BenRK
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Discussion Steam Deck (and Other Handheld Gaming PCs)
- Thread starter nacho_chicken
- Start date
O.Stogden
Member
I was tempted to go for the $490 Ryzen 5 6600U Ayn. But looking at specs, the GPU is pretty similar to the Steam Deck, but it only has 8GB of RAM, not 16GB, and I think 8GB isn't enough when you're splitting it between the CPU and the GPU. That means the CPU is only getting like 5GB to run games. Plus Ayn are charging $60 shipping. So it ends up $550 for it. Whereas the Steam Deck is only $400.
The only thing I dislike about the Steam Deck is the size, but everyone says it's not terrible so I will give it a fair chance.
BenRK
Member
@O.Stogden I'm all in favor of you getting what you want, Steam Deck or otherwise. I will say I wish I had grabbed the 64GB version rather than the 512GB. Not that I'm complaining about having the extra storage. When I made my reservation, I was thinking load times were going to be terrible on the 64GB drive and even worse off a microSD. And while there is a difference, turns out it's not that big of a difference. Still far better than a PS4 any day.
Physical size is something you'll quickly get used to, same with the horizontal button layout. Surprisingly the button layout is rather comfortable for me to use, especially compared to a Switch. But I digress. I'm just waking up for the day and the coffee hasn't quite hit yet, so I tend to ramble.
Physical size is something you'll quickly get used to, same with the horizontal button layout. Surprisingly the button layout is rather comfortable for me to use, especially compared to a Switch. But I digress. I'm just waking up for the day and the coffee hasn't quite hit yet, so I tend to ramble.
O.Stogden
Member
Yeah, running on the Deck I'm prepared to make sacrifices on things, the eMMC should run faster than a mechanical HDD and a good SD card is pretty much on par with a good HDD. Not accounting for any optimizations they've tried to do for it. I mainly enjoy the fast OS boot times of an SSD rather than game load times if I'm honest. I just can't stand waiting 5 minutes for an OS to load everything.
If I want to, I could fit an M.2 later anyway, as there is an M.2 slot in the 64GB model, you're just not technically meant to upgrade it yourself.
Has anyone tried a dock with it? Like the JSAUX one? Wondering if it'd be a good thing to take to friends houses, as it'll be more powerful than my laptop, and more portable than my PC. Would be good to just take it round, hook up a dock, mouse, keyboard to it and then HDMI it to a monitor.
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BenRK
Member
@O.Stogden another reason why I wish I had gone with the 64GB model, upgrading the internal storage. Just be sure you get an M.2 drive that's compatible, but I'm likely preaching to the choir here. Here's hoping you don't get the issue I had with my first Deck. Booted in a couple hours. My working model boots normally.
I personally havent used a dock with mine, but there are a lot of examples on YouTube of people trying out docks. Because I've never used one I couldn't say how well the dock experience is or isn't.
I personally havent used a dock with mine, but there are a lot of examples on YouTube of people trying out docks. Because I've never used one I couldn't say how well the dock experience is or isn't.
O.Stogden
Member
Yeah, been a little worried about QA issues, but it seems like the Decks are gradually improving in quality as time goes on, so that's good to hear. For sure the design of the Q3 decks have been different to Q1, Gardiner Bryant made a video on it saying the material used for the casing, analog sticks and trackpads are different on Q3 decks to Q1 decks. So possibly Q4 decks (which would be mine) would be different to Q3 decks, we'll have to wait and see on that.
Looking at my list of games I play, the most intensive I think is Forza Horizon 5, and that runs fine on Medium settings on the Deck, so I should be able to play whatever on it.
Pixel-Team
Master of Pixel-Fu
I've had my Steam Deck for a couple months now, and I'm having an absolute blast with it. It shines with emulators, and I'm partial to 2D games in general, but I've played quite a few 3D games as well: Mad Max, Elder Scrolls Oblivion, Styx 1 & 2, Trials Evolution, to name a few. You can go to https://checkmydeck.ofdgn.com to link your steam account and see which of your own games are compatible. P.S. all the Gamemaker Games I've made worked without issue, although installing non steam games takes a couple extra steps. Cheers!
