PC Valve drops a Tim Epic-approved steamer!

[TwinIon]

On 12/15/2022 at 10:23 AM, Keyser_Soze said:

Time to get off the fence and buy one now.

If Valve would just get dual booting working, I’d probably buy one right now. I like the idea that it’s a toy that I can still use for other things when I need to. When I travel I bring my laptop mostly for Lightroom to download, backup, and organize my photos. I could even use my iPad’s screen with Duet Display and do some minor editing or remote into work should the need arise. That would be enough for me to leave my giant 15” XPS and it’s power brick behind.

 

Also, Destiny 2 remains my most played game, and I don’t expect it’ll work on Linux anytime soon.

 

Still, I wouldn’t want to give up the simplicity of Steam OS, especially now that it seems plenty of devs are actually accommodating the device. Even if I want the utility of a Windows PC at times, I imagine most of my time would be playing little games on my couch.

 

[Brian]

@Zaku3 did you order one?

[imthesoldier]

On 12/15/2022 at 11:59 AM, stepee said:

 

Its such a huge generation leap in the handheld space with just a deck coming from the Switch - that I’m content for now - being able to set the refresh to 40hz also does a lot of heavy lifting for me!

 

I would like maybe a 1080p display also but just for streaming, 720p looks good on 7” so it’s not worth the power hit to me, would take battery if playing native.

 

I recently did some comparisons with Doom 2016 on my Deck, and was impressed at not just being able to run it at a higher fidelity, but also see what is possible if I capped the system package at about 10 watts. My buddy asked if it was possible to get 4hrs of game time, and so through a process of some trial and error, I came up with some results: 

 

Ran the game at 928x580 resolution at low details plus a 60% scaling, and with TAA (no FSR), managed to get a targeted 60fps. Keep in mind the APU was only pulling about 3-4 watts. Also did some 30fps capped with higher details, and of course as you've done, 40hz cap, which was a good balance of fidelity, and smoothness. All while still pulling around 10 watts, though 11 watts was also shown.

 

Interestingly, it also demonstrated that despite what we may want, the Switch 2 (or whatever it's called) is unlikely to be any more powerful than the Steam Deck. At best, on par is my suggestion. But there are some other takeaways, chief among is the usual console optimizations you simply cannot get with a PC, plus a bespoke API, ARM vs. x86, and very possibly a DLSS implementation. 

 

We can only have so much horsepower while sipping very little battery. That said, the Steam Deck continues to impress me the more I use it though, and if the Switch 2 is anything close to what the Steam Deck can do in terms of horsepower, we'll have a decent Hybrid platform on our hands. 

[Zaku3]

On 1/21/2023 at 3:42 PM, Brian said:

@Zaku3 did you order one?

 

Fuk sorry man forgot to respond. Naw man I actually had to cancel the Geek 2. I was suspended from work and was just gonna play it off as covid wit Fidelity cuz my 401k seems to have taken a pounding but you needed paper work for it. So I got backed up a bit and while I was out I my lymph node moved so I was in and out of work and settled on FMLA but the first 5 days was unpaid. So yoloing on this is dead. I like my OXP Pro though. I think the new amd chip is the 7040u so considering that I rather be disproven that I do have cancer. Until I know more I'm gonna find wait until the actual new AMD chips. Remember boys anythign that I has a number other then 4 in an AMD mobile part is not a Zen 4 chip and only Zen 4 chips fet RDNA3 graphics. 

 

 

Think I'm gonna get a 2nd opinion. My grandma died 4 years ago I couldn't go for the funeral because someone has to stay with the dogs but I need to go. At the very least the current armistics wit my ex wife would allow me to go prior to treatment if needed. (And deemed it being safe enough to put it off for the trip) 

 

On a positive note morale is good. I seem to have developed a base level of happiness which I didn't have before.

[stepee]

44 minutes ago, Zaku3 said:

 

Fuk sorry man forgot to respond. Naw man I actually had to cancel the Geek 2. I was suspended from work and was just gonna play it off as covid wit Fidelity cuz my 401k seems to have taken a pounding but you needed paper work for it. So I got backed up a bit and while I was out I my lymph node moved so I was in and out of work and settled on FMLA but the first 5 days was unpaid. So yoloing on this is dead. I like my OXP Pro though. I think the new amd chip is the 7040u so considering that I rather be disproven that I do have cancer. Until I know more I'm gonna find wait until the actual new AMD chips. Remember boys anythign that I has a number other then 4 in an AMD mobile part is not a Zen 4 chip and only Zen 4 chips fet RDNA3 graphics. 

