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Valve is releasing Steam Deck updates at a breakneck pace, upgrading the device practically on a weekly basis, especially for beta branch SteamOS 3.0 users. While there have been some issues with these updates over the past few weeks, the addition of a lock screen and half-rate shading have already proven themselves to be valuable upgrades appreciated by the community.
On that note, Steam Deck's biggest upgrade may have just been released with comparatively little fanfare. Users have discovered that the latest beta firmware has already introduced a proper screen refresh rate slider that's even more customizable than was initially expected and which allows players to cap games at 40 FPS, rather than having to choose between 30 or 60.
It's been known for some time now that Valve was working on official support for alternative refresh rates on Steam Deck, rather than limiting the device to its default 60Hz refresh. Since there was no further information offered other than the fact that it would be coming, however, most users didn't expect it to release on such short notice. Simply by switching over to the beta version of the Deck's firmware, users can get access to a granular slider allowing them to customize the screen precisely to their liking.
In regard to frame times, 40 FPS sits right between 30 and 60 FPS. However, a device's screen needs to be able to evenly divide each rendered frame while refreshing the image for the game not to start juddering, and 40 FPS cannot be evenly divided on a 60Hz display. Now that Steam Deck supports a 40Hz refresh rate, however, users can enjoy the perfect middle-ground between 30 and 60 FPS, making this one of the biggest Steam Deck improvements since its release.
Not only is it easier for the Steam Deck to hit a 40 FPS target in games than 60 FPS would be, doing so also helps substantially improve battery life on the device. Steam Deck's previous update improved battery life as well, and the improvements handily stack with one another in most situations. At the same time, 40 FPS feels significantly smoother to play than 30 FPS does, as it's an effective 33% boost in frame rate.
Valve has previously discussed its future plans for the Steam Deck, so it's clear that the company intends to keep up the blistering pace of firmware updates for some time yet. Of course, it's still worth pointing out that customizable screen refresh rates are still in beta on the Steam Deck and there's currently no timeline on when the feature might get pushed out of beta, suggesting possible bugs and issues in its current state.