- cross-posted to:
- pcgaming@lemmy.ca
- cross-posted to:
- pcgaming@lemmy.ca
On machines where you start Steam manually in order to play a game, do you keep Steam running in the background after play session is over? Meaning if you no longer play any game for the moment, and just keep it running to be ready. Or do you close Steam, after the play session?
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I’m almost always using my laptop which isn’t the most powerful so I try to keep open software to a minimum. When I’m using my desktop I do leave it open though.
I don’t autostart it, but yeah, like most programs, I just leave it running once it is. Not like it makes any performance difference. Firefox chews memory WAY more readily than Steam does.
Steam has a whole browser in it, active DRM, updaters and tons of other features sitting and polling in the background. Measuring it, I found it to be heavier than a browser (though admittedly not one with a ton of tabs open).
On Linux, I also noticed it takes a good chunk of VRAM.
I don’t autostart it, but when I do use it, I keep it running until I turn off my computer. I don’t notice any slowdowns, so it’s not an issue.
Not started on boot, but once I fire up steam, it stays running unless I start up Star Citizen. I need all the help I can get with that mess.
Wait, the poll doesn’t work? Weird.
I keep it on all the time even though I barely play games because I only have a 100/30 connection available so on the rare weekend occasion that my friends have time to play games, I don’t have to boot it up only to see that the game we want to play of course has a 5GB update that will take me a half hour to download.
Forget about Squad where every file has to be reworked for a 10Mb update so it will max out an SSD for 20 minutes if it gets any hint of an update…
That’s modern gaming in 2026 for you. About the poll, I don’t know why it does not work for you. VPN users are not blocked at all this time (in previous polls I did it was blocked). Otherwise maybe some browser extensions might block something?
Of course not. Why would I do that?
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Also to get updates, so a game is already updated when you go to play it.
I don’t normally leave it running, but I might leave it running to let all the updates happen since i might not have run it in months. Then I might forget about it and leave it running for a day of two.
Social? The fuck kinda gamers are these? 😜
I mean that’s nice, none of it really appeals to me, but it doesn’t really seem relevant to the question which specifically mentioned on devices where you manually start Steam.
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I’m sorry did you not read my comment. The question was for people who manually start their Steam do you leave it on. You’re talking about Auto starting. You don’t get how it’s not relevant? Also what is them being valid have to do with anything? I said that’s nice but they don’t appeal to me. I didn’t say they weren’t valid. You didn’t read my comment and you didn’t read the op before responding to anything it seems like.
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Cool beans dude. I don’t care. Never ever doing it.
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What the fuck are you even talking about? Are you a bot? There’s no way you keep missing this. You’re the one that brought up auto start. I never did. Because the question specifically asked if you don’t use auto start. So when you brought up auto start I told you it wasn’t relevant . What’s not connecting here?
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I am halfway in between manually turn it on and close after finishing and just leaving it on after I finish. Half of the time I flip-flop on doing one way or the other.
That’s a tricky one to answer then. If I was in between, I probably wouldn’t know what to select either. Maybe what you want it to in future?
I can’t believe so many people here autorun it.
Steam is, objectively, a chonky boi. If I’m not actively using it, why would I want it slowing down what I am actually doing? What’s the upside?
And to be specific, I’m not concerned with RAM usage personally, but interrupts, CPU, networking, vram…
why would I want it slowing down
It doesn’t. It did when I was using a 10 year old non-gaming laptop, yeah. On my main PC it’s not noticeable at all.
I’m not downvoting anyone here, but I will say just because you don’t notice, doesn’t mean it doesn’t have an effect.
I have a 7800X3D, 3090, 128GB RAM, NVMe SSD, all tuned and running on a “stripped down” Windows install, and I used some benchmarking scripts for Stellaris and Modded Minecraft that I already used for other stuff. Background churn absolutely affected frame time consistency (hitching) and simulation speed.
I imagine it would be even more dramatic for a game that saturates the whole CPU, like Cyberpunk 2077 or something, though I have not tested that empirically. And this testing was on Windows; certain schedulers on Linux (like CachyOS offers) might handle background churn better, though there will always be a tradeoff.
Frame times are notoriously fickle. All it takes are two tasks that are intensive for 1/60th of a second to be run at once to get a spike. The key is how noticeable are the spikes?
Most of the things you removed to strip down windows probably have much more of an impact than steam, and the 500mb of ram it uses does.
I use my PC pretty exclusively for gaming so I actually prefer it to autorun. I don’t notice any difference in performance with it off honestly.
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If I’m not actively using it, why would I want it slowing down what I am actually doing?
So my friends can see that I’m online and invite me. Also updating my games in the background.
And my PC is powerful enough that I don’t notice any kind of slowdown from Steam running in the background anyways.
I can’t believe so many people here autorun it.
Me too. I’m actually a bit shocked. The reason why I started this poll is, because I recently saw lot of YouTube people saying they always run it in the background (because of the defense about Steam starting slow, versus the new Epic Games launcher). So I was curious if that is a thing most do.
