Extending the Battery Life of Your Steam Deck: A Guide to Optimization

As we begin this guide, it's essential to understand that there are two primary power draw sources in a device like your Steam Deck: the display and the processor. In this article, we'll focus on optimizing these areas to extend the battery life of your device.

Display Settings: Turning Down Brightness

One of the most straightforward ways to save battery power is by adjusting the display settings. By default, your Steam Deck is set to use adaptive brightness, which adjusts the screen's brightness based on the ambient light it detects. While this feature can be convenient, it can also consume more power than necessary. To disable adaptive brightness and adjust the display settings, follow these steps:

1. Press the Steam button located on the left-hand side of your device.

2. Navigate to Settings by selecting the appropriate option from the menu.

3. Within the Settings section, select Display Settings.

4. You'll see a brightness slider that allows you to adjust the screen's brightness.

5. Additionally, you can toggle the adaptive brightness feature off and explore lower brightness settings.

Not only does adjusting the display settings help save battery power, but it also provides flexibility when playing games. By quickly changing the brightness in-game using the Quick Settings menu or navigating through your device's settings, you can adjust the screen to suit your preferences.

The Role of the Apu Processor

The Apu (Accelerated Processing Unit) is a chip that contains both the system processor and graphics processor within your Steam Deck. This means that when playing games, the Apu has to work harder to deliver high-quality visuals, which in turn consumes more power. To optimize performance while reducing power consumption, consider the following:

* Toning down game settings: Experiment with different in-game settings to find a balance between visual quality and performance. You may be surprised at how much you can reduce graphics settings before noticing a significant difference.

* Utilizing performance-enhancing features: Some games offer performance-enhancing features that can help reduce power consumption without compromising visual quality.

Accessing Performance Settings

To access the performance settings on your Steam Deck, follow these steps:

1. Press the Quick Settings button located on the right-hand side of your device.

2. Navigate to the Battery Icon section within the settings menu.

3. You'll see a few options that allow you to adjust frame rates and refresh rates.

Applying Frame Rate Limits

One way to optimize power consumption is by applying frame rate limits. This feature prevents the graphics chip from rendering frames at rates above what your display can handle, thereby reducing unnecessary power consumption. To apply a frame rate limit:

1. Navigate to the Battery Icon section within the settings menu.

2. Select the Frame Rate Limit option and choose a suitable value (e.g., 30 or 15 frames per second).

3. You can experiment with different frame rates to find the perfect balance between performance and power consumption.

Limiting Refresh Rates

In addition to applying frame rate limits, you can also limit the refresh rate of your display to reduce power consumption. While this may not have a significant impact on gameplay, it can help extend battery life. To limit the refresh rate:

1. Navigate to the Battery Icon section within the settings menu.

2. Select the Refresh Rate Limit option and choose a suitable value (e.g., 40 or 60 frames per second).

Enabling Half Rate Shading

Half rate shading is a feature that allows you to reduce graphics quality while still delivering impressive visuals. By enabling this feature, you can save power without sacrificing performance:

1. Navigate to the Battery Icon section within the settings menu.

2. Select the Half Rate Shading option and enable it.

Thermal Power Limit

The thermal power limit refers to the maximum amount of power your Apu processor is allowed to consume. By adjusting this setting, you can reduce power consumption while still delivering optimal performance:

1. Navigate to the Battery Icon section within the settings menu.

2. Select the Thermal Power Limit option and adjust the value accordingly (e.g., from 15 watts to 3 watts).

3. Be cautious when reducing the thermal power limit, as you may encounter performance issues with certain games.

Manual GPU Clock Control

The manual GPU clock control feature allows you to manually adjust the frequency of your graphics processor. This can help optimize performance while reducing power consumption:

