What resolutions does the Steam Deck Dock support?

[🐭]

That was my major problem with the Steam Link. It didn't have support for any 4:3 aspect ratio monitors. It looked like it supported 16:9 only.

I would like to know if I can use the SDD with any monitor.

EDIT: This is an old post. I answered my own question here:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1675200/discussions/0/3395176266128830387/?tscn=1734441564#c501685815345192770

[class101 [OLED deck]]

On the store page it says

*Supports up to 4k 60hz, or 1440p 120hz*

Isn't it the information you are looking for ?

[🐭]

Originally posted by class101 deck:

On the store page it says

*Supports up to 4k 60hz, or 1440p 120hz*

Isn't it the information you are looking for ?

No. It's not.

What does "up to" even mean in that context? All 16:9 resolutions up to 1440p? Literally any resolution smaller than 4k? If so, does that include 5:4 resolutions? What about 3:2? Maybe even 4:1? Can I use my 17,280 × 4,320 monitor with this dock?

[omgitsbees]

Yes, all of those resolutions will actually work with Steam Deck. Whether or not they work with games is another matter entirely, but if you bought a monitor like that, then you know this already.

[🐭]

Originally posted by omgitsbees:

Yes, all of those resolutions will actually work with Steam Deck. Whether or not they work with games is another matter entirely, but if you bought a monitor like that, then you know this already.

But wouldn't 17,280 × 4,320 be above 4k and exceed the "up to" limit?

[maxRunner]

The resolution is usually a negotiation between the device and the display right? I don't think the dock cares, it's just doing pass through. It has a bandwidth limitation though, so it can't go beyond 4k@60hz (or dual 1440p 120hz which requires similar bandwidth to 4k@60hz).

EDIT:
OK I did some lookups. 4k@60hz is 18Gbps. 1440p@120hz is 13.27 Gbps. I got dual 1440p@120hz working on my cablematters dock for a total of 26.54Gbps, but YMMV since that exceeds 18Gbps. Someone will need to try when they get theirs. That wasn't specifically your question though.

Anyway hope that helps.

Edit Edit:
After doing a bit more reading I'm getting the distinct impression that head room for ultrawide is assumed in cases when they state a supported resolution/refresh. Like up to 4k@60hz most likely means up to 4k ultrawide@60hz. As for 17,280 × 4,320, that's coming up in search as 16k? yes that seems like it pretty far exceeds 3840×2160.

[Man's Best Friend]

Looking into information about HDMI and DisplayPort, it would appear that if you want 4:3 ratios, you are limited to less than HD resolutions. Specifically you'll likely be limited to 480p as that's the next "TV" resolution down from the lowest HD resolution of 720p.
Odds are the dock is either going to do 720p with black bars, or 480p full screen.
I do know the Deck supports other video connectors though. I briefly had it connected to a VGA monitor for giggles. Though 16:9 still.

[Quidam Phoenix]

The Dock doesn't determine compatible resolutions. That's handled by the device and display, which the Dock just sits between. The limitation with the Dock is bandwidth (which is why it's up to 4k@60Hz, and I'm not sure what chroma subsampling it would use at that resolution), but 4:3 display support comes entirely down to what the EDID of the display is reporting. If your display reports that it can do 1280x960, 1024x768, 800x600, etc, and the game is set to that, then you won't have any issues. The Steam Deck can already do those as it is. Many modern games don't support non 16:9 resolutions, but things like KotOR or NWN for example, have no issues with it.

[retro_Ed]

4:3 aspect ratio displays works just fine. (One monitor setup)

Also it is possible use higher resolutions (up to 4K) on game mode than displays native resolution. Just like it works on Deck itself.
This feature must be set from game properties under "wheel icon" and it is per game setting for each game

Deck (gamescope) handles aspect ratios if those are different than native disply.
No stretching.

[🐭]

Originally posted by Quidam Phoenix:

The Dock doesn't determine compatible resolutions. That's handled by the device and display, which the Dock just sits between. The limitation with the Dock is bandwidth (which is why it's up to 4k@60Hz, and I'm not sure what chroma subsampling it would use at that resolution), but 4:3 display support comes entirely down to what the EDID of the display is reporting. If your display reports that it can do 1280x960, 1024x768, 800x600, etc, and the game is set to that, then you won't have any issues. The Steam Deck can already do those as it is. Many modern games don't support non 16:9 resolutions, but things like KotOR or NWN for example, have no issues with it.

