Topic: PC Gaming

Yeah, I get it.

It's just strange that a tiny Chinese start-up can do a global roll-out but Valve can't.

@Matt_Barber
Keep in mind, demand is much lower for the Chinese startup. They can ship global because global demand is not so much that it exceeds their production capabilities.

Steam Deck on the other hand, he’s going to have (and even now does) have massive demand. Global rollout is likely unfeasible from a production standpoint.

As a Win 2 owner, I recommend waiting. I think it’ll be worth it in the long run. The Win 3 keyboard is not good, the price is $850, it’s not as powerful, and the battery life isn’t as good. Don’t get me wrong, I still think it’s a very nice device and I was almost going to buy one myself, until I learned they still hadn’t added Gyro (which, that’s another con- no gyro). There’s also the fact that, defective units from China are a hassle to get replaced. Would be much easier from a global brand like Valve. It’s your money and obviously your decision to make. But in my humble opinion, I think waiting for what you really want is definitely going to pay dividends.

@JaxonH The latest is that I'd probably have to wait until Q3 2022 for the 512GB model of the Steam Deck - which would be the only one I'd consider - at the earliest. I'm going to have a good year to mull that purchase over it seems.

The GPD I'm interested in is the Win Max 2021 which has a proper laptop style keyboard. It's reportedly a little cramped, but still good enough for touch typing and the larger screen makes it more usable for general computing rather than just as a games machine.

I'm aware that you're basically on your own when you buy from GPD. Still, I've had a good run with the original Win. It's had three battery changes and a mod to improve the heat sink, but still works quite well in spite of all my tinkering. It's just hopelessly obsolete when it comes to playing modern games and can't emulate anything newer than the Cube.

The kicker is the price, starting at $999. Ouch.

@Matt_Barber
Ya... I'm a Win 2 owner. Got in on the indigogo for $650 but it shot up to $850 afterwards. The original Win can do Fallout 3 and stuff but that's about it.

I had to replace the back shell with a nylon shell mod which reduced temps by 20 degrees Celcius. Wow! It got so toasty in the hand. Even now it still gets pretty warm, but not so hot it it starts burning you. Also upgraded to a 512 GB NVMe.

$1000 is a lot of money, no doubt about it. Could get a 512 GB Steam Deck, 1 TB micro SD and a dock and still have $100 leftover.

But, if you like the Keyboard maybe that's the right choice for you. I gotta give credit to GPD. They started this whole thing. If it wasn't for the original Win, I don't think we'd have a Steam Deck today.

@JaxonH

Do you just buy like every new piece of technology in existence, or something?

@Dezzy
You’d think so, but no. I’m actually not really into tech. I don’t have any fancy gadgets or surround sound or laptops or anything like that.

But when it comes to gaming, especially portable gaming, I’m usually all in. I’ve always had a fascination with portable gaming, and now that has evolved into a fascination with hybrid gaming. And not just in the typical way you think about with switch docking/undocking, but with two versions of the same platform with different form factors utilizing cloud saves. Switch stays docked, use cloud saves for Switch Lite and OLED portably. PC stays connected to TV, with Steam Cloud saves for Steam Deck portably.

I did get a PS5 but I don’t use it. Like, ever. I’m a Switch/PC kinda guy. It’s really all I play. So anything Nintendo puts out, I buy. I was already set on the PC side, and wasn’t planning on buying another portable (I have a Win 2, but passed on Win Max, Win 3 and Aya Neo). But this thing is just too good to pass up. I’ve been waiting half my life for something like this- a PC handheld with better battery life and GYRO AIMING.

Yeah, I'm not reserving it..... but only because:
"This item is not available for reservation in your country"

This video is worth a watch. It's intended for devs but gives us some good info on Proton status and anti cheat progress, and expectations for results by launch.

Not sure if this has been said yet but apparently the storage is user upgradable. Not sure on the details of that, I assume it involves taking off the back entirely which is probably beyond what some would want to do.

It's also not clear on what compatibility would be but it does kinda make the 64GB SKU a bit more compelling. By my estimate for the price gap between the 64GB and 256GB model you can buy a 1TB NVMe SSD. I'm guessing the one they include is a fair bit faster but still, worth thinking about.

It's only upgradeable via SD cards, which aren't ideal for running games from. They're far slower than an SSD, so you'd typically get long loading times and in-game stutter when it suddenly needs a lot of new textures. Also, anything that writes back to the install folder a lot is liable to wear out the card in a short time, while SSDs are designed for that kind of usage. You generally don't have to worry about these things with the Switch though, as games will be designed to work around the limitations of the media.

On the other hand, it's fine for storing media files and emulator images on. It just comes down to how you want to use the device, really.

