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Steam Deck |OT| Nintendo Switch 2

Ah nice will pick the same value.
Go with whatever looks good to you. I think just a small amount of saturation adds the perfect pop. It look good to me up to around 116, then it starts to blow out a bit in certain scenarios, imo.
---
I saw this post about DeckyLoader's CSS Loader on Reddit. Pretty cool shit.


I didn't copy it exactly since I don't like custom text and centered home. I went with Switch-like home. I really like how it moves a lot of the Steam news and shit out of way and lets the artwork shine.

Here's how my Deck looks now...
dzvyNy4.jpg

-
XprmWfk.jpg


***Note***
I was trying to play Dust Elysian Tail and it wouldn't load. I forced closed it and went to the menu and DeckyLoader+Plugins were gone along with all my changes. I tried to restart and they were still missing. Went to Desktop Mode and ran the DeckyLoader script I had download the first time, then went back to Game Mode and it's all back to being customized correctly. Did a restart and everything is still customized correctly. Weird shit, but I'm glad the settings config for Decky was still present. Just a heads up.
 
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Assaulty

Member
Saw some people picking a steamdeck over the PS5 any day.

Hell, outside of comp fps games, I choose my steamdeck over my PC with 6900xt and 13600k daily. I'd rather play in handheld form at 40 fps than on my pc with everything maxed out at 144 fps. Crazy thing is, thanks to the tiny screen, games don't even look THAT much worse than they do on the desktop. Thing is a bloody miracle to me and will be there day 1 for a potential second version.
 

Kupfer

Member
Saw some people picking a steamdeck over the PS5 any day.

Hell, outside of comp fps games, I choose my steamdeck over my PC with 6900xt and 13600k daily. I'd rather play in handheld form at 40 fps than on my pc with everything maxed out at 144 fps. Crazy thing is, thanks to the tiny screen, games don't even look THAT much worse than they do on the desktop. Thing is a bloody miracle to me and will be there day 1 for a potential second version.
I know, right?
Why wasting 500W when you can play most of the same games with 30 times less power consumption ? I'm barely using my main PC anymore since I got the Deck. Only Marauders got me playing like 70hours in 2022 and some hours of DayZ, but for all the Steam singleplayer stuff and other than PS5 exclusives there's no question about to deck or not to deck.
 
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calistan

Member
Saw some people picking a steamdeck over the PS5 any day.

Hell, outside of comp fps games, I choose my steamdeck over my PC with 6900xt and 13600k daily. I'd rather play in handheld form at 40 fps than on my pc with everything maxed out at 144 fps. Crazy thing is, thanks to the tiny screen, games don't even look THAT much worse than they do on the desktop. Thing is a bloody miracle to me and will be there day 1 for a potential second version.
It would be nice if a few more of the 'verified' Deck games had options that take the tiny screen into account. I've been playing Days Gone, which is loads of fun and technically runs pretty well on Deck, but getting headshots on tiny enemies with a tiny targeting reticle can be tricky. It's clearly designed for play on a big screen, but as long as it runs okay and doesn't have 8-point text, it gets the verified sticker.

Assuming it's a big enough market, devs should look at stuff on the Switch to see how actual handheld-friendly games should look. It could just be a simple toggle in the options - select Deck Mode and you get the ideal graphics settings, bigger text, high contrast user interface and so on.
 

Aurelius

Member
I would take my Deck(1TB ssd + 512 microSD), 400 Game Steam library, EmuDeck, dual-boot SteamOS+Win10, GP, and 220 game EGS over PS5 any day if forced into that choice. I’ll be all over Deck 2 the second it goes on preorder.
I have a midsize collection of (free) digital games on PSN. I might concentrate on finishing those this year and hold of on buying new games until the Steamdeck 2 comes out.
 

kubricks

Member
Just tried Sekiro with 600p output then upscale by FSR via steam deck layout, the game looks and plays great with 50+ fps! But what about cyberpunk? Is it better to use the in-game FSR setting or use the steam deck ones if I want to do something similar?
 

Kenpachii

Member
Saw some people picking a steamdeck over the PS5 any day.

Hell, outside of comp fps games, I choose my steamdeck over my PC with 6900xt and 13600k daily. I'd rather play in handheld form at 40 fps than on my pc with everything maxed out at 144 fps. Crazy thing is, thanks to the tiny screen, games don't even look THAT much worse than they do on the desktop. Thing is a bloody miracle to me and will be there day 1 for a potential second version.

Haha had the same experience. Was trying control and witcher 3 novigrad market and dlc area, and some of those area's on low settings on the deck look better then on my PC with a 3440x1440 nanoled screen and 3080/9900k at ultra+.

The screen really works great on that thing, and for dam sure i will get the deck 2.0 day one when it arrives.
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.



This is awesome. I recently downloaded Elden Ring and then immediately re-downloaded it on my Steam Deck so I could play it on the go. Could have saved myself like 50GB. Not that my ISP has data caps, but it still took like an hour to download on each device.
 
Just tried Sekiro with 600p output then upscale by FSR via steam deck layout, the game looks and plays great with 50+ fps! But what about cyberpunk? Is it better to use the in-game FSR setting or use the steam deck ones if I want to do something similar?
In-game FSR is usually preferrable to Deck's forced FSR since with in-game the HUD and text is native while the game is upscaled. At least that’s the case with FSR 1, I’m not sure about 2.

Cyberpunk has a Deck preset for Steam Deck that's something like 1280x800, 30fps limit, v-sync off, med-high settings, FSR 2.1 Auto. It was a stuttery mess in the benchmark, and in heavy areas like riding a bike downtown, or the market ouside Tom's Diner it's even worse. Using the Deck refresh+fps limiter or in-game V-sync with the in-game FPS Limit off helps smooth out the benchmark, so you're going to need one of those on. In-game V-sync to 30 felt a tiny bit better to me than Deck 40fps refresh+frame rate, but you'll have to try them to see what you think.

From the testing I did, taking into account actual gameplay in the aforementioned heavy areas, I prefer the following for 40fps typical gameplay frame rate with drops to around 30fps:
-Deck Refresh 60
-Deck Frame rate limit 'Off'
-1280x800
-V-sync '30', In-game FPS limit’Off’
-FSR 2.1 'Balanced'
-FSR Sharpen '30'
-Film Grain 'Off'
-Chromatic Aberration 'Off'
-Depth of Field 'Off'
-Lens Flare 'Off'
-Motion Blur 'Off'
-Contact Shadows 'On'
-Improved Facial Lighting 'Off'
-Anisotropy '8'
-All remaining settings 'Medium', except for Distant Shadows to 'Low'
If you want it really smooth in those heavy areas you'll have to take a bunch of settings down to 'Low' and/or use FSR 2.1 to 'Performance'. Unlike games like DOOM or TW3, you don't seem to have a lot of low-res options for the built-in Deck FSR in Cyberpunk. I took the res down to 1152x720 to engage Deck FSR outside of Tom's Diner in the market and it hit ~35fps standing still. Native was ~32fps. FSR 2.1 'Balanced' was ~40fps. If you could take it down to 960x600 like DOOM or TW3 it might be a different story, but those options weren't available from what I tried.
 
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BadBurger

Is 'That Pure Potato'
Saw some people picking a steamdeck over the PS5 any day.

Hell, outside of comp fps games, I choose my steamdeck over my PC with 6900xt and 13600k daily. I'd rather play in handheld form at 40 fps than on my pc with everything maxed out at 144 fps. Crazy thing is, thanks to the tiny screen, games don't even look THAT much worse than they do on the desktop. Thing is a bloody miracle to me and will be there day 1 for a potential second version.

I mentioned it before, the Deck makes many older games feel new again because of how great they look on the small screen. I finally finished Final Fantasy 13 because of it. I bought that game day one back on the PS3, but just never really grooved with it (the first eight hours are basically one long tutorial). But thanks to the Deck it just felt better.

I actually have a bunch of games from that era that I finished thanks to the Deck. This device is the best $700 or so dollars (after shipping and taxes) that I ever spent on gaming.
 

Kenpachii

Member
Well got all the parts delivered yesterday, but because of some time constrains it took a while longer to get everything setup. I can tell you this, storage space on a PC is key, so i had to extend it.

Anyway here's my experience on installing the 1tb 4.0 SSD into the deck.

So before i start, i found out the case they deliver the deck with is perfect to push the deck into so the other side doesn't damage with pressing etc.

Opening the deck was a pain, the 8 screws where easy, but the deck would not give lose at the handles, thanks for the tip about opening it at the fan area this gave me a good start CrustyBritches CrustyBritches , however the controllers would still be stuck. So tried to get it to open there and wedge myself through it with the blue little ifixit kit thingy, didn't work. so decided to open the deck on the other side in the middle also, which gave me space at the controllers to force open it. Took me a good half hour, as i had the feeling i was going to crack that shell if i would rush it for sure. Ended up having no damage on it so that's good.

Once open, getting that metal cover off the SSD or whatever it was off it was easy, but god the two screws are TINY, at the top and the bottom of that metal cover, i even dropt one on the ground, took me a good 10 minutes to find, but anyway it was relevative easy.

Fc7x85A.jpg


After removing the metal cover the next problem started to pop up which i already though would be a issue the dam battery connector.

Epf9N92.jpg


There is like no space at all to put your finger in there, i tried to wedge it a little with one of the plastic thingy's i got with the ifixit kit, but was afraid i would damage the little cables, after 15 minutes of messing around, i found out that the top at the battery side, u can pull a little lose and a little cloth u can pull the cable with comes free, after i had that, i used my nail which was the best solution on the connector itself to push the connector out of it, went relative easy then. Again thanks for the nail tip CrustyBritches CrustyBritches

After that its 1 screw, and the protective shield will fall of the SSD pretty much directly its really lose around the SSD itself. As the 64gb ssd is incredible thin and the 1tb is way thicker, u will have to peel the protective shielding open ( there is a opening u can pull it open and reattach it together again just to make it a bit more bigger. Once replaced close everything up which was relative easy to do, installed rufus on my PC, USB stick and flashed the steam OS on it.

