*** The Official Steam Deck Thread ***

[phatboy]

I bought an OLED off Members market about a month ago purely for work travel.
Best thing I've bought! Out the country for 11 days due to work for Dec, be a joy to have it with me.

10 hour plus flights? You'll need a battery pack, so do I in truth, anyone got any recommendations?

Yeah I was just thinking the same thing this evening! Luckily most planes on transatlantic have AC Sockets between the seats, my delta flight to salt lake city had this and were not in any special cabin grade.

The Anker unit kelt mentions does look pretty decent for a portable source

 

[CGrieves]

Has anyone tried using a KVM with the Steam deck. Im trying to sort my mess of a home office out and decided I need a 3 PC KVM, home PC, work laptop and Steam Deck. I have a horrible feeling that it probably isn't going to work as most KVM's require USB inputs to work.
I know I can get a dock for it, but Im trying to save on space

Check out Barrier (freeware). I use it across my desktop PC / work laptop / Macbook / Steam deck. It's like having one big multi-monitor setup. You can even copy / paste between devices.

 

[edgedemon]

Check out Barrier (freeware). I use it across my desktop PC / work laptop / Macbook / Steam deck. It's like having one big multi-monitor setup. You can even copy / paste between devices.

Never heard of it, thanks for that, googling now

edit

Big thanks for that shout out, this looks like just the job!

 

[phatboy]

So my research rabbit hole now base on the fact I will be buying something before the end of the year has lead me down looking at the ROG ally too.

Can anyone shed any light on owning both or opinions? The Ally looks more powerful on paper but I can see it does lack in areas, main power draw it appears!

The idea of being able to run gamepass etc too as it's an open windows OS is nice but I do love the steam OS UI and it makes the proposition of the SD feel a more polished overall offering.....

Can of worms time it appears lol

 

[Bluecube]

You can install Bazzite Linux on the Ally which will give you the complete SteamOS experience

 

[Bubo]

So my research rabbit hole now base on the fact I will be buying something before the end of the year has lead me down looking at the ROG ally too.

Can anyone shed any light on owning both or opinions? The Ally looks more powerful on paper but I can see it does lack in areas, main power draw it appears!

The idea of being able to run gamepass etc too as it's an open windows OS is nice but I do love the steam OS UI and it makes the proposition of the SD feel a more polished overall offering.....

Can of worms time it appears lol

For me it is the all important track pads on the Steam Deck that I can't imagine doing without. The Legion has one TP I think, but after using the Steam Deck I know I couldn't get a device that didn't have any at all. They are so useful for games which require radial/grid menus, as well as just the analogue "mouse" type control you would think of at first. I've not really looked at the Ally but at first glance it does not appear to have any track pads.

 

[mountaincow]

For me it is the all important track pads on the Steam Deck that I can't imagine doing without. The Legion has one TP I think, but after using the Steam Deck I know I couldn't get a device that didn't have any at all. They are so useful for games which require radial/grid menus, as well as just the analogue "mouse" type control you would think of at first. I've not really looked at the Ally but at first glance it does not appear to have any track pads.

Yeah exactly. Even if you don't want to use them as mouse in shooters, they open up other games which would otherwise be difficult and can also function as other input types if you primarily use the sticks.

I'd say it depends on the type of compatibility you're looking for. If you want to play the handful of games which only function on windows and don't want to install it on the deck, or if you want to have access to a much larger variety of games which don't play well with sticks even when emulating mouse.

 

[Mariusz]

Thinking about getting a Steam Deck as a way to get back into PC gaming and work through my backlog. Don't really fancy a gaming rig and having to deal with Windows and I've gotten used to gaming on the sofa with a controller on the big screen. Does anybody use the Steam Deck docked on a monitor/TV? How do you find it, is it similar to the console experience?

 

[phatboy]

Shame this steam discount offer on the LCD models is pretty much a non starter, seems been out of stock since they announced the deal

 

[Purgatory]

Steam Deck™

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

store.steampowered.com

Seems they are trying to clear out the LCD stock apart from the 256GB version for the moment they had sales on the 64GB and 512GB and sold out.


Maybe new versions coming soon ?

Wish they had slightly better performance and would grab an OLED version just for emulation, some say they struggle for PS3, XBOX and Switch emulation and better off on a Z1 Extreme, 7840U or 8840U for these systems. Really would like an OLED screen device for emulation and only ones are the SD OLED, Android based devices (with silly prices) and coming soon the silly priced Zotac Zone, that I'm hoping crashes in price as it is very over priced for its specs. But seeing Valve clearing out the SD LCD models is giving me hope they may have a new better specced versions coming out soon.. But who knows maybe they just want to have one LCD model and the 2 OLED models they currently have.

 

[mrbios]

Steam Deck™

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

store.steampowered.com

Seems they are trying to clear out the LCD stock apart from the 256GB version for the moment they had sales on the 64GB and 512GB and sold out.


Maybe new versions coming soon ?

Wish they had slightly better performance and would grab an OLED version just for emulation, some say they struggle for PS3, XBOX and Switch emulation and better off on a Z1 Extreme, 7840U or 8840U for these systems. Really would like an OLED screen device for emulation and only ones are the SD OLED, Android based devices (with silly prices) and coming soon the silly priced Zotac Zone, that I'm hoping crashes in price as it is very over priced for its specs. But seeing Valve clearing out the SD LCD models is giving me hope they may have a new better specced versions coming out soon.. But who knows maybe they just want to have one LCD model and the 2 OLED models they currently have.