BenRK
Member
Hope you get it sooner rather than later. My roommate got a 64GB model, and while that plus a 256GB microSD card is perfect for them, I personally feel like the 256GB model should have been the cheapest. But sounds like you're planning on swapping that out for something better later down the line.
nacho_chicken
Member
I just want to add, I have been very impressed over the OS updates on the Deck. Almost every gripe I have had has been addressed--even the ones I made previously in this topic. Most recently (a few days ago), the on-screen keyboard now works intuitively. You can move the cursor with arrow keys. You can type fast without the software ignoring or misplacing strokes. AND YOU CAN TABCOMPLETE IN THE TERMINAL, THANK GOODNESS.
A few minor problems with Steam Input's touch menus* have also been ironed out. There's no delay where the cursor has to update position, it's just automatically where your finger is on the touchpad from the first frame. Super easy to handle my inventory now.
*In case you have no idea what these are or little experience with Steam Input, you can assign a touch menu to either of the Steam Deck's touchpads. You then pick any number of virtual buttons, and make each of those correspond to a key or button. Imagine you're playing an older PC FPS like Doom, and want quick weapon swaps. You can assign keyboard keys 1-9 to the left touchpad, and now it is as if you have a numpad attached to your console.
A few minor problems with Steam Input's touch menus* have also been ironed out. There's no delay where the cursor has to update position, it's just automatically where your finger is on the touchpad from the first frame. Super easy to handle my inventory now.
*In case you have no idea what these are or little experience with Steam Input, you can assign a touch menu to either of the Steam Deck's touchpads. You then pick any number of virtual buttons, and make each of those correspond to a key or button. Imagine you're playing an older PC FPS like Doom, and want quick weapon swaps. You can assign keyboard keys 1-9 to the left touchpad, and now it is as if you have a numpad attached to your console.
O.Stogden
Member
Got my email about an hour ago and it's been ordered! 
I'm not a big gamer, so I've got the 64GB, and then I spent Ā£50 on a 256GB SD Card and 2 128GB SD cards, with the 256GB for a few AAA games, a 128GB for indies and older AAA games and a 128GB for emulation. Not really planning on using the internal storage for much. I might upgrade it internally down the line though, will see how it goes haha. You can get neat little credit card shaped SD card holders that hold 8 SD cards, so I'll likely carry that with the Deck and swap out SD cards as and when I want to play different titles, you can label the SD cards in it too.
Yeah, I've been keeping up to date on the OS updates over the past month, they seem to have gotten rid of most of the issues people had with it, glad they're finally addressing the issues with it when docked now too.
BenRK
Member
To my fellow Steam Deck owners, has anyone else noticed this?
When using FSR in a game through the SteamOS settings, occasionally the right side of the screen will shimmer before going back to normal. It's by no means something that happens all the time. I've noticed it happening in game most often (but not every time) not long after coming out of sleep.
Anyone else noticed this?
When using FSR in a game through the SteamOS settings, occasionally the right side of the screen will shimmer before going back to normal. It's by no means something that happens all the time. I've noticed it happening in game most often (but not every time) not long after coming out of sleep.
Anyone else noticed this?
TestuoShima
Member
This will replace my switch, lol.
BenRK
Member
It quickly replaced my Switch. Now my Switch sits forever docked, only grabbing first party games and any exclusive I'm interested in.
TestuoShima
Member
That makes me really excited! I can't wait to get it. Gonna play Strider hopefully on it. I'm selling my switch, lol.
nacho_chicken
Member
You talking about the one from 2014? Great game! I tried it for a bit a while back on mine, and it ran perfectly. I remember it being pretty light on the battery as well.
BenRK
Member
Anyone of you planning on getting the official dock? Or a 3rd party one? I'm personally not. I already have my desktop, and it's not a slouch when it comes to performance. The Steam Deck to me has always been a handheld. Of course it's not like I'm upset that docks for the Steam Deck exists. More curious about the reasoning why some people are getting them, and what their experience has been like.
