My biggest problem after owning a deck for a year is the controls. If you like to play PC games designed around a mouse and keyboard the deck is just a chore. I struggle to play games on my deck when the controls make playing the game take far longer than on a PC where I can quickly hover my mouse over things or click and drag. Yes it has trackpads but it’s definitely not the same experience.
That said if it’s a console first game then it usually works pretty well.
Depends a lot on the type of games you want to play. AAA or competitive FPS probably gaming PC. Older games, casual, indie, etc. SteamDeck is great.
I have to say that the SteamDeck brought a lot of fun back to gaming for me. Everything’s in one package, it’s portable, I can play docked or lay in bed. I can suspend it and come back whenever.
I’ve mainly played the Witcher 3, Skyrim, Fallout 4, Noita, GC roms, Disco Elysium, Dishonored, and Stardew Valley. Some of those games I’ve owned for a long time and I never played them until I got the SD.
But it does make a great streaming device/glorified controller too when I want to run more demanding stuff on my PC.
I am currently playing a heavily modded version of Mass Effect Legendary Edition on my SteamDeck, works really well, even Mass Effect 3.
But I had to install a no-EA-link patch, because EA requires to be online to start the singleplayer game. Which hurts playing it on the go. But with that, great experience.
Only true complaint I might have is that it’s actually fairly heavy and your arms will get tired after playing for too long, especially if you compare it to something like a Switch, but otherwise, I love my Deck, it’s been great. I’ve not had much trouble with most games I throw at it and even moved over my emulation game library on to there. It’s like the holy grail of gaming.
So… more importantly, what’s the story with the HDR support? I know there was something with gamescope supporting it. Is this something that’s finally going to be available on a normal Linux desktop?
I’ve been going back and forth between actively looking to buy one and saying I’ll wait til they get better hardware. Was expecting to have to wait for a while for that so this was definitely surprising.
However while my interest in the new one is incredibly high, I still can’t shake the feeling that it’s still a bit underpowered. Not being able to get above 30/40 FPS in games like Cyberpunk make me feel like I’d be at least a little disappointed. Granted being able to even play AAA games at all on a handheld is awesome, so I may be being unrealistic here in my expectations (I’ve never owned a handheld so my comparisons are just with PCs and consoles).
Nevertheless I think I might finally take the plunge on the 16th.
I’ve been playing cyberpunk a lot on both my pc and deck. I thought that it would be a way worse experience going from desktop to handheld, however, it really is a decent experience. I’ve had the same luck with other games as well. Cyberpunk specifically runs avg 40/50 after I installed CryoUtilities and changed the vram buffer (for those who are curious).
Definitely, every other piece of Valve hardware has been one and done. I figured valve would cut the Steam Deck since other companies have entered the market.
Jup, love that the price is not just not being increased with upgraded specs, the remaining stock of the old Steam Deck variants is actually being significantly discounted.
This person is using it to play world of Warcraft on a raspberry pi.
I’m not saying it’s perfect and ready to go, but if valve puts a few engineers on it, we could have some decent performance in a few years. Just look at how far proton has come.
Some guy on lemmy went on a two paragraph rant on me when I said ‘at this point Ill probably just wait for the next version of the deck’ “oh they’re just rumors and valve would never release another model this early in the decks life and yada yada yada…” Well here we are a month later. Ive been alive long enough to know the next model is ALWAYS right around the corner, because it makes the company money. I wanted a PS4 when it came out but held off then a little while later ps4 pro came out and held off some more, then ps5, now ps5 pro. At this point I don’t even play video games that much anymore so the deck is likely the last ‘console’ ill ever want. I know the game and am one patient motherfucker, if I need to wait a few more years for the deck 2 then by god ill wait.
I don’t understand this, then the deck 2 will be out and you’ll then wait for the refresh that’s coming out soon then the deck 3? At that rate you’ll never have a console.
At some point I have to pull the trigger, and I am the kind of person who uses a device until it dies so I would rather that device be a refined variant of the original. This year was hard for me financially so I just couldn’t eat the $ on a 400-600$ game player no matter how much I really wanted it. I was EXTREMELY tempted to get the deck when it went on sale this summer. Hopefully when 2 rolls out I will be in a better financial spot and its design and specs will be improved over the og
Thinking about finally getting one. The 512GB OLED does look very good…
I also wonder if they’re ever going to have a non-handheld console (essentially a revamped Steam Machine). I’ve heard a bunch about people building PCs and running Holo ISO on there as a console replacement, might make sense to have an official solution from Valve.
