Valve Handheld: Steam Deck

[DoubleThink]

Lol, you wont be able to hold that for more than 5 minutes. The cramps alone make this a skip.

You're right. I think it's designed for men, not girls.

 

[rob mafia]

the more i find out about this, the more i just don't understand what the hell they're doing or why people are excited for it.

imo, the aya neo had a better physical design (iirc, same screen size/smaller device).

the $400 model just seems to be an... oversight. i'd call it a scam except i don't think valve's gaining much from it. i can't fathom why they'd make one without a ssd. and even the neo came with 1 TB (and had a 512 GB option as the minimum).

the apu : display seems all out of whack. seems like it could have better resolution or more frames. of course, this should be to give better performance with a monitor. but if we're talking about monitors, we're already defeating the purpose.

 

[Dizzy]

Looks like you can install your own SSD in the base version (well all versions). Could save some money if you’re willing to crack it open.

 

[GearSolidMetal]

Oh great. Like the PS5 and XBX, we may be able to get one for the MSRP price three years after its released.

 

[Strychnine]

Oh great. Like the PS5 and XBX, we may be able to get one for the MSRP price three years after its released.

Or you could reserve one now for $5 and have until December to make sure you have time to square it away.

 

[Dizzy]

Oof, yeah I checked mine and I’m at Q2 2022.

Ah well, more time to check out how this thing can be utilized and make sure it’s worth it.

 

[GearSolidMetal]

Or you could reserve one now for $5 and have until December to make sure you have time to square it away.

Oh sure, preordering an unproven console/PC hybrid doesn't sound like a bad idea at all.

Seriously though, after my most trusted gaming-company released the most underdeveloped game of all time... and I trust Valve much less than I do CDPR... that doesn't sound like the best idea in the history of ideas.

I'll wait for some legit and unbiased reviews from YouTubers I trust, and IGN isn't on that list.

 

[Strychnine]

Oh sure, preordering an unproven console/PC hybrid doesn't sound like a bad idea at all.

Seriously though, after my most trusted gaming-company released the most underdeveloped game of all time... and I trust Valve much less than I do CDPR... that doesn't sound like the best idea in the history of ideas.

I'll wait for some legit and unbiased reviews from YouTubers I trust, and IGN isn't on that list.

It was just a suggestion to beat the scalpers man, jeez!

Switch to decaf.

 

[GearSolidMetal]

 

[GearSolidMetal]

Interesting.

 

[jojoRed]

You're right. I think it's designed for men, not girls.

Your whole life is a gigantic L lol at the ban.

 

[Madmick]

This is just Steambox 2.0 in portable form. Trying to ride the Switch's coattails. "Steam Deck". We'll see if this iteration fares any better.

Frankly, this thing just shows how badly the PC gaming world needs the Apple M1 processor. Compare the Apple M1's CPU power (at 27W true power draw) vs. the AMD R3-5300U and R5-5500U (the latter at 46W true power draw). So, in an extremely tight package like this, where heat is an issue, the M1 won't be forced to throttle to manage heat, but the AMD processors will:
https://www.notebookcheck.net/M1-vs-R3-5300U-vs-R5-5500U_12937_12985_12981.247596.0.html

• It's shitting on the 5300U by 22%-51% depending on the benchmark.
• It's also stomping the 5500U by 8%-36% depending on the benchmark.

Look at the real-world average performance in real products (Mac Mini vs. laptops) using Passmark:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

• 15,113 = Apple M1
• 13,547 = AMD Ryzen 5 5500U (M1 > +11.6%)
• 10,109 = AMD Ryzen 3 5300U (M1 > +49.5%) <-- remember the 5300U is the CPU with just slightly greater on-paper performance than what is in the Steam Deck (they're nearly identical assuming the SteamDeck doesn't throttle because of heat issues or power concerns for the battery)

Again, remind yourself the above dominance exists for the M1 despite drawing just over half the power.

