I feel like this is something I would by the v2 of. I like the Switch but I feel it is really let down by being a closed platform combined with nintendo not really doing anything since release...
I feel like this is something I would by the v2 of. I like the Switch but I feel it is really let down by being a closed platform combined with nintendo not really doing anything since release with the OS. If steam could replicate what makes the switch good while being open to more software and less subscription services, that would be awesome.
In this one case, I'm buying V1 to insure V2 gets made, and ideally building support for more devices in this vein. You get enough companies making portable linux gaming machines, sooner or later...
In this one case, I'm buying V1 to insure V2 gets made, and ideally building support for more devices in this vein.
You get enough companies making portable linux gaming machines, sooner or later someone will add a 5G adapter and I can ditch my cellphone.
Any word on real world battery life yet? So far I love what I’m seeing but if it gets 90 minutes in game it would be worthless. Valve’s reported battery life doesn’t line up with the SoC’s...
Any word on real world battery life yet? So far I love what I’m seeing but if it gets 90 minutes in game it would be worthless. Valve’s reported battery life doesn’t line up with the SoC’s wattage.
Edit:
To be fair it's actually not a bad gaming ultrabook replacement for those that just keep their laptop docked most of the time (like me). So I shouldn't call it "worthless" with 90 minutes of gaming battery life.
Okay, in IGN's early videos, Valve reps said 4 hours of Portal 2, and 5~6 at 30 fps. I don't actually think their estimate is much off. The APU was rated for 15W, and I believe some of the press...
Okay, in IGN's early videos, Valve reps said 4 hours of Portal 2, and 5~6 at 30 fps.
I don't actually think their estimate is much off. The APU was rated for 15W, and I believe some of the press was just told 20W overall.
I anticipated the potential for a higher power draw, such as 20~25W from the APU in certain circumstances, but Tested was told (possibly incorrectly) that docked performance wouldn't be different, which could mean it is already pulling as much power as it can, and shouldn't be spiking to 25W+ like similarly spec'd laptops.
At 25 watts, you would see 90 minutes. But considering that this is a PC, we already know we can tweak game settings to something more suitable for a handheld, and I see absolutely* no reason not to expect a better battery life in line with the stated 4 or 5~6 on 3d gaming, if you are willing to lower game settings for battery life. Even the 8 hours for less demanding games (2d, indie) starts to look achievable as a best case.
*That sounded more confident than I am. Correction: I think the 2 hours minimum is roughly correct, and that it should be possible to improve it (and probably decrease it) by game settings.
What a cool idea! I imagine this would be a difficult for Valve to implement on the diaspora of PC titles, but the Lutris community is probably familiar enough with various games' config files...
What a cool idea! I imagine this would be a difficult for Valve to implement on the diaspora of PC titles, but the Lutris community is probably familiar enough with various games' config files that it might be feasible to implement a little toggle when launching a game, at least. I'll look into it!
More important is making sure the GPU is only rendering 30fps. Edit: also, making sure the CPU is only running the game at 30fps for that matter, although this is less important and in some cases...
More important is making sure the GPU is only rendering 30fps.
Edit: also, making sure the CPU is only running the game at 30fps for that matter, although this is less important and in some cases it could be desirable to keep the game running faster (just not the graphics).
My main use case, 90 min would be fine. ~45 min train commute each way. Can charge with USB C on either end. If I really want a long gaming session...I'll plug in or use a dock. I'm not gonna be...
My main use case, 90 min would be fine.
~45 min train commute each way. Can charge with USB C on either end.
If I really want a long gaming session...I'll plug in or use a dock. I'm not gonna be using this thing more than 10ft from an outlet 90% of the time.
That's pretty much exactly how I use my Switch, but with the added advantage of not rebuying my library and synced save games.
