11 Tips and Tricks to Level Up Your Steam Gaming

If Steam on Windows is your play platform of selection then you ’d be forgiven for wanting to dive straight into the action and start up playing whatever game are in your depository library . But the Steam customer has a few under - the - radio detection and ranging feature article and setting that are worth diving into , so you could make trusted your gaming frame-up is as perfect as potential .

1. Know your frame rates

In certain situation — like when you ’ve just installed a new graphics card — you’ll want to have intercourse how hard your game are working your organisation , and how many frames per second you ’re getting . Steam can keep this on projection screen for you , with a pertinacious piffling sideboard in the corner of your screen . You need to afford up the Steam card , then prefer In - Game and turn the In - game FPS counter selection to Top - left , Top - right , Bottom - right and Bottom - left ( which is where the rejoinder will come along on screen ) . Underneath there ’s the High demarcation color option , which makes the reading a piddling easier to see against game backgrounds .

2. Split your games into collections

As your game library gets heavy , managing it can be more of a challenge , which is where the ability to dissever your Steam plot into assemblage come in handy . you may split games up by genre or by how much you care them , or whatever you want . Right tap any title in the list on the left field under the Library section , then choose Add to . you could either pick an existing collection or make a raw one . When make fresh collection , you have the option to make it a dynamic collecting , which is one that populate itself automatically base on the criteria you go down ( such as features , play commonwealth , genre or custom - made tag ) .

3. Choose where your games are saved

Most of the time for most multitude , the default location for the biz library will do just fine , but there might be times when you need to be more specific about where a download end up — particularly if you ’ve got two hard private road set up , or just like being organise . Open up the Steam carte in the node , then choose setting , Downloads , and Steam Library Folders — the next duologue box seat permit you add other folder destinations besides the nonpayment one , which then become available when downloading new game . To move a game , right flick on it in the Library , then choose Properties and Local single file .

4. Reduce bandwidth use

For many of the title you own , a politic and upstanding internet connectedness is going to be vital to your in - game achiever , and the Steam client comes with a variety of options for minimizing the amount of bandwidth it ’s using via configurations on the Steam menu . Under Library , tick Low Bandwidth Mode to turn over off some of the client ’s machine - load features , and under Downloads pick out a time period when game auto - update are allowed ( or turn them off completely)—if you desire to get really expert , on this panel you could congeal a specific limit for the bandwidth that the Steam guest is allowed to make role of in KB / s.

6. Access command line options

Command air options are a time - observe way of troubleshooting games that have develop issue , or enabling characteristic and configurations that are n’t usually available , but it ’s not like a shot obvious how to access these features when you ’re launching everything through the Steam client . If you ask to modify the commands used to start a game , right select it on the Library screen , then choose Properties . flip-flop to the General tab , then find fault rigid launch pick . A quick World Wide Web search should reveal whether the biz in your collection have any interesting statement line alternative deserving experimenting with .

7. Install several games at once

If you ’re leaving your gaming computer for the night — or for a few days — and you want to install a crew of games in the meantime , then Steam can handle this for you . The trustworthy Ctrl release is your acquaintance here , just as it is for selecting multiple element in every other Windows app program : Hold down Ctrl while chatter on all the games you want to install on the Library screen in the Steam client , then the right way dawn on one of the selected titles and choose Install select . The usual install game configurations dialog appears , so you’re able to coiffe download localization and so on , and then your downloads will be under way .

8. See the bigger (or smaller) picture

Steam include a Big Picture Mode under the View menu that you might never have come across before . It turn the Steam interface into something more suitable for TVs and console table - style controllers , which may or may not suit you depending on the character of apparatus you ’re gaming with , but all of the key features are still available . Alternatively , you could go the other room — next to the Big Picture Mode option is Small Mode , which shrink down the Steam client interface to a compact size that ’s easier to organise on screen door . Click the index push to kick the bucket large Picture Mode , or View then Large Mode to exit Small Mode .

9. Get involved in the Steam beta

conjoin beta program is a outstanding manner of start new feature and ensure out port changes in advance , in return for putting up with the occasional bug or diligence crash . Steam has a beta program of its own , and you could enlist ( or choose out again ) by launch the Steam bill of fare , then select configurations and Account , and then snap Change next to Beta involution . You ’ll need to re-start Steam to support the change . Even when bugs do craw up , they ’re usually desexualize comparatively quickly , so it ’s deserving getting involved with if you want to rest on the cutting sharpness .

10. Add games that aren’t on Steam

If you ’ve got game on your PC that you have n’t bought from the Steam Store , you could still launch them through the Steam client . You wo n’t get a wad of the stock functionality ( such as cloud saves and reflexive updates ) , but doing this will rent your friends see which gage you ’re playing and when , and it does think you may apply the Steam overlayer ( Shift+Tab ) . From the Steam guest , choose Games then Add a Non - Steam Game to My Library . Once a biz has been add , you may do a custom user interface picture for it by right - clicking on the thumbnail in the grid view and choosing Set Custom Image .

11. Reduce RAM usage

The amount of free retention you have matters quite a bit when you ’re game , and there is a way to significantly boil down Steam ’s RAM usage by opening it up without the bundled web browser app and some other extras . As noted byHow - To Geek , you may typecast the following into the Windows runnel boxful ( Win+R ) to launch Steam lite : “ C : Program Files ( x86)Steamsteam.exe -no - browser app + open steam://open / minigameslist ” ( assuming Steam is installed in the default booklet ) . you may still instal and launching games in this mode , though uninstalling is handicapped , and the client will only be using around 60 megabit of RAM while it ’s being used .

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