Sure, but the form factor of the Steam Deck will always limit performance and carry some extra cost with it. And for a large user base installing another OS on a PC (Holo ISO) is something they are not going to do. Hence, Steam Machine.
I do not think they will. But they said they will release steamOS for install on your own machine. It just runs Linux, so it should work on most desktop hardware without any problems.
Dam I just bought mine SD last month. I wonder if I should return it and buy the OLED. But I saw the 512GB cert refurb are like $200 off now so a second steam deck as a back up would be nice.
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I’m toying with getting a Steam Deck instead of building a gaming PC. I can’t afford both. The Steam Deck looks an even better now option now.
A steam deck is definitely not a gaming computer replacement, get a good pc first imo
My biggest problem after owning a deck for a year is the controls. If you like to play PC games designed around a mouse and keyboard the deck is just a chore. I struggle to play games on my deck when the controls make playing the game take far longer than on a PC where I can quickly hover my mouse over things or click and drag. Yes it has trackpads but it’s definitely not the same experience.
That said if it’s a console first game then it usually works pretty well.
Depends a lot on the type of games you want to play. AAA or competitive FPS probably gaming PC. Older games, casual, indie, etc. SteamDeck is great.
I have to say that the SteamDeck brought a lot of fun back to gaming for me. Everything’s in one package, it’s portable, I can play docked or lay in bed. I can suspend it and come back whenever.
I’ve mainly played the Witcher 3, Skyrim, Fallout 4, Noita, GC roms, Disco Elysium, Dishonored, and Stardew Valley. Some of those games I’ve owned for a long time and I never played them until I got the SD.
But it does make a great streaming device/glorified controller too when I want to run more demanding stuff on my PC.
I am currently playing a heavily modded version of Mass Effect Legendary Edition on my SteamDeck, works really well, even Mass Effect 3.
But I had to install a no-EA-link patch, because EA requires to be online to start the singleplayer game. Which hurts playing it on the go. But with that, great experience.
It kinda is tho. You can even connect a monitor, mouse and keyboard to it if you want to.
Depending on your definition of “gaming”, it definitely can be for some folks
I wish I could care but Valve doesn’t want to sell it here so whatever.
The original Steam Deck still not available in my country yet. Sigh
Soooo I was looking into buying a steam deck… Guess that’s great news
It is. It’s a significant upgrade for no price increase.
And if you don’t want to get the best model, the old LCD models have crazy discounts right now.
Only true complaint I might have is that it’s actually fairly heavy and your arms will get tired after playing for too long, especially if you compare it to something like a Switch, but otherwise, I love my Deck, it’s been great. I’ve not had much trouble with most games I throw at it and even moved over my emulation game library on to there. It’s like the holy grail of gaming.
The new one is lighter!
So… more importantly, what’s the story with the HDR support? I know there was something with gamescope supporting it. Is this something that’s finally going to be available on a normal Linux desktop?
Works fine in Gamescope. Doesn’t work in any desktop environment.
deleted by creator
I’ve been going back and forth between actively looking to buy one and saying I’ll wait til they get better hardware. Was expecting to have to wait for a while for that so this was definitely surprising.
However while my interest in the new one is incredibly high, I still can’t shake the feeling that it’s still a bit underpowered. Not being able to get above 30/40 FPS in games like Cyberpunk make me feel like I’d be at least a little disappointed. Granted being able to even play AAA games at all on a handheld is awesome, so I may be being unrealistic here in my expectations (I’ve never owned a handheld so my comparisons are just with PCs and consoles).
Nevertheless I think I might finally take the plunge on the 16th.
I’ve been playing cyberpunk a lot on both my pc and deck. I thought that it would be a way worse experience going from desktop to handheld, however, it really is a decent experience. I’ve had the same luck with other games as well. Cyberpunk specifically runs avg 40/50 after I installed CryoUtilities and changed the vram buffer (for those who are curious).
I waited just under a year for my preorder.
Yes, I will buy the OLED one, and pass the original to my son.
https://www.pcgamer.com/valve-likes-the-idea-of-an-oled-steam-deck-too-but-says-it-isnt-as-simple-as-it-sounds/
Just leaving this here, for future reference.
Successfully trolled I guess 😅
Ok, this has me hyped because it also implies further iterations.
