Valve’s latest SteamOS update is huge for Steam Deck fans – and I’m literally talking about fans of handheld gaming PCs. A common complaint about the steam deck, even when playing lightweight games, is the occasional loud and high pitch fan barking. A few, including my colleague Sean Hollister, tried a DIY solution to fix the Huin, and the iFixit’s replacement steam deck fans sold out within a week.

With SteamOS 3.2, Valve has introduced a new OS-controlled fan curve aimed at making things better. “That means it’s better overall, more responsive to what’s happening inside and outside the steam deck. calm down – Especially in low usage situations, ”the company said in a blog post.

To see if I could see a difference, I installed the update on my Steam deck and tried a few games. On my brief and very unscientific test, my guess is that the valve has made some great improvements.

I boot first Rogue Legacy2, A side-scrolling rogue like not very graphically intense. I immediately noticed the fan Dramatically Silence – I can only hear it occasionally – I could not hear the fan at all as soon as the speakers were turned on. I had a similar experience Vampire SurvivorAlthough I did not have time to go to a typical endgame full of enemies and weapons all over the screen – I was curious to see if this would push the fans further.

Inside Sekiro: The shadow dies twice When the settings are cranked to the maximum, the fan can still hear, although it is usually much quieter than the old fan behaves, you can toggle it in the settings menu if you want. With the new update installed, I could not even hear the sound of the fan idle on the Steam Deck’s menu screen, which was one of my biggest pets with the device.

SteamOS 3.2 lets you change in-game upgrade rates on the fly from the three dot menu buttons. “The default is 60Hz (it can be frame-limited at 60, 30, 15fps), but you can now slide it to 40Hz (with frame limits at 40, 20, 10fps),” says Valve. If you want to improve the battery life, a pull lever reduces the refresh rate.

You can read the full patch note here. Thanks to a Steam client update, Steam now calls Steam’s remote play-together feature, which allows you to play local multiplayer games on the Internet, “fully functional.”