Current Events > Who here has a steam deck?

(+) Yeah! (+)

i have one but i havent played it as much lately

I do. Its my main gaming device at this point. Sometimes it goes unused for a while, but that generally means Im not playing a game at all.

I have one.

I like it well enough but I go through these phases where I'll have 3 different games I'm playing on it at any given point and then I suddenly stop using it completely for like a month. Then when I go back to it it's with a different set of games.

It's really nice being able to play PC games without needing to confine myself to one spot though. I have a laptop but it's hooked up to my TV so I have two monitors so it's a pain to actually use it as a laptop.

0Renegade posted...

i have one but i havent played it as much lately

Same. Mine is mainly used to play those steam indies that did not release on consoles (stuff like spark the electric jester, them and us, and river city ransom underground) and older releases that run great on it like dragon's dogma.

When it comes to portable gaming I am usually on the switch just because there is a good deal more nintendo games I did not get through yet.

Yeah, I got one on sale earlier in the year and it's great. I haven't used it in a few months, though. I might pull it out now, though, lol.

I have to say I love how easy it is to upgrade parts and how easy they make parts available to buy too. I totally just bought the cheapest model and just slapped in a larger SSD.

I have a steam dick

Keeping a close eye on it for emulation potential in the future, but I have a gaming PC for actual steam use right now.

Use it play my *cough* backups

got it recently, upgraded the storage, got a mircosd, and omg i can fit so many games on it. i have so many games on it. so many. i'm glued to the thing.

Bump

Yes. I dont use it much, because if Im at home, Id rather game on my desktop, and if Im not, Id rather read a book on my tablet than game on a handheld. But Ive been using it for grinding lately. Ill watch some TV late at night, and Ill do some money grinding in Triangle Strategy while Im doing that.

They still dont sell steam decks in other countries so I got a ROG Ally instead

I wish i could afford one. Im broke :(

Got one a year ago. Best emulation machine, made my switch obsolete. Great battery life for what I play, love the size and options I'm given to squeeze more performance or battery out of the thing.

No, but I have a different handheld PC (Ayaneo 2). It's more powerful than the Deck but not as powerful as the Ally.

Love mine, it's replaced my Vita as my on the go emulation machine. Obviously not pocket friendly like the vita and despite being smaller the vita's oled display still looks better the the deck but the wider range of systems it supports and not having to worry about trying to find good quality replacement batteries or replacements for the proprietary power connector more then makes up for those issues.

I'm usually at home so I don't think I need one

Steam deck or switch?

emblem-man posted...

Steam deck or switch?

Deck.

The deck seems awesome from the limited I've read about. Docking ability seems awesome, and as long as I'm not a picky graphics person, it seems like it should play anything fine right?

Think I'm gonna get one during the next steam sale

Bought a Rog Ally this summer

Its rekindled my love of console gaming. Also serves as a movie player and handheld for plane trips.

I've never bought a game off of Steam and I don't have any plans to so I don't think a Steam Deck would be worthwhile for me. I hear it's great for emulation on the go but I don't think $400+ is worth it just for that.

Meh...switch 2 will make it obsolete copium

I got one for my son but he rarely ever uses it since he prefers to play on his laptop. I'm considering just using it myself since I just got that WB100 Humble Bundle with all of the Arkham Games and Mortal Kombat X and 11.

bump

PerseusRad posted...

I do. Its my main gaming device at this point. Sometimes it goes unused for a while, but that generally means Im not playing a game at all.

This

super_felicia posted...

Meh...switch 2 will make it obsolete copium

lol

From an emulation perspective maybe. The Switch 2 is rumored to be almost as strong as a PS4 and nothing emulates PS4 well yet.

Inohira posted...

lol

From an emulation perspective maybe. The Switch 2 is rumored to be almost as strong as a PS4 and nothing emulates PS4 well yet.

To be fair, there isnt much of a reason to emulate PS4 as it barely has any games that arent on PC natively. The same was largely true of Xbox 360 and PS3, so Im honestly surprised emulators for PS3 even got any traction.

PraetorXyn posted...

To be fair, there isnt much of a reason to emulate PS4 as it barely has any games that arent on PC natively. The same was largely true of Xbox 360 and PS3, so Im honestly surprised emulators for PS3 even got any traction.

They're still games that are on PS3 that are not on PC.

I bought one when they were 10% off. Barely use it though.

emblem-man posted...

The deck seems awesome from the limited I've read about. Docking ability seems awesome, and as long as I'm not a picky graphics person, it seems like it should play anything fine right?