At not wildly inflating costs. I love my deck, so I can’t wait to see the next iteration :).
Definitely, every other piece of Valve hardware has been one and done. I figured valve would cut the Steam Deck since other companies have entered the market.
Jup, love that the price is not just not being increased with upgraded specs, the remaining stock of the old Steam Deck variants is actually being significantly discounted.
Steam Deck is 1.5 years old and im excited for a new iteration!
I think they will not do a new processor for another year or so. They said it is years away.
With Snapdragon announcing their M2 like arm processor for desktop, I wonder if Steamdeck and these handhelds will start to switch to ARM?
There is already work being done on x86 to arm translation for Linux.
I doubt it. x86_64 might not be efficient, but it has many instructions that aren’t in ARM. Plus you’d lose out on AMD’s GPU.
Maybe after we see that new Snapdragon on Windows PC, and enough games run on ARM Windows, then Valve would consider switching chip.
I don’t see why they would lead the way on that front, in addition to the software compatibility layer between Linux and Windows.
People are already using it to run various games.
This person is using it to play world of Warcraft on a raspberry pi.
I’m not saying it’s perfect and ready to go, but if valve puts a few engineers on it, we could have some decent performance in a few years. Just look at how far proton has come.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V5_ByVsiFM&pp=ygUFQm94ODY%3D
Some guy on lemmy went on a two paragraph rant on me when I said ‘at this point Ill probably just wait for the next version of the deck’ “oh they’re just rumors and valve would never release another model this early in the decks life and yada yada yada…” Well here we are a month later. Ive been alive long enough to know the next model is ALWAYS right around the corner, because it makes the company money. I wanted a PS4 when it came out but held off then a little while later ps4 pro came out and held off some more, then ps5, now ps5 pro. At this point I don’t even play video games that much anymore so the deck is likely the last ‘console’ ill ever want. I know the game and am one patient motherfucker, if I need to wait a few more years for the deck 2 then by god ill wait.
I don’t understand this, then the deck 2 will be out and you’ll then wait for the refresh that’s coming out soon then the deck 3? At that rate you’ll never have a console.
On the other hand though, it’s Valve so they won’t get to 3.
At some point I have to pull the trigger, and I am the kind of person who uses a device until it dies so I would rather that device be a refined variant of the original. This year was hard for me financially so I just couldn’t eat the $ on a 400-600$ game player no matter how much I really wanted it. I was EXTREMELY tempted to get the deck when it went on sale this summer. Hopefully when 2 rolls out I will be in a better financial spot and its design and specs will be improved over the og
Don’t bother. By the time the deck 2 comes out, in 6 months there will be a Deck 2.5.
Never buy or enjoy anything! ONLY think about the future
Alright that last comment got me
Thinking about finally getting one. The 512GB OLED does look very good…
I also wonder if they’re ever going to have a non-handheld console (essentially a revamped Steam Machine). I’ve heard a bunch about people building PCs and running Holo ISO on there as a console replacement, might make sense to have an official solution from Valve.
steam deck can already be used as a non-handheld machine.
and if you actually need one, get a pc.
Sure, but the form factor of the Steam Deck will always limit performance and carry some extra cost with it. And for a large user base installing another OS on a PC (Holo ISO) is something they are not going to do. Hence, Steam Machine.
They just need to release a thunderbolt capable SteamDeck with a eGPU.
There is no PC as capable as the Steam Deck at the same price point.
you can build a more powerful pc for less, i built a machine with new components during the gpu shortage and it’s still faster. (1050ti, 1600af)
I do not think they will. But they said they will release steamOS for install on your own machine. It just runs Linux, so it should work on most desktop hardware without any problems.
Welp, my friend bought his one month ago lol
Likewise. Still a fine device, though. Hopefully there will be OLED screens available to upgrade the older models with.
Me too lol. It is what it is though I’m happy with it.
What I really like is that they double down on hackabilty by switching to metal torx screws, etc.
That, and a Linux system are IMO the main selling points of the SteamDeck, compared to any clones from Asus or Lenovo, etc.
Wait, are their screws not metal?!
The screws were metal, but they went into a plastic casing. Now, the metal screws go into metal threading
When you buy “wood screws” that doesn’t mean that the screws are made of wood, it means they go into wood.
Dam I just bought mine SD last month. I wonder if I should return it and buy the OLED. But I saw the 512GB cert refurb are like $200 off now so a second steam deck as a back up would be nice.