Whiped the entire deck from data, put my SD card in there again, whiped this also. To start from scratch again.

Did some speed test, ( didn't do one before sadly) but hey wanted to see if the entire x4 bus would be consumed as the SSD is a 4.0 5gbps version but in reality its 4,7gb/s read and 4,5gb/s write if it would have gone in a x4 slot, but its a 3.0 slot so 3,5gb/s should be the cap then like my 9900k main PC has.

Results:
jcTjq0a.jpg


Pretty darn impressive that such a small chip, can have that amount of speed. I must say the OS / Chrome and even booting up games feel a bit more snappy. So that's good.

So total space after formatting my SD card is this:

TADDMVQ.jpg


About 1,4tb usable space now, that's more like it.

I freaking hate not having space on a PC as i see it as such. As i didn't had much time to play games still or even download / install them, i did test the deck out with the a SD card solution, so performance can only improve after my findings here. I can't wait to get some gaming going in the next few days on this thing tho.

Games time: ( all tests where done one a 512gb SD card with 150mb/s read and write, at native 800p resolution no FSR, so there is room for improvement in many games ), didn't had time to test the new SSD with 3,5gb/s in games yet.

So decided to download Witcher 3 Next Gen version, yea that un-optimized shit show they call a update.

W4VGCMk.jpg


Mind blowing beautiful on the screen really, i did some RT testing with my 3080 which was a complete shit show on its release ( maybe they fixed it now ), but just download the game, went to the DLC area and walked through the shipyard which is really demanding as lots of NPC's walk through it, and on medium settings it looks incredible even better then on ultra+ on my desktop lol. Honestly the screen is just so good, i went to the start area, it was dark outside withe the moon out and i just looked at the sky with the town in the distance incredible even on lower settings.

After slamming everything on low, to see how it looks like, i upped the textures to high and some other settings i moved forwards, but in general i sit now in the high 40's in city's and mid to high 50's outside of it, with lock at 40 hz and 40 framecap its smooth as butter. However after running a bit around i found out, that there is one place that absolute tanks the GPU even at 1600mhz, its a tavern in skel islands under the main castle ( huge bridge basically ) there is a tavern and yea fps dies there hard with the fire being there. Maybe its a bug or something i dunno, but u are there for like 5 seconds in the game so not much of a problem.

After testing settings out, i find out because of the small screen, the difference between ultra to high is basically not visible, even high to medium is hard to notice a change, and low in many games still looks like high on PC. It's great really.

So on to the next game ( didn't test much games, because my internet speed is crap atm i lowered it down to the lowest level 14mb/s ( 140mbps ) because i tended to barely download anything before anymore, so just gotta deal with the waits :p

QcA4xH7.jpg


Do you even metro bro. It's a demanding game even on PC. So booted up sams story, at the start there is a bridge u look over the area and that's the hardest to render part in the entire game. The FPS tanked hard, moved towards 35 fps at lowest settings. Still at low on the tiny screen the game looks just as good as at ultra on a bigger PC screen. So its doable just not locked 40 double, maybe some tweaks etc can fix this, but i still gotta mess around with that. But hey it runs lol.

After booting the start of the game in the normal base game ( for some reason my cloud saves from PC didn't work so couldnt'really test other area's out ), u get pushed into the tunnel system of metro, the FPS goes up to low 70's really smooth. But once u enter area's with enemy's the FPS moves straight down to 30's again. So is the game playable sure, u probably can get a locked 40 in many area's, but 30 fps lock is kinda needed for no fps fluxuations. Still mighty impressive to run this game tho in a handheld, and it looks great.

Next on the list path of exile:

GuDHZt3.jpg

Didn't play the game for a couple of years now, but i still have area's unlocked on my characters in standard, however no talents so couldn't really kill stuff or anything. So decided to visit a few city's, not much of a benchmark i know but hey its whatever it is. Game looks fantastic again on the little screen even at low settings

The FPS is mindblowing tho, i remember my i7 870 and 970 ( pc before my current one ) struggling hard to maintain 60 fps in those city's, 100 fps in the city's wasn't uncommon. These little cpu cores are fast as hell that's for sure.

But again no combat, as i have no clue what to pick anymore in the tree's so the FPS probably gets a massive hit once mobs are on the screen, still 100 fps gives you some wiggle room.

Next up Divinity 2: Definitive Edition:

BSW266Z.jpg


One of my favorite games, really good game. Beat it in multiple impossible run type of ways on my PC spend 100's of hours on it if not 1k hours in total. Sadly saves didn't transfer over so i couldn't test other maps, but fort joy is easy to reach and the open area there is basically one of the most demanding area's in the game besides the fire pits in act two.

I played the game on my old and new PC, my old pc i7 870, struggled to get 45 fps in the main town, cpu was just to slow. Divinity to hits about 50-55 fps at ultra settings, and about 60+ at high settings, at low it goes up to 80+. Anyway any preset looks good with divinity 2 really, specially on the small screen, so high i think is a nice solution to have. It plays butter smooth and honestly even with the controller layout its really well playable. Absolute a must have if u like these type of games on the deck.

Control, no screenshot:

Booted the game up and FPS tanked completely to sub 20's / high 10's. Checked the settings, lowered everything to low and still below 30's. Didn't really understood what was going on, but because my OSD covered up the resolution in the settings, i saw it was rendering at 1080p, lowered it to the decks resolution and boom 60+ fps at the start area. Not much of a indication really, but was out of time and again saves didn't transfer over so i had to start a new game. Still incredible even at low how the game looks like on the small screen.

They are billions:

bg3zY6N.jpg


After messing around with a few games, it was time to get one of my most played games now on the deck which was simple not well ported ( these devs are properly lazy tho, they bricked the game with terrible performance with a update, only to take a year to do a small fix to fix it ) So i expected absolute no support for deck related solutions. And even while the game is simple, it absolutely murders a 9900k to sometimes single digits once things get hectic. So yea optimisation is complete shit.
Well the good news is, it boots. Put everything on low ( barely any settings in this game, again lazy devs ). and the FPS seems to stabilize on high 50's. Keep in mind this game will be fine even at 20's dips, most RTS games and city builders will dip below 30's at times and that's fine, but this is a survival city builder basically.

After connecting a keyboard + mouse now, as i had my docking station, all games recognized both straight away,i could properly play the game. but sadly it doesn't work for the deck. There is noticable microstutter which is annoying but i can deal with it, the work factory's text is butchered so u can't see how much resources they make. Now i play the game for about 3000+ hours at this point, i know kinda what it mines but even then its rough to deal with, so not advicable. Hope the devs will fix it at one point.

Final fantasy 15 ( no screenshot ) :

Absolute murdered my old 970 and i7 870 back in the day, my 9900k and 3080 don't have much issue's with it tho, but still can drop at max settings below the 60 stress hold.
Slammed it on native resolution, lowered everything to low and boom 50+ fps. Runs smooth, but looks rough as hell because of endless shimmering. This game struggled with this since day one even on PC, the only solution is to put tram in the settings to high which kills v-ram and performance. So decided to just yolo it and enable it. fps dropped to high 40's and a crystal clean image now. Walked a bit in the start area which is demanding, with a locked 40 fps smooth as hell. Incredible to see how fast this deck really is in even really demanding games. Not a game i like tho, but owned it and wanted to see if it would even run at all, and yea it does perfectly fine. In combat no clue, didn't had the time to really do anything, but from my experience that area was really demanding so it probably does fine.

Witcher 2:

xTrsDzB.jpg


First game i booted on the deck when it was still not altered, honestly pops incredible well on the small screen. This game absolute destroyed my 580gtx ( top end gpu ) back in the day, deck runs it at max settings at 60 fps, perfectly fine even in the most demanding area's, it does require u to lock the GPU to 1100mhz disable SMT to get max clocks on the CPU cores otherwise u will sit in middle to low 50's.

Again can't believe playing this game on a handheld really at that fidelity, men we came a long way.

Shadow of mordor:

faxFrP3.jpg


This game butchered GPU's back in the day specially on the v-ram side.

Was mindblown with how good the game played however, went to a place with a bunch of npc's on the screen while 2 mordor bears where raiding the camp and the fps was just amazing, this is at higher settings by the way, low settings is straight up ~90 fps ( which the game is capped at ). I can't believe how good this game runs on this thing incredible. And again looks really good. I still remember being dissapointed after this game with the witcher 3 terrible combat. The combat is so good in this game.

Valheim ( shit screenshot, taken before optimization ), forgot to make a new one later on:

s5cXowt.jpg


So for the people that played valheim ( if you didn't, play it. It's incredible ). The game is a mess performance wise on PC since day one. However because of brute forcing with propper hardware u can get things to run well. As the game got certified a month ago for the steam deck, i was hyped to test it out and optimize it myself if needed.

Well performance out of the box is a shit show, lots of microstutter unstable framerate and whenever a building is on the screen framerate just tanks and stutters, specially any build really.

As i got 1000 hours in the game, did hardcore runs, made guides for the game how to be maximum efficient, but also made loading mods to instant teleport through portals instead of waiting 10 seconds. I kinda know where performance tanks and what the game does on the background.

After messing around a bit with settings, and have grass on the ground instead of a flat ground which is just ugly, i got a stable 30fps out of it even at a fully build base for end game, lowering settings but still have grass on the ground u can get not a entirely stable but 99% 40 fps out of it, the microstutter and slowdowns are completely gone.

