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

[Mor]

Love the news that are being shared and the compatibility issues seem minimal so far, which is impressive since it's not even out yet.
I've reserved the cheapest and most expensive version of the Steam Deck and I'm still not sure which reservation to keep. I feel like the etched glass is only of limited use to me, since I will probably never use it outside and screen protectors will be able to somewhat replicate the effect to a certain degree. The SSD is of course a factor, but not sure if it's worth 260€ more. Especially since they're going to sell these as spare parts and putting them in seem super easy (other than the self-tapping screws which scare me, since I don't have the proper tools to handle them).
Am I missing any non-cosmetic factors here? Which versions are you guys getting? And if you're getting the cheapest one, do yo plan on opening the Steam Deck and install the SSD drive yourself? If you get the most expensive one, why are you not taking the middle or cheapest one? Are some of you who want to open the console worried about the case and the screws?
Interested in y'alls opinion

In my case the most expensive one for a few reasons, first of all, storage as I don't plan on opening the device if not necessary, if I need more capacity I will install an SD card and call the day.

The Anti-Glare panel is also a good option for me given that where I live, even inside my house, I get a lot of light that affect the screen reflections so for me it's a good option in combination with the 400 nits of the panel.

And no, I'm not worried about opening the Deck if needed, it's just that I will just do that in case I need to replace some parts.

 

[Alexandros]

Love the news that are being shared and the compatibility issues seem minimal so far, which is impressive since it's not even out yet.
I've reserved the cheapest and most expensive version of the Steam Deck and I'm still not sure which reservation to keep. I feel like the etched glass is only of limited use to me, since I will probably never use it outside and screen protectors will be able to somewhat replicate the effect to a certain degree. The SSD is of course a factor, but not sure if it's worth 260€ more. Especially since they're going to sell these as spare parts and putting them in seem super easy (other than the self-tapping screws which scare me, since I don't have the proper tools to handle them).
Am I missing any non-cosmetic factors here? Which versions are you guys getting? And if you're getting the cheapest one, do yo plan on opening the Steam Deck and install the SSD drive yourself? If you get the most expensive one, why are you not taking the middle or cheapest one? Are some of you who want to open the console worried about the case and the screws?
Interested in y'alls opinion

I reserved the 256GB version because I like the speed of SSDs and I probably won't need more storage since I very rarely play more than one game at a time. I would rather not open the device since I don't have much experience with mobile device repair but my brother is much more proficient so he can do it if need be.

 

[Aiii]

Love the news that are being shared and the compatibility issues seem minimal so far, which is impressive since it's not even out yet.
I've reserved the cheapest and most expensive version of the Steam Deck and I'm still not sure which reservation to keep. I feel like the etched glass is only of limited use to me, since I will probably never use it outside and screen protectors will be able to somewhat replicate the effect to a certain degree. The SSD is of course a factor, but not sure if it's worth 260€ more. Especially since they're going to sell these as spare parts and putting them in seem super easy (other than the self-tapping screws which scare me, since I don't have the proper tools to handle them).
Am I missing any non-cosmetic factors here? Which versions are you guys getting? And if you're getting the cheapest one, do yo plan on opening the Steam Deck and install the SSD drive yourself? If you get the most expensive one, why are you not taking the middle or cheapest one? Are some of you who want to open the console worried about the case and the screws?
Interested in y'alls opinion

I went for the cheapest option. Not necessarily to upgrade the internal storage myself at some point, though I might do that anyways, but because I feel SD cards are good enough for on the go and most non-demanding game. But I will be doing most of my playing on the couch at my home, connected to a dock with a 1TB SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD attached to it. It's 1GB/s transfer speeds will be plenty enough.

 

[Le Pertti]

Yeah I also went with the middle option, wanted that storage but didn't want the anti glare screen, I need the best colours and image quality as possible. Thats why I never ever use screen protectors on anything.

 

[Ascheroth]

Middle option for me. I wanted the SSD but didn't want to pay another 130€ for more storage and anti-glare since while it's a super exciting thing, I'm can't really say how much use it actually will see. I also don't intend on opening up the thing.

 

[beep boop]

Another one for mid option. I wanted the SSD and I'm a one or two games at a time person, so I don't really need the greater storage even though it's certainly more convenient. I also don't expect to be playing the type of game on it that demands a 100gb+ install.

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

I went for the expensive option as i despise gloss screens so Anti-Glare is essential for me and i had a quick look at the cost/availability of the M2 2230 drives and they were not easily available or in stock so i thought it would be a pain to upgrade later on and decided to just bite the bullet and go for the top option. My expected date is Q2 2022 so i have the time to save for the extra cost.

