Does your Deck lag in docked mode? :: Steam Deck General Discussions

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davidprieto Mar 7, 2022 @ 4:36am

Does your Deck lag in docked mode?

Hi everyone.

I've plugged my Deck to a 4K TV and it lags a lot, presumably because of rescaling, so I'd like to know if other people are noticing the same.

If you already have your Deck, have you plugged it to the TV? In that case, is it working fine or is it slower than usual?

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Showing 1-11 of 11 comments

dkhundley Mar 22, 2022 @ 3:31am

Yes, I have noticed the same thing across both more complex games (e.g. Elden Ring) and less complex games (e.g. Portal 2). Were you able to resolve this?

davidprieto Mar 22, 2022 @ 7:01am

Partially, by launching Desktop mode and lowering the resolution to 1080p, as opposed to the native 4K.

It's not as smooth as it should, but it's smoother than Gaming Mode upscaling to 4K. But it's just a workaround. Let's hope Valve add a resolution selector to Gaming Mode, or at least default to 1080p.

Last edited by davidprieto; Mar 22, 2022 @ 7:01am

Shep Mar 22, 2022 @ 12:21pm

I tested this a few days ago with a few displays, and yeah 4K upscaling really seems to kill performance. I was using Halo CE via MCC for testing purposes since it's pretty lightweight on the hardware. 1080p display seemed to run just fine at 720p60 upscaled, albeit with some minor latency from either the bluetooth Xbox controller or the USB-to-HDMI connector I was using, but running the same scenario on the 4K TV resulted in sub-30 framerates and near-unplayable controller latency.

Credit where it's due, FSR cleaned up the image nicely even on the 4K display, but yeah here's hoping they can figure out a more performant upscaling solution to make higher-res displays more viable with the Deck.

davidprieto Mar 22, 2022 @ 12:59pm

Originally posted by Shep:
Credit where it's due, FSR cleaned up the image nicely even on the 4K display, but yeah here's hoping they can figure out a more performant upscaling solution to make higher-res displays more viable with the Deck.

Would it be viable to set 1080p as maximum, and let the TV handle it from there?

Shep Mar 22, 2022 @ 2:53pm

Originally posted by davidprieto:
Originally posted by Shep:
Credit where it's due, FSR cleaned up the image nicely even on the 4K display, but yeah here's hoping they can figure out a more performant upscaling solution to make higher-res displays more viable with the Deck.

Would it be viable to set 1080p as maximum, and let the TV handle it from there?

Viable, sure, although it'd be far more preferable to have a solution that didn't involve switching to desktop mode or changing any TV settings. FSR wouldn't look quite as crisp on a 4K display outputting at 1080p, but then again a lot of modern UHD TVs have pretty decent upscaling systems, so it'd probably work fine.

davidprieto Mar 22, 2022 @ 3:08pm

Originally posted by Shep:
it'd be far more preferable to have a solution that didn't involve switching to desktop mode

Yeah, I meant setting 1080p as maximum on gaming mode (if and when that option becomes available) and let the TV handle it from there.

Emurikku Jul 29, 2023 @ 2:21pm

Hello,

My TV is a SAMSUNG UE28H4000, and I get laggy sound after approximately 15 minutes when I turn on my deck. Turns out I just need to change the source and get back to HDMI, and my sound stays synchronized longer. Something like 2 hours, but it can desynchronize again before. This is a known problem on Samsung TVs, and aside from changing the source once, unplugging the TV or resetting the firmware can help.

As for the dock itself, it’s fine.

Last edited by Emurikku; Aug 16, 2023 @ 5:26am

nanfoodle Dec 5, 2023 @ 6:53pm

I finnaly solved this issue. My TV has a gaming mode that lowers input lag when playing games. But my TV was not picking up the steam deck as a console, so it was not enabling game mode when docked. Manuelly enabling game mode solved this issue.