Steam Deck | 5 Tips For Better Battery Life + Performance

[@Nicktechnoo]

If you would like to help support the channel and get a shoutout like these fine people at 14:35 at the end of EVERY upload, become a Member today!! :) kzbin.info/door/W79l8z8DqKAwn44cY4ro6gjoin

[@nativerezmedia]

If you get a constant 40fps... change the TDP as well so you're gpu/cpu doesn't over work too, you'll get an extra 30-45+ mins.

[@latbat58]

What is tdp

[@nativerezmedia]

@@latbat58 The thermal design power... Basically how hot the cpu/GPU gets while using a certain level of power. If you set the TDP to a certain temperature, the device will not go past that temp... Also limiting the amount of watts it's using.

[@christopherstockman3635]

What do you recommend to set the tdp on

[@DAGzex]

@@christopherstockman3635 I usually set it to 6 which is pretty low, but it saves a lot of battery and the fan is pretty much silent 10 should be fine for more demanding games

[@justarandomstranger279]

For the past week since i bought my steam deck, what I only do is keep on tinkering on it and it's satisfying for me 😂

[@sinned5504]

currently playing the yakuza series on it and i needed something like this to save battery thanks!

[@xpthegamerx]

Great information man am still waiting for my steam deck 😃

[@codyjaymz]

Soooo stoked for this thing, mine comes in two days 🎉

[@ActionJaxonH]

Huh? You're not gonna see ANY change from 800p to 720p. They're the EXACT SAME RESOLUTION, but one is 16:10 and the other 16:9 aspect ratios. 720p just adds black bars at the top. That's it.

[@vulcan31]

These videos make me want to buy this immediately

[@stefdezy1562]

10000% worth every penny, even about six months later.

[@TheRealLucifer-Morningstar]

It's worth it but make sure you can afford it don't just buy it without thinking of other responsibilities first.

[@Chief1Sock]

Mine comes tomorrow, can't wait to try this!

[@Oyvind88]

Great tips & tricks and video, love my steam deck😃👌

[@carlislewongus8142]

Thanks. That help me out alot

[@frankiepoindexter445]

I'm ordering my Steam Deck in a few days. I only plan on playing Quake (with Quakespasm) and Brutal Doom (with GZDoom) on this thing for the most part, as well as a few Retroarch games. So hopefully I'm able to get 6 hours of life out of this thing and I'll be happy. Thanks for the tips!

[@d3ath_realm]

how do you like it so far? :)

[@Adam-kv6zg]

Dips toe in emulation on steamdeck*proceeds to sprint into the ocean that is steamdeck

[@kalebporter1529]

I'm late to commenting, and you probably already knew this, but you can map the back buttons to keys on the keyboard to Quickswap weapons on doom. It's better than using the bumper to cycle through them

[@slaybomb96]

Doom is pretty instense not sure about Quake but you wont be getting 6 hours in Doom

[@Cyko..]

@@slaybomb96 He said BRUTAL DOOM. Pay attention before commenting.

[@Dracossaint]

FSR also supports 540p and I believe 480p.

[@Dracossaint]

Also make sure to set the game to windowed mode

[@Nicktechnoo]

This is correct! So really it's 100% up to the user how low you want your resolution to be, but I wanted to make sure to ONLY show tips that wouldn't lessen the quality of the gameplay much just in hopes of better battery life. I wanted to show that you can have a perfect middle ground of good graphics/performance + good battery life

[@Dracossaint]

@@Nicktechnoo you did that, and did it well. but sometimes FSR will not kick in for full screen games as a side note.

[@zombiejesus7445]

I was wondering if it would save battery for streaming through steam from a PC to the deck? I tried moonlight and my internet sucks (I think) and there was a lot of stuttering. Tonight Ii am going to test streaming from my PC to my deck. The only problem I have with my battery is with Jedi Fallen Order. Every other game doesn't burn through my battery at all (running off the deck). Fallen order, It seems like I burn 25% of the battery per 30mins or so

[@keepitshort4208]

Does the power tool plugin work as there was a bug ? Updates actually break some plug-ins so wanted to know

[@-Crustyboi-]

@VicariousNick I have a weird question? Do you know approx. how long the Deck battery would last if it was on idle mode on lowest brightness and no wifi connected/airplane mode off? Trying to download a game but I have slow hotspot and I don't want to turn off my Deck when I leave house or the download will restart.

