Yes yes yes, a million times yes! I’ve always wanted Steam to work on a Raspberry Pi no muss no fuss with the idea that the community can go a long way in getting a lot of the games running if the...
Yes yes yes, a million times yes! I’ve always wanted Steam to work on a Raspberry Pi no muss no fuss with the idea that the community can go a long way in getting a lot of the games running if the seed was there, and if the only thing that comes from this is that the client is officially supported, passes Steamworks Checks, and doesn’t break when not in the compact mode, that’s a quantum leap forward.
With the VR stuff in particular, Valve is probably gearing up for a consolified headset similar to the Quest (Deckard?), but I think if Steam can run decently on ARM, a Steam Deck Mini with a stupid long battery life would be a crown jewel, and put Steam and Epic in an intresting corner together where they are both trying to break into the mobile space.
Ever since Apple Silicon was released, my dream was a steam deck with an M series processor. It will literally never happen, but it’s fun to think about. The only reason Apple silicon could be...
Ever since Apple Silicon was released, my dream was a steam deck with an M series processor. It will literally never happen, but it’s fun to think about. The only reason Apple silicon could be considered bad for gaming is because of games having poor macOS support. If we could get a specialized chip that had the CPU power of the base M4 with the better gpu of the M3 pro or max in a steam deck, that would be sick. As you mention, battery life would probably be incredible too.
I guess now that Qualcomm has some chips that come close to Apple silicon, that dream is actually a possibility.
I think ARM based handheld gaming PCs are probably still years away, at least not until games start being compiled for ARM. x86 handhelds can barely handle AAA titles as it is. Throw architecture...
I think ARM based handheld gaming PCs are probably still years away, at least not until games start being compiled for ARM. x86 handhelds can barely handle AAA titles as it is. Throw architecture emulation into that mix and you need an ARM processor a magnitude more powerful than what x86 has just to offer the same performance. IIRC, even Rosetta 2 sees up to a 30% performance hit depending on the task.
The impact of the overhead is variable, though. In games that aren’t CPU-bound it doesn’t have that much of an effect, while it’s obviously a much bigger deal for CPU-intensive games.
The impact of the overhead is variable, though. In games that aren’t CPU-bound it doesn’t have that much of an effect, while it’s obviously a much bigger deal for CPU-intensive games.
As a mainstream product? Likely not, as a DIY product I can see this happening. The footprint of the hardware in a Mac mini isn't all that big but still very capable. People already are creating...
It will literally never happen, but it’s fun to think about.
As a mainstream product? Likely not, as a DIY product I can see this happening. The footprint of the hardware in a Mac mini isn't all that big but still very capable. People already are creating all sorts of projects, moving the hardware of them to other enclosures.
Yes yes yes, a million times yes! I’ve always wanted Steam to work on a Raspberry Pi no muss no fuss with the idea that the community can go a long way in getting a lot of the games running if the seed was there, and if the only thing that comes from this is that the client is officially supported, passes Steamworks Checks, and doesn’t break when not in the compact mode, that’s a quantum leap forward.
With the VR stuff in particular, Valve is probably gearing up for a consolified headset similar to the Quest (Deckard?), but I think if Steam can run decently on ARM, a Steam Deck Mini with a stupid long battery life would be a crown jewel, and put Steam and Epic in an intresting corner together where they are both trying to break into the mobile space.
Ever since Apple Silicon was released, my dream was a steam deck with an M series processor. It will literally never happen, but it’s fun to think about. The only reason Apple silicon could be considered bad for gaming is because of games having poor macOS support. If we could get a specialized chip that had the CPU power of the base M4 with the better gpu of the M3 pro or max in a steam deck, that would be sick. As you mention, battery life would probably be incredible too.
I guess now that Qualcomm has some chips that come close to Apple silicon, that dream is actually a possibility.
I think ARM based handheld gaming PCs are probably still years away, at least not until games start being compiled for ARM. x86 handhelds can barely handle AAA titles as it is. Throw architecture emulation into that mix and you need an ARM processor a magnitude more powerful than what x86 has just to offer the same performance. IIRC, even Rosetta 2 sees up to a 30% performance hit depending on the task.
The impact of the overhead is variable, though. In games that aren’t CPU-bound it doesn’t have that much of an effect, while it’s obviously a much bigger deal for CPU-intensive games.
As a mainstream product? Likely not, as a DIY product I can see this happening. The footprint of the hardware in a Mac mini isn't all that big but still very capable. People already are creating all sorts of projects, moving the hardware of them to other enclosures.