These are the answers I was looking for. Thank you kindly. Walk with pride.

[Flowey]

I read somewhere that steamdeck supports maximum 8k 60hz screen, or 4k 120hz

[Flowey]

But only when connected directly to the port, through the docking station, you will not find anything higher than 4K 60 Hz

[🐭]

I'm just going to answer my own question, now that I own the dock, and LCD and OLED versions.

In "desktop mode", the Steam Deck + Dock treats all connected monitors the same as any computer would. So multiple monitors works about how you would expect them to.

When running anything in "game mode", including the KDE desktop, it does the exact same thing the Steam Link does. It takes the image and scales it up or down to fit the external monitor, maintaining the aspect ratio, which causes a lot of blurring, which makes the image look like crap and causes many fonts to become unreadable. So of course this means stuff like the KDE desktop is going to look like trash on many external monitors. Even if you have a 16:9 monitor, you're still not going to have a 1:1 upscale because the Steam Deck isn't 720p. It's 1280x800, which is 16:10.

There's tricks and software solutions that can mitigate or possibly even eliminate the problem, like making use of the external monitor settings in the Steam Deck settings menu, or like manually changing the resolution in the game itself, but you would still need the right kind of monitor/TV to even get that close.

And since my future self is already sending a message back to my past self, I might as well also mention the Steam Deck is flatpak ONLY. And you know what that means: Any packages in the repos that do not have a flatpak version cannot be installed on the Steam Deck. Yeah, I can't believe they did that either. Yeah, yeah, I know, they should have listed that somewhere on the store page. Yeah yeah yeah, nobody else mentioned this when they were either gushing over how great it was or booing over how it won't be as good as the Steam Deck 2, but those same people aren't Linux users, so of course they're clueless to how bad of an idea that is. No, there's not even flatpak version of bc. I know, it's crazy right? Anyways, just thought you should know.

[MancSoulja]

Originally posted by 🐭:

And since my future self is already sending a message back to my past self, I might as well also mention the Steam Deck is flatpak ONLY. And you know what that means: Any packages in the repos that do not have a flatpak version cannot be installed on the Steam Deck. Yeah, I can't believe they did that either. Yeah, yeah, I know, they should have listed that somewhere on the store page. Yeah yeah yeah, nobody else mentioned this when they were either gushing over how great it was or booing over how it won't be as good as the Steam Deck 2, but those same people aren't Linux users, so of course they're clueless to how bad of an idea that is. No, there's not even flatpak version of bc. I know, it's crazy right? Anyways, just thought you should know.

No it isn't, you just have SteamOS set to Read Only mode.

try this in terminal

sudo steamos-readonly disable

[🐭]

Originally posted by MancSoulja:

Originally posted by 🐭:

And since my future self is already sending a message back to my past self, I might as well also mention the Steam Deck is flatpak ONLY. And you know what that means: Any packages in the repos that do not have a flatpak version cannot be installed on the Steam Deck. Yeah, I can't believe they did that either. Yeah, yeah, I know, they should have listed that somewhere on the store page. Yeah yeah yeah, nobody else mentioned this when they were either gushing over how great it was or booing over how it won't be as good as the Steam Deck 2, but those same people aren't Linux users, so of course they're clueless to how bad of an idea that is. No, there's not even flatpak version of bc. I know, it's crazy right? Anyways, just thought you should know.

No it isn't, you just have SteamOS set to Read Only mode.

try this in terminal

sudo steamos-readonly disable

Don't all of the changes you make and packages you install get reverted/removed when Valve rolls out an update? And with the way Valve rolls out each update multiple times, that means I would be constantly reinstalling the same software and making the same changes over and over? I honestly get tired of having to reinstall Decky over and over, just because it's the only reason I have to reboot into desktop mode. I'm not even that mad about having to reboot into desktop mode. I just hate doing it for that one and only reason.

[D. Flame]

I use it at the native resolution, 1600x900, and 1080p.

If I mostly play hand held, then I play native.

I mostly have desktop mode locked down to 1080p.

If I play a game and swap between handheld and docked, then I go for 1600x900, since it still looks good on the native screen, fills the screen on a TV, and isn't a big performance hit.

The deck will technically support 4K, but it will run like garbage.