Valve reducing Steam Deck’s shader caches, leaving more room for games

An update for the Steam Deck’s open source video driver will reduce the handheld PC’s shader cache files by more than half.

That’s according to PC Gamer, which stated this update will shrink the files by “approximately” 60 percent.

Just quickly for those who, like me, aren’t as technologically minded as others: Steam Decks come in set sizes in terms of the internal SSD memory. However, these aren’t particularly big – though memory can be expanded through microSD cards. So, with Valve now planning on reducing the size of its shader caches, this update will free up more space for games on the console.

Now for the technical chat. Essentially, there is a Steam OS update coming that includes a new iteration of the Mesa graphics driver, version 23.1. This driver “[re-implements] the RADV pipeline cache based on the common vk_pipeline_cache”, a change that should reduce the file size of the game shader caches maintained by Steam OS.

Valve’s Pierre-Loup Griffais told PC Gamer he expects the pre-built shader caches to reduce file sizes “by ~60 percent”.

However, Griffais added this will not necessarily apply to all games on the handheld PC, as the update “won’t change anything for the size of transcoded video depots, which are also marked ‘shader pre-caching’ in the UI.” So, something to bear in mind if you are still looking for ways to free up space on your Steam Deck.