Now if u play with friends and really explode your base 30 fps is where u have to life with drops for sure. But for single runs with smaller contained base 40 fps 99% stable or 30fps entirely stable is doable. So yea good stuff.

Portable valheim so good.

So now back to the keyboard + mouse + docking station i ordered with it.

o0tTF3I.jpg


If you see the picture u will notice something haha, that keyboard is a pile of shit alright. check where the Z button is rofl. and the Y. Like wut mate. Hey just went with the cheapest option as microsoft keyboard was sold out.

Anyway i type blind so whatever ( my main keyboard has no numbers on it for my PC for example that old lol ), thing works fine. Mouse does the trick. And the docking station is tiny as hell, it fits in that small box where it came in ( white box on the right ) which is tiny. Honestly thought i ordered something wrong, but nope everything was in it. It works great, plug and play no issue's there.

I can tell you this tho, if u want to setup your deck u can do it with touchscreen/controls, but a keyboard + mouse makes life 1000% more better.

Deck Experience after a few days now with it so far:

Screen
:

Amazing really, i am a high end gamer i like to push my games to the top, my screen is a nano-led IPS 160hz gsync 3440x1440 high end 1ms screen. So quality of that screen is great really, but for some reason steam deck looks better. I really want to push games to the max always as i see tiny flaws in games from a mile away and avoid games until i can play them at max settings with future hardware, i have no problems doing that, but because of the smaller screen everything just looks good in games even low settings really, so its not much of a problem.

One problem i do have with it tho, is that while the screen is great, some games require a lot of small information through text like billions etc, would be nice if somehow we could mod UI's ourself into games like control scenes or something valve could create. Main problem i have atm. A bigger screen in newer models could be a solution, but the screen is already big really so not sure if i want that.

Still the reason they probably went for this specific screen is because even tiny text when u put your face closer towards it, is still perfectly readable in many games. Impressive screen all around.

CPU:

Performance incredible nothing else to say really, right choice here what valve did, the SMT on and off and clock change on the fly in any game is something i want on my PC, god dam its good. More cores where useless as it would heat things up more and lower clocks etc, so a right trade off done here. Performance of the cores is great.

GPU:

Solid can always be better, but does the job in a really good way. Surprise how far we have gone in mobile tech really that we can play practically any game on the go.

SSD:

Stock one 64gb is a total joke, u have like 34gb left over, with shader cache builds and other shit, u really only have like 20-25gb at the end if you also install some programs still like emudeck etc. U can't install shit on it, straight up all my games are 50+gb. Honestly only get the 64gb model if you plan ot expand it or solely relay on SD cards. The speed of the 64gb model with the SSD is also questionable, i notice a more snappy desktop mode, with simple things like opening chrome etc with the new SSD for sure, i am sensitive for this shit.

Really wish steam starts to reduce the prices on the steam deck higher models or add a easy way to swap SSD's without u having to do what we have to do now. Also add a higher tier model 1tb.

Look some people are fine with smaller storage, but frankly in my view having no space on a portable PC is the worst. Specially when games on PC are BIG. I had the 512gb SSD full on day one.

Battery:

Well it does the job, but because u can crank the hardware up to the limit in more demanding games that thing is empty within 2 hours. Way to short, Obviously u can extent it by lowering the framerate / settings etc, but i wish it had atleast double the output. A power bank is kinda needed if u play demanding games on the go at this point.

But yea that's just technology limitations at this point, nothing we can blame valve for. I rather have higher performance and power bank option that crippled forever.

Comfort rate/controls:

The original switch was horrible, couldn't even reach half of the buttons ( big hands ) and cramped hands just made me move the games straight into emulation.
I hate controllers in general because it forces your hands to be together, its just shit in my view. The steam deck has a good solution, as there is a screen in between, the distance is hihg enough that it makes it comfortable and the joysticks feel really well. The only problem i have is that the trick pads are hard to reach specially when they use the right behind trigger as mouse button, if you do this for extended periods it will cramp my hand. But that's more OS related. In games i didn't find the trackpads useful, u just want to connect a mouse at that point.

Speakers,mic:

Great really, loud sound, good quality sound and the mic is also solid. nothing to complain about. Far better then i expected.

OS:

Well its linux alright. Still lots of child diseases, lots of small problems where things should work but don't really. This is why windows is good these days. I can have 10 programs run through eachother, multiple games, while writing documents and everything just works. With linux, oh wait u got discord no while gaming? yea u can do that, but if you don't leave the voice call before u close a game, it will be frozen. Stuff like this. While the basics are there, it just needs time to be optimized and worked out.

Lots of trouble with ubisoft connect for example or getting other clients on steam OS to run, u gotta dig through guides and even then its a pain in the ass to get it setup. This is something steam needs to adres first, they need to understand that PC gamers use more shops then just there own, they need to start getting native support for this shit in a easy way on there OS.

What i really like however is there OSD where u can see all the stats like rivatuner on every game with multiple presets, the swapping of cores / locking cores / pinning etc. Decky is great and how u can easily just get extra features enabled.

I like the support and community that works with the steam deck. Everybody seems to universally love the thing.

Some games are still a pain to get going, something they need to get on. Installing GE proton to get stuff to launch, or having to work around stuff because deck doesn't have this or that file that the game requires needs to all be adressed. For example metro 2033 original game, i couldn't get it to run for shit and it requires work arounds. Would be nice if steam would just start optimizing games themselves for the deck that are more populaire.

Size:

Small for a PC of that power that's for sure. It's actually incredible what they made.
Big for a handheld, no way around it.

I think the best user case for the steam deck is at home near a outlet, on the bank when u want to sit in a living room and not sit behind your PC or have to watch a kid or something or just want to be in a room with people, or when u travel or stay at a remote location and take it with you.

I bought it specifically so i can take it towards a remote location i will be at for a month or two and have no access towards a PC, so it works great for that.

Expectations vs Reality:

Honestly i bought handhelds already for a while now, from nintendo to the PSP, but even before that PDA's etc. It was always incredible to me that we could game on the go and always wanted PC games to run on it. Either way there where always huge trade offs to the point newer titles and only select older titles would work in some form or way, it was always janky and meh at the end.

This is the first time i can honestly say, everything just works. If they can iron there OS out a bit more and make it on Par with windows for multitasking but also for older games that they make solutions that are easy to get them to just run, windows PC's will become a hard sell.

Steam deck versus other handhelds, no competition really. I didn't do anything emulation wise just yet, but with PC emulation and even being able to emulate the current switch, this thing has a gigantic backlog of games its not even funny. No other company can even compete really, specially with sony / microsoft games all ending up on PC and all running on the deck, there is really nothing both sony/microsoft or even nintendo can do to compete. The biggest problem nintendo has, is that it can't even play there own entire library ( bc is absolute dog shit ), and there software is to expensive. Steam deck solves this all because its a PC and sales on PC games are all year around.

I honestly can't wait to see what the steam deck 2.0 is. I do hope they delay it somewhat so that the support for the deck stays big, to many versions with drastically changes will split the community severe. They should start making a new one, once new titles can't run at 30 fps anymore on lowest settings. Maybe a ~4 year gab in between would be a good solution.

Upgrades i like to see:

1x usb-c port is kinda shit not going to lie, would be nice to get more on the deck and something what nintendo has a stand on the back that's just included. It's nice to watch some youtube on it and be able to connect it towards a outlet + connect a mouse towards it and that it stands. A docking station is basically manditory to have, but the 100 euro price tag of steams dock is kinda expensive.

A slot on the back with a screw where u can swap the SSD out for a better one. Absolutely needed on the 64gb model.

Future of steam deck:

Honestly, i can see this replace PC entirely at some point. I have no doubt that people ( myself included ) aren't pushing the most demanding games anymore. These releases of high demanding games are far in between to the point it always feels pointless to invest in expensive hardware anymore. I think at this point the freedom of the steamdeck overrules me sitting behind a fully fletched out PC. So i can see the appeal of this and frankly if valve keeps pushing there updates and make the OS better and better, even gaming laptops are a hard sell at that point.

Absolute fantastic little thing.
 

Kupfer

Member
Well got all the parts delivered yesterday, but because of some time constrains it took a while longer to get everything setup. I can tell you this, storage space on a PC is key, so i had to extend it.

Anyway here's my experience on installing the 1tb 4.0 SSD into the deck.

So before i start, i found out the case they deliver the deck with is perfect to push the deck into so the other side doesn't damage with pressing etc.

Opening the deck was a pain, the 8 screws where easy, but the deck would not give lose at the handles, thanks for the tip about opening it at the fan area this gave me a good start CrustyBritches CrustyBritches , however the controllers would still be stuck. So tried to get it to open there and wedge myself through it with the blue little ifixit kit thingy, didn't work. so decided to open the deck on the other side in the middle also, which gave me space at the controllers to force open it. Took me a good half hour, as i had the feeling i was going to crack that shell if i would rush it for sure. Ended up having no damage on it so that's good.

Once open, getting that metal cover off the SSD or whatever it was off it was easy, but god the two screws are TINY, at the top and the bottom of that metal cover, i even dropt one on the ground, took me a good 10 minutes to find, but anyway it was relevative easy.

Fc7x85A.jpg


After removing the metal cover the next problem started to pop up which i already though would be a issue the dam battery connector.

