Digital Foundry: Valve Steam Deck Spec Analysis: Can It Really Handle AAA PC Gaming?

Ghost is excited about this so def going to be good.

Lol this dude is just reading spec sheets that got released yesterday. He’s so late.

If it can run a third of my steam list.... success!

This dude didn’t even speak on the number 1 concern. The storage space. Dude is so fake.

Can you just put all your thoughts into one post? There is no need to create a post for each thought you have.

I think for the type of games I'll be playing on it, specs will be perfect. Anything that's graphic intensive I'll play on Series X/PS5 unless Steam is my only option.

@nnoyinghusband: Yeah, this device would be great for small Indie games. That way you don’t waste too much storage.

@mesome713: 'Yeah, this device would be great for small Indie games. That way you don’t waste too much storage'

This guy is sweating over a handheld 😩😂

@theam0g: Hmm, says the guys sweating over peoples opinions. You do you 😎

Yeah…..I….ah, oof.

I’m really trying to understand a place in the market for this thing. I have a Switch and a gaming PC laptop.

This…..doesn’t feel well considered.

Is it meant to play "AAA" games?

I'd be more interested in how it plays Hades, and for how long. Or Civilization. Things like that.

I don't see myself playing Warzone or Doom or games of that nature on this.

Yup! Perfect for Steam.

People applying the console mindset to this should probably stop.

Don’t people apply the same mindset with the Switch and mobile games? Why should this be any different?

Do they? I Don't know.

I always thought Switch was treated as a Nintendo product and therefore special. Other mobile products (phones, specifically) seem to fall into their own category as well).

Seems like folks are looking at this Steam Deck and setting expectations unreasonably (maybe even intentionally) high.

I don't really have a dog in this fight so it's all very curious to me.

Those button placements are horrible

Cant game with that

I agree with buddy that the thing is really big. The only reason I'd get this is for my kid and if you're a child, woman, or smaller handed dude, it doesn't look comfortable at all. If you look at 0:24, you can see how massive it is for small hands.

From what I've been reading, a lot of games actually work better in proton than they do in a native windows environment due to the lack of a full windows os overhead, so I'd take a lot of what this guy is saying with a grain of salt.

dang it i had a longer post in the locked thread.

Solid vid but i don't agree with the whole "optimising for deck" thing. The deck is a PC. it runs PC games. so there are only really 2 considerations for the deck.

1) the game needs to support and look well at 720/800P (in terms of UI).

2) the developer needs to either make a linux build of their game or test their windows build against proton.

2 is not a deal breaker either since the OS can be replaced but hopefully this does help Linux get more traction in the PC gaming space. it would also lead to a better out of the box experience for the end user if they do.

Other stuff they could do is other stuff they should be doing for the PC version anyway. Good KB+M and controller support. the ability for the game to take input from the KB+M and controller driver at the same time. stuff like switching between windows and fullscreen mode, moving between screens, handling multi monitor environments, handling losing focus. general PC system integration stuff. none of this is deck specific.

there is no custom low level driver. there will be no miracle ports (or any deck specific ports). it will be up to the lowspecgamer to find the miracles :P.

As for aging. for AAA games on a big screen this is a non runner. you will need to make major cuts in the graphics department just to get something playable. if you just want to run AAA games on a big screen the Deck is a waste of money. just get a desktop PC. if you need some portability but you also want high fidelity graphics then get a laptop.

however if you want something that is easy-ish to play on the go and gives you access to your entire PC games library OR you dont really care about graphics and just want something thats very flexible then this will do the job....probably.

I think for 800P gaming on its small screen it will age pretty well. but it wont have the grunt to run the latest and greatest and present a great output on a big high res screen.

Got shitty mem bandwidth apparantly.

@jeffbuckley1: buuut, you've never held it in your hand so how do you know?

@topgunmv: er... I've never had that experience. Almost every game runs worse in Linux on proton.

I've no first hand experience, it's just something I've read.

@topgunmv: I think games with proper Linux ports could do it. I'm no expert, but I'm skeptical anything that has to go through the compatibility layer could recoup the lost time if you will. But like I said, no expert, just going off the games I've tried on both (I usually at least try a game on Linux before windows, in case it runs acceptably and then I can support the platform by rolling with it [figure they log all that shit])

@MirkoS77: its better than the switch and cheaper/more portable than a laptop

@Fairmonkey: Of course it’s bettter, it’s double the price and is 2021 tech vs 2015 tech.

