sick of your slow steam deck, a gaming laptop fanatic has some tips on how to fix download speeds on your handheld. Don’t let the tech jargon put you off, as you don’t have to be a tech genius to follow these six easy steps.
Reddit user Gawdamn69 has given step-by-step instructions on what you can do to improve those speeds on your Steam Deck. One of these steps is putting your device into desktop mode, which is something that’s much easier—and cooler—when using the best Steam Deck port.
We have yet to test this ourselves, but it’s easy enough to reverse the steps if you run into any hiccups. Still, you should take the advice with some trepidation. Essentially, it’s a type of situation where your mileage may vary, as some comments point out other limitations. You might not see much of an improvement if you have weak internet at home anyway, and those running anything but the best Steam Deck SD card may have other issues that slow things down.
Other than that, Gawdamn69 advises the following:
- Go to ‘Settings’ > ‘Downloads’ and set ‘Limit bandwidth to:’ to any number above 1,000
- Put Steam Deck into ‘Desktop Mode’ by pressing the Steam button, selecting ‘On’ and then choosing ‘Switch to Desktop’
- On the ‘Linux Desktop’, click on the Wi-Fi logo, find your Internet connection, click on the left trackpad and select ‘Configure Wi-Fi settings’
- In ‘Wi-Fi section mode’, go to ‘Infrastructure’ > ‘BSSID’ > ‘Restrict to device’ > set to wlan0
- In ‘iPv4’ > ‘Auto’ > set ‘Other DNS’ to 8.8.8.8
- Reboot the device
After that, it’s just a matter of starting a download and testing to see if the solution offers better download speeds overall. The user says that he has seen significant improvements, but it is not a guarantee for everyone.
Even though the Steam Deck is a highly praised mobile gaming PC, it is by no means perfect. Fortunately, there are people who seem to have a pretty good handle on things. From fixing strong fan gusts to warning against filling up your SSD, there’s always a helpful community that can offer tips for getting the most out of portable power.