Think I'm gonna get one during the next steam sale

If you can afford them, you'll get much better results from other handhelds. You want something with an AMD CPU with either RDNA2 or RDNA3 graphics, preferably the latter. (In particular, avoid the Ryzen 5000 series CPUs, as they have the older Vega graphics, which - while still impressive for integrated graphics - are hugely inferior to RDNA2/3).

As an added bonus most other ones natively run Windows, which means 100% compatibility and it can double as a PC for productive tasks when docked (it's not practical in handheld mode for most things that wouldn't be practical on a smartphone).

I've had an Ayaneo 2 (Ryzen 7 6800U) for about a year now, in general the handheld functionality is really great. I don't tend to play AAAs, but I've never had performance issues despite limiting the power usage to improve battery life; in docked mode, where I turn those limits off, it can even run some of the lower-intensity VR titles. Newer ones with RDNA3 (eg. ROG Ally) would perform even better.

Yeah, those are more than I'd like to spend.

Thinking of getting one before I move to Japan.

Yep. Resident Evil 4 Remake works surprisingly well on it. I love how versatile it is.

I just wish the screen was as nice as the Switch OLED.

emblem-man posted...

Yeah, those are more than I'd like to spend.

I wouldn't have spent that for a gaming device alone, but it's also my primary PC now too, and I was just about due for an upgrade (was previously running an i7-6700HQ / GTX 960M).

Trumble posted...

If you can afford them, you'll get much better results from other handhelds. You want something with an AMD CPU with either RDNA2 or RDNA3 graphics, preferably the latter. (In particular, avoid the Ryzen 5000 series CPUs, as they have the older Vega graphics, which - while still impressive for integrated graphics - are hugely inferior to RDNA2/3).

As an added bonus most other ones natively run Windows, which means 100% compatibility and it can double as a PC for productive tasks when docked (it's not practical in handheld mode for most things that wouldn't be practical on a smartphone).

I've had an Ayaneo 2 (Ryzen 7 6800U) for about a year now, in general the handheld functionality is really great. I don't tend to play AAAs, but I've never had performance issues despite limiting the power usage to improve battery life; in docked mode, where I turn those limits off, it can even run some of the lower-intensity VR titles. Newer ones with RDNA3 (eg. ROG Ally) would perform even better.

Running Windows is exactly why the other ones suck as a handheld device. Windows is garbage to use on anything but a full sized computer, while the Steam Decks Game Mode Ui is excellent. The extra performance simply isnt worth the extra money on a handheld IMO, as what Id play on a handheld would mostly be indies and retro games that dont need it anyway.

PraetorXyn posted...

Running Windows is exactly why the other ones suck as a handheld device. Windows is garbage to use on anything but a full sized computer, while the Steam Decks Game Mode Ui is excellent. The extra performance simply isnt worth the extra money on a handheld IMO, as what Id play on a handheld would mostly be indies and retro games that dont need it anyway.

It's one button press to launch Steam Big Picture mode. Not exactly a huge inconvenience.

Trumble posted...

It's one button press to launch Steam Big Picture mode. Not exactly a huge inconvenience.

Yeah.. no. That gives you no control over the hardware like the Steam Deck does. No performance profiles, no FPS limit, no performance tweaks, no access to Bluetooth devices to pair a controller, etc., etc. on the Steam Deck thats all a tightly integrated experience at your fingertips. If it were that simple, everyone would just leave their Steam Deck in desktop mode and use the button to launch Steam in Big Picture mode. We dont, and theres a reason for that.

PraetorXyn posted...

Yeah.. no. That gives you no control over the hardware like the Steam Deck does. No performance profiles, no FPS limit, no performance tweaks, no access to Bluetooth devices to pair a controller, etc., etc. on the Steam Deck thats all a tightly integrated experience at your fingertips. If it were that simple, everyone would just leave their Steam Deck in desktop mode and use the button to launch Steam in Big Picture mode. We dont, and theres a reason for that.

That's nice to know.

Morning bump

Have 2. One for me, one for the wife. No regrets. Have had mine since the first batch of releases, she got hers a few months later.

Is there actually a concern that the steam deck would become underpowered in the next year or so?

I have one, no one uses it lol

emblem-man posted...

Is there actually a concern that the steam deck would become underpowered in the next year or so?

Next year or so, probably not, but it will reach that point before Ryzen 6000 / 7000 / Z1 PCs do (apart from maybe Ryzen 5 6600U, but that one is very rare in handhelds). It will likely outlast any Intel-based handhelds at the moment, even ones considerably newer than it, but newer AMD ones will last longer.

If you don't mind more frequent upgrades - which may still be the cheaper option considering the Deck's price - you're fine for now.