Do you keep Steam running in the background all the time? - StrawPoll
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What is your opinion? Vote now: Autostart Steam with system, keep running in in background all the time, I start Steam manually, but keep it running in the background all the time, I

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?

  • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
    0·
    6 days ago

    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…

    • thingsiplay@lemmy.mlOP
      0·
      6 days ago

      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.

      • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
        0·
        6 days ago

        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.

        • Chronographs@lemmy.zipEnglish
          1·
          6 days ago

          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.

        • joelfromaus@aussie.zoneEnglish
          0·
          6 days ago

          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