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

I am sharing my Linux experiences with gaming here:

https://forum.beyond3d.com/threads/...for-gaming-and-for-general-use-as-well.62500/

That's why SteamOS, on my future Steam Deck, is going to last less time installed on it than a candy at an school's playground.

I really like Linux nowadays, as a general use OS is good -specially Manjaro-, but that's on my desktop computer where I dont mind experimenting and I have a SSD and a NVMe drive -where I install Linux-, but on my Steam Deck I just want to game and not having to battle the games for them to work. So Windows 11 is what I am going to install in it.
 
Malo said:
Isn't the version of SteamOS on the Deck different than the current version of SteamOS available?
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afaik, it has to be. I installed two variations of the current Steam OS -avoid like the plague, it's the one meant for the Steam Machines back in 2015-, which are Steam OS and ChimeraOS which also uses Steam and basically iirc they are based on Debian.

The Steam Deck's version core is Arch Linux. That doesnt mean they are going to fix all the issues you get with gaming on Linux -dunno about AMD GPUs but I guess the issues are more or less the same-.

You can game on Linux and satisfactorily so, but just on a decent amount of games, not on many/most of them.

Imho, it is going to be impossible to fix all the fiddling required for those games to work on Linux, and I guess 99% of players wont want to use a handheld PC to fiddle with stuff and get their hands dirty, that's what desktop computers are for.
 
Cyan said:
afaik, it has to be. I installed two variations of the current Steam OS -avoid like the plague, it's the one meant for the Steam Machines back in 2015-, which are Steam OS and ChimeraOS which also uses Steam and basically iirc they are based on Debian.

The Steam Deck's version core is Arch Linux. That doesnt mean they are going to fix all the issues you get with gaming on Linux -dunno about AMD GPUs but I guess the issues are more or less the same-.
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They seem to have stated on a few occasions that they've put a big emphasis on the new SteamOS on compatibility with existing games. My point is that you're pre-judging how the Steam Deck is going to be compatible with games based on an old SteamOS and some other versions.
 
Cyan said:
Its not ethical to mention the openness of your device, using an open OS and then forcing users to use your SteamOS.
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You are free to use whatever OS you want on your Steamdeck. If Microsoft want to support it they can write drivers for it.
 
Cyan said:
The Steam Deck's version core is Arch Linux. That doesnt mean they are going to fix all the issues you get with gaming on Linux -dunno about AMD GPUs but I guess the issues are more or less the same-.
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Valve and AMD (and other people!) are going to put in real engineering resources to make sure the Steam deck drivers and GPU integrations are as good as possible. I expect a vastly different experience than what you have with nVidia drivers todays.
 
tuna said:
Valve and AMD (and other people!) are going to put in real engineering resources to make sure the Steam deck drivers and GPU integrations are as good as possible. I expect a vastly different experience than what you have with nVidia drivers todays.
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hope so. I wonder how they are going to fix Supreme Commander Forged Alliance -the current fix is cumbersome to say the least-. Or the lack of DirectX12 support in RE2R -which means that if someone sets the game to DirectX12, bam-.

Also the different performance of Sonic All Stars Racing Transformed depending on the nVidia drivers or whatever. Also their engineering effort has to focus on the fact that Proton compatibility doesnt seem to be incremental.

The only way for me to play Resident Evil 2 Remake without apparent issues -well, there are very serious issues with the choppy uneven framerate (30-40fps) in a game that runs at up to 120fps per second on my computer on Windows, though I lock it to 60- was using Proton 5.13 instead of Proton Experimental or Proton 6.35.

Due to the choppy framerate and lack of freesync from nVidia drivers -blackouts when "freesync" is enabled are constant- I didnt play enough time to confirm its stable, but at least it worked under DX11 and could get past the initial cinematic.

Same with Sonic All Stars Racing Transformed. My only solution was to use Proton 4.11.13 version, 'cos it shall never work with the most recent ones. I've had other issues, and some of them are cause 'cos of the lacklustre nVidia drivers, like not being able to use Freesync without issues or not having the possibility to limit the framerate to 60fps, and set games to 165fps individually -say Doom 3-. HDR I can live without, but that's another point favouring Windows.

Gotta test a few other games. Still games take up more space 'cos for each game Proton creates a 200-400MB folder with its data. And if you enable Shader Pre-caching for Vulkan, it's even more than that. I disable it, but anyways.
 
Cyan said:
hope so. I wonder how they are going to fix Supreme Commander Forged Alliance -the current fix is cumbersome to say the least-. Or the lack of DirectX12 support in RE2R -which means that if someone sets the game to DirectX12, bam-.
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Valve (and you and me!) has all source code and can fix everything if they just devote the resources. It is possible that certain games will never be problem free, but the experience will be way better than what you get on nVidia based PCs.
 
tuna said:
Valve (and you and me!) has all source code and can fix everything if they just devote the resources. It is possible that certain games will never be problem free, but the experience will be way better than what you get on nVidia based PCs.
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we shall see, but not having a nVidia GPU, at least for this particular case, is an advantage rather than a disadvantage. For RT or desktop PCs we could argue that nVidia has the best hardware....

