If you’re night owl and have opted into the SteamOS Preview update channel then you may have noticed a notification about a new firmware update.
After looking over the patch notes, we can see there are a number of bug fixes included with this update and not much else. Although, anyone who uses the Frame Limiter or has VSync enabled will begin to see some changes with the Performance Overlay feature.
Let’s dive into the official changes included with this latest update.
General
- Fixed an issue where modifying settings in the desktop partition manager could prevent the SD card from being mounted and visible in Steam
- Fixed an issue in desktop mode where dropping a folder on the desktop would erroneously create a shortcut for every item within the folder.
- Improved controller’s mouse and keyboard emulation when Steam is not running, including including vertical and horizontal scrolling support on left trackpad.
Graphics and Performance
- Fixed the performance overlay displaying GPU clock speed as an instantaneous measurement rather than an average, resulting in misleading numbers.
- This matches behavior of SteamOS 3.4.11
- Fixed a problem with elevated noise levels for trackpad pressure sensors. Affects only certain configurations.
- Fixed incorrect colors (gamma) when using Steam In-Home Streaming.
- Fixed a rare system crash on game exit
- Fixed an issue in certain HDR titles wherein wiggling the cursor on the same frame as closing the game would cause incorrect colors in subsequent game launches
- Improved a situation where a game’s frame presentation could block because of buffers submitted by Steam or other windows, removing a potential source of game stutters.
- When the frame limiter or vsync is enabled, the performance overlay now shows frame timings based on when they are flipped to the display, rather than when the GPU rendering was completed. The GPU-based timings are still visible on level four setting.
- Fixed an issue causing stutter in certain games that buffer multiple frames in advance.
- Miscellaneous compositor performance improvements.
Anyone who has had trouble mounting an SD card due to messing with the Desktop Partition Manager will be happy to see this update come through. I know I’ve had the same issue when I attempted to drag and top a folder onto the Desktop. So it’s great to see that fixed with this update.
However, I have not opted into the Preview update channel, so I’ll need to wait a bit before getting these changes. I have the beta version of SteamOS installed so hopefully this will get moved up the ladder sooner than rather than later.
You can install this right now on your Steam Deck by opting in via the Settings > System > System Update Channel drop-down menu.
If you would like to test this out, though, you should be aware that the Preview update channel can sometimes include some nasty bugs that end up causing major issues. But they also tend to some with new features as well (like we see mentioned with the Performance Overlay change).
I have not seen reports of that with this latest Preview update, but that’s just how things are. A new update could come out tomorrow that causes issues with a game you play on a daily basis. Just know what you’re doing before opting into the Preview channel.