Epf9N92.jpg


There is like no space at all to put your finger in there, i tried to wedge it a little with one of the plastic thingy's i got with the ifixit kit, but was afraid i would damage the little cables, after 15 minutes of messing around, i found out that the top at the battery side, u can pull a little lose and a little cloth u can pull the cable with comes free, after i had that, i used my nail which was the best solution on the connector itself to push the connector out of it, went relative easy then. Again thanks for the nail tip CrustyBritches CrustyBritches

After that its 1 screw, and the protective shield will fall of the SSD pretty much directly its really lose around the SSD itself. As the 64gb ssd is incredible thin and the 1tb is way thicker, u will have to peel the protective shielding open ( there is a opening u can pull it open and reattach it together again just to make it a bit more bigger. Once replaced close everything up which was relative easy to do, installed rufus on my PC, USB stick and flashed the steam OS on it.

Whiped the entire deck from data, put my SD card in there again, whiped this also. To start from scratch again.

Did some speed test, ( didn't do one before sadly) but hey wanted to see if the entire x4 bus would be consumed as the SSD is a 4.0 5gbps version but in reality its 4,7gb/s read and 4,5gb/s write if it would have gone in a x4 slot, but its a 3.0 slot so 3,5gb/s should be the cap then like my 9900k main PC has.

Results:
jcTjq0a.jpg


Pretty darn impressive that such a small chip, can have that amount of speed. I must say the OS / Chrome and even booting up games feel a bit more snappy. So that's good.

So total space after formatting my SD card is this:

TADDMVQ.jpg


About 1,4tb usable space now, that's more like it.

I freaking hate not having space on a PC as i see it as such. As i didn't had much time to play games still or even download / install them, i did test the deck out with the a SD card solution, so performance can only improve after my findings here. I can't wait to get some gaming going in the next few days on this thing tho.

Games time: ( all tests where done one a 512gb SD card with 150mb/s read and write, at native 800p resolution no FSR, so there is room for improvement in many games ), didn't had time to test the new SSD with 3,5gb/s in games yet.

So decided to download Witcher 3 Next Gen version, yea that un-optimized shit show they call a update.

W4VGCMk.jpg


Mind blowing beautiful on the screen really, i did some RT testing with my 3080 which was a complete shit show on its release ( maybe they fixed it now ), but just download the game, went to the DLC area and walked through the shipyard which is really demanding as lots of NPC's walk through it, and on medium settings it looks incredible even better then on ultra+ on my desktop lol. Honestly the screen is just so good, i went to the start area, it was dark outside withe the moon out and i just looked at the sky with the town in the distance incredible even on lower settings.

After slamming everything on low, to see how it looks like, i upped the textures to high and some other settings i moved forwards, but in general i sit now in the high 40's in city's and mid to high 50's outside of it, with lock at 40 hz and 40 framecap its smooth as butter. However after running a bit around i found out, that there is one place that absolute tanks the GPU even at 1600mhz, its a tavern in skel islands under the main castle ( huge bridge basically ) there is a tavern and yea fps dies there hard with the fire being there. Maybe its a bug or something i dunno, but u are there for like 5 seconds in the game so not much of a problem.

After testing settings out, i find out because of the small screen, the difference between ultra to high is basically not visible, even high to medium is hard to notice a change, and low in many games still looks like high on PC. It's great really.

So on to the next game ( didn't test much games, because my internet speed is crap atm i lowered it down to the lowest level 14mb/s ( 140mbps ) because i tended to barely download anything before anymore, so just gotta deal with the waits :p

QcA4xH7.jpg


Do you even metro bro. It's a demanding game even on PC. So booted up sams story, at the start there is a bridge u look over the area and that's the hardest to render part in the entire game. The FPS tanked hard, moved towards 35 fps at lowest settings. Still at low on the tiny screen the game looks just as good as at ultra on a bigger PC screen. So its doable just not locked 40 double, maybe some tweaks etc can fix this, but i still gotta mess around with that. But hey it runs lol.

After booting the start of the game in the normal base game ( for some reason my cloud saves from PC didn't work so couldnt'really test other area's out ), u get pushed into the tunnel system of metro, the FPS goes up to low 70's really smooth. But once u enter area's with enemy's the FPS moves straight down to 30's again. So is the game playable sure, u probably can get a locked 40 in many area's, but 30 fps lock is kinda needed for no fps fluxuations. Still mighty impressive to run this game tho in a handheld, and it looks great.

Next on the list path of exile:

GuDHZt3.jpg

Didn't play the game for a couple of years now, but i still have area's unlocked on my characters in standard, however no talents so couldn't really kill stuff or anything. So decided to visit a few city's, not much of a benchmark i know but hey its whatever it is. Game looks fantastic again on the little screen even at low settings

The FPS is mindblowing tho, i remember my i7 870 and 970 ( pc before my current one ) struggling hard to maintain 60 fps in those city's, 100 fps in the city's wasn't uncommon. These little cpu cores are fast as hell that's for sure.

But again no combat, as i have no clue what to pick anymore in the tree's so the FPS probably gets a massive hit once mobs are on the screen, still 100 fps gives you some wiggle room.

Next up Divinity 2: Definitive Edition:

BSW266Z.jpg


One of my favorite games, really good game. Beat it in multiple impossible run type of ways on my PC spend 100's of hours on it if not 1k hours in total. Sadly saves didn't transfer over so i couldn't test other maps, but fort joy is easy to reach and the open area there is basically one of the most demanding area's in the game besides the fire pits in act two.

I played the game on my old and new PC, my old pc i7 870, struggled to get 45 fps in the main town, cpu was just to slow. Divinity to hits about 50-55 fps at ultra settings, and about 60+ at high settings, at low it goes up to 80+. Anyway any preset looks good with divinity 2 really, specially on the small screen, so high i think is a nice solution to have. It plays butter smooth and honestly even with the controller layout its really well playable. Absolute a must have if u like these type of games on the deck.

Control, no screenshot:

Booted the game up and FPS tanked completely to sub 20's / high 10's. Checked the settings, lowered everything to low and still below 30's. Didn't really understood what was going on, but because my OSD covered up the resolution in the settings, i saw it was rendering at 1080p, lowered it to the decks resolution and boom 60+ fps at the start area. Not much of a indication really, but was out of time and again saves didn't transfer over so i had to start a new game. Still incredible even at low how the game looks like on the small screen.

They are billions:

bg3zY6N.jpg


After messing around with a few games, it was time to get one of my most played games now on the deck which was simple not well ported ( these devs are properly lazy tho, they bricked the game with terrible performance with a update, only to take a year to do a small fix to fix it ) So i expected absolute no support for deck related solutions. And even while the game is simple, it absolutely murders a 9900k to sometimes single digits once things get hectic. So yea optimisation is complete shit.
Well the good news is, it boots. Put everything on low ( barely any settings in this game, again lazy devs ). and the FPS seems to stabilize on high 50's. Keep in mind this game will be fine even at 20's dips, most RTS games and city builders will dip below 30's at times and that's fine, but this is a survival city builder basically.

After connecting a keyboard + mouse now, as i had my docking station, all games recognized both straight away,i could properly play the game. but sadly it doesn't work for the deck. There is noticable microstutter which is annoying but i can deal with it, the work factory's text is butchered so u can't see how much resources they make. Now i play the game for about 3000+ hours at this point, i know kinda what it mines but even then its rough to deal with, so not advicable. Hope the devs will fix it at one point.

Final fantasy 15 ( no screenshot ) :

Absolute murdered my old 970 and i7 870 back in the day, my 9900k and 3080 don't have much issue's with it tho, but still can drop at max settings below the 60 stress hold.
Slammed it on native resolution, lowered everything to low and boom 50+ fps. Runs smooth, but looks rough as hell because of endless shimmering. This game struggled with this since day one even on PC, the only solution is to put tram in the settings to high which kills v-ram and performance. So decided to just yolo it and enable it. fps dropped to high 40's and a crystal clean image now. Walked a bit in the start area which is demanding, with a locked 40 fps smooth as hell. Incredible to see how fast this deck really is in even really demanding games. Not a game i like tho, but owned it and wanted to see if it would even run at all, and yea it does perfectly fine. In combat no clue, didn't had the time to really do anything, but from my experience that area was really demanding so it probably does fine.

Witcher 2:

xTrsDzB.jpg


First game i booted on the deck when it was still not altered, honestly pops incredible well on the small screen. This game absolute destroyed my 580gtx ( top end gpu ) back in the day, deck runs it at max settings at 60 fps, perfectly fine even in the most demanding area's, it does require u to lock the GPU to 1100mhz disable SMT to get max clocks on the CPU cores otherwise u will sit in middle to low 50's.

Again can't believe playing this game on a handheld really at that fidelity, men we came a long way.

Shadow of mordor:

faxFrP3.jpg


This game butchered GPU's back in the day specially on the v-ram side.

Was mindblown with how good the game played however, went to a place with a bunch of npc's on the screen while 2 mordor bears where raiding the camp and the fps was just amazing, this is at higher settings by the way, low settings is straight up ~90 fps ( which the game is capped at ). I can't believe how good this game runs on this thing incredible. And again looks really good. I still remember being dissapointed after this game with the witcher 3 terrible combat. The combat is so good in this game.

Valheim ( shit screenshot, taken before optimization ), forgot to make a new one later on:

s5cXowt.jpg


So for the people that played valheim ( if you didn't, play it. It's incredible ). The game is a mess performance wise on PC since day one. However because of brute forcing with propper hardware u can get things to run well. As the game got certified a month ago for the steam deck, i was hyped to test it out and optimize it myself if needed.

Well performance out of the box is a shit show, lots of microstutter unstable framerate and whenever a building is on the screen framerate just tanks and stutters, specially any build really.

As i got 1000 hours in the game, did hardcore runs, made guides for the game how to be maximum efficient, but also made loading mods to instant teleport through portals instead of waiting 10 seconds. I kinda know where performance tanks and what the game does on the background.