1. Navigate to the Battery Icon section within the settings menu.

2. Select the Manual GPU Clock Control option and adjust the value accordingly (e.g., from 1600 MHz to 1400 MHz).

3. Experiment with different clock frequencies to find the perfect balance between performance and power consumption.

Conclusion

By following these guidelines, you can optimize your Steam Deck's display settings, processor performance, and other features to extend its battery life. Remember to experiment with different settings and find the perfect balance between performance and power consumption for your specific needs.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi I'm Dave and in this quick tips video I'll show you how you can extend the battery life of your steam deck now there are two main power drawers in a device like this that's the display and the processor so let's start with the display turning down the brightness can save precious battery power and by default your steam deck is set to use adaptive brightness so that it changes the brightness setting based on the ambient light that it detects let me show you how to change this okay so if we press the steam button here on the left hand side of the deck and go down to settings and inside there you'll find display settings and if we go over you can see you've got a brightness slider that you can turn up and down and also this option here to enable adaptive brightness so switch that off and maybe try a lower brightness setting on your deck you can also quickly change the brightness in game using the Quick Settings menu press the quick settings button go to the settings icon and you can see brightness is there at the top and now let's talk about that other power draw Source the processor or to be more accurate the Apu this is a chip which contains the system processor and the graphics processor the Apu has to work harder and use more power the higher your graphics settings are so try toning down the in-game settings to find a good balance between good graphics and performance on a seven inch screen you might be surprised at how much you can lower the settings before you start to notice but we also have settings on the steam deck which can help with this let me show you so again if we press the quick settings button here on the right of the deck and then go down to what looks like the battery icon this takes us into our performance settings and you'll see one of the first things that we can do is apply a frame rate limit and this stops the steam deck from rendering at frame rates above its display limitations so the display can only handle 60 frames per second so having the graphics chip render at higher than 60 frames per second is perhaps just wasting power so you can change your frame rate limit to 30 frames per second or even 15 frames per second and a low frame rate like that might actually work for a turn-based strategy game or a puzzle game if you like playing real-time 3D games you probably won't want to limit the frame rate quite as low as 30 frames per second now underneath the frame rate limit you'll find that we can also limit the refresh rate of the display you can turn this down as low as 40 frames per second now you need to experiment with your gains but you might actually find that you don't really notice much difference at 40 frames per second versus 60 frames per second so here's another area where you can perhaps save a bit of battery life so another setting that you might consider using is half rate shading by switching this on you can reduce Graphics quality in order to save power uh next on the list we can see we have a thermal power limit again switch it on and we can adjust the wattage that our Apu is allowed the Apu is designed to run at 15 watts so we can reduce that all the way down to uh just three Watts if we want to I don't think you're going to get much performance at 3 Watts though with settings like this maybe try just reducing it by one watt at a time until you find that happy compromise for the games that you play the next option on the list is the manual GPU clock control if we switch this on we can actually change the GPU clock frequency from its default of 1600 megahertz so you might again just try taking it down one step at a time and testing it with the games that you play to find that happy balance so with a combination of those brightness settings the performance settings that we just looked at and your in-game graphics settings you should be able to squeeze a bit more battery life out of your steam deck let me know in the comments if you found these tips useful or if there's anything else you'd like me to cover in a future quick tips video I think for spending some time with me today I'll see you again soon for some more geekery foreignhi I'm Dave and in this quick tips video I'll show you how you can extend the battery life of your steam deck now there are two main power drawers in a device like this that's the display and the processor so let's start with the display turning down the brightness can save precious battery power and by default your steam deck is set to use adaptive brightness so that it changes the brightness setting based on the ambient light that it detects let me show you how to change this okay so if we press the steam button here on the left hand side of the deck and go down to settings and inside there you'll find display settings and if we go over you can see you've got a brightness slider that you can turn up and down and also this option here to enable adaptive brightness so switch that off and maybe try a lower brightness setting on your deck you can also quickly change the brightness in game using the Quick Settings menu press the quick settings button go to the settings icon and you can see brightness is there at the top and now let's talk about that other power draw Source the processor or to be more accurate the Apu this is a chip which contains the system processor and the graphics processor the Apu has to work harder and use more power the higher your graphics settings are so try toning down the in-game settings to find a good balance between good graphics and performance on a seven inch screen you might be surprised at how much you can lower the settings before you start to notice but we also have settings on the steam deck which can help with this let me show you so again if we press the quick settings button here on the right of the deck and then go down to what looks like the battery icon this takes us into our performance settings and you'll see one of the first things that we can do is apply a frame rate limit and this stops the steam deck from rendering at frame rates above its display limitations so the display can only handle 60 frames per second so having the graphics chip render at higher than 60 frames per second is perhaps just wasting power so you can change your frame rate limit to 30 frames per second or even 15 frames per second and a low frame rate like that might actually work for a turn-based strategy game or a puzzle game if you like playing real-time 3D games you probably won't want to limit the frame rate quite as low as 30 frames per second now underneath the frame rate limit you'll find that we can also limit the refresh rate of the display you can turn this down as low as 40 frames per second now you need to experiment with your gains but you might actually find that you don't really notice much difference at 40 frames per second versus 60 frames per second so here's another area where you can perhaps save a bit of battery life so another setting that you might consider using is half rate shading by switching this on you can reduce Graphics quality in order to save power uh next on the list we can see we have a thermal power limit again switch it on and we can adjust the wattage that our Apu is allowed the Apu is designed to run at 15 watts so we can reduce that all the way down to uh just three Watts if we want to I don't think you're going to get much performance at 3 Watts though with settings like this maybe try just reducing it by one watt at a time until you find that happy compromise for the games that you play the next option on the list is the manual GPU clock control if we switch this on we can actually change the GPU clock frequency from its default of 1600 megahertz so you might again just try taking it down one step at a time and testing it with the games that you play to find that happy balance so with a combination of those brightness settings the performance settings that we just looked at and your in-game graphics settings you should be able to squeeze a bit more battery life out of your steam deck let me know in the comments if you found these tips useful or if there's anything else you'd like me to cover in a future quick tips video I think for spending some time with me today I'll see you again soon for some more geekery foreign\n"