Steam Deck officially announced by Valve

chameleoneel said:
Without games developed specifically for it---this is dead on arrival. The specs basically mean its an indy games machine, only. Its very expensive. Doesn't come with a dock. Its huge. There is no good reason to get this.
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It's funny when i click the link, 2 of the games shown are doom and hades... both on switch at 1/2 price.
 
How good is that CPU/APU for gaming, would it be able to handle Doom Eternal, Control, etc? I get the feeling that you will just end up streaming your games via Steam remote play to this thing...
 
Sickb0y said:
How good is that CPU/APU for gaming, would it be able to handle Doom Eternal, Control, etc? I get the feeling that you will just end up streaming your games via Steam remote play to this thing...
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Considering there's video footage of the Steam Deck playing those exact games in portable mode at what appears to be a consistent framerate, I think it'll be fine. Just don't expect any of that RTX eye candy in Control.

Note that the internal screen is just 1280x800 at 60 Hz, barely an improvement over the Switch's internal 1280x720 at 60 Hz screen, which should ease the load on the GPU significantly.

Also, Steam Remote Play is definitely something I had considered the entire time with this thing. Paired with a top-of-the-line gaming PC, it'd sort of become a Wii U GamePad, mainly tethered over Wi-Fi to a powerful but immobile system.

It's even plausible that it could become a literal Wii U GamePad if someone codes a utility to emulate one, too. Pretty sure someone might've already done just that with the Switch.
 
Sickb0y said:
How good is that CPU/APU for gaming, would it be able to handle Doom Eternal, Control, etc? I get the feeling that you will just end up streaming your games via Steam remote play to this thing...
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Roughly estimated, this is about as powerful as PS4/Xbox One but without their CPU bottlenecks, so actually more powerful. So yes, it is able to handle those games at ease but this is still a mobile integrated APU and it is meant to run games in 720p 60hz, which is plenty for a small tight PPI portable screen but if you were to connect this to a monitor you will notice the low resolution.
 
Jagger100 said:
So Gabe has shifted from the mom's basement look to the homeless kook look.
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chameleoneel said:
Without games developed specifically for it---this is dead on arrival. The specs basically mean its an indy games machine, only. Its very expensive. Doesn't come with a dock. Its huge. There is no good reason to get this.
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Steam has their own streaming service coming out. And you can always install GeForce Now or another streaming service on it. The screen is also relatively low resolution (the equivalent of 16:10 "720p").
scojer said:
I'm disappointed, it took 40 posts:
HL3 confirmed!
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There's one great thing about this that I hope comes to pass: with all of these older, pre-owned games being easily playable on the Deck, there will be an increased pressure on the developers to continue to support them. Some older games are practically abandonware, but renewed interest may spur developers to address old bugs and improve features.

And that means FSR coming to older games, too. Fingers crossed, but still likely. That's good news for all mobile gaming, not just Deck-based.
 
chameleoneel said:
The peak GPU boost clock on this is 400mhz slower than the recently released desktop APU, 5800G (Also 8 GPU cores). That's a lot slower. The 5800G is generally only good for 720p/60 in non-indy games which are 3+ years old (GTA5, Tomb Raider, etc). and can do 1080p/30 low/medium, in some games. Even though it is a newer GPU architecture, At 400mhz slower, Steamdeck has no chance of playing semi-current, non-indies (there will be this or that, sure. But this isn't going to be some mega machine, completely overshadowing all others). Especially without Steamdeck specific optimization patches, like you would get on something like a Switch.
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1280x800 .... ya this is going to run plenty of stuff just fine.
 
defaultluser said:
As I've said before - these x86 devices are all going to be incredibly power-hungry, so these things are twice the weight of a Switch (massive cooling, plus much bigger battery)

Be prepared to buy a new heavy-duty backpack to shove this thing in, - along with claws-of-steel to hold that bulk!

The RDNA2 does look potentially interesting (Zen 2, could be a cast-off from broken PS5?)

see here: https://wccftech.com/amd-4700s-desktop-apu-faster-than-xbox-series-x-sold-diy-gaming-pc-china/
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It's the Van Gogh APU which isn't being used by the Xbox or PS5.
 
Axman said:
There's one great thing about this that I hope comes to pass: with all of these older, pre-owned games being easily playable on the Deck, there will be an increased pressure on the developers to continue to support them. Some older games are practically abandonware, but renewed interest may spur developers to address old bugs and improve features.

And that means FSR coming to older games, too. Fingers crossed, but still likely. That's good news for all mobile gaming, not just Deck-based.
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Yar, I noticed older games releasing on Game Pass are getting Steam updates, so there's definitely dev interest in updating old titles if there's a demand for it.

