The Steam Deck can drain its battery in 90 minutes if you don't cap your fps

Battery life is looking good for indie games—and triple-A, as long as you make sure to tweak the right settings.

[Neonridr]

a little frustrating that we are going to have to constantly adjust settings based on the game.

[-Hermit-]

"constantly adjust settings" what makes you think you will need to do that? Also, even if you did, it would literally take like 5 seconds to do that. Just switch between, low, medium or high settings. Is this really so different than current gen consoles picking performance and quality modes?

[Neonridr]

you have to adjust more than just one setting. Brightness, v sync, frame rate locks for sure. Who knows if there is even more. The point is when I play a game on my PS5 and I pick a mode it stays that way. If I play another game on the Steam Deck and change the settings, when I come back I have to tweak again. This isn't a per application setting more like a global one from what I can tell.

[-Hermit-]

@Neonridr

Brightness settings will be on the device itself, like every handheld device. Vsync will automatically be turned on for any game at medium settings, which is what most AAA games will be running at.

You're making it seem more complicated and awkward than it really is.

[Neonridr]

@Hermit - if you say so. The settings seem to be indicating they are under a general settings tab. So checking v-sync or framerate caps will have to be done on a per game basis. If you go from an indie game that can run with full settings, you will need to change them again when you swap back to a new game. Console gaming doesn't really compare in that regard.

[ABizzel1]

Didn't they already say they were having developers also have game modes optimized for Steam Deck? So I don't see the concern or confusion. You can simply click Medium Settings and lock to 30fps. If people can go t options on a console and tab over to resolution or performance, then they can tab over to Medium and 30fps.

It's amazing how people will complain about tutorials and hand holding in games, but act like a physics level algebraic equation was just placed in front of them when they're asked to look at a menu option and move 2 sliders or use a screw driver to unscrew a screw to install a NVMe.

We have brains to learn and use, not run on autopilot and DUH!

[blacktiger]

It's a PC just so you know,

[DazaMc]

Buy a switch.

[Neonridr]

I have one already.

[FlavorLav01]

Why? to be locked to Mario, Zelda, Animal Crossing, and Pokémon. Some folks enjoy adult content.

[Eidolon]

I mean they have some decent adult games.

[Magog]

PC gaming in a nutshell.

[Neonridr]

yes and no. I run an 8700K + 3080. I don't adjust anything. Most games run at max settings for me.

[IanTH]

I'm glad we get to choose - there are some games on Switch where devs chose things to hit their 30hz refresh that I wouldn't have, and you're just stuck with it. This is one of the benefits of gaming on PC. Choice.

I see you're a PC gamer, so I'm a little confused by the fact that you find this frustrating. You get to choose what you want. Do you want higher res or framerate over graphical fidelity? Do you want to drop AA, eat a few jaggies to get that last locked 60fps? Do you want to use the upscaling tech?

You had to know that this was going to be what the experience would be like as a tiny PC. I mean, some games will have Steam Deck optimized settings, as I recall, but for the majority it'll be up to the individual. Not being pithy or anything, but if you count PC flexibility as a negative I just don't think the Steam Deck is for you.

[Neonridr]

that's not my point, did you read the article? It's saying that depending on the game you will need to adjust settings to maximize the battery life. Problem is, from what I gather the settings aren't saved on a per game basis, which means you might have to constantly adjust settings based on what game you are playing.

Yes I'm a PC gamer, but maybe I'm just fortunate enough to have hardware that doesn't require me to choose.

[IanTH]

I saw the Gamers Nexus video that the headline is based off of. Also just read some of the article. I'm not sure what you mean about settings not being saved on a per-game basis. You change the settings for a game in the game's own setting menu, and those changes are persistent through exit & relaunch. Deck is a PC. It works the same there as it does on your RTX 3080 powered PC. What is it you think you'd have to change more than once per title?

[Neonridr]

I hope that's the case that each game saves the settings once they are set. I guess we will find out.

Steam doesn't always work that way though. Take Steam VR for example. There are in game settings but there is an overall Steam VR setting that overrides each game. You can modify things like supersampling, refresh rate, etc. If you go from one game to the next it keeps those settings intact which can lead to wildly inconsistent results depending on if you are playing a simple game or more in-depth.

I would assume you to be true here, however.

[Zhipp]

Vsync caps your framerate. I have yet to play a game that doesn't enable it by default, so this is really not an issue unless you make it one.

[Neonridr]

yep, doing some more digging and it seems it'll be something we set or unset on a game by game basis and away we go. Which is a good thing.

[annoyedgamer]

This is to be expected. Back when I had a gaming laptop my battery would be done in about that same time and it was a much larger battery.

[NSANiTY]

I was thinking the same thing. My old gaming laptop lasted about the same amount of time with higher end games, so I guess I'd already be used to this, heh.

[XbladeTeddy]

90 mins, that's shite. Yeah, I get it, powerful and stuff but still, that's crap.

[-Hermit-]

You obviously don't get it. This was a test to drain the battery as quickly as possible by putting as much strain as possible on the hardware, nobody is actually going to play their games like this.

[Neonridr]

if you don't adjust the settings you could very well end up doing this.

