In this video I’m comparing SteamOS 3.7 versus SteamOS 3.8.1 on the Steam Deck to answer the big question: is this actually a real performance upgrade, or is it basically the same? SteamOS 3.8.1 is on the Preview branch right now, and I’ve already talked about it before—initially, it didn’t look like it was going to be some massive FPS boost. But a couple of you told me to run proper benchmarks anyway, so that’s exactly what I did. To keep this as clean as possible, I ran Proton Experimental Bleeding Edge on both SteamOS versions. That way the only variable is the SteamOS system itself, not a different Proton build. I tested a handful of games and left the results on screen so you can judge for yourself. SteamOS 3.8.1 also brings changes like the anti-lag/anti-sync driver being enabled by default, which is one of the reasons people expected a difference. Watch the benchmarks, compare the numbers, and decide if it’s worth jumping to Preview—or if you’d rather stay on 3.7 for now.