Valve’s Steam Deck includes a frame limiter between the graphics options of the console. However, this causes performance issues, especially in competitive games due to the extra latency generated. A problem that is not intrinsic to the hardware of the console, but rather to the implementation of its operating system and AMD drivers.
One of the key parameters of any video game system is button-photon latency. This is the time that elapses between when we press the button and when our eyes receive the visual signal and our brain processes it. It is not the same as frame rate or FPS, because with the latter we measure how much on the graphics card it generates a full frame in the RAM used for video. Many games these days have a frame limiter, not to be confused with V-Sync. The concept is none other than to ensure that the GPU does not render more frames.
For example, a game might generate a higher frame rate than the monitor’s refresh rate. What good is the game running at 80 FPS if my screen can only display 60? By limiting images, we give the system the ability to generate higher quality graphics and even apply automatic resolution download algorithms.
Do not use the Steam Deck frame limiter!
Apparently Valve’s console has the ability to limit the frame rate at which games are played. This is ideal, in theory, for games with low visual demands, like esports games. However, a Reddit user showed that the fact using the Steam Deck frame limiter increases latency. That is, the time in which our eyes see the result of our action. This was done with the game Rocket League and you can see the effects in the following table:
| Value | latency |
|---|---|
| Without limits | 31. 8ms |
| Limited to 60 FPS | 75. 8 milliseconds |
| Limited to 30 FPS | 145.9 milliseconds |
| 50 Hz / No limitation | 32. 5 milliseconds |
| 50 Hz / Limited to 50 FPS | 94.2 milliseconds |
| 50 Hz / Limited to 25 FPS | 186.1 milliseconds |
| 40 Hz / No limitation | 34. 2ms |
| 40 Hz / Limited to 40 FPS | 121.1 milliseconds |
| 50 Hz / Limited to 20 FPS | 232 milliseconds |
As you can see the difference is noticeable and as in competitive games it is important that what happens in the action reaches us as quickly as possible, so the situation is very clear. Use of the Steam Deck Frame Limiter is not recommended for competitive gaming. Since it can happen that when you react to the action of the game, your avatar is dead in the game.
Other titles, on the other hand, are much more permissive in this regard, especially the most cinematic. Which doesn’t mean it’s something Valve needs to address in its Steam Deck in the near future. So the recommendation for now is to ignore this function in console options and use the FPS limiter included in every game.
Half the cumulative latency of Nintendo Switch
However, not all is bad news, and the fact is that the process of button-photon latency are smaller than Nintendo Switch. The Nintendo console racked up times throughout the process until 86 milliseconds. The fact that the Steam Deck achieves this by 31.8 milliseconds with the frame limiter disabled, this is a significant step up from previous portable systems. Remember that said latency time goes from the moment we press the button until the pixels of the image appear on the screen.
