Look, let's be honest, if you are running Steam on a sluggish low-end laptop, Valve has just dropped a client beta patch you might actually appreciate.

Valve pushed out an update for the Steam client beta on August 16, detailing a series of tweaks. First off, they have given the overall client performance a rather noticeable speed boost. The initial phase of this optimization is already live in the public client, and the second wave of performance tuning landed on August 16. On top of that, they fixed a pesky issue where a service error notification would falsely pop up when quickly shutting down and relaunching the client.

Several other fixes rolled out alongside these changes. Valve squashed a bug where unique Steam Frame content was incorrectly listed as installable in the Windows environment, and they tidied up the layout of the voice chat volume sliders. Your configured chat volume will now persist instead of resetting every time you disconnect. Glitches related to operating systems and input methods were also sorted out. Over on Linux, they resolved a freezing issue affecting Vulkan-based titles during screen transitions, as well as an error preventing certain non-Steam titles from launching properly.

At the same time, Valve has introduced a brand new test version of Steam achievement sets designed to improve how you track your accomplishments. Since recent DLC drops and seasonal updates continuously expand content, players often struggle to track newly added objectives, or worse, find their overall completion percentages unexpectedly dropping. To fix this headache, the new achievement sets feature allows developers to group and manage interconnected goals into tidy little bundles.

Developers can now organize related objectives into bundles, and once you complete a bundle, you bag a permanent completion trophy. These achievement sets are split into baseline sets (blue) which are accessible to everyone, and expansion content sets (purple) that do not impact your overall completion rate if you do not own the corresponding content. Furthermore, time-limited achievements are tucked away into a separate archive so that missing out on a deadline does not unfairly tank your completion rate.

The revamped dedicated window lets you check your overall progress, stats, and bundle details at a glance while utilizing filter searches. It also supports comparing your completion status against up to three friends based on individual ownership. Meanwhile, the title 'Perfect Games' has been updated to 'Completed' to encompass bundle-completed titles, alongside general quality-of-life upgrades such as comparative tracking for Family Sharing titles and storefront library indicators for set support. Adieu, and best of luck with your achievement hunting.