Designer Pierre-Loup Griffais Clarifies Steam Deck’s FPS Performance

Pierre-Loup Griffais, a designer of the upcoming Steam Deck, addressed his previous comment on the handheld’s “30 FPS target,” clarifying that the number is “the floor of what we consider playable in our performance testing.”

In an interview with IGN, Griffais originally said, “So far we’re looking pretty good, I think – everything that’s been coming out this year has been running without issues, that we’ve tried. I think this is largely a factor of industry trends. If people are still valuing high framerates and high resolutions on different platforms, I think that content will scale down to our 800p, 30hz target really well.”

However, setting the ideal goal at 30hz (30FPS) arouses strong concerns from the customers. If you’re not familiar with the FPS, most gamers tend to agree that a good FPS for casual gaming is at least 60 FPS and above. Anything under 30 is considered unplayable. Therefore, according to Griffais’s comment, Valve is only expecting to keep the game at a barely workable state.

Seeing people’s anxious reactions toward the interview, Griffais posted a Tweet addressing the “30 FPS target” comment:

He clarifies that “the ’30 FPS target’ refers to the floor of what we consider playable in our performance testing.” He also promises that “games we’ve tested and shown have consistently met and exceeded that bar so far.”

Griffais also says, “There will also be an optional built-in FPS limiter to fine-tune perf vs. battery life.” This feature will be extremely useful for those hoping to make the most of a single charge and still enjoy the Steam Deck’s decent FPS performance. That being said, Valve has said that the controller’s fully charged battery life ranges vastly from 2-8 hours depending on the game. As opposed to Nintendo Switch‘s more stable 4.5-9 hours, Steam Deck seems slightly inferior.

Still, the capability to run all kinds of PC games on a convenient console is enticing enough for purchase. Although reporters haven’t received information about the Steam Deck’s hard release date, pre-order is already available in some regions. You can check if you are eligible for the reservation here.