[-Hermit-]

@Neonridr

They had to adjust the settings to get these results. If they didn't adjust the settings, it would last a lot longer.

[XbladeTeddy]

So how many minutes will Crysis last? Can the battery run Crysis?

[Atticus_finch]

And most games are becoming more demanding by the year. So I expect battery life to drop even more 3 years from now.

[Shuckylad]

So the switch being low powered makes more sense now I guess. Nintendo probably decided on battery life over resolution and frames.

[CosmicTurtle]

Well the article says battery life is good as long as you adjust settings, I suspect you just read the headline and made up your own conclusion.

[0hMyGandhi]

I don't mean to be "that" guy, but yeah, obviously. Nintendo's handhelds have always been in that goldilocks zone between performance and battery. I remember when the GBA was first announced and people were genuinely irked that it couldn't *really* handle anything 3d. Nintendo sold it as a "2d powerhouse" and publications sold it as such.

I love the idea of the steam deck, and I can see how many indie games can probably sip the battery compared to playing the likes of Forza on it but battery life is absolutely crucial for a portable. I think most people expected this in the back of their minds but were simply caught up in the capabilities of the machine more than other, practical measures.

[porkChop]

Nintendo significantly underclocked the APU to improve battery life, yeah. I remember seeing someone mod their Switch so the hardware ran full speed. Game performance was great, dynamic resolution would be maxed out, etc. But the battery life was shit, that was the big downside.

[DaniMacYo]

Stupid.

[Outlawzz]

Well not good news to hear the battery drains so quick if settings aren't adjusted.

Guess it won't be such a seamless experience. Was hoping for 4 hour average battery life like the switch.

Probably a good idea to bring a charge pack with you on the go.

[CosmicTurtle]

This is a click-baity headline. While technically true, it does not really represent the thrust of the article which suggests the battery is pretty good.

[Outlawzz]

For Indies and older games, modern games drain it quickly. So it's kind of a mixed bag if you want to play newer games.

[Teflon02]

Not that quick though. Why'd you play without vsync? That's literally maximizing the energy pull. Modern games shouldn't be nearly that bad as long as they're optimized decently and you're not trying to play uncapped where the game is pushing more frames than your screen can produce

[autobotdan]

Can anybody else remember the 1990's Sega Genesis Nomad battery life? Haha

[Neonridr]

6 AA's that were gone in a few hours.

[Einhander1971]

Keep this over priced crap for me, it will flop within a year and end up being an expensive emulator system.

[-Hermit-]

What a brain dead take this is.

How is it overpriced or crap? It's over 100% cheaper than anything else of it's kind and way more poweful at the same time.

[nickanasty206]

Terrible take. Have you seen what it costs for an Ayaneo or any other similar device? You are looking at around 1k to $1500 for others, and the steam deck is half to a third of of the price with even better specs.

[pietro1212]

How is it over priced? It's the cheapest handheld PC on the market

[nickanasty206]

As it is frustrating to hear things like this for some, the key demographic for a Steam Deck are folks who already own PC's but want to take their experience on the road and for those who are interested in dabbling with a PC for the first time to get their feet wet in a new ecosystem. This is not generally made for a casual gamer, which is OK.

[MightyHealthy]

Laptops perform the same.
Get a good battery bank

[Teflon02]

Yup, my old one varied from 12 hours to about 2 if I allowed max load vs saver etc.

[Trunkz]

If they add more battery weight you'll complain it's too heavy or too hot to hold, you can't have your cake and eat it too...
Your holding a mini PC in your hands, not a underpowered switch that doesn't push graphics. Just plug into wall if you plan on gaming for hours on the toilet.

[moomoo319]

I always thought PC was a hassle, then i got one. If you are on this site you are more than capable of customizing your game settings, trust me lol.

[XxINFERNUSxX]

GamersNexus has 2 awesome videos on it, tear down and thermals etc. Also this might able to emulate the Switch pretty good,Yuzu is a pretty good emulator. Waiting for ETA Primes video on it😊

[Firebird360]

And?
Atleast theres an option.
Switch, its most direct competition is underclocked severely by Nintendo to save battery.
Otherwise you'd have switch games running better than they do.

[Stopac]

Some of these people never used a game gear or sega nomad haha

[BrainSyphoned]

JRPG collection at work or on the go, everything else docked or plugged in.

[silvacrest]

The mis-information by some people on here is incredible.

First, you wont lose whatever adjustment you make to a games graphics or performance settings when you switch from game to game.

This article basically just tested how long the battery would last IF everything was maxed out, most games you play on this will automatically be adjusted so minimal tinkering is needed.

people comparing this to a switch need to understand that a switch is running on glorified android phone hardware while the steam deck has laptop internals including a next gen GPU, the power difference is night and day so of course it will use more battery, but that doesn't mean it will only last 90 mins for most games played.

[DeadManMMX]

Maaaannnn

[metalhead]

The steam deck takes me back to the battery life of the game gear. How retro. But seriously 90 fucking minutes?!?!?

[Binarycode]

DOA

[JL2930]

You would think weighing in about 50 pounds they would have packed more battery in there.