Would be nice if they released a new spec model in time for Xmas. How long has the OLED model been out now?

Finding less and less reasons to own a Switch lately as there's sod all games i play on it, almost exclusively used for mario kart with the kids these days... I want a Steam Deck instead but knowing my luck i'll buy one then a week later a new model will be announced....

 

[chrismscotland]

Steam Deck™

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

store.steampowered.com

Seems they are trying to clear out the LCD stock apart from the 256GB version for the moment they had sales on the 64GB and 512GB and sold out.


Maybe new versions coming soon ?

Wish they had slightly better performance and would grab an OLED version just for emulation, some say they struggle for PS3, XBOX and Switch emulation and better off on a Z1 Extreme, 7840U or 8840U for these systems. Really would like an OLED screen device for emulation and only ones are the SD OLED, Android based devices (with silly prices) and coming soon the silly priced Zotac Zone, that I'm hoping crashes in price as it is very over priced for its specs. But seeing Valve clearing out the SD LCD models is giving me hope they may have a new better specced versions coming out soon.. But who knows maybe they just want to have one LCD model and the 2 OLED models they currently have.

I guess we'll see a new model next year with the new Z2 CPU having been recently announced; kind of makes me wonder if there might be a "Steam" verson of that CPU......
I really want to pick up a handheld, although mainly for emulation but have been leaning toward the Ally X; but a new Steam Deck would probably be high on a list

 

[Purgatory]

I guess we'll see a new model next year with the new Z2 CPU having been recently announced; kind of makes me wonder if there might be a "Steam" verson of that CPU......
I really want to pick up a handheld, although mainly for emulation but have been leaning toward the Ally X; but a new Steam Deck would probably be high on a list

Normal Ally Z1 Extreme are £450 at the moment, Ally X is £800 and too expensive too for what you get more. Steam Deck OLED is only interesting me really as an emulation device and allows a lot of emulation games that use the track pads well to shine on it. My only issue with it is that it is a little under powered cpu/gpu wise for some emulators.

I already have a Antec Core HS/Ayaneo Slide rebrand and may just grab a second one of these for an emulation device only (when they get back in stock) but really wanted an OLED device and the two track pads for some of the emulators/games that I like that would use them... Valve really need to up the specs now on it, zen2 cpu .. with 4 cores is not good enough now, but understand why as it saves power for a handheld device. A lot to like with the steam decks and to me would make the perfect emulation device and the OLED screen..

Maybe if they put the OLED on sale soon I may bite, but at current prices I'm hesitant and may look for a second hand one to try out.. Sad thing if valve don't update them and the Zotac Zone comes out with a better price it may end up the steam deck killer as they have the same controllers as the Steam Deck.. So Steam OS on that device maybe the way too, but not at £850 and the specs they have mentioned for 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD size, plus the small battery too.

 

[mrbios]

Find myself going down the youtube review rabbit hole now for emulation. I've got an old Intel NUC PC running batocera but that's only for games Gamecube/PS1 and older. I've not visited the emulation space for such a long time, i had no idea 360, ps3 emulation was looking so strong. So many 360 games i'm desperate to revisit.... though the video I'm watching of the steam deck (albeit, 9 months old) suggests 360 emulation is pretty poor on it. Has it improved?

 

[stooeh]

It's ultimately limited by the CPU in the steam deck which is only zen2 level cores. The Z1 Extreme should be a good deal better for emulation unless happy with older systems.

 

[TNA]

Steam Deck 2 with OLED and Z2 will be sweet. Could be a possibility sometime 2025. Probably Q4 of 2025 would be my guess.

 

[Bluecube]

So many 360 games i'm desperate to revisit.... though the video I'm watching of the steam deck (albeit, 9 months old) suggests 360 emulation is pretty poor on it. Has it improved?

I’ve briefly played Lost Planet via Xbox emulation on the SD and it ran perfectly well. Having said that I’ve also tried Black and it sucked! It’s likely a matter of trying games out and seeing how you get on.

 

[McPhee]

Sad thing if valve don't update them and the Zotac Zone comes out with a better price it may end up the steam deck killer as they have the same controllers as the Steam Deck.

The fabled "Steam Deck Killer" is like the mirage of an oasis in the desert.

Valve priced the Deck very aggressively. And now that anyone and everyone who is involved in PC hardware is producing their own handhelds, it's getting very difficult to differentiate your product from the competition and compete on price. This week saw Acer's COO basically admit that they don't believe they have any chance of competing in this market. And I fail to see why Zotac would expect to fair any better?

Maybe we will see someone pull off the impossible within the next year. But I'd be willing to bet the Steam Deck 2 will be out shortly after that happens. And with that, the goal posts will have moved.

 

[MookJong]

Was I the only one that didn't realise for ages that to use FSR in games these two things must be true:

• The game must be running in Windowed mode
• The game resolution must be lower than SteamDeck native

I feel like Valve should explain this better. You can get some pretty incredible results with FSR and extend the play time massively on battery.

 

[Rob_B]

I wasn't aware of windowed but I knew the resolution thing, although not quite sure HOW I knew it :/ I think you might be right that they don't really explain it but not sure how they could upon setup.