Steam Deck

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Screen Tearing and PWM? (self.steamdeck)

submitted 1 year ago by cianmor to c/[email protected]

12 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Does the Steam Deck use PWM for the screen? Does the screen flicker?
While gaming, is there some kind of screen tearing or is there some kind of VRR/Freesync being used? Otherwise, what settings do you use to avoid screen tearing (FPS locking, etc.)?

Thanks!

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

PWM = Pulse Width Modulation, a way of changing the power of a signal to 'emulate' a different voltage or amperage by rapidly varying the 'width' of the signal, at a high enough frequency that you shouldn't notice it.

Basically, it 'stutters' the signal. That's all well and good until it starts to get into the frequency that users are sensitive to (Which is different for everyone). At that point it can cause headaches, nausea, eye strain, migraines and possibly even increasing any epileptic effects.

The other issue is normally it's fine, but maybe when the brightness is down really low, you might get a 120Hz 'flicker' sort of like an old Flourescent light fixture, as it turns off and on the LED backlighting slow enough that you start to actually experience it. For me, I've not noticed it even at very low brightnesses and dark rooms, but I'm not sensitive to it at all.

[–] cianmor 1 points 1 year ago

Exactly, thank you for the explanation. PWM is used for brightness control and it may flicker, especially when the display is not set at 100%. This does not occur if the screen uses DC voltage to control the brightness.

As far as I have read the Steam Deck unfortunately uses PWM. The question is if it is flicker-free at 100% brightness - could somebody check it with their phone set to record a video at 120fps/240fps or more? You should see it flicker on the screen if the flicker is below those fps/Hz values.