|OT| Valve's Steam Deck (OLED)- coming to Straya in Nov 2024

[prudis]

Steam Deck™

Steam Deck™ is the most powerful, full-featured gaming handheld in the world.

store.steampowered.com

Valve has announced Steam Deck, an all-in-one portable PC games hardware. It will launch in December in three versions starting at $399.

Portability Meets Power

We partnered with AMD to create Steam Deck’s custom APU, optimized for handheld gaming. It is a Zen 2 + RDNA 2 powerhouse, delivering more than enough performance to run the latest AAA games in a very efficient power envelope.

Your Steam Library, Anywhere

Once you’ve logged into Steam Deck, your entire Steam Library shows up, just like any other PC. You’ll be able to find your collections and favorites – exactly where you left them.

Control with Comfort

The Steam Deck was built for extended play sessions—whether you’re using thumbsticks or trackpads—with full-size controls positioned perfectly within your reach. The rear of the device is sculpted to comfortably fit a wide range of hand sizes.

There’s a Dock, Too

The official dock props up your Steam Deck while connecting to external displays, wired networking, USB peripherals, and power. You can also use a powered USB-C hub, if you’ve got one lying around.

The official dock will be sold separately. More information coming soon.

The following three versions will be available:

• 64GB($399)
  • 64GB eMMC internal storage
  • Carrying case
• 256GB($529)
  • 256GB NVMe SSD internal storage
  • Faster storage
  • Carrying case
  • Exclusive Steam Community profile bundle
• 512GB($649)
  • 512GB NVMe SSD internal storage
  • Fastest storage
  • Premium anti-glare etched glass
  • Exclusive carrying case

 

[Durante]

I really didn't expect them to hit that price point with an RDNA2 GPU.
This is serious.

 

[Wok]

I will finally be able to bring anime everywhere with me.

Edit: Gabe's ambition:

 

[Ge0force]

I'm interested in the cheapest version, but I'm not sure how well playing games from SD card works. The 64GB internal storage will probably be filled with the OS already...

 

[Phoenix RISING]

What is the perf while docked tho???

 

[Aaron D.]

Man, purchasing a new portable with close to 2K games already in my personal library sounds hella tempting.

 

[Panda Pedinte]

Gabe is right, they needed to nail the price for it to have a chance of being successful.

 

[Durante]

Also, 4 freely assignable back buttons!

 

[Amzin]

The $400 is probably a good remote play machine but if (hahahaha when) I succumb to temptation I'd probably aim for the mid-tier one, unless that top tier screen is really that much better

 

[Arc]

As someone who owns tons of console style games thanks to Humble Bundles, but prefers to play them downstairs on the TV and is disappointed by the Switch's poor performance in general, this is like a dream device.

 

[Aaron D.]

The IGN vid said it supports Workshop and even non-Workshop mods. (Cripes it even lets you wipe the custom OS and drop Windows in there if you want.)

This was my biggest question regarding personal viability.

Now I kinda want to pre-order tomorrow. But the practical side of me says to wait until it's out in the wild for hands-on impressions.

Of course if it's a hit it might be hard to find like current-gen consoles.

FOMO vs. pragmatism in a tug-of-war!

 

[Myradeer]

Feels like rather strange venture considering lot of Steam games are designed for PC; I guess Steam Deck's advantage over laptop is portability but is it enough to make up for all the other functionalities that latter has?

 

[kio]

Correct me if I'm wrong but the basic version isn't very good is it? That amount of storage means you can have some games installed but the legwork will be put in by whatever SD cart you slot in it and how well that works remains to be seen. On normal PCs it's not an optimal setup, be it because of OS or some bottleneck in hardware/drivers.

Feels like rather strange venture considering lot of Steam games are designed for PC; I guess Steam Deck's advantage over laptop is portability but is it enough to make up for all the other functionalities that latter has?

I think it makes sense if you look far enough ahead. Console's market share seem to be diminishing while PC is gaining traction and Valve's positioning themselves to be an easy gatekeeper to those that will want to migrate towards the PC ecosystem.

 

[Durante]

I mean, the mod support really isn't surprising.

It's "just" a PC in a portable form factor.