Would be nice if we could see ARM take off for gaming on the steam platform. Something like the M1 would be perfect for this device (although I know this will never happen)
Would be nice if we could see ARM take off for gaming on the steam platform. Something like the M1 would be perfect for this device (although I know this will never happen)
Not directly. Microsoft has a translation layer, but I have not heard good things about it. Apple has a translation layer called Rosetta, which is spectacular, but Apple would never license it to...
Not directly. Microsoft has a translation layer, but I have not heard good things about it. Apple has a translation layer called Rosetta, which is spectacular, but Apple would never license it to anyone. I don’t know of anyone else working on a translation layer.
Rosetta 2's stellar performance comes from custom silicon within the M1 designed to facilitate accelerated x86 emulation. It wouldn't be much use on non-Apple ARM chips.
Rosetta 2's stellar performance comes from custom silicon within the M1 designed to facilitate accelerated x86 emulation. It wouldn't be much use on non-Apple ARM chips.
I'm hesitant to buy one only because I already have a switch that my boyfriend bought for me, and I've already sunk a fair few dollars into switch games. I'd hate to end up abandoning one or the...
I'm hesitant to buy one only because I already have a switch that my boyfriend bought for me, and I've already sunk a fair few dollars into switch games. I'd hate to end up abandoning one or the other in the long run and just end up with what amounts to another PSP gathering dust in my junk drawer.
But I'm also tempted to buy one in spite of my switch because the Steam Deck is already better than my aging laptop. If there were a straightforward, non-cumbersome way to dock the steam deck, and use it with a keyboard, monitor and mouse, I would buy it as a straight laptop replacement. Primarily so I could play Steam games I'm addicted to on the go, or so I could use productivity software on the go.
I've watched the Giant Bomb Hands-On and they hook up a USB-C hub (around 1:15) and they hook it also up to a monitor (about 8:10 into the video), saying it literally replaces a laptop. The...
I've watched the Giant Bomb Hands-On and they hook up a USB-C hub (around 1:15) and they hook it also up to a monitor (about 8:10 into the video), saying it literally replaces a laptop. The keyboard and mouse are Bluetooth in their test, but I wouldn't know why you couldn't hook those up to the USB-Hub.
I was actually thinking of something more like using an older chromebook as a thin client. If I'm on the go, I don't necessarily want to, or have the ability to set up a desktop like setup the way...
I was actually thinking of something more like using an older chromebook as a thin client. If I'm on the go, I don't necessarily want to, or have the ability to set up a desktop like setup the way they did. I could easily carry a wireless trackpad and travel keyboard, but any standalone monitor along with its stand is just going to make the setup too cumbersome.
Check out the Steam Link app. That can serve the gaming thin-client function quite well. If you need full desktop access, Linux has tons of options...not sure which woild be available on a...
Check out the Steam Link app. That can serve the gaming thin-client function quite well.
If you need full desktop access, Linux has tons of options...not sure which woild be available on a Chromebook though.
I feel like this is something I would by the v2 of. I like the Switch but I feel it is really let down by being a closed platform combined with nintendo not really doing anything since release with the OS. If steam could replicate what makes the switch good while being open to more software and less subscription services, that would be awesome.
In this one case, I'm buying V1 to insure V2 gets made, and ideally building support for more devices in this vein.
You get enough companies making portable linux gaming machines, sooner or later someone will add a 5G adapter and I can ditch my cellphone.
Any word on real world battery life yet? So far I love what I’m seeing but if it gets 90 minutes in game it would be worthless. Valve’s reported battery life doesn’t line up with the SoC’s wattage.
Edit:
To be fair it's actually not a bad gaming ultrabook replacement for those that just keep their laptop docked most of the time (like me). So I shouldn't call it "worthless" with 90 minutes of gaming battery life.
Okay, in IGN's early videos, Valve reps said 4 hours of Portal 2, and 5~6 at 30 fps.
I don't actually think their estimate is much off. The APU was rated for 15W, and I believe some of the press was just told 20W overall.
I anticipated the potential for a higher power draw, such as 20~25W from the APU in certain circumstances, but Tested was told (possibly incorrectly) that docked performance wouldn't be different, which could mean it is already pulling as much power as it can, and shouldn't be spiking to 25W+ like similarly spec'd laptops.
