I've owned a Steam Deck for about six months now. It's good! I like it now! But here are some things that I wished I had known about the Steam Deck when I first bought it.

First of all, very few games run well out of the box, especially the AAAs. You often want to unlock the frame-rate by changing the refresh rate, change screen resolution, etc, to avoid hitching. Optimization example here: youtube.com/watch?v=s_A-Bf…

Second, there are number of easy backend tweaks you can make to dramatically improve performance and load times. This video lists a bunch of them youtube.com/watch?v=od9_a1…

Third, you really need to install Powertools. Probably the best way to do that is through EmuDeck. There are several EmuDeck guides on the internet. (I don't condone piracy, I do condone game preservation) retrogamecorps.com/2022/10/16/ste…

One you have Powertools install, you want to turn off SMT and go from eight cores to four cores. It actually helps the CPU a lot for various reasons. Super Robot Wars 30 actually runs pretty well for me now.

Make sure to turn on things like FSR too. You can disable various features to save on battery life, but truthfully, I usually have my Steam Deck plugged into something while I play on the couch

Ultimately, the Steam Deck is a good machine and I'm glad I spent the money on it. However, I think its positioning as a streamlined consumer-facing handheld is a little misleading. Practically every game I've played this side of Vampire Survivors needs tinkering to run well.

Also, Vampire Survivors is good and you should get it. It's the ultimate Steam Deck game. You might have more trouble with... say... Cyberpunk 2077, a game that is processor hungry. Actually, you should probably avoid Cyberpunk 2077's in-game "Steam Deck settings."

Final tip: Trails in the Sky runs fine on Steam Deck despite it not being Verified. Actually, "Runs Great on Deck" frequently doesn't mean much. Lots of games "run great" but have other things holding them back (like controls). Mostly Steam Deck is AMAZING for indies.

On that note, I'm going to buy Witcher 3 on PC now so I can play on my Steam Deck in Amsterdam. End thread.