Verified games will run pretty much perfectly, tested themselves by Valve. Playable games will also run p much great most of the time but you’ll have to tinker with some settings. Unsupported games are either not working or haven’t been tested yet.
What I recommend:
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Think of what games you want to play on the steam deck. Doesn’t have to be steam games, anything. Emulation, other launchers, whatever
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Go on protondb and look at if people have gotten it to work. (or go on the steam store and check the badge - but I prefer proton for the non verified games)
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Go on youtube and look for actual gameplay of the thing on the deck. There are a million videos of people just trying to run the most obscure games on there
An option step would be to go to https://steamdeckhq.com/ and check their reviews on the game and what settings they run it at.
This will probably greatly reduce your anxiety about whether something works or not.
If you can play most of the stuff you want? buy it.
I have an LG c2 which I use as a monitor for my PC and I used a USB-C to HDMI adapter to connect the steam deck today. Worked at full 4k60 (HDMI 2.0 & the usb c adapter was rated for 4k60 max)