 

 

Think I'm gonna get a 2nd opinion. My grandma died 4 years ago I couldn't go for the funeral because someone has to stay with the dogs but I need to go. At the very least the current armistics wit my ex wife would allow me to go prior to treatment if needed. (And deemed it being safe enough to put it off for the trip) 

 

On a positive note morale is good. I seem to have developed a base level of happiness which I didn't have before.

 

considering that! 

[Zaku3]

19 hours ago, stepee said:

 

considering that! 

 

I spoke with my ex-wife Saturday and her grilling me about what I have been since I left her life made me see how far I have come and see the changes brought on by therapy and meds. So I realized I am aokay with waiting 4-6 weeks to get this lymph node removed and biopsy was that well I hated existing and it would technically provide an out. However I realized I am happy in and of my self, my exwife just adds to my happiness, I still love her, still the hottest chick I know (some how hotter wtf how) and I want to go see her, pay respects to my Grandma since I have been avoiding it cuz of my ex and to do that I need to know wtf is going on ASAP. I enjoy life enough that I don't have a problem with dying but I still feel it would be better to not exist then exist and to change that I kinda need to live long enough to make up for a 35-36 (not sure when the change actually took place just been feeling different dor awhile and I had no idea why) year life that while materially perfectly fine minus ya kno the normal expected negatives from the neoliberal hellscape we live in now. Like I was like damn my life has been pretty shyt if I couldn't tell the difference between what being happy as an individual with no external factors contributing to it.

 

Also through the study of socialism/ I kinda found a way of logical thinking that allows me to apply my brillance for STEM to human relationships and systems.

 

Edit: I am going for another dr have an appt on Friday. This situation is an insult to my intelligence I' gonna just open myself up if I don't like the new Dr cuz I can't wait for this shyt. Be nice if I could like go before my mom's vacation. Though Myloh is gonna be a problem so waiting for mom to get back would give me more time to make sure he fits into the pack. Btw If this all isn't due to therapy and meds. It's cuz of Myloh. Complete agent of chaos.

[stepee]

7 hours ago, Zaku3 said:

 

I spoke with my ex-wife Saturday and her grilling me about what I have been since I left her life made me see how far I have come and see the changes brought on by therapy and meds. So I realized I am aokay with waiting 4-6 weeks to get this lymph node removed and biopsy was that well I hated existing and it would technically provide an out. However I realized I am happy in and of my self, my exwife just adds to my happiness, I still love her, still the hottest chick I know (some how hotter wtf how) and I want to go see her, pay respects to my Grandma since I have been avoiding it cuz of my ex and to do that I need to know wtf is going on ASAP. I enjoy life enough that I don't have a problem with dying but I still feel it would be better to not exist then exist and to change that I kinda need to live long enough to make up for a 35-36 (not sure when the change actually took place just been feeling different dor awhile and I had no idea why) year life that while materially perfectly fine minus ya kno the normal expected negatives from the neoliberal hellscape we live in now. Like I was like damn my life has been pretty shyt if I couldn't tell the difference between what being happy as an individual with no external factors contributing to it.

 

Also through the study of socialism/ I kinda found a way of logical thinking that allows me to apply my brillance for STEM to human relationships and systems.

 

Edit: I am going for another dr have an appt on Friday. This situation is an insult to my intelligence I' gonna just open myself up if I don't like the new Dr cuz I can't wait for this shyt. Be nice if I could like go before my mom's vacation. Though Myloh is gonna be a problem so waiting for mom to get back would give me more time to make sure he fits into the pack. Btw If this all isn't due to therapy and meds. It's cuz of Myloh. Complete agent of chaos.

 

But, all that said, if a deck comes out with a 7040u, native dual boot, and an oled 1080p display, that would then be the most important thing 

[Zaku3]

On 1/28/2023 at 11:40 PM, stepee said:

 

But, all that said, if a deck comes out with a 7040u, native dual boot, and an oled 1080p display, that would then be the most important thing 

 

Yes that might be worth continuing to live in a neoliberal hellscape. I wonder if I'd get faster answers by going to the ER. I can't live like this and it has grown today I need answers and it's business day 7 I called on business 6 and left a message and I was supposed to get a call back within 5 business days.

[stepee]

14 minutes ago, Zaku3 said:

 

Yes that might be worth continuing to live in a neoliberal hellscape. I wonder if I'd get faster answers by going to the ER. I can't live like this and it has grown today I need answers and it's business day 7 I called on business 6 and left a message and I was supposed to get a call back within 5 business days.

 

 

Lymph node issues that are not serious are super common so while you are doing what you need to do in getting it checked I have faith you will be okay! 