 

[Mivey]

Went for the expensive option due to never wanting to think about the storage, for which 500GB seems enough, and the better screen might help if I ever wish to play outside (which I do not imagine will be often, but it's still a nice option to have).

 

[zonk]

I appreciate all the replies, seems to be a mix with a tendency towards the middle one over here I guess I'll keep both reservations for now and wait for feedback from the first batch users. The external SSD for the dock at home is definitely something I haven't had in mind, so that's a good call. I'm very curious what the real-life performance differences will be between the MicroSD and the SSD. That, and how easy it will be to replace/upgrade the SSD (availability of the hardware as well as opening/closing the case) after purchasing the Steam Deck will then probably sway me into one or the other direction.

 

[Le Pertti]

zonk There are games that don't really need that performance and can easily stay on a SD card. Ill be using a 64gb sd card also for more simpler indie games.

 

[Jav]

We still don't know anything about the Dock, right?

 

[Mor]

We still don't know anything about the Dock, right?

No, nothing so far.

 

[Durante]

I think we've known mostly everything relevant about the dock since the launch of the website? (Except the pricing)

It's here:

Steam Deck :: Tech Specs

Available now.

www.steamdeck.com

Below the actual Deck specs. It has the size, weight, and ports, and I can't think of much else other than price that is relevant.

 

[Phawx]

I went for the most expensive option because I'll be recording the screen a lot and anti-glare is quite helpful in that regard.

 

[Alexandros]

Durante Now that you've had the dev kit for a while, can you tell us anything about battery life?

 

[Mor]

I think we've known mostly everything relevant about the dock since the launch of the website? (Except the pricing)

It's here:

Steam Deck :: Tech Specs

Available now.

www.steamdeck.com

Below the actual Deck specs. It has the size, weight, and ports, and I can't think of much else other than price that is relevant.

Oh jeez, didn't remember about this specs page haha, my bad.

 

[Wok]

 

[Le Pertti]

Looks like a robot getting a boner.

 

[Mor]

So smooth, so clean

---

Library of Ruina/Lobotomy corporation devs got a kit, all those fingerprints tho hahaha

 

[Parsnip]

Fingerprints included in the price of the kit.

 

[Mor]

PlayWay got a dev kit too

 

[Mor]

AMD Powers Valve Steam Deck, Delivering a New Category of PC Gaming

Steam Deck brings innovations to handheld gaming such as Variable Rate Shading and intelligent adaptive graphics driver optimizations to manage performance and power without game specific updates, enabling maximum battery life at a target frame rate.

 

[prudis]

 

[kami_sama]

I got the middle one. I don't need that much storage for the games I will be playing and I can always just add more with the sd card. The 64GB version was too limiting for my taste. And I didn't want the anti-glare screen.
As for the dock, I will be 3d printing myself a shelf and putting a normal usb-c dock once people see what works and what doesn't.

 

[OuterWinnie]

When can we expect to know the shipping date? Early December? How it was for the Index?

 

[Mor]

 

[Deku]

When can we expect to know the shipping date? Early December? How it was for the Index?

It says on the page for Steam Deck

It's different availability depending when you reserved your unit

 

[Le Pertti]

I'm curious how many cancelations there will be, once people actually have to pay for it.

 

[MomoVideo]

I'm curious how many cancelations there will be, once people actually have to pay for it.

Hopefully enough to move me from Q1 to December

 

[Taborcarn]

Hopefully enough to move me from Q1 to December

And move my Q2 to December. Stupid website giving me "too many attempts to log in" errors for 90 minutes. Grrrrrr

 

[Durante]

I got the generic (but good quality) USB C docking thing I ordered. So today a friend and I

1. connected the Steam deck to that docking station
2. connected a keyboard, mouse, gigabit ethernet, 2 controllers, and my projector to it
3. drove that projector at 1080p 240 Hz via the docking station (!)
4. used gamescope to limit a 2D game to 60 FPS and use integer scaling while running the projector at 1080p240
5. played the game with the 2 controllers on the projector using the deck (continuing from our save from the windows system we were playing on previously)

Not everything in that list went in a completely end-user-friendly way, but the sheer functionality out of that small package is just plain neat.

 

[Knurek]

I got the generic (but good quality) USB C docking thing I ordered. So today a friend and I

1. connected the Steam deck to that docking station
2. connected a keyboard, mouse, gigabit ethernet, 2 controllers, and my projector to it
3. drove that projector at 1080p 240 Hz via the docking station (!)
4. used gamescope to limit a 2D game to 60 FPS and use integer scaling while running the projector at 1080p240
5. played the game with the 2 controllers on the projector using the deck (continuing from our save from the windows system we were playing on previously)

Not everything in that list went in a completely end-user-friendly way, but the sheer functionality out of that small package is just plain neat.

