As much as I treasure the Steam Deck as my closest gaming companion, the handheld’s limitations will inevitably become more stark with time.
Nvidia’s GeForce Now streaming games service now sports a full native Steam Deck app, and it has become my favorite way to play today’s slate of ultra-hyped games from the comfort of my couch.
The Steam Deck is still one of the best devices for playing less-intensive titles, but that doesn’t mean the hardware isn’t looking long in the tooth.
Nvidia previously declared it would bring a dedicated GeForce Now app to Meta Quest, Apple Vision Pro, and Steam Deck.
The Steam Deck app allows for 4K resolutions and a max of 60 fps if you’re paying for the Ultimate subscription.
The limitations of the handheld will eventually become more obvious, even though I cherish the Steam Deck as my closest gaming companion. Still among the least expensive in its class is Valve’s portable PC. If you have the model I do, it’s comfortable, reasonably light, and has an OLED screen that produces a stunning image. But streaming has turned out to be the solution to my problems when I’m having trouble playing graphically demanding games without making my priceless handheld feel sick. Now that Nvidia’s GeForce Now streaming game service has a full native Steam Deck app, it’s my go-to method of playing the newest slate of highly anticipated games from the comfort of my couch.
Particularly for something as portable as a handheld, performance isn’t everything. Even though the Steam Deck is still among the greatest devices for playing less demanding games, the hardware is still looking dated. It has been impossible to get recent games like Doom: The Dark Ages to run consistently on the 3-year-old device. I have played games like Metaphor: Refantazio on Steam Deck—90 hours from start to finish—and while the game wasn’t using a lot of pixels, I still had slow performance in Metaphor’s open areas.
Nvidia had earlier announced that it would add a specific GeForce Now app to Steam Deck, Apple Vision Pro, and Meta Quest. In the weeks leading up to launch, the company granted me early access to the app, and it’s been so smooth that I doubt I’ll be able to use it again. GeForce Now is the clear winner of easy and smooth streaming on a SteamOS handheld, but I was already in love with Razer Cortex for Windows PC to handheld streaming. Nvidia was unable to verify whether the application would function on the upcoming Lenovo Legion Go S running SteamOS. We would be shocked if Nvidia didn’t eventually support Lenovo’s handheld with 1200p resolution.
GeForce Now running on a Steam Deck was previously possible, but it required configuring your own control bindings and using a browser to access the streaming service. GeForce Now is more difficult to download than just looking for it on the Steam store, but SteamOS provides one of the most console-like experiences for handheld devices. You must first download and install the app from Nvidia’s website after turning your device into desktop mode. It will then show up in the “Non-Steam” folder of the Steam Deck menu. Using the app to play my Steam Deck was a battery-life saver. Before realizing my device needed to be plugged in, I was able to play a 3D game on my Steam Deck OLED for four or five hours, whereas normally I can barely get two hours out of it.
One of the browser-based app’s many drawbacks is that it only supports 1440p displays. Up to 60 frames per second and 4K resolutions are possible with the Steam Deck app if you have the Ultimate subscription. While the handheld version of the PC app at least supports HDR10 and Nvidia Reflex, that still falls short of the full 120 frames per second. For the purpose of using the app on portable devices, Nvidia told me that they were thinking about raising the maximum frame rate to 90, but the 60 fps ceiling is feasible. That limit implies that Nvidia’s DLSS 4 AI upscaling is not even relevant when the game is running. I didn’t notice any distortion on the most recent Steam Deck’s OLED display, which can happen when using the browser-based app to view in-game graphics.
Your Steam library is intended to be played by Steam Decks. While playing games on Xbox, the Epic Games Store, or GOG is still possible, it’s more challenging, and I’ve run into a few compatibility problems with the Steam Deck’s Proton compatibility layer. The simplest way to access all of your games across all platforms is now GeForce. Xbox recently made it possible to stream games using GeForce Now instead of Microsoft’s servers. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 were much more stable to play on Steam Deck when I paired my Game Pass subscription with Nvidia’s streaming app than when I used the browser app. Regretfully, Doom: The Dark Ages says it requires a driver update and is still not playable.
With a 4K display, the Steam Deck becomes an even more powerful handheld device thanks to Nvidia’s app. The Steam Deck version has options for resolutions higher than 1440p, in contrast to the mobile app. For streaming at less than 1080p and 60 fps, you only need 25 Mbps, but if you want to keep the maximum 60 fps, you need at least 45 Mbps. I connected my Steam Deck to a dock that was connected to my TV via HDMI, and I discovered that I preferred using a controller to navigate SteamOS from the comfort of my couch rather than switching to a keyboard and mouse on Windows. Steam Decks in docked mode are less capable than those on PCs or even Nvidia Shield streaming boxes due to the significant 60 fps limit.