After messing around a bit with settings, and have grass on the ground instead of a flat ground which is just ugly, i got a stable 30fps out of it even at a fully build base for end game, lowering settings but still have grass on the ground u can get not a entirely stable but 99% 40 fps out of it, the microstutter and slowdowns are completely gone.

Now if u play with friends and really explode your base 30 fps is where u have to life with drops for sure. But for single runs with smaller contained base 40 fps 99% stable or 30fps entirely stable is doable. So yea good stuff.

Portable valheim so good.

So now back to the keyboard + mouse + docking station i ordered with it.

o0tTF3I.jpg


If you see the picture u will notice something haha, that keyboard is a pile of shit alright. check where the Z button is rofl. and the Y. Like wut mate. Hey just went with the cheapest option as microsoft keyboard was sold out.

Anyway i type blind so whatever ( my main keyboard has no numbers on it for my PC for example that old lol ), thing works fine. Mouse does the trick. And the docking station is tiny as hell, it fits in that small box where it came in ( white box on the right ) which is tiny. Honestly thought i ordered something wrong, but nope everything was in it. It works great, plug and play no issue's there.

I can tell you this tho, if u want to setup your deck u can do it with touchscreen/controls, but a keyboard + mouse makes life 1000% more better.

Deck Experience after a few days now with it so far:

Screen
:

Amazing really, i am a high end gamer i like to push my games to the top, my screen is a nano-led IPS 160hz gsync 3440x1440 high end 1ms screen. So quality of that screen is great really, but for some reason steam deck looks better. I really want to push games to the max always as i see tiny flaws in games from a mile away and avoid games until i can play them at max settings with future hardware, i have no problems doing that, but because of the smaller screen everything just looks good in games even low settings really, so its not much of a problem.

One problem i do have with it tho, is that while the screen is great, some games require a lot of small information through text like billions etc, would be nice if somehow we could mod UI's ourself into games like control scenes or something valve could create. Main problem i have atm. A bigger screen in newer models could be a solution, but the screen is already big really so not sure if i want that.

Still the reason they probably went for this specific screen is because even tiny text when u put your face closer towards it, is still perfectly readable in many games. Impressive screen all around.

CPU:

Performance incredible nothing else to say really, right choice here what valve did, the SMT on and off and clock change on the fly in any game is something i want on my PC, god dam its good. More cores where useless as it would heat things up more and lower clocks etc, so a right trade off done here. Performance of the cores is great.

GPU:

Solid can always be better, but does the job in a really good way. Surprise how far we have gone in mobile tech really that we can play practically any game on the go.

SSD:

Stock one 64gb is a total joke, u have like 34gb left over, with shader cache builds and other shit, u really only have like 20-25gb at the end if you also install some programs still like emudeck etc. U can't install shit on it, straight up all my games are 50+gb. Honestly only get the 64gb model if you plan ot expand it or solely relay on SD cards. The speed of the 64gb model with the SSD is also questionable, i notice a more snappy desktop mode, with simple things like opening chrome etc with the new SSD for sure, i am sensitive for this shit.

Really wish steam starts to reduce the prices on the steam deck higher models or add a easy way to swap SSD's without u having to do what we have to do now. Also add a higher tier model 1tb.

Look some people are fine with smaller storage, but frankly in my view having no space on a portable PC is the worst. Specially when games on PC are BIG. I had the 512gb SSD full on day one.

Battery:

Well it does the job, but because u can crank the hardware up to the limit in more demanding games that thing is empty within 2 hours. Way to short, Obviously u can extent it by lowering the framerate / settings etc, but i wish it had atleast double the output. A power bank is kinda needed if u play demanding games on the go at this point.

But yea that's just technology limitations at this point, nothing we can blame valve for. I rather have higher performance and power bank option that crippled forever.

Comfort rate/controls:

The original switch was horrible, couldn't even reach half of the buttons ( big hands ) and cramped hands just made me move the games straight into emulation.
I hate controllers in general because it forces your hands to be together, its just shit in my view. The steam deck has a good solution, as there is a screen in between, the distance is hihg enough that it makes it comfortable and the joysticks feel really well. The only problem i have is that the trick pads are hard to reach specially when they use the right behind trigger as mouse button, if you do this for extended periods it will cramp my hand. But that's more OS related. In games i didn't find the trackpads useful, u just want to connect a mouse at that point.

Speakers,mic:

Great really, loud sound, good quality sound and the mic is also solid. nothing to complain about. Far better then i expected.

OS:

Well its linux alright. Still lots of child diseases, lots of small problems where things should work but don't really. This is why windows is good these days. I can have 10 programs run through eachother, multiple games, while writing documents and everything just works. With linux, oh wait u got discord no while gaming? yea u can do that, but if you don't leave the voice call before u close a game, it will be frozen. Stuff like this. While the basics are there, it just needs time to be optimized and worked out.

Lots of trouble with ubisoft connect for example or getting other clients on steam OS to run, u gotta dig through guides and even then its a pain in the ass to get it setup. This is something steam needs to adres first, they need to understand that PC gamers use more shops then just there own, they need to start getting native support for this shit in a easy way on there OS.

What i really like however is there OSD where u can see all the stats like rivatuner on every game with multiple presets, the swapping of cores / locking cores / pinning etc. Decky is great and how u can easily just get extra features enabled.

I like the support and community that works with the steam deck. Everybody seems to universally love the thing.

Some games are still a pain to get going, something they need to get on. Installing GE proton to get stuff to launch, or having to work around stuff because deck doesn't have this or that file that the game requires needs to all be adressed. For example metro 2033 original game, i couldn't get it to run for shit and it requires work arounds. Would be nice if steam would just start optimizing games themselves for the deck that are more populaire.

Size:

Small for a PC of that power that's for sure. It's actually incredible what they made.
Big for a handheld, no way around it.

I think the best user case for the steam deck is at home near a outlet, on the bank when u want to sit in a living room and not sit behind your PC or have to watch a kid or something or just want to be in a room with people, or when u travel or stay at a remote location and take it with you.

I bought it specifically so i can take it towards a remote location i will be at for a month or two and have no access towards a PC, so it works great for that.

Expectations vs Reality:

Honestly i bought handhelds already for a while now, from nintendo to the PSP, but even before that PDA's etc. It was always incredible to me that we could game on the go and always wanted PC games to run on it. Either way there where always huge trade offs to the point newer titles and only select older titles would work in some form or way, it was always janky and meh at the end.

This is the first time i can honestly say, everything just works. If they can iron there OS out a bit more and make it on Par with windows for multitasking but also for older games that they make solutions that are easy to get them to just run, windows PC's will become a hard sell.

Steam deck versus other handhelds, no competition really. I didn't do anything emulation wise just yet, but with PC emulation and even being able to emulate the current switch, this thing has a gigantic backlog of games its not even funny. No other company can even compete really, specially with sony / microsoft games all ending up on PC and all running on the deck, there is really nothing both sony/microsoft or even nintendo can do to compete. The biggest problem nintendo has, is that it can't even play there own entire library ( bc is absolute dog shit ), and there software is to expensive. Steam deck solves this all because its a PC and sales on PC games are all year around.

I honestly can't wait to see what the steam deck 2.0 is. I do hope they delay it somewhat so that the support for the deck stays big, to many versions with drastically changes will split the community severe. They should start making a new one, once new titles can't run at 30 fps anymore on lowest settings. Maybe a ~4 year gab in between would be a good solution.

Upgrades i like to see:

1x usb-c port is kinda shit not going to lie, would be nice to get more on the deck and something what nintendo has a stand on the back that's just included. It's nice to watch some youtube on it and be able to connect it towards a outlet + connect a mouse towards it and that it stands. A docking station is basically manditory to have, but the 100 euro price tag of steams dock is kinda expensive.

A slot on the back with a screw where u can swap the SSD out for a better one. Absolutely needed on the 64gb model.

Future of steam deck:

Honestly, i can see this replace PC entirely at some point. I have no doubt that people ( myself included ) aren't pushing the most demanding games anymore. These releases of high demanding games are far in between to the point it always feels pointless to invest in expensive hardware anymore. I think at this point the freedom of the steamdeck overrules me sitting behind a fully fletched out PC. So i can see the appeal of this and frankly if valve keeps pushing there updates and make the OS better and better, even gaming laptops are a hard sell at that point.

Absolute fantastic little thing.
Did you know the Deck even has a shortcut for taking a screenshot? ;)

Sorry, I could not stifle myself with the blurred pictures.

Glad you like your device as much as most of us do!
 

Kenpachii

Member
Did you know the Deck even has a shortcut for taking a screenshot? ;)

Sorry, I could not stifle myself with the blurred pictures.

Glad you like your device as much as most of us do!

Didn't spend much time with it yet, so i guess gotta figure that out, but its more a performance type of solution. Kinda impressed by how well it performance really.
 

chixdiggit

Member
Well got all the parts delivered yesterday, but because of some time constrains it took a while longer to get everything setup. I can tell you this, storage space on a PC is key, so i had to extend it.

Anyway here's my experience on installing the 1tb 4.0 SSD into the deck.

So before i start, i found out the case they deliver the deck with is perfect to push the deck into so the other side doesn't damage with pressing etc.

Opening the deck was a pain, the 8 screws where easy, but the deck would not give lose at the handles, thanks for the tip about opening it at the fan area this gave me a good start CrustyBritches CrustyBritches , however the controllers would still be stuck. So tried to get it to open there and wedge myself through it with the blue little ifixit kit thingy, didn't work. so decided to open the deck on the other side in the middle also, which gave me space at the controllers to force open it. Took me a good half hour, as i had the feeling i was going to crack that shell if i would rush it for sure. Ended up having no damage on it so that's good.