Also, pretty sure the OS level FSR causes a visual bug. On the right hand side of the screen, occasionally it will flicker with a bunch of dots, like rendering artifacts (which honestly they probably are). I've seen this in the Fallout games (3, NV, and 4) as well as Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD. Not that these games run poorly without FSR, just been experimenting with it. Any performance boost or battery boost is certainly welcome in my books though.
Also, pretty sure the OS level FSR causes a visual bug. On the right hand side of the screen, occasionally it will flicker with a bunch of dots, like rendering artifacts (which honestly they probably are). I've seen this in the Fallout games (3, NV, and 4) as well as Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD. Not that these games run poorly without FSR, just been experimenting with it. Any performance boost or battery boost is certainly welcome in my books though.
nacho_chicken
Member
I'm sure as heck not buying the official dock at $90
I can get a cheap stand and a better USB-C hub for $60 total. I do already have a hub, though, so I'm good. Having one is almost mandatory if you want to transfer over large files.
FSR and most other upscaling algos are known to be noisy and artifact-prone. Instead of immediately jumping to FSR for battery life gains (especially on older games), I highly recommend playing with the Max TDP and GPU frequency sliders. Nothing as old as New Vegas is going to tax a modern GPU, not even a low-end one. Forcing the GPU frequency may also increase performance in games or programs that don't have the same kind of power usage patterns a modern game does. I usually set GPU freq to a bit above the highest number I see in the performance overlay. In some games, I've squeezed out a good hour of extra battery life.
BenRK
Member
New Vegas for sure doesn't tax the Steam Deck beyond the expected occasional crash (actually crashes way less frequently on the Steam Deck unmodded then modded on my desktop, but I digress) but at the same time I like playing with the performance settings. Found that 3 and NV both look absolutely fine on a lower resolution (can't remember what it is off the top of my head) with FSR sharpness 5, so why not use it? Yeah it's not the same power savings as adjusting the TDP and GPU, but it's not nothing either.
Regardless, I hope the OS FSR both gets updated to newer versions and the artifacting fixed. Though to be fair, this is the lowest resolution display I've used any upscaling tech on. Maybe because I'm running at a higher res on my desktop the artifacting is far FAR less noticeable.
Regardless, I hope the OS FSR both gets updated to newer versions and the artifacting fixed. Though to be fair, this is the lowest resolution display I've used any upscaling tech on. Maybe because I'm running at a higher res on my desktop the artifacting is far FAR less noticeable.
O.Stogden
Member
Not getting the Dock, I use a Ā£20 ($25) USB-C dock and a Ā£5 ($7) 3D Printed stand off eBay that's been working ok. Has USB and HDMI ports on it, which is all I need. The Deck has mostly replaced my laptop I used to take round my friends house, as it only had integrated Intel graphics, so now I just take my Deck round and plug it into a monitor at his house, it's like a low-end gaming laptop now, so we can play a bunch more games.
nacho_chicken
Member
Been looking at selling my desktop PC and making the Deck my daily driver PC. On an unrelated note, price hikes on daily necessities suck. Did some research and it turns out I was completely wrong about the above comment. A comparable USB-C hub with at least 3 USB-A ports, gigbit ethernet, HDMI 2.0, and DisplayPort 1.4 is going to run you around $90 US, and that's without a stand and a worse cable input (straight out instead of 90Ā°). Most of them even have fewer USB-A 3.1 Gen 1 Super Turbo REMASTERED ports (aka USB 3.0) than the Valve dock.I'm sure as heck not buying the official dock at $90
I can get a cheap stand and a better USB-C hub for $60 total.
DP1.4 out + ethernet is a requirement for me. Needless to say, I was pretty shocked to discover $90 was actually a good deal.
nacho_chicken
Member
I made mine 5 frames of blank video to make the boot sequence faster
EDIT: Figured I may as well share the video and how to set up your own. Couldn't find a good text-based tutorial online. This tutorial is valid as of the writing of this post, but I know Valve is working on a way to make this more user-friendly.
