OP
|OT| Valve's Steam Deck - Our decks are going places
- Thread starter prudis
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Looks like ASUS really went ahead and made the Steam Deck 2 lol.
Their new Ally device is pretty much what I expected the Deck 2 to be.
2x performance with 120hz screen. I don't know about the 1080p screen as that is most likely gonna be wasteful for the battery.
But the other 2 things are pretty much the next Deck 2. The price will probably be nowhere near the cheap version of the Deck so we will see how low they can make it.
Its ridiculously impressive how fast the tech is moving. AMD already has a chip with 2x performance. In the coming years we should see 3x performance of the Deck so I hope Valve is getting ready for the sequel. The dream for the Deck 2 now is 3x more powerful + 120hz display + 720p or 900p screen. The bar is being raised lol. Valve needs to nail that 400$ point again imo. It wouldn't surprise me if Valve does different tiers with screen sizes and resolutions this time.
When feeding the Ally with twice as much wattage as Steam Deck. When at the same TDP as Steam Deck, the Ally is not twice as fast.
Overall there are some nice things to be found here, but visually this looks like another Chinese company's first try at Windows-based handheld, but this was made by Asus, a big tech company as far as I am aware. The d-pad looks like cheap plastic, the shoulders button weirdly sticks out very much, speakers have a weird shape. None of this is a dealbreaker, but I wish it looked differently.
Yea in the Linus video he said at same wattage as the Deck its only 50% more powerful but you need twice to get 2x. So the 2x is probably more of a docked device in the living room type of experience. But still the fact that its only been a little over a year and we already getting devices that are pushing so much more power while having a 120hz screen is impressive.
And even 50% is still nothing to sneeze at as that could easily be the difference between playing a game @ locked 60fps instead of a choppy 50-60s. Also it weighs less than the Deck too. If Valve can somehow get the Deck under 500 grams its gonna be a big difference.
Yup, I hope that the next iteration of Deck is slightly smaller and lighter. It's my biggest complaint. Also, the dual fan design is smart in Ally - I would easily trade 1W of power for a cooler and more silent device. I have a Delta fan and uhh, in some games this thing gets loud.
The lack of trackpads in the Ally is a major loss for me, there are just too many games and non-game cases where I use them. I could make do without them of course, but it seems like the number of games with no controller support, mouse required launchers, and needing to navigate desktop makes a strong case to have at least one trackpad. This is the one thing, outside of GPD, that I feel everyone comes up short on.
I do think The Phawx is spot on too with the marketing since picking a higher refresh, higher resolution screen, and higher brightness while claiming significantly higher performance is a potential to disappoint folks with either less performance than they expect or way less battery life than they expect. That said, I think the Ally could make a great desktop replacement with a dock and then having the option to play handheld on the go.
Edit: The other thing that will be great about the Ally is it will likely be sold in more places
I do think The Phawx is spot on too with the marketing since picking a higher refresh, higher resolution screen, and higher brightness while claiming significantly higher performance is a potential to disappoint folks with either less performance than they expect or way less battery life than they expect. That said, I think the Ally could make a great desktop replacement with a dock and then having the option to play handheld on the go.
Edit: The other thing that will be great about the Ally is it will likely be sold in more places
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I think the Ally specs are really unbalanced.
Its display has 2x the pixels of the Steam Deck, which means it needs double the power to hit native resolution at the same fps and graphics settings than the Deck. But it only hits 2x the power with 2x the wattage meaning half the battery of the Deck (which already can drain quite fast).
The only real scenario that I can see for where the resolution and Hz can actually be used is very lightweight games. For more demanding games it would have to be used at sub-native resolutions to get higher fps or settings then the Deck.
Its display has 2x the pixels of the Steam Deck, which means it needs double the power to hit native resolution at the same fps and graphics settings than the Deck. But it only hits 2x the power with 2x the wattage meaning half the battery of the Deck (which already can drain quite fast).
The only real scenario that I can see for where the resolution and Hz can actually be used is very lightweight games. For more demanding games it would have to be used at sub-native resolutions to get higher fps or settings then the Deck.
1080p on a 7 inch screen is by and large pointless as far as gaming is concerned. Double the power draw to render at that resolution for such diminishing returns is wasteful.
It’d also make the UI really hard to see.
Then there’s the 120hz display. There is no way it’s ever gonna play a game at 120hz with the specs without having one of ASUS’s proprietary eGPUs clunked on to it.
Excessive for the sake of being excessive. In a gaming PC or even a laptop/tablet you can kind of see the merit of that, but handhelds are all about efficiency and doing more with less. This is anything but a Steam Deck 2 - this is the anti-Steam Deck.
