Can Steam Deck get any better? Nvidia’s expanded GeForce NOW support is a resounding yes
Despite stiff competition from the likes of Lenovo, Asus, MSI and more, Valve’s Steam deck has made its position as one of the best PC gaming handhelds on the market known time and time again. And with the announcement that Nvidia’s GeForce NOW will introduce broader support for the Steam Deck, its dominance is even more assured.
There are two particularly excellent updates aimed at Steam Deck users. The first is a new one beta installation method for GeForce NOW on the Steam Deck, which automatically installs Google Chrome on the device and adds all necessary settings so users can start playing immediately after booting up for the first time.
And the second is A GeForce NOW update which allows users to navigate in the browser with a gamepad, including on the Steam Deck. This makes it possible to find and play games on the handheld without having to worry about system specs, including non-Steam games and titles with Nvidia DLSS support and ray tracing.
Nvidia and Valve have been in talks since 2023 add more support for the Steam Deck, so these updates were certainly a long time coming.
Steam Deck is charging full speed ahead in the gaming space
These latest updates from Nvidia help fix a number of issues with the Steam Deck, especially as its lack of power compared to other PC handhelds becomes more and more apparent over time. The Steam Deck OLED solves some of these issues, but certain titles won’t run natively without mods.
But being able to stream titles so easily via GeForce NOW is the best way to combat this problem (at least until Steam deck 2 finally launched, of course) because the hardware is completely irrelevant to how good the best pc games walk. As long as you have a solid connection, framerate and overall performance will be as stable as possible, even for titles the system can’t otherwise play.
And with the added controller support combined with the Steam Deck’s biggest advantage over the competition – its excellent operating system that’s fully optimized for the handheld – it really feels like it’s gotten meaningful improvements that keep it competitive with its more powerful rivals.