Once open, getting that metal cover off the SSD or whatever it was off it was easy, but god the two screws are TINY, at the top and the bottom of that metal cover, i even dropt one on the ground, took me a good 10 minutes to find, but anyway it was relevative easy.

Fc7x85A.jpg


After removing the metal cover the next problem started to pop up which i already though would be a issue the dam battery connector.

Epf9N92.jpg


There is like no space at all to put your finger in there, i tried to wedge it a little with one of the plastic thingy's i got with the ifixit kit, but was afraid i would damage the little cables, after 15 minutes of messing around, i found out that the top at the battery side, u can pull a little lose and a little cloth u can pull the cable with comes free, after i had that, i used my nail which was the best solution on the connector itself to push the connector out of it, went relative easy then. Again thanks for the nail tip CrustyBritches CrustyBritches

After that its 1 screw, and the protective shield will fall of the SSD pretty much directly its really lose around the SSD itself. As the 64gb ssd is incredible thin and the 1tb is way thicker, u will have to peel the protective shielding open ( there is a opening u can pull it open and reattach it together again just to make it a bit more bigger. Once replaced close everything up which was relative easy to do, installed rufus on my PC, USB stick and flashed the steam OS on it.

Whiped the entire deck from data, put my SD card in there again, whiped this also. To start from scratch again.

Did some speed test, ( didn't do one before sadly) but hey wanted to see if the entire x4 bus would be consumed as the SSD is a 4.0 5gbps version but in reality its 4,7gb/s read and 4,5gb/s write if it would have gone in a x4 slot, but its a 3.0 slot so 3,5gb/s should be the cap then like my 9900k main PC has.

Results:
jcTjq0a.jpg


Pretty darn impressive that such a small chip, can have that amount of speed. I must say the OS / Chrome and even booting up games feel a bit more snappy. So that's good.

So total space after formatting my SD card is this:

TADDMVQ.jpg


About 1,4tb usable space now, that's more like it.

I freaking hate not having space on a PC as i see it as such. As i didn't had much time to play games still or even download / install them, i did test the deck out with the a SD card solution, so performance can only improve after my findings here. I can't wait to get some gaming going in the next few days on this thing tho.

Games time: ( all tests where done one a 512gb SD card with 150mb/s read and write, at native 800p resolution no FSR, so there is room for improvement in many games ), didn't had time to test the new SSD with 3,5gb/s in games yet.

So decided to download Witcher 3 Next Gen version, yea that un-optimized shit show they call a update.

W4VGCMk.jpg


Mind blowing beautiful on the screen really, i did some RT testing with my 3080 which was a complete shit show on its release ( maybe they fixed it now ), but just download the game, went to the DLC area and walked through the shipyard which is really demanding as lots of NPC's walk through it, and on medium settings it looks incredible even better then on ultra+ on my desktop lol. Honestly the screen is just so good, i went to the start area, it was dark outside withe the moon out and i just looked at the sky with the town in the distance incredible even on lower settings.

After slamming everything on low, to see how it looks like, i upped the textures to high and some other settings i moved forwards, but in general i sit now in the high 40's in city's and mid to high 50's outside of it, with lock at 40 hz and 40 framecap its smooth as butter. However after running a bit around i found out, that there is one place that absolute tanks the GPU even at 1600mhz, its a tavern in skel islands under the main castle ( huge bridge basically ) there is a tavern and yea fps dies there hard with the fire being there. Maybe its a bug or something i dunno, but u are there for like 5 seconds in the game so not much of a problem.

After testing settings out, i find out because of the small screen, the difference between ultra to high is basically not visible, even high to medium is hard to notice a change, and low in many games still looks like high on PC. It's great really.

So on to the next game ( didn't test much games, because my internet speed is crap atm i lowered it down to the lowest level 14mb/s ( 140mbps ) because i tended to barely download anything before anymore, so just gotta deal with the waits :p

QcA4xH7.jpg


Do you even metro bro. It's a demanding game even on PC. So booted up sams story, at the start there is a bridge u look over the area and that's the hardest to render part in the entire game. The FPS tanked hard, moved towards 35 fps at lowest settings. Still at low on the tiny screen the game looks just as good as at ultra on a bigger PC screen. So its doable just not locked 40 double, maybe some tweaks etc can fix this, but i still gotta mess around with that. But hey it runs lol.

After booting the start of the game in the normal base game ( for some reason my cloud saves from PC didn't work so couldnt'really test other area's out ), u get pushed into the tunnel system of metro, the FPS goes up to low 70's really smooth. But once u enter area's with enemy's the FPS moves straight down to 30's again. So is the game playable sure, u probably can get a locked 40 in many area's, but 30 fps lock is kinda needed for no fps fluxuations. Still mighty impressive to run this game tho in a handheld, and it looks great.

Next on the list path of exile:

GuDHZt3.jpg

Didn't play the game for a couple of years now, but i still have area's unlocked on my characters in standard, however no talents so couldn't really kill stuff or anything. So decided to visit a few city's, not much of a benchmark i know but hey its whatever it is. Game looks fantastic again on the little screen even at low settings

The FPS is mindblowing tho, i remember my i7 870 and 970 ( pc before my current one ) struggling hard to maintain 60 fps in those city's, 100 fps in the city's wasn't uncommon. These little cpu cores are fast as hell that's for sure.

But again no combat, as i have no clue what to pick anymore in the tree's so the FPS probably gets a massive hit once mobs are on the screen, still 100 fps gives you some wiggle room.

Next up Divinity 2: Definitive Edition:

BSW266Z.jpg


One of my favorite games, really good game. Beat it in multiple impossible run type of ways on my PC spend 100's of hours on it if not 1k hours in total. Sadly saves didn't transfer over so i couldn't test other maps, but fort joy is easy to reach and the open area there is basically one of the most demanding area's in the game besides the fire pits in act two.

I played the game on my old and new PC, my old pc i7 870, struggled to get 45 fps in the main town, cpu was just to slow. Divinity to hits about 50-55 fps at ultra settings, and about 60+ at high settings, at low it goes up to 80+. Anyway any preset looks good with divinity 2 really, specially on the small screen, so high i think is a nice solution to have. It plays butter smooth and honestly even with the controller layout its really well playable. Absolute a must have if u like these type of games on the deck.

Control, no screenshot:

Booted the game up and FPS tanked completely to sub 20's / high 10's. Checked the settings, lowered everything to low and still below 30's. Didn't really understood what was going on, but because my OSD covered up the resolution in the settings, i saw it was rendering at 1080p, lowered it to the decks resolution and boom 60+ fps at the start area. Not much of a indication really, but was out of time and again saves didn't transfer over so i had to start a new game. Still incredible even at low how the game looks like on the small screen.

They are billions:

bg3zY6N.jpg


After messing around with a few games, it was time to get one of my most played games now on the deck which was simple not well ported ( these devs are properly lazy tho, they bricked the game with terrible performance with a update, only to take a year to do a small fix to fix it ) So i expected absolute no support for deck related solutions. And even while the game is simple, it absolutely murders a 9900k to sometimes single digits once things get hectic. So yea optimisation is complete shit.
Well the good news is, it boots. Put everything on low ( barely any settings in this game, again lazy devs ). and the FPS seems to stabilize on high 50's. Keep in mind this game will be fine even at 20's dips, most RTS games and city builders will dip below 30's at times and that's fine, but this is a survival city builder basically.

After connecting a keyboard + mouse now, as i had my docking station, all games recognized both straight away,i could properly play the game. but sadly it doesn't work for the deck. There is noticable microstutter which is annoying but i can deal with it, the work factory's text is butchered so u can't see how much resources they make. Now i play the game for about 3000+ hours at this point, i know kinda what it mines but even then its rough to deal with, so not advicable. Hope the devs will fix it at one point.

Final fantasy 15 ( no screenshot ) :

Absolute murdered my old 970 and i7 870 back in the day, my 9900k and 3080 don't have much issue's with it tho, but still can drop at max settings below the 60 stress hold.
Slammed it on native resolution, lowered everything to low and boom 50+ fps. Runs smooth, but looks rough as hell because of endless shimmering. This game struggled with this since day one even on PC, the only solution is to put tram in the settings to high which kills v-ram and performance. So decided to just yolo it and enable it. fps dropped to high 40's and a crystal clean image now. Walked a bit in the start area which is demanding, with a locked 40 fps smooth as hell. Incredible to see how fast this deck really is in even really demanding games. Not a game i like tho, but owned it and wanted to see if it would even run at all, and yea it does perfectly fine. In combat no clue, didn't had the time to really do anything, but from my experience that area was really demanding so it probably does fine.

Witcher 2:

xTrsDzB.jpg


First game i booted on the deck when it was still not altered, honestly pops incredible well on the small screen. This game absolute destroyed my 580gtx ( top end gpu ) back in the day, deck runs it at max settings at 60 fps, perfectly fine even in the most demanding area's, it does require u to lock the GPU to 1100mhz disable SMT to get max clocks on the CPU cores otherwise u will sit in middle to low 50's.

Again can't believe playing this game on a handheld really at that fidelity, men we came a long way.

Shadow of mordor:

faxFrP3.jpg


This game butchered GPU's back in the day specially on the v-ram side.

Was mindblown with how good the game played however, went to a place with a bunch of npc's on the screen while 2 mordor bears where raiding the camp and the fps was just amazing, this is at higher settings by the way, low settings is straight up ~90 fps ( which the game is capped at ). I can't believe how good this game runs on this thing incredible. And again looks really good. I still remember being dissapointed after this game with the witcher 3 terrible combat. The combat is so good in this game.

