🎮 Handhelds

Handheld benchmarks

Recorded on the handheld itself, in a gaming session, without a keyboard. Hold two buttons, press a third, play on – a minute later your session lands here with FPS, 1% lows, stutter and how the device was running: on battery or plugged in, TDP, power draw. Kept apart from the PC results, because a handheld is a different league.

Set up your handheld See the results
–runs
–games
–players

Record on your Deck

One line in Desktop Mode, then it runs by itself in Game Mode.

  1. Install once

    In Desktop Mode: tap a button, then open the file manager (folder icon in the taskbar), go to Downloads, double-click the file and tap Continue. A window installs everything – nothing to type – and closes itself 10 seconds after it is done. Not from the browser’s download list: the browser cannot start the file.

    An account is optional. Log in first and the installer links your Deck to it by itself – without one your runs upload anonymously, and you can link later.

    Prefer a terminal?

    Open Konsole and paste this line. The only question is optional: a short code if you want your runs on your account – press Enter to skip it.

    curl -fsSL https://linuxgamebench.com/deck | bash

    Not in Desktop Mode yet? Hold the power button → Switch to Desktop. Full guide

  2. Play

    Switch back to Game Mode and start any Steam game. Nothing on screen changes – the recorder only waits for the chord. Works with every game in Game Mode – Proton, native Vulkan and OpenGL. If you have Steam's performance overlay switched on, a small red dot shows in it while a recording runs.

    Controller not reacting after the switch? Press the Steam button once; if that does not help, restart the Deck. That is SteamOS, not Linux Game Bench. Why?

  3. Press the chord

    Hold two buttons, press the third. A rising sound starts a 60-second recording; a falling sound ends it by itself and the run uploads right away.

    L1hold +R1hold, then pressVIEW

    L1 and R1 are the two shoulder buttons on top (LB and RB on Xbox-style pads). VIEW is the small button left of the screen, marked with two overlapping squares.

    Set Steam's performance overlay before you press the chord: changing it during a recording ends Steam's log, so the recording stops at once with the error sound (two short beeps).

Which handhelds?

The Steam Deck (LCD and OLED) is tested on real hardware. The others are recognised by the model name their firmware reports and use the same recorder – they need a Linux system with Steam and Gamescope (SteamOS, Bazzite, ChimeraOS and the like) and are not verified yet, so expect rough edges and tell us what you find.

Your handheld is not on the list? Install the recorder anyway and let us know – unknown models are not recorded as handhelds, so they never end up in the PC tables by mistake.

See it in one minute

Download the file, open it from the file manager (not from the browser), let the window install – then hold L1 + R1 and press VIEW.

Spoken and captioned in English or German – the three sounds are the ones your Deck plays while it records. The screens are our own drawings; the terminal text is what the installer prints.

Games on handhelds

Average FPS per game from all handheld runs. Open a game for the single runs and tap Details for battery, TDP and the rest of the setup.

Open a game and pick a Main and a Compare run to see them side by side – any models, resolutions and modes.

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Handheld numbers are not mixed into the PC tables and rankings. Your own runs also show up in My Benchmarks. Need help? Steam Deck guide. Other handhelds (ROG Ally, Legion Go, MSI Claw …): all handheld results.

ROG Ally, Legion Go, MSI Claw, AYANEO, GPD and ONEXPLAYER are trademarks of their owners. Steam Deck is a trademark of Valve Corporation. Linux Game Bench is an independent project and not affiliated with or endorsed by Valve; the Deck drawings on this site are our own.