Steam Deck tries to output at my TV's huge resolution

[pigeon]

When I connect my Deck to my TV via HDMI, it's output resolution changes to match the TV's. This is a problem, as the text on the Game Mode menu is way too small, and games have poor performance, I assume because they're trying to run in like 4k. I looked around for a way to lower the resolution, but I could only find an option that only works in Desktop Mode. Is there any way to change the whole device's resolution when connected via HDMI? I wanna play on da big screen

[tfk]

I can only answer from the Linux/KDE perspective as I don't own a Deck yet.

I placed my PC and my 4K screen in my living room in order to create a more entertainment oriented set-up. I had to set the scaling in KDE to 175% to make everything readable. Steam scaled nicely along with the rest of the UI.

As the Deck is basically a PC in console form, maybe this approach will work there too?

The setting can be found in desktop mode via System Settings / Display and Monitor and is called Scaling.

[pigeon]

Originally posted by tfk:

I can only answer from the Linux/KDE perspective as I don't own a Deck yet.

I placed my PC and my 4K screen in my living room in order to create a more entertainment oriented set-up. I had to set the scaling in KDE to 175% to make everything readable. Steam scaled nicely along with the rest of the UI.

As the Deck is basically a PC in console form, maybe this approach will work there too?

The setting can be found in desktop mode via System Settings / Display and Monitor and is called Scaling.

Tried this, it didn't work. Everything in Gaming Mode is still too small, same as before. Thanks for the suggestion, though

[@R+5]

i also dont own a deck, but i have used manjaro with kde. have you tried changing settings to use the two screens independently rather than mirrored? if screens are separate, you can have more control over the resolution. maybe that way theres a setting to force a smaller resolution in your main screen.

[antnyuk]

I also have this issue, going through a 1080p monitor works fine and games run as expected but through 4k TV the UI and simple games become so laggy. I've also set the correct resolution in desktop mode.
This has also been reported by other users and issue submitted on github (see https://steamcommunity.com/app/1675200/discussions/1/)

[PopinFRESH]

Gamescope (The display system for the Game mode side of SteamOS) doesn't currently support manually selecting the output resolution.

If you reboot into Desktop mode you'll be able to do what tfk suggested.

There are several threads and posts / videos elsewhere about this topic so this is something that Valve may eventually add support for when using the USB-C alt-mode for display output.

[ArslanRuslan]

Having same issue here, yeah. When I connect it with my Type C -> HDMI to my capture card it switches to 4k 30 fps.

[AsciiSmoke]

Having same issue here too.

My observations:

• When connected to HDMI, Gaming Mode outputs at the connected display's maximum resolution.
  
• You can scale the interface in Gaming Mode's settings but the deck is still outputting at the max resolution.
  
• The performance overlay is still tiny after changing the scaling setting.
  
• Having the scaling done on the deck is a waste of CPU. Switch games look fine at 720p, I'd rather not have the deck wasting it's limited resources.
  
• You can get around some of these problems by switching to Desktop Mode, changing the resolution and then running Big Picture Mode. I wonder if having the full KDE running in the background is using up more memory than just running Gaming Mode though.
  
• Although my TV (LG C9 OLED) has VRR it doesn't seem to kick in so there's no way to go down to 40hz. In the KDE settings I could only choose 60hz or 50hz (this may be down to the TV only reporting these rates for some reason but on Series X, PS5, they can see a much wider range).

Seems to me that a resolution / refresh rate option in the Gaming Mode (when connected) would be a big benefit and hopefully not a big deal to introduce.

[Simone Drake]

I have a similar problem when Steam Deck is docked and connecting to my TV in Game Mode it results on a black screen on Steam Deck and the TV shows no signal. It only works when i switch on Desktop mode.
One thing i don't understand is on the new feature to switch resolution while in Game mode, it sais Default and Native, along with some other resolutions. So what's the difference between Default and Native? Also, Default or Native resolution to what? The Steam Deck screen, an external screen, in the game only...? This is so confusing to me.

[PopinFRESH]

Originally posted by Simone Drake:

I have a similar problem when Steam Deck is docked and connecting to my TV in Game Mode it results on a black screen on Steam Deck and the TV shows no signal. It only works when i switch on Desktop mode.
One thing i don't understand is on the new feature to switch resolution while in Game mode, it sais Default and Native, along with some other resolutions. So what's the difference between Default and Native? Also, Default or Native resolution to what? The Steam Deck screen, an external screen, in the game only...? This is so confusing to me.

Have you changed the refresh rate to something other than 60Hz? Most TVs do not support odd refresh rates like 40Hz. That will prevent your TV from getting a signal it is able to display. Reset the display/performance profile and it should resolve the blank screen / no signal issue.

Regarding the resolution. "Default" is meaning the default Gamescope behavior which uses a virtual resolution to render at 1280 x 800 if the external display is 16:10 aspect ratio, or render at 1280 x 720 if the external display is 16:9 aspect ratio. That is then output at the external displays native resolution as set by its EDID, like a "stretched" image.

"Native" will just render and output at the external display's native resolution as set by its EDID.

If you're manually setting the resolution make sure you are setting it to a resolution that is supported by your TV. You're TVs manual should tell you what resolutions and refresh rates it supports.

[Marlock]

isn't the list of manually set resolutions already based in the EDID info of supported resolutions fetched from the TV? normally linux desktops only show supported resolutions in their screen resolution selectors...

[PopinFRESH]

Originally posted by Marlock:

isn't the list of manually set resolutions already based in the EDID info of supported resolutions fetched from the TV? normally linux desktops only show supported resolutions in their screen resolution selectors...

That might be but I'm not positive. Either way doesn't hurt to make sure the resolution is supported but if the list is populated based on the EDID info then it should already account for it. All of the references for the resolution list I've seen, including my own, look to be the same set of resolutions going up to 4K. That could just be most people who've posted about it are doing so while connected to similar 4K TVs.