(By they way, this is probably still a better deal for a balanced CPU/GPU PC if you just plug it in and never use the screen/controls than most SFF PCs you can buy)

Correct me if I'm wrong but the basic version isn't very good is it? That amount of storage means you can have some games installed but the legwork will be put in by whatever SD cart you slot in it and how well that works remains to be seen. On normal PCs it's not an optimal setup, be it because of OS or some bottleneck in hardware/drivers.

If you want to play non-indie games natively you'll probably at least need a really fast really big SD card.

I'd say the $400 model is more of a pricing thing, although if you primarily want to play indie games on the go it would be more than adequate.

 

[MomoVideo]

I'm torn. On the one hand, I truly hate the design of this thing. The screen-to-body ratio seems very small and those touch panels look out of place. On the other hand, I fucking love everything else about it. They nailed the price, I love how they went the extra mile and made a special version of OS that looks like console OS, and finally the fact that I can play 400 games I already own anywhere I want. I love my Switch but it's reaching its limits performance-wise. I also don't earn enough to pay an additional Switch tax on games.

 

[uraizen]

Wish they were a bit more specific about performance. Saying a game runs smoothly from IGN's mouth could mean a stable 30fps. I want to know if it can hit that sweet 60fps spot and what kind of settings it takes.

 

[Durante]

Wish they were a bit more specific about performance. Saying a game runs smoothly from IGN's mouth could mean a stable 30fps. I want to know if it can hit that sweet 60fps spot and what kind of settings it takes.

I mean they are extremely specific about performance, the exact specs are on the website.

 

[Acidote]

Man I wish I wasn't flirting with poverty since the pandemic started. This would be a day 1 for me with healthy finances.

 

[sprinkles]

I wonder if we get the rumored Gamepass-on-Steam before the launch (so we get working Gamepass titles on SteamOS), that would be a great selling point for Console owners.

 

[Durante]

This is also interesting (but necessary for a portable of course):

Fast Suspend / Resume

We’ve built a quick suspend / resume feature into SteamOS. Press the power button, and Steam Deck will suspend your game and go into sleep mode. Push the power button again and it will wake up right where you left off.

And that's actually an advantage over going with Windows, since as stupid as it sounds it might be easier to get a whole lot of the Steam library to work smoothly with that when they are running through Proton on Linux than it would be on native Windows.

 

[kio]

I finally saw the videos in the OP and there's more than a few instances where they plaster "Hardware not final" on-screen and I hope they change the button placement, especially on the right side because those look extremely uncomfortable.

 

[prudis]

UI

 

[MomoVideo]

This is also interesting (but necessary for a portable of course):


And that's actually an advantage over going with Windows, since as stupid as it sounds it might be easier to get a whole lot of the Steam library to work smoothly with that when they are running through Proton on Linux than it would be on native Windows.

It's a huge advantage over competitors like GPD Win and Aya Neo in my eyes. It's also worth noting that Valve is working on a feature where Steam Deck will upload save to the Cloud when you suspend the console, so you can simply suspend mid-game, switch to desktop PC and continue playing. Awesome stuff.

UI

I love everything about the UI.

 

[Durante]

Can we take a moment to appreciate the game selection they chose for the big website banners?

• Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order
• Disco Elysium: The Final Cut
• Doom Eternal
• Crusader Kings III
• Factorio
• Baldur's Gate III
• Ni No Kuni Remastered
• Hades
• Control

A new handheld, and that selection of games is just the tip of the iceberg. I mean, how cool is that.

 

[uraizen]

I mean they are extremely specific about performance, the exact specs are on the website.

I mean, I saw the specs, but I have no idea what any of that hardware is capable of. So I can't really understand what it translates to in terms of performance.

 

[Alexandros]

This is, well, perfect as far as I'm concerned. Great price, great hardware, touchpads, I love it. I have no worries over the device's ergonomics, I'm sure they settled on them after much thought.

 

[madjoki]

Much better than expected. Will probably get 512GB version by liqutating some CSGO inventory. (unless they block steam wallet for some reason).

Probably largest launch lineup for console ever?

 

[Durante]

I mean, I saw the specs, but I have no idea what any of that hardware is capable of. So I can't really understand what it translates to in terms of performance.

