Nvidia's GeForce Now app transformed my Steam Deck. I'm never going back

Nvidia's native GeForce Now app offers transformative improvements to the Steam Deck's biggest limitations.

- BRAD CHACOS

Valve's beloved Steam Deck is a delightful little device that makes PC gaming possible anywhere, but it suffers from some significant limitations. The Deck's custom AMD Ryzen “Aerith” processor requires severe graphical sacrifices to hit playable frame rates in intense games—if you can run them at all. When you're playing, you'll blow through the battery in just a few hours. And while non-Steam games can be added to the Deck, it requires wonky technical workarounds that normie gamers probably won't bother to troubleshoot.

Enter Nvidia's new GeForce Now native app for the Steam Deck (fave.co/4n43v7q), available now. If your internet signal is strong, and you pay for a premium GeForce Now subscription (fave.co/3CbTcJz) with advanced prowess and features, Nvidia's app transforms the Steam Deck from a delightful device into an utterly magical one.

How magical? Consider that Doom: The Dark Ages has been called a “nightmare” on the Steam Deck (fave.co/3ZYURNq). Even with every graphics option turned to low, playing through the sparsely populated tutorial section results in frame rates in the low- to mid-20s—it not only looks ugly, it feels atrocious, like the Doom Slayer is a container ship you're trying to steer while blackout drunk. Hard pass.

Then I flipped over to it on GeForce Now's new Steam Deck app, using an early build (and GFN Ultimate subscription) provided by Nvidia. Oh. My. God. Suddenly, everything was beautiful and smooth, with the Doom Slayer ripping and tearing through demonic hordes like the finely tuned weapon he is. Even with graphics settings set to the strenuous Nightmare level and rays being traced everywhere, performance ran locked at the 60fps maximum that GFN offers on the Deck.