Valve's ARM Strategy: Steam Deck 2 and Steam Frame

ARM-based gaming advances rapidly as translation layers make traditional x86 titles run smoothly across diverse hardware architectures.

Hardware by Katmin on Jan 17, 2026

For years, the only way to play the largest titles on Steam was to have either an Intel or AMD processor. But now, things are all different. Cyberpunk 2077 recently ran at more than 200 frames per second on an ARM-based machine. The same architecture powers smartphones and the newest ultra-efficient laptops.

Ubuntu published an experimental Steam Snap for ARM64 on January 8, 2026. This huge tech stack includes Steam and a translation layer dubbed FEX Emu. Those 200FPS rates were only possible on high-end Nvidia Spark hardware. Still, the fact that the game is even running through emulation is a huge engineering achievement.

Valve's ARM Strategy, Steam Deck 2 and Steam Frame, NoobFeed

You might be wondering why an experimental Linux package is important for the typical gamer. The explanation is that it shows what gaming will be like in the future. ARM chips promise quiet devices, long battery life, and, now that translation layers have improved, the hardware you pick to play on might matter less. Valve and Ubuntu are showing that the boundaries that once separated PC gaming are finally breaking down.

Getting Past the Architecture Barrier

We need to understand the architectural barrier in computers before we can appreciate why this Ubuntu news is so crucial. For the past 30 years, x86 has been the only language spoken in PC gaming.

Almost all games ever developed were made for x86 processors. ARM, on the other hand, is the best at getting things done. An ARM chip doesn't know what to do with a Steam executable since the instructions are different. At least, it didn't before.

FEX Emu is the main part of this big step forward. Valve has been paying for it for almost ten years. A lot of people know about emulation from old consoles; FEX is a binary recompiler. It is quite hard to emulate an x86 CPU. Depending on the extensions utilized, X86 includes thousands of instructions.

Some estimates say there are almost 6,000. FEX doesn't try to guess what the game is trying to do. Instead, it takes the x86 assembly code. It recompiles it into an intermediate representation (IR). In this neutral form, unnecessary steps are removed before generating the final output of native ARM64 instructions.

The FEX team says that optimization is very important because "We still need to make sure that it all runs fast because we don't want a slideshow." We really want to use the apps that we imitate. FEX can run demanding 3D games because it keeps costs down by using this multi-step translation procedure. You might even have used FEX without realizing it through projects like Game Hub.

Solving the Memory Model Challenge

The memory model is one of the hardest parts of FEX. A lot of emulators don't work here. Tony Wasurka used a simple example to show the problem: two threads, one calculating a result and the other waiting for a "done" flag. If the done flag is 1 on an x86 chip, the result is sure to be ready. But on ARM, the CPU might reorder instructions to improve efficiency, flipping the flag before the result is fully written. This causes race conditions that can cause games to crash or return incorrect answers.

FEX addresses this with half-barriers and smart heuristics. They found a 61-bit circular buffer design that is ubiquitous in Unity games, for example. FEX may turn off expensive memory checks elsewhere by using a tailored heuristic for this pattern. This provides a significant performance boost. It's not perfect, but it works well with many games.

Valve's ARM Strategy, Steam Deck 2 and Steam Frame, NoobFeed

Getting Steam on ARM

FEX is the engine that makes this possible, but how can you get it to work without a PhD in computer science? Canonical's new Steam Snap makes it easy. Before, you had to manually set up FEX, an x86 root filesystem, and graphics driver bridges to install Steam on ARM. The Snap makes all of this easy with just one click.

Valve and Ubuntu don't formally work together. Ubuntu uses Steam, FEX, and Proton, all Valve initiatives. Valve has been paying for FEX development for years, which is why it has come so far so quickly. Why spend millions on an ARM translation layer when Valve's Steam Deck has an AMD x86 chip?

Steam Frame, Valve's next VR headset built on ARM, has the answer. ARM is necessary to make a headset light and long-lasting. Valve ensures the headset can run the entire library on day one by paying for FEX. This also makes it easier for new hardware to come out, like a possible Steam Deck 2. ARM's power and performance per watt could change the way people play games on their phones.

Real-World Performance

Canonical tested Steam Snap on the Nvidia DGX Spark, a high-end platform, and the results were great. Using DLSS via Proton, Cyberpunk 2077 reached over 200 FPS. During two-hour sessions, Counter-Strike 2 worked well with no major issues. Hollow Knight: Silksong worked great, and Dota 2 and Portal 2 worked like programs made for the device. Other titles also did very well.

But let's be real: this is still a beta test. Right now, Qualcomm Snapdragon X laptops have problems that stop Steam from working properly. Canonical is looking into it, but it shows us that ARM on Linux is still new and will only get better.

How to Sign Up for the Beta

Joining the beta is easy if you have an ARM64 device that runs Ubuntu. FEX develops a code cache the first time you start a game, which can take up to ten minutes. FEX pre-translates sections of the game to disk during this process, so the next time you run it, it loads right away without any stuttering.

It keeps track of the blocks that have been run and combines them into a single binary for faster execution in the future.

A New Era for Gaming

This is a new era for people who have been following the rise of Linux gaming. We're no longer stuck with certain processors. The Ubuntu Steam Snap enables ARM gaming by combining Valve's funding, FEX's technical expertise, and Canonical's packaging. In Tony Wasurka's words, "X86 simulation isn't magic." I mean, it might be, but it also takes a lot of work.

That work is paying off, and now for the first time, gamers can use Steam on ARM. Soon, the choice of operating system and store may be more important than the choice of silicon. The architecture wars aren't over, but the walls are definitely coming down.

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