Ok, here's a quick summary (console comparisons since I guess those make the most sense):

• The GPU is about as fast in raw performance as a base PS4, but it's a much newer and more efficient architecture (the same as PS5/XSX), and it only needs to target 1280x800.
  • In other words, it has about the same raw GPU performance per pixel when targeting 1280x800 as the Xbox Series X has when targeting 4k (slightly more actually).
• The CPU is basically half a XSX/PS5, with slightly lower clock.
• 16 GB of RAM (really neat), 4x Switch, same capacity as PS5

Obviously there will be a bit of overhead (varying from basically nothing or even better performance to significant overhead) for running games on Proton compared to Windows, but this is the performance you should expect.

 

[Ascheroth]

This is, well, perfect as far as I'm concerned. Great price, great hardware, touchpads, I love it. I have no worries over the device's ergonomics, I'm sure they settled on them after much thought.

The idea of just having a companion piece like this that has immediate access to my huge as fuck and evergrowing Steam library for playing on the go or in the bed, or in the garden or whatever (or heck, even streaming from the desktop PC if for whatever reason I want to) at no additional software cost is super super appealing.
I'm also sure the ergonomics will be fine.
The only question is if I should go for the base or middle tier version.

 

[MomoVideo]

The idea of just having a companion piece like this that has immediate access to my huge as fuck and evergrowing Steam library for playing on the go or in the bed, or in the garden or whatever (or heck, even streaming from the desktop PC if for whatever reason I want to) at no additional software cost is super super appealing.
I'm also sure the ergonomics will be fine.
The only question is if I should go for the base or middle tier version.

The first tier isn't too appealing. 64 GB will let you install one or two triple-A games. If you put SD card in it, then you lose the benefits of fast storage. The 256 gig model sounds more interesting because you can put games where SSD speed matter on the internal memory and everything else on the SD card.

 

[Phawx]

Ok, here's a quick summary (console comparisons since I guess those make the most sense):

• The GPU is about as fast in raw performance as a base PS4, but it's a much newer and more efficient architecture (the same as PS5/XSX), and it only needs to target 1280x800.
  • In other words, it has about the same raw GPU performance per pixel when targeting 1280x800 as the Xbox Series X has when targeting 4k (slightly more actually).
• The CPU is basically half a XSX/PS5, with slightly lower clock.
• 16 GB of RAM (really neat), 4x Switch, same capacity as PS5

Obviously there will be a bit of overhead (varying from basically nothing or even better performance to significant overhead) for running games on Proton compared to Windows, but this is the performance you should expect.

To go along with this, Ive made a crude drawing -

Now, the Neo uses Vega which is a bit better than GCN but to give an idea it should be (my guess) 1.8x better than Renoir is today at same TDP.

Steam Deck is using better ram that takes less power (LPDDR5), should be implementing Smart Access Memory, but does not have infinity cache.

Basically, go take a look at any AYA Neo video running a game and do ~1.5x to 1.8x of the performance you see at the wattage shown, and you'll be able to eyeball performance.

Dark Souls 3, for example, should hit 60fps at native resolution with low to medium settings.

Sekiro similar.

There is a bunch of games that I could say that are modern that should hit 60fps with no issue, but they will be maxing out the platform.

so anticipate 100-120 minutes of battery life when playing very demanding games.

 

[uraizen]

Ok, here's a quick summary (console comparisons since I guess those make the most sense):

• The GPU is about as fast in raw performance as a base PS4, but it's a much newer and more efficient architecture (the same as PS5/XSX), and it only needs to target 1280x800.
  • In other words, it has about the same raw GPU performance per pixel when targeting 1280x800 as the Xbox Series X has when targeting 4k (slightly more actually).
• The CPU is basically half a XSX/PS5, with slightly lower clock.
• 16 GB of RAM (really neat), 4x Switch, same capacity as PS5

Obviously there will be a bit of overhead (varying from basically nothing or even better performance to significant overhead) for running games on Proton compared to Windows, but this is the performance you should expect.

Damned good comparison for me. I know dick about AMD hardware and this sounds impressive for a handheld at $400.

 

[Durante]

Oh hi Phawx.
This just utterly killed all handheld PC companies didn't it?

Damned good comparison for me. I know dick about AMD hardware and this sounds impressive for a handheld at $400.

I'd have expected them to price it at least 50% higher for the base tier with those specs, honestly.