Switch Lite $199

Deck Lite $399

@mesome713: switch OLED for $350 and steam deck for $399 would be a more accurate comparison

@Fairmonkey: Actually no.

Switch Lite and Deck Lite both have no removable controllers, no enhanced sound, no adjustable stands, no Ethernet hook up, no Dock that boost performance, no adapter for TV hook up, and no Oled.

Deck Lite is 2021 tech and double the price of 2015 tech. Switch Lite at $199 is Deck Lite competition.

@mesome713: even then, $399 deck is still the better and cheaper option over the $199 switch lite in the long run because of emulators including switch emulator, larger and more flexible library, cheaper games instead of having to pay $60 for half ass nintendo games, ability for game subscription like xbox game pass, the ability to port steam libraries over, and its an open source pc. Me and many other people would gladly pay $200 more for a VASTLY superior product. I will compare the $350 oled to the $399 switch deck because this is nintendo's latest model and they are similar in price and are releasing close to each other. If nintendo is selling this to the public at that price, i will critique or compare as such

@Fairmonkey: This device would be lucky to emulate Wii U games. It’s too weak. And for $199 Switch Lite is WAY more user friendly. No need to hack or try to install some voodoo magic Windows patch. And you don’t have to deal guessing which games work in Steam OS or which in the future might get slowly released. Also don’t have to worry about your next gen games that are 100g and won’t even fit in your 64g.

@mesome713: Shit ports and shit framerates on switch are not user friendly to me whatsoever. Neither are the shitty joycons sticks that drift and just suck in general. It can run yuzu especially at 720p and 30fps, i checked the minimum specs. I went with the $529 steam deck for the 256gb SSD, still way better than the switch in my eyes. If the steam deck gets AMD's fidelityfx to improve frames and performance which it probably will, then the switch would get screwed even harder.

@Fairmonkey: You should have spent your money on the 512g, you won’t be able to fit hardly any games on that thing. But enjoy your Indie station, ports, and crappy emulation mate.

This is pretty exciting because it reminds me of the og psp. This feels like the spiritual successor.

@blaznwiipspman1: Yeah, this thing has killed all hopes for another Sony handheld.

@mesome713: I don't seem understand why you're even talking. Your Switch has 32gb of flash memory, and you're talking about a fast 256gb SSD being bad. Like what?

The Deck made y'all overheat or what.

Switch has the option to use zero of the onboard space, the deck doesn’t.

And? You have 256gb.

Only 4 things play next gen games

High end Gaming PC, PS5 Physical/Digital and X-Series X

Steam deck does NOT!

That is depleted by games.🤔

@hardwenzen: 256g fits what, 2-3 next gen games. And unlike Switch, next gen games don’t run good on SD. Even Valve said it wasn’t recommend due to poorer performance.

Make fun of the Switch all you want, but it’s a smart and well thought out device. It is very in touch with gaming needs.

@Pedro: yeah..I actually find that super awesome benefit. I mean, playing games like call of duty, or red dead redemption 2 from cartridge would save you from installing 200gb plus on the hard drive

256gb isn't good enough for today standards, but its not completely unusable. Install a few games, play them/beat them, uninstall before installing new ones. Not the end of the world.

stop pretending like every game is 100gb.

Consoles should have made a NVMe like storage option exclusively for games so that the gamers who want physical wouldn’t be burdened with long and slow install times found with optical. Plug and play.

@hardwenzen: Most people play more than a few games at one time. Some games you simple can’t beat. Like GTA Online, CoD, Fortnite, FIFA, Madden, Forza, etc

Link? A few games at once is already messedup as it is, because of different controls and mechanics that you have to get used to, but if you're saying that most people play like 10 games at once, i want you to link me to an article that confirms this, because i don't believe this is the case. And the fact that you said "most", it pretty much guarantees that you're making shit up for the sake of your argument.

@hardwenzen: I edited my post to show you. On my Switch I play Fortnite, FIFA, Mario Cart, NBA2K, Smash Bros, and Animal Crossing. I have played all these games for years and never uninstall them. I also have a bunch of co op games encase I have company. Like Mario Party, Just Dance, Lovers in Space, etc.

What's the install size on these? Sub 100gb?🤭

And you're playing Fartnite, NBA and FIFA, this is the kind of dudebro games that shadyacshuns enjoys. You two should hangout together or something.

@hardwenzen: The install size on Steam is massive. Nintendo brilliantly compresses the size of these game to match the hardware.

The Steam Deck is nice for those with talent. But for normal gamers, it’s a very poor device to game on.