The Steam Deck’s been in the hands of the public for some time now and is essentially a super portable version of Valve’s online gaming service. Running off of its own operating system known as SteamOS, it’s received a new update for both Steam Deck users and those loading the Arch Linux-based OS image onto their own devices.
Titled the SteamOS Beta 3.3, the update’s already off to a good start offering increased graphics driver support, meant to enhance game compatibility, and performance enhancements to the AMD Radeon open-source driver stack. Previously, users could disconnect when connected to WiFi on a 5GHz network, and that was fixed in this update as well.
More concrete patch notes can be found below:
- Support for Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, and Korean keyboard. These keyboards are now available in Steam Client Beta
- Fixed a performance issue with some games when the backlight changes intensity. The Adaptive Brightness toggle is now active again in the Steam Client Beta
- Updated graphics driver with compatibility and performance fixes
- Updated wireless driver with fixes for WiFi disconnection issues on 5Ghz
- Add built-in controller driver that takes effect when Steam isn’t running in desktop mode
- Fixed the panel staying off when disconnecting from dock shortly after resuming from sleep
- Fixed the panel backlight staying on while docked
- Added support for the Qanba Obsidian and Qanba Dragon arcade sticks in PC mode
- Fix washed-out colors in the Remote Play client when playing with specific hosts
- Fixed echo cancellation CPU overhead when the microphone isn’t being used, improving power usage in idle or near-idle scenarios
- Fixed Bluetooth profile selection not being saved when switching away from Desktop mode
- Fixed multi-channel audio on external displays
- Fixed audio out on some capture cards
- Fixed some instances of corrupt audio after resuming from sleep
- Fixed audio output with some 32-bit games that use ALSA
Opting into the beta update is very simple. On your Steam Deck, go over to System, and then Settings. Once in there, select the OS Update Channel, and then select Beta. Valve also has a thread open that details the above patch notes, while also serving as a means to submit feedback for the update, which you can visit here.
