"Framerate Estimator" evidence in Steam's new update points to more detailed performance tests than Valve's Verified programmes

Steam is, most likely, going to get a lot more prophetic about how its thousands of games might run on your PC. ResetEra user dex3108 spotted, deep within the Valve app’s newest client update, a number of unused text strings relating to a "Framerate Estimator" tool. Putting aside my sadness that no-one’s ever thought to call me The Framerate Estimator, in the appropriate title case, it sounds like this would take a rough punt on how many frames per second the user’s hardware can churn out in a given game.

While such an addition hasn’t been confirmed by Gabe & Co. themselves, it was only a couple of months ago that Steam began (optionally) collecting anonymised framerate data; I still think this began with Verified programmes for the Steam Deck, Steam Machine, and Steam Frame in mind, though that data could absolutely feed a more bespoke tool like this. And serving up specific framerate ranges – even estimates – for any PC player, regardless of hardware, would take Valve’s performance previews into both much wider and much more detailed territory.

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