How do you use your Steam Deck ?

Balokzx

What release channel are you using ? Stable, Beta or Preview ?
How do you connect your VPN connection ? Tunnel Deck, Distrobox or other ?
Do you encrypt (LUKS2) your Steam Deck's internal memory with KDE Partition Manager ?
Are you sticking under SteamOS ? Or using Nobara, Bazzite or CachyOS ?

Aeon

1) stable Channel
2) no VPN
3) No Encryption
4) Standard SteamOS it came with

I mostly use the Steam Deck as is. I spend 95% of the time in the Gaming mode and play games. 5% in desktop mode then i had to install Heroic Launcher for GoG, Epic Games and other non-Steam-Games.

I game on my Steam Deck and I dont have any work or private documents on it.

N1b

Beta Channel (to make use of the new Steam Family)
No VPN at all
No encryption
Standard SteamOS

I use my Steam Deck exclusively for gaming on Steam and rarely have it with me in public. I'm almost exclusively in gaming mode and boot the Desktop only for GE-Proton updates (and once for setting up Geforce Now back when I was subscribed).

Privacy wise this is not optimal, but I'm okay with Valve getting my information (most of which I can't avoid anyway when using Steam) and I don't want to compromise on performance or latency.

Balokzx

N1b

Have you ever had problems using beta channel on your Steam Deck ?

Steam games only ? Not GoG (Heroic Games Launcher), Lutris or EmuDeck ?
When you used Geforce Now, did it run fine on Steam Deck, no latency or performance issues ?

Have you tried using CryoUtilities to improve performance on your Steam games ?

N1b

Balokzx Steam games only ? Not GoG (Heroic Games Launcher), Lutris or EmuDeck ?

Yes only steam. I'm stuck in that eco system and have more games than I could ever play. :D

Balokzx When you used Geforce Now, did it run fine on Steam Deck, no latency or performance issues ?

Geforce Now apparently is the best streaming service bar none (Google Stadia was apparently great as well). Obviously there's a bit of latency but that's negligible when you don't play competitive e-sport games. The priority tier is more than enough btw. to stream current games at high-max settings in 800p.

Balokzx Have you tried using CryoUtilities to improve performance on your Steam games ?

Yes I use CryoUtilities with all the recommended settings. Was helping with the God of War performance and I left it ever since. No problems.

Balokzx

N1b

Hahaha, I guess it's because of the summer sale :D

I thought GamePass was the best game streaming service. It is a good choice for casual gamers who don't have much time, games

So, I'll try to use CryoUtilities. Is it for Steam games only or all platforms like GoG, Windows games...?

How do you update apps ? On Discover or something else ?

N1b

Balokzx I thought GamePass was the best game streaming service

I'm only talking video compression and latency. Value for money and game selection wise Gamepass is better. Check out some YouTube comparisons for games supported by both services to see what I mean. Btw. Gamepass is available on Geforce Now in case you want to pay twice to have the games from Gamepass and the tech from NVIDIA.

Balokzx So, I'll try to use CryoUtilities. Is it for Steam games only or all platforms like GoG, Windows games...?

The tool changes some settings in SteamOS and the BIOS, so it should benefit all games no matter the launcher. However, nowadays it's questionable if it gives you a significant performance boost. If you don't run into problems with the default setup, just stick to it. It's very well optimized.

Balokzx How do you update apps ? On Discover or something else ?

Yes whenever I go into desktop mode I start Discover to run updates (you'll get a notification in the bottom right corner when app updates are available). GE-Proton updates will be done via ProtonUp-QT. OS updates will run in Game mode, so no need to switch to Desktop for that.