 

[Dinjoralo]

Ho-lee shite.
I don't need it... but I really want it.

UI

I really hope that this is Steam's new Big Picture UI or somesuch. I really want to use a version of that on my current PC, just a bit more zoomed out to accomodate higher DPI's.

 

[Ascheroth]

I don't need it... but I really want it.

Perfectly summarized, lol.

 

[Durante]

By the way this is in the running for the best marketing picture ever:

 

[NarohDethan]

This is also interesting (but necessary for a portable of course):


And that's actually an advantage over going with Windows, since as stupid as it sounds it might be easier to get a whole lot of the Steam library to work smoothly with that when they are running through Proton on Linux than it would be on native Windows.

Do you think it is possible to suspend several games on the deck?

 

[Dinjoralo]

What I really want to know is, with this new version of Proton coming out that supports games with anti-cheat software...

Could I play Genshin Impact while maintaining the preinstalled OS? I'm gonna guess no, since they're working with the anti-cheat makers for that functionality and they're probably not contacting MiHoYo for this.

(o yea also is that new ui made in electron or is it whatever laggy crud they made for bpm in 2012)

 

[Mimosa]

I'm buying this, but I'd like to wait for a bundle with the dock before grabbing it.

I can't wait to play R-Type Final 2 from the comfort of my couch while my partner watches people killing people on Investigation Discovery.

 

[Durante]

Oh, by the way: SteamOS 3.0

Do you think it is possible to suspend several games on the deck?

Depends on how they did it. Might be unlikely though simply because it would rapidly eat up oodles of memory.

Could I play Genshin Impact while maintaining the preinstalled OS? I'm gonna guess no, since they're working with the anti-cheat makers for that functionality and they're probably not contacting MiHoYo for this.

Yeah, that won't happen given GI's intrusive anti-cheat.

 

[lashman]

By the way this is in the running for the best marketing picture ever:

... for many reasons:

 

[Le Pertti]

Ok, here's a quick summary (console comparisons since I guess those make the most sense):

• The GPU is about as fast in raw performance as a base PS4, but it's a much newer and more efficient architecture (the same as PS5/XSX), and it only needs to target 1280x800.
  • In other words, it has about the same raw GPU performance per pixel when targeting 1280x800 as the Xbox Series X has when targeting 4k (slightly more actually).
• The CPU is basically half a XSX/PS5, with slightly lower clock.
• 16 GB of RAM (really neat), 4x Switch, same capacity as PS5

Obviously there will be a bit of overhead (varying from basically nothing or even better performance to significant overhead) for running games on Proton compared to Windows, but this is the performance you should expect.

It seems to essentially be the Series S but handheld. The Series S can comfortably hit 1080p at 60fps, so with this 60fps at 800p should be very doable at nice settings.

 

[Ascheroth]

Do you think it is possible to suspend several games on the deck?

I think the IGN video said you can only suspend one game a time.

 

[Dinjoralo]

... for many reasons:

I get the Steam Pal thing, but what's 6.js?

 

[Aaron D.]

By the way this is in the running for the best marketing picture ever:

What's the source?

.................

Yeah, after mulling over it I'm 100% pre-ordering the 512GB model tomorrow.

 

[Alexandros]

I'm not that familiar with eMMC, how much of an issue is it?

 

[NarohDethan]

Oh, by the way: SteamOS 3.0


Depends on how they did it. Might be unlikely though simply because it would rapidly eat up oodles of memory.

Yeah, that won't happen given GI's intrusive anti-cheat.

I think the IGN video said you can only suspend one game a time.

Thanks for replying!

 

[Wok]

What's the source?

Jurassic Park.

 

[madjoki]

I get the Steam Pal thing, but what's 6.js?

The file with SteamPal strings that leaked with beta Steam.

SteamTracking/ClientExtracted/steamui/6.js at 3d8e7591e4464298b89c98d72a6c1b4a697db9af · SteamDatabase/SteamTracking

🕵 Tracking things, so you don't have to. Contribute to SteamDatabase/SteamTracking development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

 

[Dinjoralo]

What's the source?

.................

Yeah, after mulling over it I'm 100% pre-ordering the 512GB model tomorrow.

It's in the "More about software" section of the reveal site. You have to click on the thing that says hold onto your butts.