- Get the video you want to use. Mine is available from Dropbox here
- Rename your video to
deck_startup.webmNOTE: The video needs to be in .webm format and 30 seconds or less to work. You can convert any video to webm easily for free with Handbrake - Go to
~/.steam/root/config/(~ means the home folder, the one the file browser boots into by default). You may need to tick Show Hidden Files in the browser settings to get the.steamfolder to show up. - Add a folder named
uioverrides, then a folder inside that one namedmovies - Move the video file inside the new movies folder
Code:
mkdir -p ~/.steam/root/config/uioverrides/movies/
mv ./deck_startup.webm ~/.steam/root/config/uioverrides/movies/deck_startup.webm
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BenRK
Member
I think I found a way to improve emulator performance. Maybe I'm mistaken, but going in to the bios and changing the default vram from 1GB to 4GB's has seriously improved performance. Wish I did a scientific comparison, but I had an HD mod for Wind Waker, and it ran terribly before. Now it's a solid 30.
I could be mistaken, maybe I'm misremembering things.
I could be mistaken, maybe I'm misremembering things.
nacho_chicken
Member
Increasing the size of the UMA Frame Buffer is a fairly common adjustment. I can't imagine it would affect emulation much outside of HD texture packs, as it typically isn't heavy on VRAM. Emulation in general is an atypical gaming workload and it may not trigger the dynamic buffer resizing properly. I hear increasing the minimum buffer size may give performance boosts outside of emulation, but I can't see that being a problem with too many games. I know for a fact you run into frame buffer problems running Windows, as SteamOS's manager is understandably much better suited for the Deck's hardware.
nacho_chicken
Member
On the topic of performance tweaks, I've had great success in eliminating stuttering and significantly increasing performance in several lightly-threaded programs by disabling simultaneous multithreading (SMT) on the CPU. Understandably, there isn't an easily accessible toggle switch for this because it will decimate performance for games that prefer many threads. Your two options are:
1) Install a plugin loader + Power Tools plugin. This requires enabling Dev Mode.
2) Manually toggle it. All this requires is setting a sudo password (you have already done this... right?).
I've been stubborn about not enabling Dev Mode for reasons unknown, so I wrote a script to toggle it manually. Here it is, in case you want to use it.
NOTE: As always, please be careful about running random scripts from the internet, especially anything that asks for superuser privileges. The only thing this script needs it for is writing to the SMT control.
This script should run fine even while in the middle of a game, but I recommend shutting off anything before toggling SMT for safety's sake.
SMT resets to default (on) after shutdown, so that's kind of nice.
Here's my experiences after messing with it a while:
- GZDoom has a weird occasional stutter that doesn't show up in the performance overlay. Disabling SMT completely fixed this problem.
- Twilight Princess is known for stuttering in Hyrule Field. The more of the area you unlock, the worse the stutter gets. Disabling SMT fixed this.
- I own several PS2 games that are notoriously hard to emulate. Armored Core, Stuntman, Shadow of the Colossus, and Atlus RPGs, among others. Some of them still don't run 100% (Stuntman, SotC), but I'd absolutely consider them playable after disabling SMT vs. a horribly choppy half-speed with it enabled. Every other game I tried no longer lagged in areas of the game prone to it.
Might as well tag you, @BenRK , since you were pretty interested in emulator performance.
1) Install a plugin loader + Power Tools plugin. This requires enabling Dev Mode.
2) Manually toggle it. All this requires is setting a sudo password (you have already done this... right?).
I've been stubborn about not enabling Dev Mode for reasons unknown, so I wrote a script to toggle it manually. Here it is, in case you want to use it.
NOTE: As always, please be careful about running random scripts from the internet, especially anything that asks for superuser privileges. The only thing this script needs it for is writing to the SMT control.
This script should run fine even while in the middle of a game, but I recommend shutting off anything before toggling SMT for safety's sake.
Code:
#!/bin/bash
# This is here to make things more legible
SMT="/sys/devices/system/cpu/smt/control"
CURRENT_STATE=$(cat $SMT)
# Prepare new string
[ $CURRENT_STATE = "on" ] && NEW_STATE="off" || NEW_STATE="on"
echo Attempting to toggle simultaneous multithreading...
# This is the only section of the script that requires SU privileges
echo $NEW_STATE | sudo tee $SMT > /dev/null && echo SMT is now ${NEW_STATE^^} || echo Failed to change SMT state.Here's my experiences after messing with it a while:
- GZDoom has a weird occasional stutter that doesn't show up in the performance overlay. Disabling SMT completely fixed this problem.
