Your Steam Deck, on your Mac's screen.

What you need

• A Mac with macOS 14 Sonoma or later, Apple silicon or Intel.
• A USB capture card that macOS sees as a camera (UVC). Nearly every card sold for consoles is one. See the tested cards.
• A dock or a USB-C to HDMI adapter for the handheld, and an HDMI cable to the card.
• A USB 3 port on the Mac itself, no hub.

Connect it

1. Connect the dock or adapter to the handheld, and its HDMI out to the capture card's HDMI in.
2. Plug the card into a USB 3 port on the Mac.
3. Open plugview. The handheld sees a new display and plugview shows it.

Console settings

The handheld picks a mode for the "display" it found. Set one the card captures.

• External displaySettingsDisplay1920×1080 at 60 Hz

  On Windows handhelds, in the system display settings.

• Game resolutionGameGraphics1920×1080

  If games look letterboxed or blurry.

Black screen or no sound

• Some cheap USB-C adapters do not carry video. Try the handheld's dock or another adapter.
• Run plugview --list: the card must appear under video devices.
• No sound: select the HDMI output as the handheld's audio device, and allow plugview in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Microphone on the Mac.

More fixes in the guide.

Lowest latency

• Wired sound: the Mac speakers or wired headphones. Bluetooth adds 150 ms or more.
• 1080p at 60 fps feels faster than 4K at 30, and plugview picks it when the card offers it.
• Full screen with F, on a display at 60 or 120 Hz.
• Run plugview --measure for your real frame rate and delay.

Questions