Valheim ( shit screenshot, taken before optimization ), forgot to make a new one later on:

s5cXowt.jpg


So for the people that played valheim ( if you didn't, play it. It's incredible ). The game is a mess performance wise on PC since day one. However because of brute forcing with propper hardware u can get things to run well. As the game got certified a month ago for the steam deck, i was hyped to test it out and optimize it myself if needed.

Well performance out of the box is a shit show, lots of microstutter unstable framerate and whenever a building is on the screen framerate just tanks and stutters, specially any build really.

As i got 1000 hours in the game, did hardcore runs, made guides for the game how to be maximum efficient, but also made loading mods to instant teleport through portals instead of waiting 10 seconds. I kinda know where performance tanks and what the game does on the background.

After messing around a bit with settings, and have grass on the ground instead of a flat ground which is just ugly, i got a stable 30fps out of it even at a fully build base for end game, lowering settings but still have grass on the ground u can get not a entirely stable but 99% 40 fps out of it, the microstutter and slowdowns are completely gone.

Now if u play with friends and really explode your base 30 fps is where u have to life with drops for sure. But for single runs with smaller contained base 40 fps 99% stable or 30fps entirely stable is doable. So yea good stuff.

Portable valheim so good.

So now back to the keyboard + mouse + docking station i ordered with it.

o0tTF3I.jpg


If you see the picture u will notice something haha, that keyboard is a pile of shit alright. check where the Z button is rofl. and the Y. Like wut mate. Hey just went with the cheapest option as microsoft keyboard was sold out.

Anyway i type blind so whatever ( my main keyboard has no numbers on it for my PC for example that old lol ), thing works fine. Mouse does the trick. And the docking station is tiny as hell, it fits in that small box where it came in ( white box on the right ) which is tiny. Honestly thought i ordered something wrong, but nope everything was in it. It works great, plug and play no issue's there.

I can tell you this tho, if u want to setup your deck u can do it with touchscreen/controls, but a keyboard + mouse makes life 1000% more better.

Deck Experience after a few days now with it so far:

Screen
:

Amazing really, i am a high end gamer i like to push my games to the top, my screen is a nano-led IPS 160hz gsync 3440x1440 high end 1ms screen. So quality of that screen is great really, but for some reason steam deck looks better. I really want to push games to the max always as i see tiny flaws in games from a mile away and avoid games until i can play them at max settings with future hardware, i have no problems doing that, but because of the smaller screen everything just looks good in games even low settings really, so its not much of a problem.

One problem i do have with it tho, is that while the screen is great, some games require a lot of small information through text like billions etc, would be nice if somehow we could mod UI's ourself into games like control scenes or something valve could create. Main problem i have atm. A bigger screen in newer models could be a solution, but the screen is already big really so not sure if i want that.

Still the reason they probably went for this specific screen is because even tiny text when u put your face closer towards it, is still perfectly readable in many games. Impressive screen all around.

CPU:

Performance incredible nothing else to say really, right choice here what valve did, the SMT on and off and clock change on the fly in any game is something i want on my PC, god dam its good. More cores where useless as it would heat things up more and lower clocks etc, so a right trade off done here. Performance of the cores is great.

GPU:

Solid can always be better, but does the job in a really good way. Surprise how far we have gone in mobile tech really that we can play practically any game on the go.

SSD:

Stock one 64gb is a total joke, u have like 34gb left over, with shader cache builds and other shit, u really only have like 20-25gb at the end if you also install some programs still like emudeck etc. U can't install shit on it, straight up all my games are 50+gb. Honestly only get the 64gb model if you plan ot expand it or solely relay on SD cards. The speed of the 64gb model with the SSD is also questionable, i notice a more snappy desktop mode, with simple things like opening chrome etc with the new SSD for sure, i am sensitive for this shit.

Really wish steam starts to reduce the prices on the steam deck higher models or add a easy way to swap SSD's without u having to do what we have to do now. Also add a higher tier model 1tb.

Look some people are fine with smaller storage, but frankly in my view having no space on a portable PC is the worst. Specially when games on PC are BIG. I had the 512gb SSD full on day one.

Battery:

Well it does the job, but because u can crank the hardware up to the limit in more demanding games that thing is empty within 2 hours. Way to short, Obviously u can extent it by lowering the framerate / settings etc, but i wish it had atleast double the output. A power bank is kinda needed if u play demanding games on the go at this point.

But yea that's just technology limitations at this point, nothing we can blame valve for. I rather have higher performance and power bank option that crippled forever.

Comfort rate/controls:

The original switch was horrible, couldn't even reach half of the buttons ( big hands ) and cramped hands just made me move the games straight into emulation.
I hate controllers in general because it forces your hands to be together, its just shit in my view. The steam deck has a good solution, as there is a screen in between, the distance is hihg enough that it makes it comfortable and the joysticks feel really well. The only problem i have is that the trick pads are hard to reach specially when they use the right behind trigger as mouse button, if you do this for extended periods it will cramp my hand. But that's more OS related. In games i didn't find the trackpads useful, u just want to connect a mouse at that point.
Fire post.
Don't give up on those track pads. Once you get used to them they work really well. I now wish the Steam Deck UI was controlled by the track pad.
 

Assaulty

Member
I've been using the 64 gb model and its honestly no big deal.

I have 20 games installed on my SD card, use a swap file of 12gb and with shader cashes of those 20 games installed I still have 8gb left for updates and stuff (which don't appear to take up more space but overwrite a lot of date). Glad I went with the cheapest option tbh. Might get a 500-1tb ssd if I ever find a deal I can't refuse, but I really don't think I am missing out on anything with the 64gb model and a good SD card.
 
Kenpachii Kenpachii

Nice write up, man. Glad everything worked out. I agree that having a little panel you could remove would make SSD swap much easier compared to how it is now.

That Sabrent at 3500MB/s read|3000MB/s write is much faster than my WD at 2450MB/s read|1800MB/s write. In games there won’t be much of a difference, but in file transfers like copying large emu libraries from a fast USB-C ssd you’ll probably see a bit of an uplift. You’ll definitely see a nice uplift over microSD in file transfers, download speeds, and some games loading times.

Something you’ll probably want to do is boot into the BIOS(Vol-Up+Power buttons until you hear the beep) and go into setup utility-> advanced settings and change UMA frame buffer size to 4GB, so you have more reserved VRAM. This will you give you a performance boost in a lot of games, RDR2 being the exception since it has a SteamOS bug that requires 1GB frame buffer size.

If you decide to do dual-boot I recommend the Deck Wizard channel.

Congrats on the new SSD!

P.S.- I tested that Skellige tavern and there’s really nothing you can do to increase frame rate there. I even tried forced FSR at 960x600 and the frame rate didn’t change a bit. Although using FSR at 1152x720 really helps frame rate otherwise. That scene slams the GPU, but it could be that its memory bandwidth constrained. That’s funny you found that. I usually test Hierarch Square and Crookback Bog as performance heavy scenarios, but nothing beats that tavern. How’d you end up there anyway? Going through Yennifer’s panty drawer?
 
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Kenpachii

Member
Kenpachii Kenpachii

Nice write up, man. Glad everything worked out. I agree that having a little panel you could remove would make SSD swap much easier compared to how it is now.

That Sabrent at 3500MB/s read|3000MB/s write is much faster than my WD at 2450MB/s read|1800MB/s write. In games there won’t be much of a difference, but in file transfers like copying large emu libraries from a fast USB-C ssd you’ll probably see a bit of an uplift. You’ll definitely see a nice uplift over microSD in file transfers, download speeds, and some games loading times.

Something you’ll probably want to do is boot into the BIOS(Vol-Up+Power buttons until you hear the beep) and go into setup utility-> advanced settings and change UMA frame buffer size to 4GB, so you have more reserved VRAM. This will you give you a performance boost in a lot of games, RDR2 being the exception since it has a SteamOS bug that requires 1GB frame buffer size.

If you decide to do dual-boot I recommend the Deck Wizard channel.

Congrats on the new SSD!

P.S.- I tested that Skellige tavern and there’s really nothing you can do to increase frame rate there. I even tried forced FSR at 960x600 and the frame rate didn’t change a bit. Although using FSR at 1152x720 really helps frame rate otherwise. That scene slams the GPU, but it could be that its memory bandwidth constrained. That’s funny you found that. I usually test Hierarch Square and Crookback Bog as performance heavy scenarios, but nothing beats that tavern. How’d you end up there anyway? Going through Yennifer’s panty drawer?

Yea they really need to deal with the SSD in a better way next time, but hey atleast its doable.

3,5 or 2,5 doesn't matter much, what does matter is 2gb/s as i saw on my PC lots of games spike up over the 1gb/s even up to 1,6gb/s at times, with extra stuff happening on the background i kinda want as much performance as i can have specially when it comes to emulating games like zelda botw. Still even with SD card and SSD load times are simple fast enough already. So yea not much gain here. I just wanted to max the slot out because i could.

Thanks for the V-ram hint,

61FF12330FD21D1985076A5ED039D82A5729D8A9


Seems to run a bit better now always staying at the 40+ there but this is low settings tho.

Anyway tested that place out again where it dips in witcher, no change. So ended up booting the game up on my PC 9900k 5,2ghz and 3080 oc at same settings the deck runs at but at 3440x1440. Seems like GPU taxation goes from 70% > 93% and fps goes from 143 > 101.

Yea this aint a steam deck problem lol.

I ended up there because i wanted to go to the castle to check the framerate out, but saw the building and was like lets see whats in here again.
 

FrozenFlame

Member
Ok, question, is there any STEAM OT? Couldn't find it using neogaf search function or even google. Was going to use that thread but perhaps I can also get an answer here and it's not offtopic since it's compatible with the Steam Deck.

