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McPhee

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Decided it was time to upgrade from my Steam Deck. It's a very good handheld but I've got to be honest it's underpowered in comparison to other devices out there now and I'm not a massive fan of Linux still. Getting a Windows handheld made more sense for me, plus being able to use Game Pass for it is a massive advantage so I got myself an Asus ROG Ally and I've just finished upgrading the ssd to a 1tb. Really liking it so far. Lighter than my Deck and a much nicer screen at 1080p, 120hz. Looking forward to trying out Baldur's Gate 3 and Starfield on it.

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@Happenstance got a few questions for you since you've had some experience with a Steam Deck.

If the sales of my Counter Strike Skins go through, I'll likely have about 200-250€ in my Steam Wallet and I'm considering a purchase of a refurbished 64GB Steam Deck and upgrading it with an SSD.

I intent to play some older games from my library and the odd indie game here and there. Would you say the Steam Deck is a viable option for that? And you say that it's underpowered compared to more recent devices. Is it still possible to play newer games at reasonable FPS and graphics settings?

Also: Do you have experience with emulation? Do you need to install a different OS or how would that work?

Edited by drahkon
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50 minutes ago, drahkon said:

@Happenstance got a few questions for you since you've had some experience with a Steam Deck.

If the sales of my Counter Strike Skins go through, I'll likely have about 200-250€ in my Steam Wallet and I'm considering a purchase of a refurbished 64GB Steam Deck and upgrading it with an SSD.

I intent to play some older games from my library and the odd indie game here and there. Would you say the Steam Deck is a viable option for that? And you say that it's underpowered compared to more recent devices. Is it still possible to play newer games at reasonable FPS and graphics settings?

Also: Do you have experience with emulation? Do you need to install a different OS or how would that work?

It's underpowered for new stuff like Baldur's Gate and Starfield but still a very capable little machine. I've seen people play the Spider-Man games on it no problem for example.

Emulation works brilliantly on it, I'd say up to PS2/Gamecube for almost flawless, Wii U level can work fine and some people have gotten Switch running ok. If you search for guides on installing EmuDeck on the Steam Deck that will explain how to get it all done. EmuDeck is excellent as it just manages everything for you, downloads all the emulators you need, installs them and configures their settings to work best on the Deck. No need to switch OS, all you'd have to do to start would be to download it on the Deck's Desktop mode which is an option when you power the device off.

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31 minutes ago, Happenstance said:

It's underpowered for new stuff like Baldur's Gate and Starfield but still a very capable little machine. I've seen people play the Spider-Man games on it no problem for example.

Emulation works brilliantly on it, I'd say up to PS2/Gamecube for almost flawless, Wii U level can work fine and some people have gotten Switch running ok. If you search for guides on installing EmuDeck on the Steam Deck that will explain how to get it all done. EmuDeck is excellent as it just manages everything for you, downloads all the emulators you need, installs them and configures their settings to work best on the Deck. No need to switch OS, all you'd have to do to start would be to download it on the Deck's Desktop mode which is an option when you power the device off.

Awesome. Sounds like it's perfect for what I'm looking for right now.

Thanks :peace:

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7 hours ago, drahkon said:

Awesome. Sounds like it's perfect for what I'm looking for right now.

Thanks :peace:

Also worth keeping in mind that the Steam Deck has a bespoke OS that has native support for things like sleep/wake, hardware level FPS caps (that work perfectly with no microstuttering), brightness etc.  It feels like an actual handheld device, rather than a Windows/Linux PC shoved uncomfortably into a handheld form factor.

That makes a big difference to the end-user experience.  You can just use it as if it were a console.

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13 hours ago, Dcubed said:

Also worth keeping in mind that the Steam Deck has a bespoke OS that has native support for things like sleep/wake, hardware level FPS caps (that work perfectly with no microstuttering), brightness etc.  It feels like an actual handheld device, rather than a Windows/Linux PC shoved uncomfortably into a handheld form factor.

That makes a big difference to the end-user experience.  You can just use it as if it were a console.

Even better. :)

If my final skin sales go through I'll be sitting at 260 bucks in my Steam wallet. Having to only pay 70€ more for the device and then an additional 70-80€ for an SSD seems like a great deal for a refurbished Steam Deck :D

I may wait for Black Friday to see if a new Deck will be on sale so I won't have to "resort" to a refurbished one.

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On 15/08/2023 at 11:13 PM, Dcubed said:

If you know anything about me, you know that I fucking love stereoscopic 3D! Right now it costs a bomb, but I really hope it does well and we start seeing larger versions of the display, prices come down and more games get the S3D treatment.  I'm really happy to see someone push autostereoscopic 3D tech once again, I've missed it so much with the Switch.

Acer does what Nintendon't! :D

Well it seems that we're getting this part at least, because Acer just announced a 27' version of the Pro model to come out early next year!

https://www.acer.com/us-en/monitors/spatiallabs/acer-spatiallabs-view-pro-27

The Pro series is the one designed for professional/industry users, so this definitely isn't going to be coming out at consumer grade pricing, but hopefully the inevitable non-Pro version ends up being at least somewhat reasonably priced (it won't).

Still happy to see more strides being made.  I love my current Spatiallabs View! :D

Edited by Dcubed
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  • 4 weeks later...

My refurbished Steam Deck is here :bouncy:
Looks like a brand-new device - no blemishes whatsoever :o

Sorry work...the laptop will stay turned on, but I doubt I'll get much done now :p

Until I get a sweet deal for an SSD and microSD during Black Friday sales, the Steam Deck will be a Slay the Spire and Vampire Survivors only machine.

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10 hours ago, drahkon said:

Until I get a sweet deal for an SSD and microSD during Black Friday sales, the Steam Deck will be a Slay the Spire and Vampire Survivors only machine.

...and Brotato, 20 Minutes Till Dawn and Risk of Rain Returns :p

"Sadly", I got an older model with an apparently pretty loud fan. Hasn't been noticeable with these smaller/less intense games, though. I might, however, look for a replacement fan during the upcoming sales.

Spent most of the day just playing around a bit, trying out some games and they run flawlessly. Ergonomics are great, too (with the case I use).

Can't wait to expand the storage and get to emulating and installing more games :D And then play those games, of course :p

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The Steam Deck has easily been my best and worst purchase for a long time.

Why worst? Because I stay up at night way too long playing games.
Why best? Because I stay up at night way too long playing games.

The problem is: I want to play 6 games at the same time :(

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Just installed and configured chiaki4deck and now I can stream my PS5 to my Steam Deck in my home network.
Gonna have to set it up again, once I get my SSD, but it wasn't too bad. Well worth the effort!

No need to get a PS Portal. :D

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Now that I've dabbled around with the device a bit it's time actually focus on one game at a time instead of jumping between 6 games :p

Think I'm gonna play through Flynn: Son of Crimson first. Played a few levels and it's a pretty fun 2D action platformer.

I bought a few of those "revers bullet hell" games (what's their genre actually called? Bullet Heaven? Idle Roguelite?) and I should focus on one once I'm done with Flynn. The Halls of Torment prelude (i.e. Demo) is a lot of fun, might give this one a proper go soon!

It goes without saying that I will always start a Slay the Spire: Downfall run here and there, though :D

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