Also, with FSR going open source, I wouldn't be surprised even if the original devs don't support it, modders will bring FSR support to the titles.

I'm trying to keep my expectations tempered for this new portable hardware, but I'm succumbing to the hype.
 
It definitely sounds better than I was expecting. I am going to pass though, but I do say it is quite tempting to think of it as a hand held console that immediately has over 2000+ games already owned and available to use on it immediately on delivery. No Switch/PSP/Vita can match that. :)
 
I honestly think it will run things just fine. Its basically 720p, Using Zen 2 and RDNA2, and its the new low powered Van Gogh APU as well. I also think with FSR going open source that it will benefit this device.

Now, doesn't mean I am interested because I am not, but this is going to be way more powerful than the switch AND you don't have to buy new games since you already on them on Steam right?

The only issue I think its having the base model only having 64GB of internal space. Luckily you can expand on that.
 
Like all things, I’ll wait until it actually comes out to make final judgement. Even with the specs laid out there are far too many things we don’t really know.

And as a wait and see person, I’m just as happy to wait for the Gen 2 to drop if this actually becomes a viable platform.
 
Seems like a cool little device. Not for me though. I play games at my desk and only at my desk. I have no desire for any device that runs games anywhere else, be it in a livingroom or on the go.

I did that in the 80's.

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Surprisingly, the thing still works! They don't make them like they used to.
 
Interesting. The Switch has real competition. Won't hurt Nintendo in the short run but I do wonder how it will work out in the long term. Has to put a dent into it. Nintendo still has games designed around it though. Maybe this will end up DOA like the Steam box concept, but doubt it. This seems a lot more well throughout and defined.

I think any chance of Nintendo games coming to PC has died, not that said chance was big anyways.
 
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Enhanced Interrogator said:
Depends on the game. Analog sticks are great for 3rd person action and adventure games.

For first person games, those track pads might be a decent mouse alternative.
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Oh, I didn't notice the trackpads. I've never tried to use them in games, so I have no idea if I'll like them or not.

I actually bought one of those Steam controllers a couple of years ago for shits and giggles when they were selling them off for $5 a piece. I think it has a trackpad. Can't remember. It's still in the sealed box though. I never got around to testing it.
 
Bigbacon said:
so does it just stream games?
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From the description it looks liek it can both stream games, and play them natively.

I'd imagine streaming them is probably better if you are at home with close network access to your desktop (but in that case, why wouldn't you just use your desktop?) and native execution is better when on the go. It sounds like streaming supposedly saves a lot of battery life too.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
From the description it looks liek it can both stream games, and play them natively.

I'd imagine streaming them is probably better if you are at home with close network access to your desktop (but in that case, why wouldn't you just use your desktop?) and native execution is better when on the go. It sounds like streaming supposedly saves a lot of battery life too.
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That's what i'm gathering from the wildly massive "2-8 hours" of battery life spec.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
I actually bought one of those Steam controllers a couple of years ago for shits and giggles when they were selling them off for $5 a piece. I think it has a trackpad. Can't remember. It's still in the sealed box though. I never got around to testing it.
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Steam controller only has trackpads. Which is probably one reason it failed.
 
Enhanced Interrogator said:
IGN video shows them playing Control.

And the Nintendo Switch plays Doom Eternal. Albeit at 30fps.
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At first it sounded impressive, but then I realized that it is only running at 1280x800 resolution. Still not bad, bit s lot more understandable how they pull it off now.

Also, workout a real mouse to play with, i wonder how noticible a lower frsmerate really is.
 
RanceJustice said:
I kind of get the resolution of the display, though I would have suggested 1080p and in any case it would be nice if it was OLED considering that that's what everyone's going to be talking about for the Switch OLED in october.
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I think it's a tradeoff. The lower resolution probably aids in battery life and allows it to get better performance in many PC titles which can be quite demanding.

OLED is nice, especially for home theater, but I'm not sure it is worth it on a stop-gap portable device. I'd also be concerned about burnin.
 
Axman said:
I paid $800 for a Pandora back in the day. Although you can get an Odroid Super for $80 now...

Krenum do you know about the Odroid Super? (They go in and out of stock all the time, FYI)
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I currently have an Odroid N2+ inside an old dreamcast to play emulators on, Currently have 3DO, PC Engine, MAME , Sega Master System, Saturn, Dreamcast and others on it...

Im using Batocera, although, it still struggles to play Killer Instinct in MAME, "Sound Stuttering" or possibly the 0.78 (2003) version.

I'm looking for an end all small for factor that will play KI at full speed without any issues. It came with an Android OS 9.0 eMMC. I havent tried to play KI on that yet, maybe it will get rid of the sound issue, but I do like Batocera's menu system.

Ill check Odroid super out, thanks for the info, hadn't heard of it.
 
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