The native resolution of the Steam deck It's 1280x800. That's the resolution used on the device's screen, but on the TV, the second value is 720p. This is the resolution known as HD, with 1080p, or Full HD, being the most standardized right now. Although there are already many 4K screens, Full HD is the most widespread due to the price, since very affordable screens with 1920x1080 resolution are available.
The Steam Deck can output 4K resolution when connected to an external monitor, but the conversion isn't always seamless. In theory, the official dock should be able to detect external monitor configurations and automatically adjust the resolution, but SteamOS can fail when connected to third-party docks and adapters. Fortunately, there's a way to force resolution to 1080p or even 4K, and that's what we're going to explain here.
How to get 1080p or higher when the Steam Deck is connected to a monitor
When we go to the video settings of a game and see that, despite being connected to a large screen, the maximum resolution is 1280x720, the operating system isn't correctly detecting the external monitor's configuration. Here's what you need to do:
- We're closing the game.
- We go to the library and select the game.
- On the game screen, we click on the gear.
- Next, we select "Properties".
- Finally, in the "General" section, we click on the "Game Resolution" dropdown menu and choose the resolution of our external screen.
Having made this change, when starting the game again and going to the video options, we can see that there are more resolution options, with the maximum remaining at 1920×1080.
Is this change worth it?
Not alwaysThe truth is, the Steam Deck is a device that in 2025 could be considered mid-range, but only at low resolutions. If our intention is for a game like Horizon Zero Dawn to look as good on a 40″ screen as it does on the smaller screen, we can forget about it. On the Deck, it usually hovers around 60fps, but only in HD. Increasing the resolution to Full HD will make the "snapshots" look better, but there will be significantly fewer of them.
There are also games that aren't very well optimized for the Steam Deck hardware. For example, Darksiders Genesis displays menus and dialogue much more clearly at 1080p, but the action looks practically the same and drops from around 60fps to just over 40. On the other hand, Borderlands 2 looks somewhat better and also maintains 60fps.
My advice is to experiment. I have no complaints about most titles, and I stick with the default resolution. With others, I try different resolutions, and if the frame rate is significantly lower, I switch back to 720p. If I get a better frame rate, I obviously prefer 1080p. We'll save 4K for the Steam Deck 2 and my future TV.