Speaking of gamescope, have you tried the 30 fps lock? Does it provide a judder free gameplay? Or do you get the Bloodborne experience?

 

[CommodoreKong]

I'm curious how many cancelations there will be, once people actually have to pay for it.

Since most reservations are pretty vague Q1 or Q2 dates we probably wont get any really good idea of how many people are cancelling.

 

[Le Pertti]

So I was wondering, VRR should work when connecting to a screen right?

 

[kami_sama]

So I was wondering, VRR should work when connecting to a screen right?

Hardware wise it should. It's a RDNA2 GPU and they support it out of the box. I don't think it would work with HDMI, but with an adapter that can do DP1.4 it might work. The issue as I see it is software. I remember hearing one of the two solutions to VRR didn't work in Linux, but I don't remember if it was Gsync or Freesync.

 

[Mor]

Satisfactory developers Coffee Stain showed a bit of gameplay in their latest stream, it runs way better than I expected given it is very CPU intensive.

Here you can watch it as there's no official tweet as for right now.

 

[jonbones]

Speaking of gamescope, have you tried the 30 fps lock? Does it provide a judder free gameplay? Or do you get the Bloodborne experience?

This is the biggest question I have right now - if gamescope can provide good frame times at 30 fps, that's massive.

 

[jads653]

Hardware wise it should. It's a RDNA2 GPU and they support it out of the box. I don't think it would work with HDMI, but with an adapter that can do DP1.4 it might work. The issue as I see it is software. I remember hearing one of the two solutions to VRR didn't work in Linux, but I don't remember if it was Gsync or Freesync.

Freesync on HDMI was patched in earlier this year (March) for AMD hardware. Works fine for me on the latest opensource drivers

This is the biggest question I have right now - if gamescope can provide good frame times at 30 fps, that's massive.

Any games in particular that you are looking for?

 

[jonbones]

Any games in particular that you are looking for?

A good question - I suppose I'd like to see games like Deathloop, Arkham Knight, Control & CP2077. Games I don't think will hit 800/60 on Steam Deck but may be very nice at 800/30 - provided the frame pacing feels like an optimized console game.

 

[jads653]

A good question - I suppose I'd like to see games like Deathloop, Arkham Knight, Control & CP2077. Games I don't think will hit 800/60 on Steam Deck but may be very nice at 800/30 - provided the frame pacing feels like an optimized console game.

I am not someone really familiar with frametimes but I have Arkham Knight and I run Linux as a daily driver. (AMD 6800, Xeon 2678-v3, Arch Linux based OS) Keep in mind this is just for one game, Frametimes at initial run are all over the place. This most likely has to do with shader compilation. 2nd, 3rd and 4th run seem to be a solid 33,3ms, see below.

Steam settings

 

[Mor]

Behind the Frame being played via touch screen, such a wholesome game

 

[Le Pertti]

Those on deck videos were kind of genius. Every time I feel

 

[jonbones]

I am not someone really familiar with frametimes but I have Arkham Knight and I run Linux as a daily driver. (AMD 6800, Xeon 2678-v3, Arch Linux based OS) Keep in mind this is just for one game, Frametimes at initial run are all over the place. This most likely has to do with shader compilation. 2nd, 3rd and 4th run seem to be a solid 33,3ms, see below.

Steam settings

Thank you so much for putting this work in, I really appreciate the effort. This seems super promising!

 

[jads653]

Thank you so much for putting this work in, I really appreciate the effort. This seems super promising!

No problem, I was as curious as you. I normally don't pay attention to frametimes. I had some time today and tested 3 games. Doom, Subnautica Below Zero and Horizon Zero Dawn. Horizon Zero Dawn is a bit of a weird one. As you can see Doom (Vulkan) and Subnautica (DirectX9) are a perfect 33.3 MS. Horizon (DirectX12) fluctuates a bit around the 33.3MS mark. Never a huge spike but so far it's the only game that does this.

Doom

Horizon Zero Dawn (Go Fullscreen to see mangohud displayed correctly)

Subnautica Below Zero (Go Fullscreen to see mangohud displayed correctly)

 

[Phoenix RISING]

I went for the most expensive option because I'll be recording the screen a lot and anti-glare is quite helpful in that regard.

I went for the most expensive option because I need an upgrade for my laptop that has a 1060 in it.

 

[Arc]

 

[Mor]

I love this tweets.

 

[Mor]

Yoshida got a kit, I REPEAT, YOSP GOT A KIT!

 

[fantomena]

Yoshida got a kit, I REPEAT, YOSP GOT A KIT!

Yosp will surely want Bloodborne on that, right

 

[Paul]

I am annoyed nobody showed how Cyberpunk and Red Dead 2 are running on it yet.