Revitalizing My Steam Deck: The Game-Changing…

mayo 29, 2025 1:00 pm

I hope gaming doesn’t turn into yet another subscription streaming service with ever-increasing prices. I’m particularly wary of giving Nvidia even more influence in the industry right now.

That said, Nvidia’s $20-per-month GeForce Now is an ideal match for the Steam Deck. After 15 years of covering cloud gaming, this is the first time I feel compelled to keep playing indefinitely.

For those unfamiliar, Nvidia’s GeForce Now is a game streaming service that utilizes cloud-based graphical processing power. Rather than running a game directly on your Steam Deck’s hardware, you’re essentially controlling a powerful RTX 4080 gaming rig hosted in a distant server farm, allowing you access to your games and save data across existing accounts on Steam, Epic, Ubisoft, Xbox, and Battle.net.

*Nvidia’s GeForce Now also offers a free tier and a “Performance” tier, but I recommend skipping both. Personally, I found that the paid tier made a substantial difference—it’s the difference between gaming through a clear screen or a foggy one, not to mention getting to experience Alan Wake II and Indiana Jones with full ray tracing as opposed to none at all. It’s what makes the difference between seamlessly reaching 4K or settling for less.

I’ve discovered that handheld devices have become my preferred method for gaming. The Steam Deck is convenient and readily available whenever I feel like playing. However, my Deck and aging desktop PC struggle with the newest titles. Games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Baldur’s Gate 3 can appear quite blurry on the Deck, and I’ve been unable to experience Alan Wake II, Portal RTX, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle in full ray-traced detail on my RTX 3060 Ti desktop.

However, with the recent launch of the GeForce Now app on the Steam Deck, I can now play all of these titles at near maximum settings throughout my home for extended periods on a single charge. Plus, when I dock the Steam Deck to my 4K TV, it can output stunning 4K60 HDR graphics and ray-traced visuals that give the PS5 Pro a run for its money.

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