Alternatively, using Anandtech's comparison tool, you can see it curbstomp the AMD Ryzen 7 4800U or even the Ryzen 9 4900HS, LMFAO, from the previous generation of AMD mobile APUs:
Apple M1 vs. Ryzen 7 4800U
Apple M1 vs. Ryzen 9 4900HS

On the GPU side, it also has an 8-core GPU, but its 8-core GPU boasts 2.6 TFLOPS processing power, not 1.6 TFLOPS. Here's the Apple M1 nearly keeping up with the GTX 1650 paired with the previous gen's Ryzen 5 mobile processor, FFS, lmaoholyshitwtfbbq*:
*Again, in terms of true draws, understand the Apple M1 is consuming ~27W of power. The Ryzen 5 4600H + GTX 1650 is consuming a total of ~141W (~66W + ~75W). That's a 522% power consumption ratio to produce a measly 15% advantage in framerate. This is massively important with mobile devices because they use passive cooling & batteries.
The 2020 Mac Mini Unleashed: Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test

I believe I might have mentioned something about this...
https://forums.sherdog.com/posts/163937037/

Apple M1 silicon upsets the establishment by skipping past the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X and coming close to Intel Core i7-11700K single-thread performance on PassMark
Apple is looking like a bull in a China shop. Intel and AMD might not be too threatened, right now, because Apple only makes chips for their own computers, but if this is an indication of the future Apple's M chip line will take, then every PC gamer in the world will be pining for their chips. I have no idea how to predict what the impact will be on PC gaming. I strongly doubt Apple would permit Windows manufacturers access to their hardware, the margins are far too low for them, but all of the tools for game development are on PC, and everyone will want this processing power.

It's not a leak or an engineer sample of anything like that. It's already showing up on the official charts (26 samples):
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

This is a freaking 15.1W chip under load when actively cooled. The 5800X is 131W. The 11700K is 225W.

Apple just swooped in with a Fat Man level bitch slap.

 

[rob mafia]

I'll wait for some legit and unbiased reviews from YouTubers I trust, and IGN isn't on that list.

speaking of, i found it embarrassing that a bunch of hardware reviewers made reviews of their own... based off the ign/valve video.

apparently, the desire to rush to put out videos is greater than the need for actual content to report on.

 

[GearSolidMetal]

speaking of, i found it embarrassing that a bunch of hardware reviewers made reviews of their own... based off the ign/valve video.

apparently, the desire to rush to put out videos is greater than the need for actual content to report on.

Those aren't 'reviews' they're just posting their opinion based on what we know about the hardware and specs so far. No different than what we're doing in this thread.

YongYea did the same last week after the disappointing Switch OLED announcement video. No one seems overjoyed about it.

 

[rob mafia]

Those aren't 'reviews' they're just posting their opinion based on what we know about the hardware and specs so far. No different than what we're doing in this thread.

...exactly? i made like 2 small posts, not a 20 minute video.

 

[GearSolidMetal]

...exactly? i made like 2 small posts, not a 20 minute video.

So?

They had alot to say about it..

 

[GtehMVP]

Oof, yeah I checked mine and I’m at Q2 2022.

Ah well, more time to check out how this thing can be utilized and make sure it’s worth it.

Yeah, it's genius of them to tie it to our accounts, and help stave off scalpers. We risk nothing here with cancellation $$ going towards Steam wallet. I got in for 1st quarter, so even If I buy, I'm sure I can sell it for more if buyer's remorse gets me lol.

Hopefully it sells like gangbusters, devs are going to need some incentive to put some time into optimizing titles for it.

My red flags are weight, and titles possibly not working on their OS well. Thankfully we can put Windows on it, but I'm sure Valve will be working with dev teams. This must be a fairly large investment on their part.

Like someone else mentioned, I hope they let us pay it off incrementally. I won't feel good about dropping $800 (Cdn) on something personal around Xmas time lol. Ever since that old Razor tablet, I've always wanted a portable pc like this, so it's a decade in the making for me. I'll be able to justify it somehow lol

I had an Oled Vita, which I cracked to use for emulation. Outside the crazy price on proprietary storage, it was an amazing machine. I lost the damn thing, and have been wanting something to replace it ever since. Another easy justification for buying this, especially with an SD slot.

 

[Blayt7hh]

Man sounds cool but that thing looks uncomfortable as hell to use

 

[GhostZ06]

Interesting.

so fucking dumb, this what killed the steam machine. Flooding the market with horse shit.

 

[Madmick]

so fucking dumb, this what killed the steam machine. Flooding the market with horse shit.

Gabe is so devoted to the open source philosophy I don't think he understands that, or he genuinely believes (wrongly) that it produces superior products for a seminal launch like this. The problem is, even if it did produce superior product values, which definitely didn't happen with the Steam Machines, the general market isn't educated enough to decipher which of those products is the one with the strong value. They're overwhelmed, and so they're turned off. They see the bad press for the opportunistic cash grab products, and associate it with the whole category.

He really needs to commit to a single product made by Valve to build brand recognition and reputation for the "product category", as he calls it, before inviting competition from third-party manufacturers.