It’d also make the UI really hard to see.
Then there’s the 120hz display. There is no way it’s ever gonna play a game at 120hz with the specs without having one of ASUS’s proprietary eGPUs clunked on to it.
Excessive for the sake of being excessive. In a gaming PC or even a laptop/tablet you can kind of see the merit of that, but handhelds are all about efficiency and doing more with less. This is anything but a Steam Deck 2 - this is the anti-Steam Deck.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #4,059
aka half the battery life
tbh it has too many red signs to even think about it
but nice to see more companies joining in
What I'm really not sold on (in addition to what everyone else said about screen/battery life) are the ergonomics. One thing that makes the Deck great is how surprisingly good it is at being comfortable to play for hours on end -- and much of that is due to its size and how the shape fits your hands, especially the depth.
The Ally has much thinner and less accentuated handles while being thicker in the middle. Even with it being very slightly lighter I can't see that as a recipe for comparable comfort.
The Ally has much thinner and less accentuated handles while being thicker in the middle. Even with it being very slightly lighter I can't see that as a recipe for comparable comfort.
Actually, I wouldn't mind a 120 Hz display for Deck 2.
60 fps games with BFI would sing on it, any 2D scrolling games on Deck 1 are painful to watch.
Questionable hardware aside, I kinda do hope the Ally becomes a success. Establishing this form factor for PC gaming was Valve's goal, ultimately.
But the device should be well-designed. If people buy this thing thinking the Deck is underpowered in comparison, then have a miserable experience thanks to the battery life and the fact that 120hz isn’t happening on the kinds of games they hope it will, it may cause more harm than good.
I’d hope that more restraint would be shown when making these things. I think a good price plus eGPU support is enough of a selling point on this - we don’t need a 1080p display or 120hz. It’s just setting bad expectations and the wrong sorts of precedent about what these handhelds should be.
That's the job of good reviews. You'll know pretty quickly what games it can play, with what power draw and thus can conclude what battery life to expect. Maybe for some this will be something they mostly use to replace a lower-end gaming laptop and use it stationary most of the time and with only occasional use as a handheld that's not plugged in.
A 120hz display and 1080p screen may seem like a giant waste...but at the end of the day its better to have the option than not.
There are so many indie games on Steam that can easily push 120fps with this set up. Forget the 1080p...I would just play everything at 720p regardless. But that 120fps option is massive.
Just take Rogue Legacy 2 from last year as an example.
With the Deck I played it at locked 60fps with 4-5hrs of battery life.
With the Ally I would be able to play it 120fps with lets say 2-3hrs of battery life. And lets be real 2-3hrs gaming a day is plenty of time before you can start charging it again. The smoother experience will always be worth it. And again its all about having the option.
There is a lot of overhead on the Deck today and you can't really make use of it in handheld mode. And its not just indie games either its any old game pre 2014 that would be able to push 120fps assuming they weren't capped. A 120hz display is gonna be a must for the Deck 2 so I hope Valve doesn't cheapen out in favor of cost cutting or wtvr. I don't really care about the display resolution and I'm not familiar with current battery tech. But unless some big improvement is coming on the horizon its probably just better to leave it 720p for the Deck 2. Unless Valve is able to find millions of 900p display somewhere ofc. I would love to see how the battery life would do with that.
But yea I'm not gonna buy the Ally. Its probably gonna be at least like 700$ after tax and its just too much. Still I'm excited to see the benchmarks with the Ally and I hope people turn down the rez to 900p to see how it performs with the battery life. It might just be a good compromise/solution to not have the battery life die too quickly.
There are so many indie games on Steam that can easily push 120fps with this set up. Forget the 1080p...I would just play everything at 720p regardless. But that 120fps option is massive.
Just take Rogue Legacy 2 from last year as an example.
With the Deck I played it at locked 60fps with 4-5hrs of battery life.
With the Ally I would be able to play it 120fps with lets say 2-3hrs of battery life. And lets be real 2-3hrs gaming a day is plenty of time before you can start charging it again. The smoother experience will always be worth it. And again its all about having the option.
There is a lot of overhead on the Deck today and you can't really make use of it in handheld mode. And its not just indie games either its any old game pre 2014 that would be able to push 120fps assuming they weren't capped. A 120hz display is gonna be a must for the Deck 2 so I hope Valve doesn't cheapen out in favor of cost cutting or wtvr. I don't really care about the display resolution and I'm not familiar with current battery tech. But unless some big improvement is coming on the horizon its probably just better to leave it 720p for the Deck 2. Unless Valve is able to find millions of 900p display somewhere ofc. I would love to see how the battery life would do with that.
