Steam Deck, a perfect companion to your Steam Ant - The Bear and Badger

GurtTractor

https://www.steamdeck.com/en/

Here's yer specs - https://www.steamdeck.com/en/tech

Compute
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
Controls and Input
Gamepad controls
A B X Y buttons
D-pad
L & R analog triggers
L & R bumpers
View & Menu buttons
4 x assignable grip buttons
Thumbsticks
2 x full-size analog sticks with capacitive touch
Haptics
HD haptics
Trackpads
2 x 32.5mm square trackpads with haptic feedback
55% better latency compared to Steam Controller
Pressure-sensitivity for configurable click strength
Gyro
6-Axis IMU
Display
Resolution
1280 x 800px (16:10 aspect ratio)
Type
Optically bonded LCD for enhanced readability
Display size
7" diagonal
Brightness
400 nits typical
Refresh rate
60Hz
Touch enabled
Yes
Sensors
Ambient light sensor
Connectivity
Bluetooth
Bluetooth 5.0 (support for controllers, accessories and audio)
Wi-Fi
Dual-band Wi-Fi radio, 2.4GHz and 5GHz, 2 x 2 MIMO, IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac
Audio
Channels
Stereo with embedded DSP for an immersive listening experience
Microphones
Dual microphone array
Headphone / mic jack
3.5mm stereo headphone / headset jack
Digital
Multichannel audio via DisplayPort over USB-C, standard USB-C, or Bluetooth 5.0
Power
Input
45W USB Type-C PD3.0 power supply
Battery
40Whr battery. 2 - 8 hours of gameplay
Expansion
microSD
UHS-I supports SD, SDXC and SDHC
External connectivity for
controllers & displays
USB-C with DisplayPort 1.4 Alt-mode support; up to 8K @60Hz or 4K @120Hz, USB 3.2 Gen 2
Size and Weight
Size
298mm x 117mm x 49mm
Weight
Approx. 669 grams
Software
Operating System
SteamOS 3.0 (Arch-based)
Desktop
KDE Plasma

Has a Zen 2 7nm 3rd gen Ryzen 8 core, same as what the Series X and PS5 have, just at a lower clockspeed. Like a downclocked 3700X, not bad at all for a handheld. Only a 60Hz screen is slightly disappointing tbh but no big deal.

They're doing the classic tactic of rinsing you for the decent storage options, NVME drives are never that expensive. I won't be getting one as I need to upgrade my PC first, but if I did have one it would probably be an amazing portable Noita machine.

Valve gave up on their other hardware projects, so fuck knows if this will last more than a few years before getting discontinued. Would be nice if it lasted though.

Bob

I
Demand a change to topic title.

Christ this sounds amazing .. presumably you’ll be able
To install m$ store and account ?

GurtTractor

I misread the CPU specs before, it's a 4 core 8 thread chip rather than an 8 core 16 thread part that we get in the current consoles. Makes sense for the TDP requirement, still going to be plenty fast for most games.

GooberTheHat

Is that 64gb storage option going to be of any use to anyone?

GurtTractor

Not really, maybe if all you want to play are lightweight indies or older games, or maybe just one game that would fit the space. Like Skyrim + mods perhaps. I think the 64GB of eMMC is substantially slower too, maybe like a fast SD card.

The 256GB is probably the one most people will get.

GurtTractor

If you could slot your own NVME SSD in there it would be nice, not sure if that's a thing with it though.

monkey

They all take SD cards.

GurtTractor

It's quite the chonk. I guess it would look smaller in my hands but still... At some point you have to wonder if a laptop might make more sense, I guess it depends on the type of games you want to play, having the gamepad controls all integrated and ready to go is pretty convenient. And I wonder how good the standby/resume will be with it, should be decent if it's running with a super lightweight Arch Linux OS.

stellavista

Looks perfect for me if it can play PS4 era games from Steam store and perhaps some current gen stuff. Kind of exactly what I was looking for and was hoping Switch Pro might be.

b0r1s

I was tempted to push the button on this then sanity prevailed. This is still a v1 product, battery doesn't look good at all and is it gonna sound like a hair dryer in your hand? I have no idea, but something based on stuff like the Mac M1 chipset (and I'm sure PC manufacturers are looking to create something similar) will make this obsolete in a couple years.

Edit - assuming MS get their act together on ARM Windows.

GurtTractor

Someone made this and I've nicked it, I assume it's accurate.

The Deck is heavier too, 669 grams vs Switch's 422.

