Valve Handheld: Steam Deck

[Wrath of Foamy]

I got Civ 6 on my Switch. Haven't touched it on my PC since. There's a lot of games I would love to play while sitting on the couch as opposed to sitting at a desk (Frostpunk/They are billions/Darkest Dungeon).

I feel that way about Stardew Valley.

I know that it's more complete on Xbox and PC, but that game is perfect for just lying back in bed, chilling out and doing your thing.

I may buy this Steam Deck. It looks great.

 

[Unknown Pleasures]

Take my money.

 

[7even]

Any news about a official dock for the tv and a controller?

 

[Dinkin_Flicka]

Been trying to talk myself out of getting one since I certainly don't need one, but finally caved and put on a pre order today. Won't even be available until Q2 of 22, so have a lot of time to see how they launch to decide if I want to keep one.

 

[Madmick]

Seems these devices just aren't up to par when it comes to advertising but they seem promising. Although one of them is apparently installing malware on the system. The other is indiegogo and frankly almost everyone is put off by crowd funding projects to many horror stories.

The greatest deficiency of the GPD and other previous handhelds was the speed of the VRAM. Since iGPUs use system RAM, it's always been a performance bottleneck. This is why Steam's clarification the day after launch that the memory is LPDDR5 quad channel was a (quietly) momentous second reveal. It means the device squeezes far more performance of its more modest, cheaper hardware than the latest Intel Tiger Lake processors-- which are blowing AMD's APUs away.

That's why it doesn't cost $1310 like that GPD Win3. The GPD offers an atrocious relative value. Besides value, that price point is yet more prohibitive to any sort of market penetration. Nobody is starting a gaming handheld culture at that price point. You'll barely move any units.

 

[PEB]

 

[rikwebb]

Devkits are now available

 

[KaNesDeath]

Opening it up will apparently not void the warranty.

 

[PEB]

Opening it up will apparently not void the warranty.

Yes I watched some of that video nice to hear I wonder if new laptops like Framework changing the game a little?

 

[KaNesDeath]

Yes I watched some of that video nice to hear I wonder if new laptops like Framework changing the game a little?

Valve does a good job at reading the landscape. Their games are still mod friendly while the mass majority of the game industry has removed that capability.

Would say the recent right to repair movement was more influential than Framework.

 

[GhostZ06]

valve winning so hard right now

 

[PEB]

Valve does a good job at reading the landscape. Their games are still mod friendly while the mass majority of the game industry has removed that capability.

Would say the recent right to repair movement was more influential than Framework.

I just mentioned Framework because it has been in the news a lot an it has been getting great reviews. It as well as another small laptop manufacturer has been very popular with reviewers for ease of disassembly. Many major manufacturers have made their stuff very unfriendly to disassemble with the exception of Lenovo and in some cases Dell.

 

[PEB]

 

[Dinkin_Flicka]

Just got an email stating the official shipment dates have shifted from December to February of 22 due to supply chain issues. I was expecting this, but a little bummed out getting an official message.

 

[jefferz]

Just got an email stating the official shipment dates have shifted from December to February of 22 due to supply chain issues. I was expecting this, but a little bummed out getting an official message.

I wouldn't be surprised if it gets bumped again. The chip shortage isn't getting any better.

 

[Unknown Pleasures]

Yeah, I need some expert advice here.

I'm debating throwing down and reserving, but figure there's a chance with the chip shortage that by the time one reaches my hands, a version 2 / refresh would be right around the corner offering superior specs.

Thoughts on how things will unfold?

 

[Fake Doctor]

Maybe I'm getting old but when I'm gaming I want to sit in a comfy chair and have a nice big screen with good sound. I can definitely see the appeal for this type of thing but I've never use it for anything but the odd tower defense game.

 

[Unknown Pleasures]

Maybe I'm getting old but when I'm gaming I want to sit in a comfy chair and have a nice big screen with good sound. I can definitely see the appeal for this type of thing but I've never use it for anything but the odd tower defense game.

Appeal for me is sitting in airports and that sort of jazz. I really want one, but things seem screwed up.

 

[Fake Doctor]

Appeal for me is sitting in airports and that sort of jazz. I really want one, but things seem screwed up.

Makes sense. Makes sense for a lot of people. Just not for me.

My biggest concern with any product like this (a portable gaming machine that will handle relatively high intensity games) is heat and longevity. I've owned a number of gaming laptops since they became a thing (I got was one of the first ASUS dedicated gaming laptops and I've had two since then) and I found they would last a few years and then the high-heat paired with compact form factor led to the machines failing. The more you demand of a machine while making it smaller and smaller, the more likely you are to have those pieces fail when it runs hot frequently. Tiny, delicate pieces all crammed together in a shell that moves around gives lots of room to screw up.

This is the kind of potential problem that won't show up in pre-release and early reviews. It'll only come out after months and possibly years of use, as the machine slowly cooks itself from pushing the thermal limits allowed by its compact form factor. Some time after the warranty windows has passed my guess is you're going to have a bunch of people with little Steam bricks on their hands.

Who knows though. Technology, particularly relatively to heat in compact form factors, has improved rapidly. I run three monitors, all at HD resolutions, on a portable device with no fan it runs just fine through a workday. It can even run some (by today's standards) simplistic games without a hitch. Maybe stuff like the Steam Deck is actually something they can pull off. On the other hand, maybe it'll work for a year or two and then start suffering internal components failing.

 

[flashNsmash]

Appeal for me is sitting in airports and that sort of jazz. I really want one, but things seem screwed up.

yeah same, airports, hotels, planes