Got nothing to lose as of now, and I found out today that there is a distro called EndeavourOS which is based on Antergos -a galician/portuguese (maybe ToTTenTranz knows) word (I am galician/portuguese) that means ancestors- which was created by a galician guy back in the day. Heard about Antergos but never knew the story behind it till today, when I accidentally played a video from a tech guy which is focused on Linux, but also uses Windows at times and so on.

https://endeavouros.com/
 
Cyan said:
Phil Spencers likes Steam Deck very much

https://twitter.com/x/status/1426324572626845697
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I don't believe (from a quick search) that SteamOS's browser runs xCloud. I wonder if they've upgraded it for the Desk version?

Obviously you can just install Chromium and have it work.

Phil's probably pimping 'gamepass players buy more games' to Gabe etc.

Play on Gamepass, buy on Steam does lead to an odd situation where people lose their save games. Save syncing between Xbox and Steam would be awesome but seems unlikely.
 
cheapchips said:
I don't believe (from a quick search) that SteamOS's browser runs xCloud. I wonder if they've upgraded it for the Desk version?

Obviously you can just install Chromium and have it work.

Phil's probably pimping 'gamepass players buy more games' to Gabe etc.

Play on Gamepass, buy on Steam does lead to an odd situation where people lose their save games. Save syncing between Xbox and Steam would be awesome but seems unlikely.
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if they want to, save sync between xbox and steam should be able to work, as the save files itself are cross platform compatible between windows store and steam. It already can be done manually by copy paste and re-encrypt (windows store saves are encrypted)
 
cheapchips said:
I don't believe (from a quick search) that SteamOS's browser runs xCloud. I wonder if they've upgraded it for the Desk version?

Obviously you can just install Chromium and have it work.

Phil's probably pimping 'gamepass players buy more games' to Gabe etc.

Play on Gamepass, buy on Steam does lead to an odd situation where people lose their save games. Save syncing between Xbox and Steam would be awesome but seems unlikely.
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SteamDecks SteamOS isn't the same as current SteamOS, it's not even based on same distro
 
Kaotik said:
SteamDecks SteamOS isn't the same as current SteamOS, it's not even based on same distro
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Yes, I know that. Could have made it clearer that I was talking about Steam's embedded browser not being xCloud compatible (regardless of OS). To run xCloud on the Deck will need them to upgrade that Steam embedded browser.
 
AMD is working with Valve on a new performance scaling design for AMD CPUs, which is going to efficiently ramp up or ramp down the performance based on the workload.

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2021/...w-cpu-performance-scaling-design-for-amd-cpus

"The CPU performance scaling is one of key parts in Linux Kernel, it is to manage the CPU frequency according to kernel and processor status and widely used by many user mode application to talk to the processors. The system information APIs in Wine will use the CPU performance scaling interfaces to manage the multi-core processor schedule timing compatibilities from windows application to Linux environment for VKD3D-Proton (the full Direct3D 12 API on top of Vulkan) on Steam. The original CPU performance scaling module is based on the legacy kernel common ACPI cpufreq driver on AMD processors. We found it was not very performance/power efficiency for modern AMD platforms. So this talk is to introduce a new CPU performance scaling design for AMD platform which has better performance per watt scaling on such as 3D game like Horizon Zero Dawn with VKD3D-Proton on Steam.

The idea is inspired by co-working with Valve software guys for tuning animation slow down problem (https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/4125) of VKD3D-Proton on steam."
 

he reviews the GPD win max both intel and amd and compares it to the neo and his experiance with the steam deck
 
https://store.steampowered.com/news/group/4145017/view/2984186184800023529

Dev kits are starting to go out

We're thrilled to announce that Steam Deck dev kits are ready to ship, and we've opened up the Steam Deck Dev Kit request form.

As a Steam developer, you can go to the hardware request form to request a Steam Deck Dev Kit. Fill out the form and be sure to read through the agreement and dev kit guidelines. Dev kit supplies are limited, so we'll be reviewing requests via the online form on a case by case basis and will be shipping them out as quickly as possible.

We can't wait to get all of these dev kits into your hands, and we'd love to get your feedback on Steam Deck. You can reach out to us and collaborate with other Steam developers at the new Steam Deck developer subforum.
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eastmen said:

he reviews the GPD win max both intel and amd and compares it to the neo and his experiance with the steam deck
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I wouldnt define GPD Win Max as a Steam Deck competitor but other than that it's a very good video. It's quite surprising how they fare taking into account they use DDR4 memory.

Still the true competitor to Steam Deck, imo, should be GPD Win 4.

GPD Win 3 is already a gorgeous, efficient and very portable machine, although the performance is on par with the Aya Neo, which means 50% less performance than the Steam Deck.
 
a video from Lowspecgamer on how GPD Win Max can compete with the Steam Deck and where it will never achieve anything close to the Steam Deck performance and gaming features wise. However the GPD Win Max is very different compared to the Steam Deck and for productivity it's like the portable laptop of the future.

 
To me its just seems to weird to hold in your hands. If I really wanted to game I guess i would get that over something else but the next surface go will have an i-3 option and for work i rather have that for productivity.
 
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