Also one of the reasons I close it is, it somewhat interferes with gamepads I am using outside Steam. Just one of the reasons.
Also, privacy and security. It’s just good practice not to autorun anything unless you absolutely have to, especially something with as much exposed “area” as a popular client with so many features.
I recently saw lot of YouTube people saying they always run it in the background (because of the defense about Steam starting slow, versus the new Epic Games launcher).
This is a hot take, but I think the tendency to autorun Steam… familiarity?
People like Steam. It’s positive. It’s “on their side” and known, and it auto runs by default, so they aren’t particularly inclined to change that.
I could not care less about how I feel about Steam. I care about the resource utilization I measured and see with my two eyeballs, and I don’t like it one bit. Heck, I’d much rather it not run even while I’m gaming, if I can help it.
For me gaming is the only thing my computer does where the performance actually matters, in pretty much all other things I use it for the performance impact is imperceptible. The only time I might close it is if I was trying to run some benchmark or something.
I don’t like the overhead games either, TBH. This is why I try to buy GoG absolutely wherever I can; no launcher, no DRM, no overhead.
Unfortunately, a lot of games aren’t on GoG, or are even Steam-exclusive now…
I only have steam on my gaming computer so yes, it just runs. Thats what the PC is for.
So basically what a Steam Machine is, just a custom build one.
Colloquially known as a gaming computer yes lol
I have to say finding someone calling a gaming PC a ‘custom Steam Machine’ is pretty funny. Finding someone who isn’t familiar with making a gaming PC (been a thing for at least 20 years) but is familiar with Steam Machines, originally announced 13 years ago but only really becoming a thing now.
Takes all sorts of people haha
Whats so funny about it? If you have a PC and run Steam directly, even if its not SteamOS, it acts like a Steam Machine. That’s why I said “So basically”. I am also familiar with the original Steam Machines, but they were much different than what we have today. Why is it a thing now, and wasn’t a thing back then? Because it wasn’t ready back then. How many Linux only games did we have on Steam? There wasn’t a builtin Proton, and also Steam and the operating system itself wasn’t ready. Valve also didn’t make their own handheld and left the production to third parties, who made expensive PC hardware. There was no reason to buy them.
If you have a PC and run Steam directly, even if its not SteamOS, it acts like a Steam Machine.
If someone has a phone with Facebook on it, is it a Facebook phone?
My PC also has Firefox on it. Is it a Firefox Machine? But it also has Steam. Is it a Steamfox Machine? But what about all of the other applications? The name might get a bit unruly.
You’ve got a bright future ahead of you, kid. Maybe ask an elder to pull out an old PC to muck around with, they’re actually very versatile pieces of hardware. Can code on them and everything.
My PC also has Firefox on it. Is it a Firefox Machine? But it also has Steam. Is it a Steamfox Machine?
Richard Stallman, is that you?
Your future is bright, because you don’t understand what the words “acts like a” and “basically” mean. Hopefully a surgery can help you.
I auto start it and leave it running. I have lots of friends that will reach out on steam if we’re both online to play together. If I’m always offline because steam is off, I’ll miss games with friends.
I manually start it when I want to play something.
I shut down the computer when I’m done for a while. Like before bed, or if I’m leaving the house.
But if I play a game and then spend some time on the computer doing something else, I don’t explicitly close steam.
I mean like umm my PC is a steam machine so like. Generally always running even in desktop mode. It never really takes that much resources for things as tr heaviest things I do is gaming on steam anyways.
Then the question doesn’t apply to your use case. This poll is aimed at those who have to install and start Steam or set it up to autostart themselves.
On any machine that I’m regularly using steam I have it open on startup and never close it. The only exception is my laptop, but usually once it’s started I just leave it going until I reboot or the popups annoy me.
I suppose you don’t autostart it on your Laptop, because its main purpose is not to game on it and the implication of RAM usage is high enough to concern you. I assume, right? At least it would for me, if I had a Laptop.
Purely for the annoyance of the popups of X is playing a game or whatever. It’s also the laptop I (normally) do work on so I don’t the distraction.
I’ve never once considered the ram usage of steam. Any machine where ram is a concern is probably not a machine I’d want to play games on.
Oh that. Well you can adjust the notifications for every type of notification in Steam. I also disabled the notification for friends coming on or playing a game. I find it annoying too.
I close it completely when I’m not playing a game.
I mostly use my Steam Controller to control my PC and the Steam keyboard is the best to use with the two touchpads.
That’s actually a good point. This is basically my biggest problem with the controller (not able to use it for everything, because i love it, and because I don’t run Steam all the time).
You don’t have to use Steam. If it wasn’t for the keyboard I might not have bothered with it.
I’m not sure what you mean. If Steam does not run in the background, then Steam Controller does not work like a normal controller. There are workarounds with external drivers, which I don’t want to use. And some applications can add support on their own with SDL3 library builtin. But we are not there yet, for universal replacement.
