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

Goodtwin said:
The older 2D consoles have had proper full speed emulation for decades now. I remember playing NES games on my PC in 1997 with no issues.
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The hardware gap is way smaller now than it was back then. PCs had CPUs with something like 2 orders of magnitude more performance per thread than even the SNES by 1997. We haven't even hit 1 order of magnitude compared to the PS3/Xbox 360 consoles.
 
arandomguy said:
This is going to be contentious but based on the current information/impressions so far is it really "Portable PC gaming" or "Portable SteamOS and Steam store gaming." PC gaming to me has to include non Steam store bought games even if we want to ignore the Windows/Linux issue.

My understanding is also there is no Window's drivers available and I'm guessing no comment yet as to what the situation will be with respect to that. So while they're technically correct in that it's an open platform that you can install another OS on from an actual usability stand point it'd mean Windows is not an option.

Does anyone know if there is any coverage so far of what the situation is at the very least if trying to play non Steam store games? Ars Technica's coverage (https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022...k-what-you-need-to-know-what-currently-works/) did briefly go into "Heroic" and "Lutris" and seems to say the current situation is not "ideal." But I'm not personally familiar enough with Linux gaming in general to I have an idea of how it'd be in practice.

The problem is I'm likely very early in the queue. So either I take a huge risk or end up having to wait to Q4 if not later.
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I do not recommend doing this yet as drivers for the Steam Deck's hardware are still being worked on, but you can install Windows on it and run whatever it is you want to run on it, albeit at a likely hit to performance (full Windows versus a gaming oriented distro of Linux).

How to Install Windows on Steam Deck - Swave Digest 2022

If you do choose to do that I'd highly recommend installing Windows to an SD card for now until there are tools that allow you backup the internal SSD. Not a problem if you have NVME device as you should be able to just take the NVME drive out and create a backup from a PC, however that isn't something you can do if you have an eMMC device.

Regards,
SB
 

So interesting how much better the steam deck does than the other portables.

The steam deck is using 24 watts of total system power the win 3 and aya neo pro use 28watts of total system power. Both of those units have about 15% larger batteries so they all equalize to about 1.6hours of battery life.

With his setting @720p (maximum resolution of some of the systems) the Neo Pro gets lows of 14.2fps , win gets 20.9 and the deck 24.7. average is neo 31.8 , win 35.6, deck 49.1 and high is win 56.5, aya 61 , deck 69.6

Cap frame rate to 30 @ medium settings he gets about 3 hours on the steam deck.
 
Playing a game like RDR2 portable with battery life still equivalent to the original Switch is very, very impressive. Kudo to Valve and AMD.

Steam Deck 2 is going to be insane, I expect another big jump in performance/watt.
 
Dampf said:
Playing a game like RDR2 portable with battery life still equivalent to the original Switch is very, very impressive. Kudo to Valve and AMD.

Steam Deck 2 is going to be insane, I expect another big jump in performance/watt.
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I wouldn't expect it till 2025. I bet they wait for 3nm rdna 3 and whatever a new version of zen is by then maybe zen 5
 
Do developers have to pay a licensing fee like they do with console companies?

Or they put out PC games and it’s the user who has to figure out how compatible?

Maybe developers will put out special versions guaranteed to be Steam Deck compatible.

Or Steam can have a certified compatibility program.

Otherwise, depending on how a next gen Switch performs, Steam Deck may mostly attract PC gamers.
 
wco81 said:
Do developers have to pay a licensing fee like they do with console companies?

Or they put out PC games and it’s the user who has to figure out how compatible?

Maybe developers will put out special versions guaranteed to be Steam Deck compatible.

Or Steam can have a certified compatibility program.

Otherwise, depending on how a next gen Switch performs, Steam Deck may mostly attract PC gamers.
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Right now with the steam deck you just release your title on steam and a person can buy it and play it through the steam deck. There isn't any fee above what steam takes in a sale.

Some developers are putting out patches with steam deck optimized settings and controls to make sure it works well on the platform. In addition Valve is going through the steam library and rating how the games perform on steam deck

Learn about that here
https://www.steamdeck.com/en/verified


As for the next Switch , it depends on when it launches. This fall ? Could kill steam deck momentum esp if its a capable piece of hardware. 2023 ? Well the deck will have a year or so of sales so it would be fine , 2024 and well I think by then the deck will have established itself as its own thing and by that point people will be looking to a steam deck 2.

I've said it before in this thread and others , the steam decks advantage is that its the second biggest player in this market with Nintendo being first. However the steam deck allows you to bring 20+ years of your gaming library with you while Nintendo only allows what was released on switch so far. If your a pc gamer you don't have to choose , do I buy this game for my beefy pc or do I buy it for my portable system. With steam deck a purchase is for both.
 
eastmen said:
As for the next Switch , it depends on when it launches. This fall ? Could kill steam deck momentum esp if its a capable piece of hardware. 2023 ? Well the deck will have a year or so of sales so it would be fine , 2024 and well I think by then the deck will have established itself as its own thing and by that point people will be looking to a steam deck 2.

