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Valve Steam Deck

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Re: Valve Steam Deck

#861
post #198
post #80

Pretty nice specs for a handheld battery powered device... Processor AMD APU CPU: Zen 2 4c/8t, 2.4-3.5GHz (up to 448 GFlops FP32) GPU: 8 RDNA 2 CUs, 1.0-1.6GHz (up to 1.6 TFlops FP32) APU power: 4-15W RAM 16 GB LPDDR5 RAM (5500 MT/s) Storage 64 GB eMMC (PCIe Gen 2 x1) 256 GB NVMe SSD (PCIe Gen 3 x4) 512 GB high-speed NVMe SSD (PCIe Gen 3 x4) All models include high-speed microSD card slot Though it does weigh 669 gra…

Im not sure how apples to oranges it is, but a GTX 980 (Released in 2014) has 5 TFlops. Genuinely curious how powerful this might be for GPU intensive games. (Call of Duty, Rust, etc..) Maybe this is equivalent to something like a MX-150 or GTX1050? Should be totally fine for Valves games though (CSGO, TF2, Etc..)

Missing detail information to properly estimate it. But for now, as a lower bound I would look at the 3200G. That one had 8 CUs @ 1,25 GHz, but with Vega architecture, so two architecture steps behind. In my meta benchmark that put the 3200G igpu behind the GeForce GT 1030 [0], but with certainly playable FPS on many games, especially on 720p.

With the new architecture the APU in this machine should be faster (despite the low TDP?), and isn't it combined with really fast ram? If it beats the GTX 750 Ti then that makes a lot of games available on the target resolution, and maybe that's too low a target and your GTX 1050 comparison is apt. The 128MB cache integrated with RDNA 2 could have the effect it had on the Intel Iris Pro 6200 and give a big performance boost in some scenarios, that graphics hardware was awfully strong for an old igpu. Something like that on newer hardware could be really nice and make this a lot stronger than one would expect at first.

[0]: https://www.pc-kombo.com/us/benchmark/games/gpu/compare?ids%...

Re: Valve Steam Deck

#862
post #135

From the FAQ [0]: - What OS is Steam Deck running? SteamOS 3.0, a new version of SteamOS based on Arch Linux. - Will people be able to install Windows, or other 3rd party content? Yes. Steam Deck is a PC, and players will be able to install whatever they like, including other OSes. [0]: https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/steamdeck/faq

> 7" Display | AMD Zen 2 | 16GB Memory | microSD

> Arch Linux

> KDE Plasma

> Will be able to install whatever they like

Is that you smartphone? The one I've been waiting for?

Re: Valve Steam Deck

#863

I know from first-hand experience as a dad of a gamer that AAA PC games aren't optimized for space in any way and 64GB of storage is nowhere near enough. I know they are trying to hit a price point, but for all practical purposes, this thing starts at $529 (where you get what I'd consider the minimum of 256GB).

I thought the same at first, but then again, a lot of people play indie games first and foremost which tend to be smaller, and it also has the sd card slot

Re: Valve Steam Deck

#864
post #689

Earlier quoted context omitted.

`Steam Deck is a PC, and players will be able to install whatever they like, including other OSes.` this is probably this most exciting thing about this release. How many days until this thing is running k3s and/or serving up a prometheus dashboard on the same device that is touch capable?

The only exciting thing is the form factor. Spec wise its an underperforming laptop with integrated graphics delivering below 8 year old GTX 760 level of "performance". 1280 x 800 at up to 30 fps.

The IGN review says it plays Control at medium settings at 60fps. That's roughly double the performance of a GTX 760 I believe (which is around 30FPS at low settings @ 1080p).

Re: Valve Steam Deck

#866
post #702

The resolution, the weight, the battery life and potentially the cooling are all sub-par. There's also the fact that this can't compete with the Switch due to the simple fact that games are optimized to run at a stable framerate by the developers or subcontracted companies for the Switch, while this will just run games from Steam at a low-res and hope for the best.

Switch is infamous for adding lots of input lag to its PC ports (like hollow knight). Not to mention the abysmal online experience. The steam deck looks like it will destroy it for any third party title.

This sounds like a tv issue rather than a switch issue. Monitor != tv. Having played hollow knight on both PC and switch, I can say that I haven't felt any noticeable difference. In general one should expect between 30-100 ms input lag, depending on the tv model. Even with gaming mode enabled, some tv models are simply terrible for gaming.

Playing in handheld mode, there should be no input lag at all.

Re: Valve Steam Deck

#868
post #529
post #300

IGN has a detailed hands-on which really boosted my interest: https://www.ign.com/articles/steam-deck-hands-on-impressions... The joystick layout looks funky to me, but apparently it works? > However, as soon as I held it myself, the layout felt completely natural: the intuitive hand orientation when you grab the Steam Deck is more straight up and down, like holding the sides of a steering wheel, whereas with a contr…

As a Mac user, I'm very interested as well. I don't play any games nowadays because I cant justify spending all that money for a latest generation PC, let alone the space it takes. If I can have a dockable PC that can churn decent frame rates, It's just a matter of switching the input on my monitor and switching the bluetooth mouse/keyboard to it. For me, the fact it's portable is just icing on the cake to be honest.…

As a mac user, I bought an used PC (haswell i7) + used gpu (rx580) for about $500 (last year before hw price crunch though), and it plays everything on 1440p.

Re: Valve Steam Deck

#869
post #44

There’s obviously a lot of people who like playing games in a more mobile format, as evidenced by the huge popularity of the Switch Lite / mobile gaming. Giving the PC games market access to that form factor seems, on its face, like an extremely good move. But we’ve seen products like this before — the NVIDIA Shield, for one. Pretty cool piece of tech, but didn’t exactly start a revolution. I guess the question becom…

I believe it's more about gaming on sofa than gaming on train.

Re: Valve Steam Deck

#870
post #459

At a cursory glance this thing seems to be well-equipped to handle emulation. There are a lot of (sometimes sketchy) portable emulation devices on the market but most are pretty underpowered. This seems significantly more powerful (at a higher price point of course). I'm curious if more folks interested in portable emulation will go for this or wait for an FPGA-based Analogue Pocket.

What kind of emulation? Android phones handle N64, SNES and PSP emulation very well, with a compatible game controller you don't need anything else.

Honestly, I'd prefer the Steam Deck over my phone, simply because it's a dedicated gaming device with integrated controls. I'm always forgetting my gamepad and I hate fiddling with putting the phone in the holder. It's just so awkward. A gaming device in the form of a tablet like the Switch is so much more convenient.
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