[AbsolutSurgen]

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

For some inexplicable reason, Valve just enabled "native" ray tracking on the Deck:

 

Valve just enabled native ray tracing on the Steam Deck and it actually looks pretty wild | PC Gamer

WWW.PCGAMER.COM

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"DXR is also in the pipe, just not quite ready yet," says Deck developer, Pierre-Loup Griffais.

 

Quote

 

So yeah, ray tracing on the Steam Deck is now properly a thing. It's been do-able if you wanted to dig in and do some Linux-y tweaking before, but with the latest beta OS Valve is starting to go native. For a device that costs less than the price of an RTX 3050—a graphics card no-one should buy at that price—to be able to enable ray tracing that's worth a damn is seriously impressive.

 

Valve has announced the new Steam Deck OS beta(opens in new tab) in the handheld's Preview channel, and updates the operating system of the device to the Mesa 23.1 graphics driver. So far, so dry, but the interesting stuff is in what that actually means in terms of games. For one, it gets rid of some graphical corruption issues that exist with the current build of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty and GPU crashes "in several upcoming titles."

 

The update also enables ray tracing in Doom Eternal.

 

 

[stepee]

I’m really surprised official dual boot Windows isn’t out yet, any word of that? Thankfully steamos ended up being more versatile than I had imagined and moonlight is giving me gamepass but it would still be a nice option to have.

[Keyser_Soze]

7 hours ago, stepee said:

I’m really surprised official dual boot Windows isn’t out yet, any word of that? Thankfully steamos ended up being more versatile than I had imagined and moonlight is giving me gamepass but it would still be a nice option to have.

 

Wait till the summer Microsoft show where they announce their joint deal with Valve including native game pass support for steam deck!

[stepee]

1 minute ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

Wait till the summer Microsoft show where they announce their joint deal with Valve including native game pass support for steam deck!

 

This is the dream

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Valve likes the idea of an OLED Steam Deck, too, but says it isn't as simple as it sounds | PC Gamer

WWW.PCGAMER.COM

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Swapping to a new screen is "a bigger amount of work than people are assuming it would be."

 

Quote

 

The hardware in Valve's 2021 Steam Deck can run circles around Nintendo's 2017 Nintendo Switch, but there's been one point of comparison where Nintendo's had the upper hand for the last year: the screen. The Switch OLED model debuted just six months before the Steam Deck, and once you go OLED on a TV, phone, or gaming handheld, it's pretty hard to leave those rich colors and deep blacks behind. The Steam Deck has just passed its one year anniversary, and for the whole year I've seen one question about the Deck pop up more than any other: is Valve going to make an OLED model?

 

The short, polite answer, from Valve's Pierre-Loup Griffais, is that Valve "understands the limitations of the current tech that's in the Deck, in terms of the screen." 

 

"We also want it to be better. We're looking at all avenues," he says. But the longer answer is that there's a lot more to swapping out a screen than just… swapping out a screen.

 

 

[Brian]

Quote

"I think people are looking at things like an incremental version and assume that it's an easy drop-in," Griffais says. "But in reality, the screen's at the core of the device. Everything is anchored to it. Basically everything is architected around everything when you're talking about a device that small. I think it would be a bigger amount of work than people are assuming it would be. […] I don't think we're discounting anything. But the idea that you could just swap in a new screen and be done—it would need more than that to be doable."

Come on bud. If Nintendo can do it, anyone can.

[legend]

1 hour ago, Brian said:

Come on bud. If Nintendo can do it, anyone can.

 

As Nintendo as Nintendo is, they are well acquainted with large hardware launches. Valve is new to hardware and their previous efforts are on a much smaller scale. The manufacturing pipeline alone is probably a bitch to get settled. So sure, one of their engineers could probably get something working, but that doesn't mean they can start shipping it.

[stepee]

Honestly it’s not really saying anything, he’s just saying it’s not as easy as literally just snapping a screen in and out. It’s just that the rest of the answer is it’s slightly harder than that and they would want to source a nice oled but they haven’t done that yet but it actually won’t be a whole lot of engineering beyond what you would expect when they decide to do it.

 

But there will technically be more work than just snapping a screen in and out. 

[Air_Delivery]

I pretty much refuse to buy any non OLED screen on any device. Once you go black you can't go back.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

SteamOS 3.5 is almost here, includes a fix for the Steam Deck's sneakiest performance bug | PC Gamer

WWW.PCGAMER.COM

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SteamOS 3.5 includes a new linux kernel, graphics driver and a fix for a nasty SMT performance bug.

