SteamOS 3.5 Discussion

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LittleBuddy

Limp Gawd
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SteamOS 3.5 was added to the preview channel a few days ago. [ https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1675200/view/3686804163591367815 ]

This is the first major update to the Steam Deck.

Display
  • The default color rendering for Steam Deck has been adjusted to emulate the sRGB color gamut, resulting in a slightly warmer and more vibrant color appearance.
  • Added Settings ->
    Adjust Display Colors, to tune the display's Color Vibrancy and Color Temperature
    . The settings can be tuned with a preview of a test image (above), or with your running game.
    • Native
      : The native display color appearance (the color rendering for Steam Deck prior to this update).
    • sRGB
      : Emulate the sRGB primaries, in a smooth manner that does not introduce gradient clipping.
    • Boosted
      : Emulate a wider-gamut display appearance, resulting in increased apparent vibrance. May result in gradient clipping.
  • HDR
    can now be enabled in Display Settings if supported by the external display.
  • VRR
    can now be enabled in Display Settings if supported by the USB-C adapter.
  • Reworked Quick-Access scaling settings to separate scaling from filtering.
    Added Stretch and Zoom scaling as new options to handle different aspect ratios.
  • Fixed touchscreen orientation while external display is connected.
  • Compositing is now avoided in additional scenarios, reducing latency and stutter in situation with multiple overlays on screen.
  • Improved latency in certain situations where the application renders slower than the display's refresh rate.

General
  • Fixed an issue where certain workloads would exhibit severe CPU performance issues unless SMT was manually disabled.
  • External storage devices are now auto-mounted when connected to Steam Deck. To format or manage storage devices use the new device management interface in Settings->Storage.
  • Updated graphics drivers, with many performance and functionality improvements. Improved performance for Starfield. Fixed viewmodel corruption in Amnesia: The Bunker and launch failures for Immortals of Aveum and Kaiju-A-GoGo.
  • Improved Bluetooth connection stability, especially with multiple controllers
  • Slightly improved sleep resume speed
  • Implemented switching between controller bindings and mouse/keyboard desktop bindings by long-pressing Options in the Linux hid-steam driver, to match Steam's default Desktop configuration.
  • Improved fade transitions between applications.
  • The contents of the performance overlay can now be customized by creating a ~/.config/MangoHud/presets.conf configuration file.
  • Fixed a bug where some games could appear stretched if their window size didn't match their swapchain size (eg. Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 4)
  • Fixed Disgaea PC needing to be tapped on before input works
  • Fixed physical dimensions reported to games, fixing some issues with an incorrect aspect ratio sometimes being detected (eg. Returnal)
  • Worked around a problem where Allow Tearing could cause heavy stuttering if the Performance Overlay or other overlays appeared on screen. Tearing is now impossible in such situations, and the Performance Overlay should be disabled for best results.
  • Fixed a problem where keyboard input would not be detected in Overwatch 2
  • Controller firmware: fixed an issue where some thumbstick touch sensors would lose touch periodically

Firmware 116
  • Added voltage offset settings.
  • Improved robustness of the Firmware Settings Reset chord (Volume Down + Quick-Access + Power) against some boot hang scenarios.
  • Fixed a rare issue that would set the processor TDP limit too low causing CPU and GPU frequencies to be stuck at 400 MHz and 200 MHz respectively.
  • Fixed an issue when the charging light would turn back on when plugged in for a while after fully charged.

Updated Arch Linux base
  • This update pulls in newer performance, security and stability fixes for the underlying packages that are the foundation for SteamOS
  • Most notably, this includes recent changes to KDE Plasma, Steam Deck's Desktop Mode. Full notes on these updates can be found on KDE's website here. Here are a few of the highlights:
    • New window tiling system
    • Updated Discover (app store / software manager) with a new homepage and improved search
    • Discover can now perform system updates from the desktop
    • Updated desktop widgets
Click to expand...

Anyone try it out?
 
I wasn't going to install it at first, since I prefer not to be updated frequently, but after hearing a lot of good things about it online I decided to install it to check it out. So far I haven't encountered any issues with it. There are some decent performance uplifts in some games in it. I did a few quick tests in games without any overclocks, voltage tweaks or increasing the TDP, just stock SteamDeck at 15W.