But yea I'm not gonna buy the Ally. Its probably gonna be at least like 700$ after tax and its just too much. Still I'm excited to see the benchmarks with the Ally and I hope people turn down the rez to 900p to see how it performs with the battery life. It might just be a good compromise/solution to not have the battery life die too quickly.
Apparently there's new revisions of Steam Deck.
new:
old:
new:
old:
You don't release that shit before July Valve !
I have... a GPU to pay
...
Before anyone conclude otherwise, I'm joking and know that it's not a Deck 2 or even a revision yet.
I have... a GPU to pay
...
Before anyone conclude otherwise, I'm joking and know that it's not a Deck 2 or even a revision yet.
Saaaaaaaad face. But, yeah, you’re right - it’s selling so well, very little reason to discount every major sale.
That's not even my final form!!!!
My newest evolution of ridiculous, SteamDeckPi V1 : SteamDeck (reddit.com)
Reason: Link
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If the leaked ROG Ally price (699 for the "Z1 Extreme" model) is correct, that's very competitive and lower than I expected.
Still not sold on the ergonomics or the battery life impact of the HW choices, but that's a nice price.
Still not sold on the ergonomics or the battery life impact of the HW choices, but that's a nice price.
It's an extremely competitive price. I wonder if Valve will respond in any meaningful way, such as a Deck price cut.
Doubt, if anything the best way for them to compete would be to expand into more regions with a combined announcement between SteamOS 3.6, SteamOS standalone release AND the region expansion.
Deck's price I think it's quite perfect so not really need to lower it down too often as it would create false expectations and perception of the main price.
I think they won't reduce the entry-level price (most likely by far the hardest to hit), and they probably don't have enough of an incentive to reduce the price of the higher-end models either. I could potentially see the latter happening though, but not by much. Perhaps we are also more likely to see a moderate discount in future Steam sales if there is more viable competition.
But there isn't really for the base model, and it's also the one which is at best barely profitable.
But there isn't really for the base model, and it's also the one which is at best barely profitable.
I wonder if Valve really sees this as "competition". They aren't in the business of making money from selling hardware. They are in the business of being the place where you buy the games to play on whatever hardware you may have. Even with Gamepass, and other services, a big chunk of Ally owners will still want to play their Steam games on there.
I guess having more SteamOS users is also a long term goal, since it ensures that Steam is less dependant on Windows as a platform. To make that happen they would need to work on making Steam OS easily available on more devices, though.
I guess having more SteamOS users is also a long term goal, since it ensures that Steam is less dependant on Windows as a platform. To make that happen they would need to work on making Steam OS easily available on more devices, though.
As an owner of the first GPD Win and the first Aya Neo, improved specs over the the Steam Deck mean nothing to me if I have to go back to Windows in this form factor. SteamOS is just a way better experience for a gaming handheld. Plus no track pads...
ROG Ally looks very good and might buy it since Valve don't wanna sell me a Deck.
I had GPD Win 2.
It was barely usable for VNs, couldn't fathom using it to play actual games.
Ally will be good only for console type games, rest will play like hot shite on it.
The other thing about making it a console-game-focused Windows device is a number of those games appear to run better on Linux than on Windows nowadays thanks to questionable optimization and engine wonkery.
I'd never buy a PC handheld without trackpads after using the Steam deck, and honestly the battery life is my only complaint so far (performance wise if you sacrifice the battery you can have great graphics on the screen), so while options are nice I just don't see the Ally being a great one for the masses.
I'd never buy a PC handheld without trackpads after using the Steam deck, and honestly the battery life is my only complaint so far (performance wise if you sacrifice the battery you can have great graphics on the screen), so while options are nice I just don't see the Ally being a great one for the masses.
I purchase the steam deck today and seller help me install window for dual boot
After I install a game got the following error when I boot up my deck
How do I fix this? I am still able to boot into Steam OS if I press on Volume Up and power button
Pasteboard - Uploaded Image
After I install a game got the following error when I boot up my deck
How do I fix this? I am still able to boot into Steam OS if I press on Volume Up and power button
Pasteboard - Uploaded Image
When the Deck has so much influence on the industry that MICROSOFT wants in on your platform.
My goodness!
I just came in here to say that I now have remote play from my PS5 to my Deck using Chiaki or something like that. And I loaded EmuDeck, but I have not uploaded any bios or roms yet. That sounds time consuming, dragging and dropping from USB to each folder.
Really, just wanna play some Mario Galaxy (2) on Dolphin, but I have not downloaded any ROMS in like, 10 years and wouldn't even know where to find that kind of stuff anymore.
And I'm not gonna be arsed to dust off my copies of Mario Galaxy and trying to rip them. Those days are behind me.
