Steam Deck achieves 36-160fps and 1.5-6 hours of battery life in first benchmarks

Some YouTubers have published the first benchmarks of the Steam Deck. This shows that the handheld PC can play the included games at at least 36fps. The promised battery life of between 2 and 8 hours is also relatively accurate under normal circumstances.

The first benchmarks of The Phawx, LinusTechTips and Gamers Nexus show that Valve’s promises about the Steam Deck can largely be fulfilled. The creators only allowed the discussion of six pre-installed games. Those are Control, Devil May Cry 5, Forza Horizon 5, Ghost Runner, Dead Cells and Street Fighter V: Champion Edition.

Image via LinusTechTips

With low to medium graphics settings, those games could be played at around 60 frames per second on average, according to all reviewers. For example, on the lowest graphics settings, Control consistently achieved 60fps, which corresponds to the screen refresh rate of the Steam Deck. On the medium preset, the frame rate dropped to roughly 36fps. By the way, Valve installed the DX11 version of the action game; Ray tracing was not yet available for this game during the benchmarks.

Ghostrunner is already available in DX12. The game can be played with ray tracing and the highest graphic preset according to Gamers Nexus with an average of 40 fps. At lower graphics settings, the handheld PC can play the game consistently at between 80 and 90 frames per second.

Forza Horizon 5 in particular was found to have many performance issues on the Steam Deck. Again, all reviewers conclude an average frame rate of 60fps with the lowest graphics settings. Despite a consistent fps, the game shows a noticeable form of rubber banding, according to LinusTechTips, which he believes has to do with the calculation of the physics. The Phawx also experienced this.

In terms of battery life, the first benchmarks also paint a relatively uniform picture of the Steam Deck. Valve promises 2 to 8 hours on a full battery, but that strongly depends on the game that is being played at that time and with what graphic quality. LinusTechTips can run Ghostrunner at 30fps for roughly 4.5 hours before the Steam Deck is empty. The Phawx managed to play Dead Cells for more than 6 hours on one full battery, although he does not disclose any graphic settings for that test.

Gamers Nexus records 78 minutes of battery life when Devil May Cry 5 is played on the highest preset and without a frame rate limit. This is more than half an hour below the battery life promised by Valve, although the YouTube channel emphasizes that the manufacturer tested battery life without giving input in the games. Gamers Nexus did.

Image via Gamers Nexus