SteamOS 3.5 is almost here, includes a fix for the Steam Deck's sneakiest performance bug
When a new Windows Update arrives, we tend to groan. Really, right now, Windows? What's this one going to break? Do I really need it? "Remind me later." A new version of the Linux kernel, on the other hand, always seems like a mini event in the open source community, promising exciting new features and performance improvements for the many, many devices that run Linux. The kernel is the foundational building block of Linux that the many distros like Ubuntu and Arch (which Valve's SteamOS is based on) turn into fully fledged operating systems.
We recognize that without the options and everything that's powerful about PC gaming, the Steam Deck is nothing
The Steam Deck will soon get to share in that «new kernel day» excitement, as Valve's next big update, SteamOS 3.5, will be the first to upgrade the Linux kernel since launch. That means a bevy of good things for Steam Deck owners, though most of them you likely won't even notice.
Updating the kernel means «getting closer to the latest and greatest with lots of good additions, performance fixes, and functional fixes that will improve all kinds of aspects of the system,» Valve's Pierre-Loup Griffais told PC Gamer. «In terms of the core functionality, and running games, and the perf—those kinds of fixes at this point are mostly out of the way, so you won't expect anything transformative there.»
That summary comes with a caveat, though: Valve does have one significant performance fix for the Steam Deck coming in SteamOS 3.5. The Steam Deck's processor supports a common modern feature called SMT, or simultaneous multithreading—you may be more familiar with Intel's name for it, which is Hyper-Threading. Simply put, SMT is the ability to run two threads on a single CPU core. It
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