Nvidia GeForce just gets a lot better on Steam Deck – and that’s great news for playing AAA games on Valve’s handheld

Tech
By James
  • Nvidia will add a native GeForce Now app to the Steam Deck
  • Confirmed this will be ‘later this year’ with greater support for VR headsets
  • Ultimate members have access to ray tracing, 4K resolution and DLSS 3 in the cloud

Nvidia’s GeForce Now is available to Steam Deck users via script available on the download pagebut Team Green will launch a native app for Valve’s handheld later this year.

Announced in a blog postwill expand its support on numerous devices such as the Apple Vision Pro, Meta Quest 3, Meta Quest 3S and especially the Steam Deck, providing access to AAA games with greater graphical fidelity and performance.

Steam Deck owners can access ray tracing at 4K resolution when connected to a TV and get 60 frames per second, thanks to cloud-based streaming with powerful gaming PCs. Steam Deck OLED users will also benefit from HDR10 support for multiple games, along with DLSS 3 for high and stable frame rates and Nvidia Reflex for lower latency (when using the Ultimate membership).

GeForce Now gives you access to over 2,100 games, continually expanding with new additions, like the upcoming Doom: the Dark Agesso if certain AAA titles don’t quite make it on the Steam Deck (particularly games like Cyberpunk 2077), Nvidia’s streaming service is the best choice.

Samurai wake up… (Image credit: CD Projekt Red)

Is this a game changer for the Steam Deck?

I’ve never taken cloud gaming services seriously as I’ve always chosen to run my games locally and not want to rely on a good internet connection, but this is a positive move from Nvidia that I can’t ignore. Given the limitations of Valve’s Steam Deck in terms of processing power for games, there’s not much users can do to balance great graphics and performance (compared to newer handhelds like the Asus ROG Ally X and Lenovo Legion Go).

In this case, Team Green’s GeForce Now is the solution for both portable and docked conditions – using an Ultimate membership guarantees great performance using ray tracing at higher resolutions. While this may also be beneficial in the case of other portable gaming PCs, this will prove to be much more impactful performance-wise for the Steam Deck (in a non-native experience mind you), and the fact that it will be fully supported on SteamOS.

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