- Twilight Princess is known for stuttering in Hyrule Field. The more of the area you unlock, the worse the stutter gets. Disabling SMT fixed this.
- I own several PS2 games that are notoriously hard to emulate. Armored Core, Stuntman, Shadow of the Colossus, and Atlus RPGs, among others. Some of them still don't run 100% (Stuntman, SotC), but I'd absolutely consider them playable after disabling SMT vs. a horribly choppy half-speed with it enabled. Every other game I tried no longer lagged in areas of the game prone to it.
Might as well tag you, @BenRK , since you were pretty interested in emulator performance.
BenRK
Member
@nacho_chicken
I'll absolutely be trying out some of those tweaks you mentioned. And yes, I have set the sudo password (I'm a dumb middle aged moron, but I'm not THAT dumb). Actually have the plugin loader (Decky) installed for VibrantDeck and a shortcut to bluetooth for my earbuds. Also have Fantastic on there as well, but I'm pretty sure I didn't install that. Think it came with Decky. But yeah, I'll try out Power Tools plugin too. If it makes the emulators run better, I'm all for it.
I'll absolutely be trying out some of those tweaks you mentioned. And yes, I have set the sudo password (I'm a dumb middle aged moron, but I'm not THAT dumb). Actually have the plugin loader (Decky) installed for VibrantDeck and a shortcut to bluetooth for my earbuds. Also have Fantastic on there as well, but I'm pretty sure I didn't install that. Think it came with Decky. But yeah, I'll try out Power Tools plugin too. If it makes the emulators run better, I'm all for it.
S
Sam (Deleted User)
Guest
KDE has come a long way in terms of regaining stability that it hasn't had basically since KDE 3, but now with KDE 5 we actually have a sleek and modern interface on top of better stability than KDE 4. I know from having kde on both kubuntu 22.04 LTS and my FreeBSD-13.0-RELEASE machines. For these reasons if and when I get a Steam Deck it will be keeping the default SteamOS and will not be installing Windows 11 on it.
BenRK
Member
I have had some bad luck with the Steam Deck's durability. RMAing mine. Again. This time the power button only works maybe a third of the time. Frustrating, but then again I'd rather have a properly working Steam Deck.
Anyone else been having hardware issues like this? My screen also has some ghosting issues, but it never bothered me enough to try for an RMA. I'm wondering if I got my Steam Deck and first replacement at some threshold in their build quality. I remember reading about how shortly after I got my first replacement they improved the quality of the hardware durability.
For the record, I don't think this is a major issue. I think I'm just an unlucky early adopter.
Anyone else been having hardware issues like this? My screen also has some ghosting issues, but it never bothered me enough to try for an RMA. I'm wondering if I got my Steam Deck and first replacement at some threshold in their build quality. I remember reading about how shortly after I got my first replacement they improved the quality of the hardware durability.
For the record, I don't think this is a major issue. I think I'm just an unlucky early adopter.
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O.Stogden
Member
Not had any issues with my Deck in terms of hardware really. SteamOS crashed a few times, definitely a little buggy there. Often when logging in it'd just get stuck and I had to reboot.
I opened it up and took out the 64GB eMMC and put in a 512GB SSD and put Windows 11 on it. Mostly for compatibility with Game Pass as you can't play Game Pass games on SteamOS sadly, and most of my newer games I play are on Game Pass as opposed to Steam.
Likely you were just unlucky with your Deck there...
I opened it up and took out the 64GB eMMC and put in a 512GB SSD and put Windows 11 on it. Mostly for compatibility with Game Pass as you can't play Game Pass games on SteamOS sadly, and most of my newer games I play are on Game Pass as opposed to Steam.
Likely you were just unlucky with your Deck there...
BenRK
Member
New Steam Deck and I can already tell you that it is way better. Power button on my old one was recessed and mushy. This power button is even with the case and has a satisfying click. Even the screen ghosting seems to be gone.
Yeah, they replaced it instead of fixing my old one, but I'm not going to complain.
Yeah, they replaced it instead of fixing my old one, but I'm not going to complain.
S