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Summary
- Valve opened SteamOS to non-Deck handhelds, improving performance by keeping the OS lean.
- Microsoft's 25H2 update adds Xbox mode to focus Windows on gaming, freeing resources and launching titles in a single window.
- Preview testers report small FPS gains but big RAM drops (Celeste went from 10.6GB to 9.4GB); 25H2 is still in testing.
Right now, we're witnessing an arms race between Microsoft and Valve. For a while, the two had been content in their own camps; Valve had its Steam Deck, and Microsoft had delivered Windows 11 to other handheld PCs. However, things began to escalate when Valve released the Steam Deck's operating system, SteamOS, for general use on any handheld device. Not only that, but Valve began actively fixing bugs and creating patches for specific non-Deck models, including some that were previously Windows-only.
People then began to notice improved performance when using SteamOS over Windows 11, and it's not difficult to see why. While Windows comes with all the baggage that a general installation has, SteamOS keeps things lean, freeing up more hardware for gaming. Well, Microsoft is seemingly striking back with "Xbox mode," which seems to put all of the Windows stuff aside so you can focus on your game, and you can try it right now. Just make sure that you're ready to do a little bit of tinkering first.
Windows 11's "Xbox mode" for handhelds arrives as part of the 25H2 update
In a thread on the ROG Ally subreddit (thanks for the spot, The Verge!), user /u/Gogsi123 discussed what this new Xbox mode can do. It can pick out all your Steam and Epic Games titles and boot them up in a focused window, which seems to free up some hardware for gaming. While Xbox mode gave the original poster a pretty small 2 FPS boost in Red Dead Redemption 2, there were more promising results when playing Celeste:
In Celeste RAM usage dropped from 10.6 GB to 9.4 GB, over a gigabyte. The 10.6 GB figure is after I entered desktop experience and closed every startup app I saw (Discord, Teams, etc), so the difference may be even larger depending on what you have running. The game is capped at 60 FPS and hits it in both modes, so no comparison there.
The good news is, you can start using Xbox mode as part of the next Windows 11 update, 25H2. The bad news is...it's not out yet. The Windows 11 update is still in the testing branches and hasn't been released to the public. Fortunately, you can download the preview build and give the Xbox mode a try, and /u/Gogsi123 was kind enough to publish a full guide on how to do that. And if you're wondering how Windows 11 fares compared to SteamOS, we conducted some tests ourselves and found some pretty stunning results.
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