 

 

Quote

 

When a new Windows Update arrives, we tend to groan. Really, right now, Windows? What's this one going to break? Do I really need it? "Remind me later." A new version of the Linux kernel, on the other hand, always seems like a mini event in the open source community, promising exciting new features and performance improvements for the many, many devices that run Linux. The kernel is the foundational building block of Linux that the many distros like Ubuntu and Arch (which Valve's SteamOS is based on) turn into fully fledged operating systems.

 

The Steam Deck will soon get to share in that "new kernel day" excitement, as Valve's next big update, SteamOS 3.5, will be the first to upgrade the Linux kernel since launch. That means a bevy of good things for Steam Deck owners, though most of them you likely won't even notice.

 

Updating the kernel means "getting closer to the latest and greatest with lots of good additions, performance fixes, and functional fixes that will improve all kinds of aspects of the system," Valve's Pierre-Loup Griffais told PC Gamer. "In terms of the core functionality, and running games, and the perf—those kinds of fixes at this point are mostly out of the way, so you won't expect anything transformative there."

 

 

[Zaku3]

PSA Steam Deck has a 10% discount.

[Nokra]

3 hours ago, Zaku3 said:

PSA Steam Deck has a 10% discount.

 

I was kind of on the fence, and now I just purchased the 512 GB version.

[AbsolutSurgen]

6 minutes ago, Nokra said:

 

I was kind of on the fence, and now I just purchased the 512 GB version.

[Zaku3]

9 minutes ago, Nokra said:

 

I was kind of on the fence, and now I just purchased the 512 GB version.

 

[TheLeon]

Well, shit. I got a bonus from work the same day the Deck went on sale. I'm not one to ignore signs from the universe, so I also ordered one (the middle option). 

[Keyser_Soze]

We really need to start adding each other on steam so we can all have a big deck party

[Brian]

2 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

We really need to start adding each other on steam so we can all have a big deck party

Steam ID bmac1632. Add me bud

[Keyser_Soze]

27 minutes ago, Brian said:

Steam ID bmac1632. Add me bud

 

We are already big deck friends

[Nokra]

On 3/16/2023 at 3:51 PM, Nokra said:

 

I was kind of on the fence, and now I just purchased the 512 GB version.

 

I got my shipping number.  According to their FAQ, Valve ships all hardware from Illinois and I'm in Portland, OR so I imagine it will be the end of the week or early next week before I get it. I'm excite!

[Zaku3]

42 minutes ago, Nokra said:

 

I got my shipping number.  According to their FAQ, Valve ships all hardware from Illinois and I'm in Portland, OR so I imagine it will be the end of the week or early next week before I get it. I'm excite!

 

 

BTW I think I'm done with handheld PCs they are great devices but the benefit of a 2 in 1 laptop with a dGPU and way bigger battery is too much to ignore.

[Nokra]

5 minutes ago, Zaku3 said:

 

 

BTW I think I'm done with handheld PCs they are great devices but the benefit of a 2 in 1 laptop with a dGPU and way bigger battery is too much to ignore.

 

Now you tell me!

 

 

 

 

I know the battery life isn't great, but I figure my Steam Deck will mostly be a bathroom gaming device.  

[Zaku3]

1 hour ago, Nokra said:

 

Now you tell me!

 

 

 

 

I know the battery life isn't great, but I figure my Steam Deck will mostly be a bathroom gaming device.  

 

Battery life isn't the issue. It's more you can get a x13 on sale at times for 1200. It has a bigger screen a 3050 and you can use it like a tablet and that offers interesting positions. (Tent and another one i like keyboard down on the base portion while u use the screen via touch) Bathroom gaming is a good option for handhelds. 

 

Shyt if I want a handheld I can double sided tape on joycons. Bam 13in 3050 (higher models available) handheld.

 

Edit: I am trying to say do you. Lol I spent what 8k more then half in affirm loans to figure this out. Like returns are cool but someone might need a laptop and I'd have a spare or something.

[TheLeon]

I also got a tracking number. Hope I get it before next week, when I’m house-sitting for my sister. That’s the kind of thing I’m looking to do more this year, so I might actually get some use out of a handheld. 

[Zaku3]

1 hour ago, TheLeon said:

I also got a tracking number. Hope I get it before next week, when I’m house-sitting for my sister. That’s the kind of thing I’m looking to do more this year, so I might actually get some use out of a handheld. 

 

I think I got mine in 3 days vis Fedex. Remember if it doesn't satisfy you gaming laptops are cheaper then you'd think. 3050 class card should handle 1080 high on every game basically.

[Keyser_Soze]

Also I've said it before but worth repeating for those steam deck noobs: Make sure you download Desk Job, especially if you love Cave Johnson.