky ones who were able to get a Steam Deck on the first try agree that its autonomy somewhat pulls the console down. Fortunately, a simple solution exists in principle to improve it considerably: block the refresh rate at 40 Hz. According to Phawx, this setting menu can give about two hours of additional autonomy with a game launched.
Only in principle, because SteamOS currently doesn't support setting the refresh rate very well. This causes a long waiting time during which the screen is inert until the new setting is applied.
Valve is currently working on a way to integrate this feature natively into SteamOS to avoid this inconvenience. In the interim, it is better to install Windows 10 , which fully supports the change of refresh rate.
But here again, the solution is far from ideal. Microsoft 's operating system is not quite in tune with the Steam Deck yet. In addition, blocking the refresh rate of the console at 40 Hz will necessarily slow down all activities on the latter.
Between a fluid experience for roughly a little over an hour of play and some sacrifices for a much better autonomy, you have to choose.
