Nvidia GeForce Now Steam Deck Review: The Best Way to Play AAA PC Games on Handheld

Gizmodo

4 days ago

As much as I treasure the Steam Deck as my closest gaming companion, the handheld's limitations will inevitably become more stark with time. Valve's handheld PC is still one of the cheapest of its class. It's comfortable, relatively light, and provides a beautiful picture with the OLED screen (if you have that model like I do). But when I'm struggling to play graphically intensive titles without making my precious handheld feel ill, streaming has proved an antidote to my woes. Nvidia's GeForce Now streaming games service now sports a full native Steam Deck app, and it has become my favorite way to play today's slate of ultra-hyped games from the comfort of my couch.
Performance isn't everything, especially for something as portable as a handheld. The Steam Deck is still one of the best devices for playing less-intensive titles, but that doesn't mean the hardware isn't looking long in the tooth. Getting stable performance out of recent titles like Doom: The Dark Ages on the 3-year-old device has proved impossible. I've played games like Metaphor: Refantazio on Steam Deck—90 hours from beginning to end—and even though that game wasn't pushing pixels to their limit, I still experienced sluggish performance in Metaphor's open areas.
Nvidia previously declared it would bring a dedicated GeForce Now app to Meta Quest, Apple Vision Pro, and Steam Deck. The company gave me early access to the app in the few weeks before launch, and it's been seamless enough I don't think I can go back. I was already smitten with Razer Cortex for Windows PC-to-handheld streaming, but for simplicity's sake, GeForce Now is the reigning champion of simple and seamless streaming on a SteamOS handheld. Nvidia could not confirm if the app will work on the upcoming Lenovo Legion Go S running SteamOS. We would be surprised if Nvidia doesn't provide some support for Lenovo's 1200p-resolution handheld in the future.
You could previously use GeForce Now running on a Steam Deck, though it involved running the streaming service through a browser and setting up your own control bindings. SteamOS offers one of the most console-like experiences for handhelds, but downloading GeForce Now requires more finagling than searching for it on the Steam store. You need to load up your device into desktop mode and then download and install the app from Nvidia's website. After that, it will appear on the Steam Deck menu's 'Non-Steam' folder. Playing my Steam Deck with the app was a godsend for battery life. If I can normally barely squeak two hours out of a 3D game on my Steam Deck OLED running natively, I managed to do around four to five hours before I even noticed my device needed to be plugged in.
The browser-based app has several limitations, including limiting the display resolution to 1440p. The Steam Deck app allows for 4K resolutions and a max of 60 fps if you're paying for the Ultimate subscription. That's still not the full extreme of 120 fps on the PC app, though at least the handheld version supports HDR10 and Nvidia Reflex. Nvidia told me they were considering upgrading the max fps to 90, but for the sake of using the app on handheld devices, the 60 fps ceiling is workable. That limit means it doesn't even matter if the game is running Nvidia's DLSS 4 AI upscaling. On the latest Steam Deck's OLED display, I didn't spot any distortion that can appear on in-game visuals when using the app through the browser-based app.
Steam Decks are made to play your Steam library. That doesn't mean you can't play games through Xbox, Epic Games Store, or GOG, but it's more difficult, and I have encountered a few compatibility issues with the Steam Deck's Proton compatibility layer. GeForce Now becomes the easiest way to access all your games spread out across all platforms. Xbox recently added the option to stream your games through GeForce Now rather than Microsoft's own servers. I combined my Game Pass subscription with Nvidia's streaming app to play Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion on Steam Deck, which proved far more stable than using Game Pass on Steam Deck with the browser app. Doom: The Dark Ages, unfortunately, claims it needs a driver update and remains unplayable.
Nvidia's app also makes the Steam Deck a far more capable handheld if you combine it with a 4K display. Unlike the mobile app, the version for Steam Deck includes options for resolutions above 1440p. This requires at least 45 Mbps internet speeds if you want to maintain the max 60 fps (you only need 25 Mbps for streaming at less than 1080p and 60 fps). I combined my Steam Deck with a dock hooked up to my TV through HDMI, and I found myself preferring to navigate SteamOS with the comfort of a controller from a couch than having to switch to a keyboard and mouse on Windows. The big limitation of 60 fps means that a Steam Deck in docked mode has fewer capabilities than it does on PC or even an Nvidia Shield streaming box.
It's my new choice for streaming on my TV, although at $100 for the Ultimate subscription, I can't imagine it should be your first choice if you want to dedicate GeForce Now for Steam Deck. The free version has limits of 1-hour sessions and limits resolution to 1080p, which doesn't matter nearly as much since the Steam Deck's max resolution is 1,280 x 800, but ads are the real reason you may want to consider a 'Performance' subscription for $30 in the first six months. If you consider the price of buying a more capable handheld, especially as they get more expensive, streaming starts to seem that much more attractive.