Steam Deck - SteamOS, Zen2 4C/8T, RDNA2 1.0-1.6 TF, 16 GB LPDDR5 88 GB/s, starting at $399 [2021-12]

For now, the most demanding title that this device is going to have at launch is Cyberpunk 2077 and I think that it will run it at 800p on low settings at about 30fps.

The rest of the games can be played at medium or high settings at 30 or 60fps with power to spare.

 

In @Insight 's post with an interview from IGN, Valve mentions 720p30 as target.

 

Does Steam OS allow for Twitch streaming with webcam recording and all that? Might be a cool portable Twitch/youtube streamer platform if so.

 

Since when do LCDs by default display lower resolutions smaller than the display size? If monitors have that ability, they usually have to be turned on specifically. For the Deck it would just scale up automatically.

 

when John mentions how difficult it is to uninstall gamepass PC games or delete existent windowsapps folders imho he is mistaken.

There is a workaround.

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-delete-windowsapps-folder-windows-10

Still a pita, but this method is palatable. The app needs to improve a lot in a few regards, but the game library for the price is incredible and I am a life-long subscriber. It it worked on Steam OS I wouldnt mind not touching Steam Deck's default OS, but I highly doubt it.

 

Some nice info:

- When asked about TDP and clock tweaking:

I wonder if they'll let the TDP go higher than 15W. We haven't seen the heatsink + fan but perhaps it can go higher by having a bit more fan noise (and lower than 2h battery life).

 

that's an interesting -or at least curious to kill time in the meantime- video, specially the hardware choices he make to try to emulate something similar to Steam Deck.

this is also an interesting read:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2021/...am-deck-the-history-of-valve-and-linux-gaming

Still, it doesnt answer how my GoG games could run on this, nor Epic store, nor gamepass PC, so still a no go for me this steam OS

 

It depends on whether AMD makes Windows drivers for Van Gogh publicly available or not. If they do, you can just install Windows on it, it's a regular PC in less regular form factor

 

Or if GoG, Epic and MS make Linux versions of their game stores (with similar Proton intregration that Steam has).

 

the openness of this all is what makes it the most exciting, and in fact I am not sure whether I shall get Steam Deck in the end, I am torn between this and OneXPlayer handheld PC, or Aya Neo -which is my favourite design-. or either GPD Win 3. Acutally the most distinctive aspect of Steam Deck for me are the touchpads.

Finally I might be able to fulfil my dream of having a capable handheld PC -never tried a handheld console other than the Gameboy Advance, but I find them limited for my tastes, great games and great console though-. The limitations of the past are gone and now these devices run almost everything just fine.

OneXPlayer, the most powerful one -more powerful than Steam Deck, it seems) with a 16:10 2560x1600 pixels screen (not very realistic for the hardware but well)

https://liliputing.com/2021/05/onexplayer-handheld-gaming-pc-review.html



My favourite one design wise and maybe overall, the Aya Neo. 1280x800 screen and seems to run everything you throw at it, Cyberpunk 2077 runs at 30fps on it according to benchmarks.

https://www.ayaneo.com/aya-neo





And then there is the GPD Win 3, which seems super interesting. 1280x720 native res, they have benchmarks on their site.

https://www.gpd.hk/gpdwin3





It's less and less likely I will be getting a GPU, given the crazy prices, thing is that I am torn and confused. Shall read several reviews on them and decide...

 

@Cyan you might think based on paper specs that the other handhelds PCs might be more powerful than Steam Deck. In games the Steam Deck will slap due to RDNA 2 and the much higher bandwidth.

It's already running Doom Eternal at a nearly locked 60. None of the other devices can do that. From what I've seen the Intel XE and Ryzen Vega setups with DDR4 and LPDDR4X can only do 40-50 fps in combat situations at 720p.

 

I would hold off on buying a Steamdeck type thing at this time, I have a feeling competition will be thriving soon. Also at those prices a gaming laptop makes a lot more sense to me.

 

I'm sure similar products from even more companies are in the works now that Valve's showing confidence.

Can anyone else actually provide a similar price/performance ratio in the next year? Van Gogh equivalent + LPDDR5 are not readily available yet.

 

How sure you can be on this? Van Gogh after all was supposedly on AMD "general roadmap", which would suggest it's not semi-custom in the usual sense. It could very well be available for other companies too.

 

It could be, but given the current chip situation, can't see that another company will have bought supply for a Steam Desk like device. These things have long lead times.

 

Also the TDP of VGH is 9W, a fair bit lesser than the Intel and Vega based systems. ( It can be cTDP up though)

 

I thought the APU is 15W? Everywhere I'm reading says 4-15 watts for the APU.