SteamOS 3.2 Beta Brings Improved Fan Control, Experimental Refresh Rate Switching

Written by Michael Larabel in Valve on 28 April 2022 at 05:03 AM EDT. 13 Comments
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Valve overnight released a beta of SteamOS 3.2 with some notable improvements for Steam Deck users.

The two most exciting changes are an OS-controlled fan curve for Steam Deck's cooling fan and also experimental support for changing the in-game screen refresh rate.

The experimental refresh rate can be automatically adjusted to the desired option when going in/out of games. A new slider is available from the Quick Access Menu's Performance Tab that allows adjusting from 40Hz to 60Hz and will also update the frame-rate limit slider values based on various ratios.

The Steam Deck's fan curve is now OS-controlled to improve the handling in different scenarios -- especially during low-usage. Hopefully this will be spun out as a user preference as well for noise vs. performance preference to adjust accordingly now that it's exposed under their OS.


SteamOS 3.2 Beta also adds experimental support for bringing up the Steam keyboard automatically in some cases within the SteamOS Desktop Mode.

More details on the new SteamOS 3.2 Beta availability via SteamCommunity.com.
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