New Steam Deck beta client update: can improve battery life in low power games up to 6%

Did some more reading, I was probably thinking of broadcast TV signals, which were 25 or 30 fps because one frame is two fields. and I wrongly assumed CRT TVs could only do one thing, but consoles mainly did progressive video.

No, not quite. 60fps (or 50fps for PAL regions) was basically always the target for 2D games rendered at 240p, because it was easily achievable with the hardware and looked way better.

When 3D games started to appear with the release of the PS1, Saturn and N64, 60fps was often out of the question because the hardware wasn't powerful enough.

Interlacing doesn't really have anything to with that. Interlacing just means that of the 480 lines of resolution, only half get shown on screen every frame (always the even or uneven ones). Since the image gets rendered in 480p anyway, it doesn't matter whether or not the game gets rendered at 60fps or not.

Except when using field rendering, which was popular on the PS2. There, only the lines that get shown that frame get rendered, which is why it only works at 60fps. Maybe that was what you were thinking about?

Was it? afaik PAL was 50Hz but 25fps, and NTSC was 60Hz at 30fps. Two periods per frame because of interlacing or something like that.

Think nes, snes, and Sega game emulation. No reason to run over 30fps.

Why would you run such games at half the framerate? 60fps was the norm back then.

I constantly see people talking about playing things like Balatro on their deck that certainly doesn't need more than 30fps.

Seems super useful for games like that on a flight

Think nes, snes, and Sega game emulation. No reason to run over 30fps. Also any of those click choice games and dating sim games where nothing ever really moves.

I see what you mean. Makes sense.

From a business standpoint, wouldn't that be better for valve? Wouldn't they make more money?

This is even better, because they dont have to make a new one. Which would cause a mass exodus because every person that already have one will want to buy a new one.

Glad to see improvements like this on the software level, but it seems unlikely to be utilized much. Any game that runs on low power probably can reach 60fps. 6% battery saved does not seem like a great trade-off for halved frame rate.

I was happy for a split second thinking it was a new steam deck they're releasing. :/