At 25 watts, you would see 90 minutes. But considering that this is a PC, we already know we can tweak game settings to something more suitable for a handheld, and I see
absolutely* no reason not to expect a better battery life in line with the stated 4 or 5~6 on 3d gaming, if you are willing to lower game settings for battery life. Even the 8 hours for less demanding games (2d, indie) starts to look achievable as a best case.*That sounded more confident than I am. Correction: I think the 2 hours minimum is roughly correct, and that it should be possible to improve it (and probably decrease it) by game settings.
It would be awesome to have a 30/60 fps switch on it.
What a cool idea! I imagine this would be a difficult for Valve to implement on the diaspora of PC titles, but the Lutris community is probably familiar enough with various games' config files that it might be feasible to implement a little toggle when launching a game, at least. I'll look into it!
What about just changing the display's refresh rate?
More important is making sure the GPU is only rendering 30fps.
Edit: also, making sure the CPU is only running the game at 30fps for that matter, although this is less important and in some cases it could be desirable to keep the game running faster (just not the graphics).
No reason it couldn't be done at the OS level. My old ASUS GTX 970 has a setting to target 60 fps and adjust clockspeeds and power draw as needed.
My main use case, 90 min would be fine.
~45 min train commute each way. Can charge with USB C on either end.
If I really want a long gaming session...I'll plug in or use a dock. I'm not gonna be using this thing more than 10ft from an outlet 90% of the time.
That's pretty much exactly how I use my Switch, but with the added advantage of not rebuying my library and synced save games.
Would be nice if we could see ARM take off for gaming on the steam platform. Something like the M1 would be perfect for this device (although I know this will never happen)
Can you run a regular game made for x64 on ARM?
Not directly. Microsoft has a translation layer, but I have not heard good things about it. Apple has a translation layer called Rosetta, which is spectacular, but Apple would never license it to anyone. I don’t know of anyone else working on a translation layer.
Rosetta 2's stellar performance comes from custom silicon within the M1 designed to facilitate accelerated x86 emulation. It wouldn't be much use on non-Apple ARM chips.
How much of the power/battery would be spent on emulation, though? Seems like a wast until we get games optimized for it.
Not without a significant performance penalty.
I believe
The VergePolygon reported 90 minutes, but later corrected that the device had just been used by another journalist.I'm hesitant to buy one only because I already have a switch that my boyfriend bought for me, and I've already sunk a fair few dollars into switch games. I'd hate to end up abandoning one or the other in the long run and just end up with what amounts to another PSP gathering dust in my junk drawer.
But I'm also tempted to buy one in spite of my switch because the Steam Deck is already better than my aging laptop. If there were a straightforward, non-cumbersome way to dock the steam deck, and use it with a keyboard, monitor and mouse, I would buy it as a straight laptop replacement. Primarily so I could play Steam games I'm addicted to on the go, or so I could use productivity software on the go.
I've watched the Giant Bomb Hands-On and they hook up a USB-C hub (around 1:15) and they hook it also up to a monitor (about 8:10 into the video), saying it literally replaces a laptop. The keyboard and mouse are Bluetooth in their test, but I wouldn't know why you couldn't hook those up to the USB-Hub.
I was actually thinking of something more like using an older chromebook as a thin client. If I'm on the go, I don't necessarily want to, or have the ability to set up a desktop like setup the way they did. I could easily carry a wireless trackpad and travel keyboard, but any standalone monitor along with its stand is just going to make the setup too cumbersome.
Check out the Steam Link app. That can serve the gaming thin-client function quite well.
If you need full desktop access, Linux has tons of options...not sure which woild be available on a Chromebook though.
Any USB-C hub should work: https://www.amazon.com/Anker-PowerExpand-Delivery-Ethernet-Chromebook/dp/B07PPGWQ15/
(Don't take my word for it though!)