[@AyaWetts]

I am not sure that footage was 1280x800... it had black bars on the top and bottom like 720p does because 720p is the wrong aspect ratio for that screen. I would prefer (if the game supports) to go all the way down to 960x600, and then FSR helps a lot, and you are giving it a nice performance boost, along with using less GPU/power.

[@Nicktechnoo]

It had the black bars because the game is native in 16:9 aspect ratio while the deck is native 16:10. Some games you cannot change the aspect ratio sadly

[@AyaWetts]

@@Nicktechnoo you said you were showing 1280x800 in game, which is 16 : 10... just think somehting weird about that game showing 1280x800 and having black bars

[@Nicktechnoo]

@@AyaWetts I guess you don't know this, but aspect ratio is completely different from resolution. You can still play a game at 1280 x 800 and it be in an aspect ratio of 6 by 9. It will just have the black bars as seen on the steam deck

[@AyaWetts]

@@Nicktechnoo Your resolution dictates your aspect ratio. Its the ratio of across pixels vs down pixels. 16/10 = 1.6 , 1280/800 = 1.6 , same ratio... 16/9 = 1.78, 1280/720 = 1.78, same ratio. If you are playing a 16 : 10 resolution like 1280x800, and its putting black bars on a 16 : 10 screen, then its squishing the content down and not doing pixel by pixel drawing, and would distort the graphics, unless its actively rendering the black bars as part of the final picture, then its already effectively only rendering 720p of actual content.

[@Nicktechnoo]

@@AyaWetts "Users tend to confuse between aspect ratio and resolution because they both are the values related to the screen’s dimensions. Still, the major thing is that they both handle dimensions differently. The resolution counts the screens in several pixels and decides the number of pixels to be distributed across the screen, whereas aspect ratio is length and breadth. Depending on the aspect ratio, the screen is visible to the users." They are different. Here is an article to help explain it better: www.electronicshub.org/aspect-ratio-vs-resolution/

[@morganfreeman710]

I bought a used steam deck yesterday, extremely happy with it. But i was playing spiderman and it died so quick 😭 leade to this video hope these tips help me

[@unkown34x33]

meaning spider man ps4? for pc? with the tips I expect 1 hour and 48 min game play. if you don't mind 30fps, you can get extra. based on my tests that's the max it can go. even on my top tier gaming laptop, unplugged. for A tripple AAA... not bad. back then we got only 15 min XD

[@morganfreeman710]

@unkown34x33 you a month late my boy

[@mohammedkadim6185]

Should you play with charger on or off?

[@lawsonhill1356]

Does Steam Deck have a battery conservation mode?

[@paulc2007]

Only thing I didn’t like was the wreck fest thing at the end where it was on an hour and 40 but your claiming doing every tip from start to finish you would get over 3 hours but never actually showed that massive jump

[@unkown34x33]

you know what's interesting... that applies for laptop too. gaming ones. all the setting you did, I did it as well because I was curious... then! I realized the results are about the same. handheld, or not, 720p is great to game, and save tons of power. linx or win I think appiles for both. I debloated my win 11 and I got 1 hour mark for AAA, 720p upscaled or not, got the same time stamp. using amd apu, my ryzen 9500HS at 30 to 51 low. or rtx 3070 low 720p same time stamp. old games gets more time, because are not graphics intense. in this day and age, that's all that is possible right now. normal use about 6 or 5 hours. laptop or handheld which is not bad! this 8 hours... gotta be wihtout wifi or youtube. I'll test it out. but yeah! these helps man ;)

[@breezyazzedits3570]

I know this ain't the the topic of the video but is there anyway way to play black OPPS 3 on the rpcs3 emulator using the steam deck i cant pass the screen that ask for an update

[@irziosa]

Can you link protective stickers? I went to the unboxing video, but didn't see it.

[@Nicktechnoo]

TouchProtect Steam Deck - Add Style, Tactile Feedback, and Protect your Steam Decks' Trackpads! More than just a skin. (Hex - Blue) a.co/d/d5rY24M

[@emkftw]

how you get twisted metal on the steam deck

[@brandong2972]

Im late. But it’s through emulation.

[@emkftw]

@brandong2975 gross emulation for some reason my steam deck can handle emulation

[@Soraviel]

I already do some of the stuff mentioned in the video on my steam deck 😶

[@mindesik]

Genius comparing FSR on resolution that is 1:1 screen pixels 🤦‍♂️

[@obedbustillos5571]

Do you know how to turn on FSR on cyberpunk? I tried everything and it still says it's off

[@Nicktechnoo]

Make sure it's running in windowed mode

[@obedbustillos5571]

@@Nicktechnoo ah got it! I also needed to lower the resolution !