GameSettingsSteamOS 3.4SteamOS 3.5Change
Dark Souls 3 (High Wall of Lothric)High Settings45 FPS60 FPS33.3333%
Dark Souls 3 (Cemetery of Ash)High Settings42 FPS58 FPS38.09524%
Mortal Kombat 1 (Benchmark)Low Settings + XeSS Performance39 FPS44 FPS12.8205%
Mortal Kombat 1 (Benchmark)Medium Settings + XeSS Ultra Quality32 FPS40 FPS25%
Hitman 3 (Mendoza, in a specific area that was low fps)Digital Foundry's Optimized32 FPS42 FPS31.25%
Resident Evil 4 (Unsure of the name of the Zone, it was just my last save point)Digital Foundry's Optimized42 FPS44 FPS4.761905%
Cyberpunk 2077 (Benchmark)Steam Deck Settings36 FPS36 FPS0%
 
Can anyone confirm we lost access to TDP increases with 3.5 OS? Smokeless is said to no longer work
 
At first, it seemed like it improved my performance as Persona 5 with my TDP capped felt much smoother, but I'm suddenly noticing a lot of annoying issues. Namely, for some reason my power button when waking up from sleep appears to be acting like I pressed it twice. It makes the sound and then goes right back to being asleep. Then I press it again and it wakes up, but sometimes it's causing weird stuff to happen in the game. Just now, I even saw it make Persona 5 crash. I paused it mid convo. I don't think my save point is too far behind but wtf.

I'm kind of annoyed. I wish I hadn't updated. Fucking Valve. Unless the update I received was for something else, and this is still in beta or whatever. Either way, my Deck asked to update, got updated. Whatever version I'm on is pissing me off.

Edit: Nope, I'm on 3.4.8. Going to leave this misguided rant here regardless, though as I'm kind of pissed about losing 30 minutes.
 
Last edited:
StoleMyOwnCar said:
At first, it seemed like it improved my performance as Persona 5 with my TDP capped felt much smoother, but I'm suddenly noticing a lot of annoying issues. Namely, for some reason my power button when waking up from sleep appears to be acting like I pressed it twice. It makes the sound and then goes right back to being asleep. Then I press it again and it wakes up, but sometimes it's causing weird stuff to happen in the game. Just now, I even saw it make Persona 5 crash. I paused it mid convo. I don't think my save point is too far behind but wtf.

I'm kind of annoyed. I wish I hadn't updated. Fucking Valve. Unless the update I received was for something else, and this is still in beta or whatever. Either way, my Deck asked to update, got updated. Whatever version I'm on is pissing me off.

Edit: Nope, I'm on 3.4.8. Going to leave this misguided rant here regardless, though as I'm kind of pissed about losing 30 minutes.
Click to expand...
Did upgrading to 3.5 fix your issues?
 
StoleMyOwnCar said:
At first, it seemed like it improved my performance as Persona 5 with my TDP capped felt much smoother, but I'm suddenly noticing a lot of annoying issues. Namely, for some reason my power button when waking up from sleep appears to be acting like I pressed it twice. It makes the sound and then goes right back to being asleep. Then I press it again and it wakes up, but sometimes it's causing weird stuff to happen in the game. Just now, I even saw it make Persona 5 crash. I paused it mid convo. I don't think my save point is too far behind but wtf.

I'm kind of annoyed. I wish I hadn't updated. Fucking Valve. Unless the update I received was for something else, and this is still in beta or whatever. Either way, my Deck asked to update, got updated. Whatever version I'm on is pissing me off.

Edit: Nope, I'm on 3.4.8. Going to leave this misguided rant here regardless, though as I'm kind of pissed about losing 30 minutes.
Click to expand...
confused ATM.. my experience has been good. 3.5 plus bios 116 is a great combo. these tweaks had a noticeable improvement.

https://medium.com/@a.b.t./here-are...ks-for-steamos-on-the-steam-deck-fcb6b571b577

also combined this with cryo utilities.
 
Axman said:
How do you update the BIOS? I actually did some reading and it sounds like you need a 3rd-party windows tool. Is there no way to do it using just the Deck?
Click to expand...
if you install 3.5 beta it gets installed. you will need to unlock undervolting, overclocking, and TDP changes.
 
Vengance_01 said:
if you install 3.5 beta it gets installed. you will need to unlock undervolting, overclocking, and TDP changes.
Click to expand...
Be care to choose beta and not beta candidate as it will push bios 118. Undervolting is broken still in that bios. Its a simple process to down grade to 116 from 118 if you get it
 
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