Has anyone played Sands of Salzaar? Is it good? Althought the game has mostly positive reviews, the negative reviews makes me wary, especially the complains about the game being obtuse about what to do or where to go (+bad translation).
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
Ok, question, is there any STEAM OT? Couldn't find it using neogaf search function or even google. Was going to use that thread but perhaps I can also get an answer here and it's not offtopic since it's compatible with the Steam Deck.
We used to have a monthly Steam thread several years ago, but interest dropped off. Might be time to start a new one though!
 

FrozenFlame

Member
We used to have a monthly Steam thread several years ago, but interest dropped off. Might be time to start a new one though!
Genuinely surprised we don't have one. Back when I was a luker (many years ago), I kept checking the Steam thread. It was a good place to find deals and new games. I think that the only "PC gaming thread" we have is the "I need a new PC" and that isn't exactly about PC Games.
But I have to say, I really don't see the point of making it a monthly one. Due to the current activity, a regular one would work better, I think.
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
But I have to say, I really don't see the point of making it a monthly one. Due to the current activity, a regular one would work better, I think.
Back in the day, it used to be a limitation of the forum software GAF was running on. It would only allow threads to go up to a few hundred pages before it would crash. So to keep that from happening, a new thread was created every month. Now, we don't have that problem and could theoretically make a thread that stuck around for years.
 

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman


Installing plugins on the steam deck just got super easy with Decky loader!
Ever wanted to change the theme of your steam deck interface! How about adjust the saturation and color of the steam decks screen? What about getting better battery life out of the steam deck? All of this possible with plug ins and I. This video I show you how to easily install deck loader so you can get all the steam deck plug ins you need with ease!

00:00 Introduction
00:53 How To Install Decky Loader
02:18 Add Plugins to the Steam Deck
04:42 VibrantDeck adjusts screen saturation & vibrancy Steam Deck
05:54 CSS Loader add Themes to your Steam Deck
08:29 Better Steam Deck Battery life With Power Tools
 

kubricks

Member
ProtonVPN finally setup, to install ubisoft games and it finally works.

Can't wait for some assassin creeds.

I have been playing AC Odyssey on the Steam Deck for a while. It works but the ubisoft launcher is always annoying.

How does protonvpn help? It can dissable the ubisoft launcher login permanently or something?
 

demigod

Member
Not sure what happened but my damn steam deck bricked. No display whatsoever and I’ve tried every way to boot you can possibly think of. I can hear the fans running.

Fresh install of steam os internal 256gb along with windows 11 on microsd. Last game played was God of War on Windows 11. Anyone else had this issue?
 

Kenpachii

Member
I have been playing AC Odyssey on the Steam Deck for a while. It works but the ubisoft launcher is always annoying.

How does protonvpn help? It can dissable the ubisoft launcher login permanently or something?

Its for if you can't connect to ubisoft servers with the deck for whatever reason. Happened to me so i had to setup it before actually being able to log into ubisoft connect.
 

N30RYU

Member
Is there any config to get a PS5 like theme with the CSS Loader?

Can't find a theme to put the game covers on top with the game name below hidding recent and evwrything... something like the switch like theme but with the ps5 layout
 
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IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman


When enough of you keep asking me for the SAME THING I try to listen...so here we go; Steam Deck coverage! But of course this is a retro gaming channel so it's not like we are going to talk about modern PC Gaming on the Steam Deck...we are going to talk about retro emulation...more specifically MAME arcade emulation!

I asked, you answered...and I try to listen :) Of all the requests for new content on the channel one of the most frequently asked for videos is a series on the Steam Deck; Valve's new Nintendo Switch competitor that could

On today's Steam Deck video I will go over how to get PS2 / PlayStation 2 games running on your Steam Deck via PCSX 2, including required bios files, game formats, how to use Emu Deck 2 (EmuDeck 2) to facilitate the process and most importantly how to start enjoying PS2 games on Steam Deck today!

Again I recommend getting a Dock for your Steam Deck as the process is MUCH easier that way!

But the Steam Deck is proving to be an amazing retrogaming handheld video game emulation machine and I love it!
 
I stumbled across this cool solid state cooling device made by a start up called Frore, I went to their website and found a PDF listed under "cooler and quieter handheld gaming device" and the "gaming device" is a steamdeck.
Today's Hand Held Gaming Devices support 15 Watts sustained processor power. However, the skin temperature is high, in some cases exceeding 60 C. In addition to high skin temperatures, hand held gaming devices are very noisy, with fan noise reaching or exceeding 45 dBA. Using AirJet®, the thermal solution can be improved, still supporting 15 Watts sustained processor power, while reducing the skin temperature to 50C and noise level to 24 dBA - quieter than a whisper.
This would be insanely good for a future SD revision, no idea if it's feasible though.
 

Kenpachii

Member
Deep dive into best way to emulate zelda botw, really in dept, specific for the deck.



Second wind mod ( basically botw dlc, adds town / quests / enemy's / quality of life shit etc ) and how to mod

 
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Although I have GP Ultimate with EA Play and Windows installed on my Deck, I decided to buy the ME Legendary Edition for Steam for $15. It required a login to EA App when the game was booting up, but I didn't have to install anything in desktop mode. It ran fine even without changing proton versions. I only tested ME2, and the intro segment played at 1280x800, max settings with only an occasional little dip here and there.
 
Is there any config to get a PS5 like theme with the CSS Loader?

Can't find a theme to put the game covers on top with the game name below hidding recent and evwrything... something like the switch like theme but with the ps5 layout

Not that I know of, but you can learn enough CSS and do that yourself in 1 day
 
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TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
Tried out a few games today: Dragon Quest XI, Dragon's Dogma and Dark Souls (PTDE + DsFix). They all work great!
Will probably do a replay of Dragon's Dogma once I beat Dragon Quest XI, which I've been playing for some time on my main PC but will probably switch to a combo of Deck + PC.
 

Kenpachii

Member

@ CrustyBritches CrustyBritches


Could u try the forspoken demo on windows 11 to see if directstorage on the steam deck works? and how long it takes to load from main menu into the game? would be interesting to see.

My current steam deck does in the steam os 7.1 seconds to load the game in.

Here's some gameplay for forspoken, shitty quality on the mobile, locked at 30 from steam deck ( no vsync enabled ) middle unlocked. Just a fast sneak peak if the game would even run. Game seems to run fine tho ( low settings )

 

@ CrustyBritches CrustyBritches


Could u try the forspoken demo on windows 11 to see if directstorage on the steam deck works? and how long it takes to load from main menu into the game? would be interesting to see.

My current steam deck does in the steam os 7.1 seconds to load the game in.

Here's some gameplay for forspoken, shitty quality on the mobile, locked at 30 from steam deck ( no vsync enabled ) middle unlocked. Just a fast sneak peak if the game would even run. Game seems to run fine tho ( low settings )


I’m running Win10, but I have an extra 256GB 2230 drive that I can install Win11 on later tonight and do the test if nobody else here has a chance to try it first.
 

Could u try the forspoken demo on windows 11 to see if directstorage on the steam deck works? and how long it takes to load from main menu into the game? would be interesting to see.
Here's 2 clips of the game on Win11. The 1st clip is after quitting the game to desktop. Then starting it and hitting continue. The 2nd clip is after exiting to the main menu and loading a save file.


I'm not sure whether directstorage is in play here or not. I tried running the precompiled Bulk Load Demo with the avocados that was linked in the other thread. It crashed on Deck, but ran fine on my laptop. Could have been a memory issue, but I'm not sure. This is on a drive that has 2400MB/s read, 1900MB/s write.
 
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Kenpachii

Member
Here's 2 clips of the game on Win11. The 1st clip is after quitting the game to desktop. Then starting it and hitting continue. The 2nd clip is after exiting to the main menu and loading a save file.


I'm not sure whether directstorage is in play here or not. I tried running the precompiled Bulk Load Demo with the avocados that was linked in the other thread. It crashed on Deck, but ran fine on my laptop. Could have been a memory issue, but I'm not sure. This is on a drive that has 2400MB/s read, 1900MB/s write.


Ah thanks a lot for testing it, so its definitely working then, that's way quicker then on steam OS.
 
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Very LTTP, but I bought a Deck in late 2022 and have been loving every minute of the device. It's in my Top 3 systems/consoles where I've felt joy in both receiving and playing it.

When I first heard of it in 2021, I was doubtful and pessimistic about what Valve was promising, given their histories with the Link and Controller. I didn't shut them out entirely though, and I've never been so glad to be wrong about a gaming product.

I've enjoyed playing games on it for sure, but oddly enough, I get even more enjoyment out of figuring out and researching how to set up the programs and games I want to play.

From compatibility layers to custom control schemes, it feels like a system where you can both follow established procedures, OR take things further and truly make them your own.

I've played a wide variety of games on the Deck and have beaten several now, but my favorite experience so far has been with the PC port/decompliation of Ocarina of Time. All the graphical enhancement options, gameplay customizations, and Randomizer modes already make it the ideal version of OoT, but the Deck's portable form factor and visual presentation make it the ideal platform of play IMO.

Sorry for the long post, but I've had all of this praise for the device and have only now been able to express it here.
 

Kupfer

Member
I made a great discovery today!

Maybe some of you already figured this out but for me it was new and I want to share.

After trying to play Max Payne 1 on the Deck a few months ago and it wouldn't launch due to dozens of error messages, I've been putting off catching up with trilogy.

Today I remembered while scrolling through my library and after a (really very short) search, I came across this fix :

Click Me!

And what can I say, it took 2 minutes and the game starts without any problems.


So the Max Payne trilogy is now fully playable on the Deck!


DkrkCNC.png


VepHDa5.png


DYXeD5g.png
 
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