[@bryannahodges7707]

I just bought the oled and I love it but I hate the battery life lol

[@Games.Gadgets.Sports]

I go back and forth on getting this which would mean selling my Xbox series x and accessories to get it I do have a PS5. That's how I wld fund it and feel ok doin it. However I swear everyone who owns this uses the excuses to get better battery life tone all the settings down. And they also get offended when ppl like me state that this handheld should of came out at its best with better battery life. People need to make their games look worse and not utilize this machine to it's fullest potential in order to play AAA games for more then 90 minutes or stayed plugged in. Yet want to knock the switch lol. It's like yea the switch may get less graphics but it can be played truly portable for 4 to 5 hrs at a time on most any game for 2nd gen model and the oled model anyways. Your paying all this money for a portable handheld that you cannot run it at its best potential because if you do you get terrible battery life. Makes me not want to get it.

[@Nicktechnoo]

I'm asking this honestly, did you actually watch the entire video? I stated quite clearly that none of these tips involve you reducing the quality of your gaming experience. Yes, I stated that obviously reducing the graphics quality to medium/low and lowering the screen resolution below 720p will greatly increase battery life, but it is DEFINITELY not-needed. With these tips you can easily get 3.5 to 4 hours easily with most AAA games and the quality will be identical to using 800p resolution running at 60fps (in handheld mode). Yes, technically you are "reducing the quality" with these tips, but in reality you cannot notice the difference. Take 3:37 as an example. You look at that side-by-side comparison and tell me with a straight face that they look different. Or even different enough to say you are reducing quality just to gain battery life. If you ask me I see no difference and with the 720p version I gain an extra HOUR of playable battery life, so I'd say it's more than worth that change.

[@Games.Gadgets.Sports]

@@Nicktechnoo not attacking you but just making a observation. I've been on the fence getting one because every video I watch everyone is telling you to do this to improve the battery. So I buy a handheld that can run too games but have to sacrifice that to get any amount of gaming time with it. That's all regardless if you think you'll notice or not the fact I can't get the best from get go without sacrificing why it's so expensive us my caveat

[@Nicktechnoo]

@@Games.Gadgets.Sports I didn't take any offense to your comment I just wanted to make sure that you understood what my intention with the video was and that you weren't just jumping to conclusions. I think when it comes to battery life with the steam deck it comes down to personal preference. If you use it like an average gaming console (like the switch) and you just download a game, play it with recommended settings, and don't mess with anything else you will probably get about 2 hours of gameplay before you need a charge. If 2 hours is enough for you then I think that's great! But obviously it's alot less than what the switch offers with anywhere from 4 to 6 hours of gameplay before needing a charge. But in the end you can do ALOT more and play alot bigger games with the steam deck compared to the switch so there will always be pluses and minuses. The fact that Valve has given their users even the ability to mess with settings to improve performance and battery life is amazing alone, and taking advantage of those options is as easy as what I demonstrated in the video. I don't truly see a reason not to buy a steam deck if battery life is your only issue with it since there are many alternatives to increasing it's life span and re charging is incredibly fast.

[@Games.Gadgets.Sports]

@@Nicktechnoo appreciate the feedback I'm def considering getting one n ordering today just got to decide if it worth trading in my series x n games for it to recupe.

[@Dracossaint]

@@Games.Gadgets.Sports honest feedback as someone who has a deck, it's 90 minutes on those demanding triple AAA games. What kind of games do you play? I was worried about just 90 minutes of battery life, but frankly a power bank was helpful for busy days with lots of bus time when playing heavy games. Most of the time I'm playing indies, and not aaa games suck back juice that hard. Indies range from 3-5 hours depending on the game, I also wish it had a bigger battery and a better screen. it's not bad mind you. I'd consider it on par with a normal switches screen, but a bit brighter outdoors and a hair more vibrance would've been awesome . How often are you away from an outlet for longer than an 1 hour and 30 minutes and have that much time to kill? As for selling ya series x, I'd just hold onto it really. You could sell it and use that to recoup your cost for sure. Sometimes ya just Wana game tho, no fuss. No muss, no nada and theirs also multiplayer and gamepass, ya can get a lot of multiplayer working with a bit of elbow grease. Their are a few games ya can't get on PC still(rdr 1) You also still would have ya PS5 tho, the series x is definitely kind of mid without gamepass. With it, it's descent.

[@kingofall9262]

I just need this to play modded Stardew valley lol

[@Ideasquevalelapenadifundir]

damn, water is indeed wet, who knew?