I've said it before in this thread and others , the steam decks advantage is that its the second biggest player in this market with Nintendo being first. However the steam deck allows you to bring 20+ years of your gaming library with you while Nintendo only allows what was released on switch so far. If your a pc gamer you don't have to choose , do I buy this game for my beefy pc or do I buy it for my portable system. With steam deck a purchase is for both.
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Even though the Deck is obviously inspired by the Switch, I do not see them competing for the same market share dollars, at least not in a meaningful way. The Decks primary customer is someone who is already vested into Steam/PC gaming and while I'm sure the Deck will bring in some new users to the PC gaming space, its going to be limited as the demand from the already established PC gamer is outpacing supply and will continue to do so for the rest of the year and maybe longer. The Deck has no visibility within the mainstream gaming market. If you were to take a survey out on the streets asking random people if they know what a Steam Deck is, most will have no idea. These same people will know what a PlayStation, Xbox and Switch are. This isn't likely to change as long is Deck is not being distributed through retail stores.

So on one hand the Deck is no sort of threat to Nintendo in terms of market share, but I also believe whatever Nintendo does with Swtich 2 will have minimal effect on the demand for the Deck and any future iterations it will have. It still comes down to where people have vested themselves. If you are a PC gamer who would like to take that library with them anywhere, then Deck is going to be attractive. If you have been a console gamer who never got into PC gaming, Deck isn't likely to persuade too many people to jump in. There is a limited window around the launch of the Deck where it was getting a lot of media coverage that might have persuaded some new customer to jump on board, but when you are looking at many months before it would be available, the buzz will have died down and those consumers will have settled right back into the space they are familiar with.
 
Goodtwin said:
Even though the Deck is obviously inspired by the Switch, I do not see them competing for the same market share dollars, at least not in a meaningful way. The Decks primary customer is someone who is already vested into Steam/PC gaming and while I'm sure the Deck will bring in some new users to the PC gaming space, its going to be limited as the demand from the already established PC gamer is outpacing supply and will continue to do so for the rest of the year and maybe longer. The Deck has no visibility within the mainstream gaming market. If you were to take a survey out on the streets asking random people if they know what a Steam Deck is, most will have no idea. These same people will know what a PlayStation, Xbox and Switch are. This isn't likely to change as long is Deck is not being distributed through retail stores.

So on one hand the Deck is no sort of threat to Nintendo in terms of market share, but I also believe whatever Nintendo does with Swtich 2 will have minimal effect on the demand for the Deck and any future iterations it will have. It still comes down to where people have vested themselves. If you are a PC gamer who would like to take that library with them anywhere, then Deck is going to be attractive. If you have been a console gamer who never got into PC gaming, Deck isn't likely to persuade too many people to jump in. There is a limited window around the launch of the Deck where it was getting a lot of media coverage that might have persuaded some new customer to jump on board, but when you are looking at many months before it would be available, the buzz will have died down and those consumers will have settled right back into the space they are familiar with.
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I don't know, Steam continues to grow and so I don't think the decks appeal will be limited to just people with steam or pc gaming only
https://i.redd.it/sqzkzowucbm81.jpg

Remember it makes sense that the average person on the street doesn't know anything about Steam deck because it has never been advertised to them. Steam deck is just advertised to people with steam or in the pc community and that makes sense due to the shortages and how long it will take Valve to meet the current market demand for the device so any push there would be wasteful.

I will agree in some way that what nintendo does with the switch 2 will have little impact. I just think there is enough cross over that if a switch 2 hit this year or early next year it could have people who would buy a deck switch over to the switch 2. But who knows.

I think your wrong about the limited time to get people to jump in. As time goes on the deck will get more popular until its replaced with a deck 2 or someone makes a better clone of it. Like I said Steam keeps growing , there will be more and more people interested in taking their library mobile. At the same time there will be a point where valve meets demand and starts to advertise to a larger market. At that point the price of the deck could be even cheaper and each day or month that goes by , more games get verified , more games get deck patches.
 
iroboto said:
Still waiting for my email :( getting worried here
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what does your time frame say ?

upload_2022-3-10_12-25-0.png

Mine is q2 , my friend was also nice enough preorder a 64 gig version of mine so I might just purchase that one if its offered sooner and buy my own nvme drive
 
eastmen said:
yikes when did you preorder ? I tried as soon as they went up but didn't get mine through until 45 minutes into them being up.
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I thought I got in super early. I was ordered within a minute of sign up time.
I think maybe because I’m in Canada
 
eastmen said:
Ah America's hat. Maybe the truckers have stalled it on you.
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Unfortunately I think it just comes down to region. Perhaps not many sold in Canada so they are prepping a single shipment ? Dunno. Yea prices are terrible for shipping up here
 
iroboto said:
Unfortunately I think it just comes down to region. Perhaps not many sold in Canada so they are prepping a single shipment ? Dunno. Yea prices are terrible for shipping up here
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hopefully things work out and they ship faster soon



Destiny 2 800p under windows with medium settings and no fsaa runs 50-60fps. Riva tunner isn't working
 

Halo Infinite Gamepass edition. lowest settings fov 90 instead of 75 95% resolution scale. Using 25ish watts so right at the top end of power consumption for the deck. Looks like it stays around 40ish frames with some dips into the 30s
 
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