Back in February, Valve gave Steam client beta users the option to share anonymized framerate data and hardware information with the company to “help us learn about game compatibility and improve Steam.” Now, new text buried in a recent Steam client update suggests Valve is preparing to use this data to power a “framerate estimator” tool in the future.
As noted in SteamTracking’s automated Steam client change notes (and picked up by some forum and social media users), the April 3 Steam client update contains explicit references to a “Framerate Estimator” in a store UI JSON file. A subheader listed in that file describes the ability to “Select an App and a PC config to get a chart of estimated framerates, based on the framerates of other Steam users.”
Based on the inputs referenced in the JSON data, it looks like generated framerate estimates will be based on CPU, GPU, and system RAM levels selected by the user (or saved as a hardware configuration in the Steam client) rather than any sort of automated system scanning software. Users will be able to see per-game frame rate estimates as well as the “Number of matching training… entries” those estimates are based on for that game and/or the applicable CPU/GPU.
Any Steam framerate estimator would build significantly on the Deck Verified program that Valve rolled out in 2021 to ensure a “playable framerate” and “a great, smooth experience” for games downloaded to the known hardware of Valve’s own portable device. Last year, Valve expanded that program to indicate “SteamOS compatibility” on other devices running the Linux-based OS, though this label provides no indication of how well those “compatible” games might run.
At the time, Valve said the SteamOS-compatible label was “just the first step” and that it was “continuing to work on ways for people to have a better understanding of how games will run on their specific devices.” That could be especially important as Valve and Steam gear up for the delayed release of the Steam Machine.
A built-in Steam tool for estimating game performance could be much more convenient and detailed than current third-party sites like System Requirements Lab. But it’s currently unclear how this “chart of estimated frame rates” would specifically account for the wide array of in-game settings that users can tweak to sacrifice visual quality in the name of smooth animation.
In any case, we’re looking forward to the possibility of Steam telling us, once and for all, just how well our modern gaming rigs can run Crysis.
