Steam Deck now shows average FPS before you buy, so you know exactly how smooth (or choppy) your new game will run.

Valve's latest Steam Client update adds a new, practical feature for Steam Deck owners: the game compatibility screen now displays the average framerate (FPS) other players are getting on their Decks, pulled from its opt-in hardware data collection program. This figure is specific to the user's current Steam Deck hardware model and includes a timestamp showing when the data was last updated. By expanding a dropdown, players can see a histogram showing the distribution of framerates across gaming sessions, giving a clear picture of performance consistency.

For gamers, this means far less guesswork before purchasing a title. Instead of relying on potentially unrepresentative YouTube benchmarks or developer claims, they can see real-world performance data gathered from the community. The transparency about data freshness helps users trust the numbers, and the histogram quickly reveals if a game frequently 'hitches' or drops frames. This is a consumer-friendly move that leverages Valve's unique position as both platform owner and hardware manufacturer to deliver genuinely useful, at-a-glance performance insights, making the Steam Deck ecosystem smarter and more transparent with every update.