AMD and Valve Working on CPU Driver That Could Boost Steam Deck Performance

Krenum

Krenum

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https://www.tomshardware.com/news/a...river-that-could-boost-steam-deck-performance

From the Article:

"According to a report from Phoronix, AMD and Valve are working together to design a better CPU performance scaling driver for Linux, targeting the Steam Deck gaming console.


Valve has recently launched its Steam Deck gaming console that houses AMD's custom Ryzen APU with embedded RDNA 2 GPU and Zen 2 CPU powered by a Linux-based Arch operating system (OS). Given that this system runs a Linux-based OS, Valve has to optimize the software as much as possible to ensure a smooth and consistent gaming experience across various AAA titles. According to the report, Valve has been improving the CPU frequency scaling of Zen 2 cores in a joint effort with AMD. Steam Deck will obviously benefit from this collaboration, along with other AMD processors that run on Linux."...
 
FrgMstr said:
I was told that AMD has invested a vast amount of resources into this project over the last couple of years in order to help ensure market penetration and success.
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That's good to hear & the conclusion I assumed when people were saying that the deck would fail. AMD wouldn't have invested all the resources into this project if they thought it would be a failure. For all we know, this might be the start of many more versions of the deck down the road.
 
FrgMstr said:
I was told that AMD has invested a vast amount of resources into this project over the last couple of years in order to help ensure market penetration and success.
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If this thing doesn't fail it might finally be what makes gaming on linux mainstream.....I just hope we can actually find them to buy.
 
tunatime said:
I just hope we can actually find them to buy.
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I think the only way that is going to happen is if you order one direct if you don't want to pay scalper prices. I think by the end of Q2 some of this will start to normalize but I do not think it will be actually a "normal" market till Q123.
 
The lower overhead from the OS certainly wouldn't hurt performance of zen2 but power management for RDNA2 must be giving them fits. I saw no mention of CU's for RDNA2 or did I miss it? They better ship with automotive aux power cables.
 
learners permit said:
The lower overhead from the OS certainly wouldn't hurt performance of zen2 but power management for RDNA2 must be giving them fits. I saw no mention of CU's for RDNA2 or did I miss it? They better ship with automotive aux power cables.
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the iGPU is 8CU at relatively modest clocks, the whole APU will probably be like 15-25W.
 
Honestly, I think if it can hit 4 hours of heavy gaming, that would be fine. I'd even be okay with like 3 hours. The original Switch I think could barely make it to 2 hours with a demanding game like Doom.

I mean, even on a long plane ride, are you really going to binge out and play for more than 4 hours straight? Maybe play for 2 hours, watch a movie or two on it, that should be enough to make it through any domestic flight.
 
I am starting to want one really bad my issue is my laptop is more powerful. It definitely has potential to replace gaming laptops... My laptop is more powerful and the controller I use is more comfortable but this would be by far more portable.
 
Does your laptop fit in a good coat pocket though? I'm looking forward to my 512GB Steam Deck because in the Winter it will fit in several of my jackets' and coats' pockets. I can imagine no finer time wasting device to use while waiting for the VA to not be so slow. I used to bring a desktop replacement laptop there but that got tiresome.
 
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