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The Steam Deck is an excellent device for playing PC games away from your actual PC. It’s not the most portable handheld on the market (due to its size), but it connects seamlessly with your Steam profile and allows you to download games locally—if you have the storage space. Given the size of many modern PC games, running out of room on the console or SD card is inevitable.
If you're running low on space or looking to play something that might struggle at high settings on the Deck's hardware, you might want to stream games directly from your PC instead. Thankfully, this is an easy thing to set up. All you need is a stable internet connection, and you can start streaming.
Why Stream Games to Your Steam Deck?
(Credit: PCMag / Valve)Since the launch of the Steam Deck (and many other handheld gaming consoles), players now have a portable gaming solution for PC games. Still, Steam's Remote Play feature allows you to stream games from your computer to your Deck in the same way that Steam Link lets you play games on your phone. But why would you ever need to stream games to a console when you can just play locally?
If you built a powerful PC, you can use Remote Play to leverage your rig's processing power. A game streaming to the Steam Deck will harness your PC’s specs instead of the handheld’s more limited hardware. So, depending on the game, you might get a more robust experience. This can be especially helpful for the more demanding AAA games in your library.
Games must be compatible with the Steam Deck before you can play them. Valve has verified many games to ensure they run correctly. However, Remote Play can also help your experience with smaller indies that have not been optimized for the Deck because the game will technically be running on your PC.
Streaming can also circumvent local storage, helping you save on disk space. No matter what size Steam Deck you have—the most expensive of the new models comes with 1TB—it can fill up fast. You can always expand storage with a microSD card, but using Remote Play is an easy alternative.
What Games Work With Remote Play?
(Credit: Valve)If you bought a game on Steam and it’s available in your library, you can run it through Remote Play. However, how well your Steam games run will depend on how well they have been optimized for the console. You'll automatically see the compatibility rating of each game in your Library on Steam Deck.
(Credit: PCMag / Valve)It can also be found on a game's store page under the small Steam Deck Compatibility section between supported languages and in-game achievements. Valve uses the following rating system to show a game's compatibility with the Steam Deck:
- Verified: The game works great on Steam Deck, right out of the box.
- Playable: The game may require some manual tweaking by the user to play
- Unsupported: The game is currently not functional on Steam Deck.
- Unknown: We haven't checked this game for compatibility yet.
(Credit: PCMag / Valve)While this section is meant to provide you with a quick glance as to whether or not the game will work, you can also click the Learn more button to get extra insight about what might not be completely optimized. Valve has its own database that tracks which Steam games are compatible with the Steam Deck.
Steam also has a page for Remote Play-capable games. If a game is Deck Verified, it will also likely run well through Remote Play. The feature may also be workable for any games from other storefronts, but those will require a lot more setup.
How to Stream Games to Steam Deck
(Credit: PCMag / Valve)Once you've chosen a game to play, it’s easy to get everything up and running. For the best experience, you can also make one small tweak. Open the Steam client on your PC and head to Steam > Settings > Remote Play. Enable Advanced Host Options, then Change desktop resolution to match streaming client to help your PC use less power by automatically matching the Steam Deck’s maximum resolution. Then hit OK.
Now we're ready to stream. Make sure the game you wish to stream is installed and Steam is running on your computer. Both your PC and Deck must also be connected to the same wireless network. Open to your Steam library on your Deck and go to the game you want to stream.
(Credit: PCMag / Valve)Hit the arrow next to the big Install button, and a pop-up will appear. Select the name of your PC (in my case, it’s MagnaCarter-PC) and hit A. The button will now say Stream. Hit that and Remote Play will begin to work its magic.
(Credit: PCMag / Valve)You will know everything is working if an instance of the game starts to run on both your PC and Steam Deck at the same time. Your PC mirrors whatever you do on your Steam Deck.