@Matt_Barber
Apparently it does have an m.2 slot but it's a bit more complicated than I thought:
https://gamerant.com/steam-deck-internal-ssd-upgrade/

It's behind some EMI/Thermal shielding so to get to it would require some heavy disassembly. Also is uses smaller M.2 2230 sticks which are more expensive and harder to come by. Doing a search for some the largest I could find in any of my local PC retailers were low speed 128GB capacity. It's certainly not going to be a path for saving money

So yeah, it does have user upgradable*** storage

in the past we had far inferior handhelds when it comes to compute power, but quite long battery life. i wish it was still that way. handheld gaming should be simple(r) IMO.

@skywake Thanks. That explains a lot.

I'd presume that Valve will have cornered almost the entire production for the larger capacity 2230 drives, and the scalpers will see to the rest.

Mind you, even if 128GB is all you can get, it's still probably worth upgrading that 64GB model.

@6ch6ris6
Been a long while since portables hast super long battery life. Some food for thought:

I mean that minimum rated battery life for the Steam Deck is on the low end but pretty much everything released after the DS Lite has had a low end battery life of between 2-4 hours. And that gap between high end battery life and low end battery life just keeps growing. For rated max battery life the Steam Deck is actually one of the best for battery life.

The problem is the more advanced the hardware gets the larger the gap between a high end and a low end game is. On the GBA you were always running more or less the same kind of game. On newer portables like the Switch or Steam Deck you could be running something super light like a Stardew Valley or you could be running something like BotW or Forza.

edit: ouch, that poll on the front page is pretty brutal for the OLED model
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/07/poll_so_will_you_be...

A lot of people don't seem to get this at all or plan their portable mode time for it. If I know I'm going to be away from the charger or dock for a longer time, I don't fire up BotW or Doom. I play something far less intense so I get more time.
It's really a non-issue for me with the Deck, because I'll play accordingly and honestly, there's not too many times I'm without some way to charge for long periods of time.

And this is a Nintendo site, which makes it all the more so. The timing of the Deck announcement is really perfect for Valve, a little too perfect. Wonder if they were actually holding off for confirmation if the Switch Pro rumours were true to drop this to maximize interest, because it is what people were hoping for from the next Switch.

@skywake @Shadowthrone
The poll results seem about right to me, specifically because it's a Nintendo site. 31% total upgrading is actually really good. Most people with an existing Switch aren't upgrading. I've been watching polls for weeks now and it's consistently hovered around 20-30%.

The good news is really for the interest in the Deck. 41% total say they're buying. That's awesome. The majority of which have Steam accounts already. Still a nice chunk who seem to be new.

Personally most of the time I'm playing the Switch in portable mode it's more or less how I used to use the Wii U GamePad. In the same room as my TV sitting on my couch and often, but not always, with the TV off. Like in that first scene in the Wii U reveal trailer where they put the baseball on and continue playing New SMB on the GamePad. That's my use case 90% of the time for portable play

And when I do that it's for maybe 30mins to just over an hour before it goes back on the dock again. Longer sessions than that are usually more the sort of game I'll play on the TV or on my PC. So battery has never really been an issue for me on Switch, I doubt it'll be an issue on Stream Deck either

I think on the DS/3DS battery life was much more of an issue because portable play was the only option. If you wanted to beat Phantom Hourglass or Pokemon Y you had to play it either on battery or near an outlet plugged into a charger. With the Switch and eventually the Steam Deck (and previously the Wii U) you always have that "docked" option if you want to dig in and play off-battery

Just learned my Steam Deck isn’t scheduled to ship until Q2 2022, despite getting my order in within 3 hours of opening reservations. All 3 systems currently show Q2 2022 estimates for reservations.

And this isn’t even global yet. Anyone who fails to reserve right now, this week, might be waiting until 2023 or beyond.

Shipping begins 10 days before Q1 2022 so I suppose it’s not that much of a setback. 3-6 months… could have been worse.

Anyone know how 3DS emulation is going at this point? Would the Steamdeck be able to emulate 3DS games at 720p?

I had the GPD XD+ for a while. That had insane battery life. Something like 10 hours or so on average.

@Dezzy
It's OK. Many games run fine. But a number of notable 3DS titles require a specific fork of Citra to function properly, including games such as Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate and Metroid Samus Returns. And that's with a 2080 ti. No idea how they'll run on this thing. Many times framerate can be brute forced which is easy for a desktop powerhouse, but not sure about this. Then there's the issue of the dual screens which just makes it a bit less streamlined playing.

Personally I gave up on emulating 3DS. Wasn't worth it. I just use my 3DS now. Same for Wii U (aside from Xenoblade X which I do have on PC). Getting games is too much of a hassle and I can't dump my own purchased copies (I can for 3DS but it's so time consuming and I already did it once for my modded 3DS). But it can be done if you really want.

I like to stick with Dolphin for GameCube and Wii games. And GBA/SNES.