You could try just selecting the "repair" option (you'd have to connect a USB keyboard I assume), but if you really want to get a Windows experience out of it you'd probably be best off getting into a more technical dedicated forum because Windows is going to be janky and buggy on the Deck until there's official support for it. Many games run faster or at least as fast in Linux/Proton anyway at the moment so it depends on what you're trying to accomplish.
There is a dedicated subreddit for it: r/WindowsOnDeck
Keep in mind that people trying to use Windows on Deck is probably less than 1% so there are going to be way fewer resources
Im note sure if this was adressed in this thread (I think it was mostly discussed in the main Steam thread): this report is a bit misleading.
Since this isnt in active development. It was a hackathon project that never went anywhere, according to the dev.
He posted on Reddit:
Source & more: reddit
Yesterday I felt like continuing my Pathfinder: Kingmaker playthrough, and I tried installing it to the Deck!
Now this feels like a game that was made for the Deck!
The gamepad controls worked excellent!
I love when developers go the extra mile and both add specific gamepad controls AND a specific gamepad UI to a game!
Now this feels like a game that was made for the Deck!
The gamepad controls worked excellent!
I love when developers go the extra mile and both add specific gamepad controls AND a specific gamepad UI to a game!
Is there a better site than ProtonDB for Deck specific settings? It seems a bit hit-and-miss on whether users there post TDP/FPS/graphics options. :/
Edit: Also, yes, finally got one. One of the second-hand stores here had the highest spec model for less than the Steam Store, and with a 12 month warranty, so had to bite.
Edit: Also, yes, finally got one. One of the second-hand stores here had the highest spec model for less than the Steam Store, and with a 12 month warranty, so had to bite.
Had my Deck for nearly a year and finally decided to get into emulation on it. Mostly just messed around with GBA stuff on it for now.
But I gotta say after going into a little rabbit hole on Deck emulation via Youtube.... yea its kind of mindblowing how good this thing is for emulation. Everything from Switch to PS3. And Emudeck etc. Even 360 emulation is getting impressive results. Seems like many apps are constantly updated and things are improving. Also love how holding start just gets you into desktop/gaming modes controls.
I did a lot of emulation on a samsung tablet buying attachments n all not that long ago. That was really the only time I did in a handheld/mobile way. But with the Deck its such an impressive leap as this is an actual gaming device unlike tablets. The convenience and overall experience leap is pretty big lol. Like jumping several generations ahead.
But I gotta say after going into a little rabbit hole on Deck emulation via Youtube.... yea its kind of mindblowing how good this thing is for emulation. Everything from Switch to PS3. And Emudeck etc. Even 360 emulation is getting impressive results. Seems like many apps are constantly updated and things are improving. Also love how holding start just gets you into desktop/gaming modes controls.
I did a lot of emulation on a samsung tablet buying attachments n all not that long ago. That was really the only time I did in a handheld/mobile way. But with the Deck its such an impressive leap as this is an actual gaming device unlike tablets. The convenience and overall experience leap is pretty big lol. Like jumping several generations ahead.
So, had my Deck for a while now and just starting to hit an issue. I only have 4.53gb free on the main drive. I have the entry level model (still need to get a new ssd and do the swap over) so install everything on the SD card instead. Other than the OS there should only be the shader cache on there. I only have indie games on there and nothing that should need a large shader cache. So I am guessing it's not clearing all the caches when I uninstall a game. So my guess is the cache isn't clearing properly?!? Anybody have any suggestions.
I have another question that I am hoping is a bit easier. How do I install non-steam games. I am talking non launcher games that have an installation process. Things like holocure I can do, but struggling with things like VN's.
I have another question that I am hoping is a bit easier. How do I install non-steam games. I am talking non launcher games that have an installation process. Things like holocure I can do, but struggling with things like VN's.
IIRC there is an issue where shader caches were not deleted when uninstalling games. You need to delete them manually.
Go to Desktop mode and check the following folders for games you uninstalled:
/home/deck/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata
and
/home/deck/.steam/steam/steamapps/shadercache
and delete any leftovers.
I decided to play Shadow of Valentia (Citra) and Xenoblade 2 (Ryujinx) on Deck. I was fed up with playing at the desk.
For added fun I thought it would be nice to set up syncthing.
2 hours later, nothing works and Ryujinx now crash.
Should have known.
For added fun I thought it would be nice to set up syncthing.
2 hours later, nothing works and Ryujinx now crash.
Should have known.
I would just like to praise the deck which manages to stay whisper quiet when playing certain games (example: State of Decay 2) that always causes both my desktop and laptop's fans to go haywire in an attempt to cool down.
It's such a marvelous piece of hardware!
It's such a marvelous piece of hardware!