AndCallMeCharlie

Had gdp win and win2 which did the same
Much fun but the price (£750+) and switch getting so many indies lead me to give up
Will be preordering this tonight hopefully- darkest dungeon 2 would be perfect for it

GurtTractor

b0r1s wrote:

I was tempted to push the button on this then sanity prevailed. This is still a v1 product, battery doesn't look good at all and is it gonna sound like a hair dryer in your hand? I have no idea, but something based on stuff like the Mac M1 chipset (and I'm sure PC manufacturers are looking to create something similar) will make this obsolete in a couple years. Edit - assuming MS get their act together on ARM Windows.

A big part of the appeal of the Steam Deck's specs is that pretty much anything PC should run, means there's a vast library of old and new games, emulators, etc etc. Can x86 apps run with decent performance on M1 ARM hardware?

GurtTractor

This is a good analysis of what's known so far.

b0r1s

This is the M1 list of games running under parallels on the current M1 Macs (4 performance cores/4 efficiency cores) - https://www.applegamingwiki.com/wiki/M1_Parallels_Windows_compatible_games_list

A lot run perfectly. But today wasn't what I'm saying. The days of fan based portable devices that draw too much power is at an end. I don't think Apple will be the ones to take that portable gaming space (outside typical touch based games), but PC manufacturers have got to be leaning on MS to get Windows ported for ARM. It's interesting that Apple managed to get Windows running better on ARM than Microsoft did and I understand it is because they literally added hardware to make virtualisation better.

And this is just the first gen. Rumours of 32 cores for the new MacBook Pros, that kind of power is going to kill devices like this and it literally just takes MS to get their act together with ARM.

This device is fine for now, but I reckon it's an evolutionary dead end. Maybe buy two and keep one sealed to sell for a fortune in the future?

GurtTractor

It'll certainly be interesting to see how it will work out. It doesn't seem clear how easy the transition would be yet though.

It's a bit of a shame that Valve didn't go for the latest Zen 3 for their CPU cores, which would be faster/more efficient. But I guess with chip shortages recently AMD are most able to produce the Zen 2 stuff right now. Fuck knows if there'll be a gen 2 of the Deck, I can see it taking off pretty well but whether Valve continue to invest in it is unknown.

b0r1s

I think TDP has got to be the big factor for portable going forward. I guess if AMD can get close to ARM with that they could do well in this space. Nvidia getting blocked from buying ARM was interesting as they could have done something great there for gaming.

Anyway for now here’s Dave 2D’s opinion

Yossarian

Bob wrote:

I
Demand a change to topic title.

Done.

dynamiteReady

I'm not sure about the design, and would like to know if this can be easily hooked up to a TV like a Switch. But been hoping for Valve to getting into the hardware market from since the 360 days.

This could be huge.
I think this particular first product looks a bit clunky though.

GurtTractor

Yep there's a dock, sold separately -

It seems like you can continue to use it when docked as a second screen, they have it with a Steam friends list there but I would probably recommend getting Discord up on it as official game channels basically act as community and multiplayer hubs on PC now.

GurtTractor

The gyro functionality is a very nice thing, I've used it with the Steam Controller and you can move a cursor around very quickly and naturally once you dial in the sensitivity. The gyro has a really annoying tendency to drift after a while with the Steam Controller and you have to put it down flat every so often to get it to behave, hopefully the Deck won't have this issue.

You can see how in this gif it's only activating when you touch the right pad or stick, which is how I have my Stream Controller setup usually.

b0r1s

Despite everything I've said above, my irrational tech mind still wants to get this. Ridiculous.

GurtTractor

You can see in this video of a guy playing Doom Eternal how you can use both the touchpad or stick in combination with the gyro for fine aiming. Takes a little getting used to but it's probably a decent solution for comfy handheld gaming.

GurtTractor

Haha this image -

On the software page there's a link called "Hold on to your butts" to expand a bit about how it's running a Linux system so you can go the desktop and do Linux stuff if you like. The image url is "fauxrassic-park"

Also one of the post-its has Steam Pal crossed out and Steam Deck circled.

equinox_code

Not sure who they are hoping to win over with this. The PC gaming people are often i) really into mouse and keyboard, ii) really after the best graphics available, iii) little care for convenience gaming, hence being happy to sit at a comp to play rather than slouching on the sofa with a console

Yossarian

Very few PC gamers are into the best graphics available, the vast majority are running graphics cards that are many years old.

GurtTractor

I guess people who really like the convenience and immediacy of the Switch, but would like to play a much broader range of games. The fact that it's just a general purpose computer is really handy too.

Speedhaak

If they can get the quick resume cross platform software working then this would be something I would be interested in definitely.

hunk

Looks fantastic. Was hoping for a decent android but Valve got there first with an AMD Apu. This is gen 1 hw tho so will be holding out on reviews. Plus, it's Linux based!

GurtTractor

Yeah being able to get up from your PC and continue a campaign or run elsewhere on your Deck is a neat feature. Civilization would be a prime candidate for this I think.

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