cross-posted from: https://lemmit.online/post/3922769
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The original was posted on /r/linustechtips by /u/RevolutionaryAd8204 on 2024-09-14 15:50:43+00:00.
I would actually rather like a Steam Deck without a display but with at least one full USB4 port and the ability to split it similar to a switch.
Yeah I’d love a modern stream machine kinda Deck plugged into a TV.
For now PlayStation is nicer for TV where I can get better performance from the couch with quick resume and all. If I could get a static Deck without portable power consumption limits and decent output on a 4K display that would be ideal. But right now the Deck works docked but when blown up to TV size so many games are a low rez mess. If we could get a proper SteamOS that I could install into a media center PC I’d make it myself. All I’d hope for then is a second gen Steam Controller.
For my use, I would still want the battery/portability. Just without an internal display because I use a 1080p HMD and like playing on the Deck in bed, etc. Add a capability like the joycons but symmetrical and with all of the Deck’s inputs, and I’d be quite happy.
PS5 Pro - only marginally better than an option that’s only $450.
Steam Deck OLED - only marginally better than an option that’s only $300.
Yeah, I don’t see any reason to upgrade either of mine. Really not worth it.
I think mid life upgrades targeting new customer and hard core types.
Regular folks just buy generational upgrades.
Like, they’re cool and tempting. But not anywhere near the price of a full unit when I have an already perfectly functioning one! If I could say swap the panel on the Deck (with relatively little effort), I would likely consider buying an upgrade kit but that’s not possible. Same thing with the PS5: if I could just buy the new gpu and replace the old one, I probably would. Never mind that it’s an apu so in this instance it’s really replacing the entire guts of the device, that’s a minor detail XD
You know what the main difference between the Steam Deck OLED and the PS5 Pro is? Customers wanted and asked for the Steam Deck OLED.
I really like my PS5, but I see no value in a model costing 80% more and being only current for half a generation.
All that for an “up to” 40% performance increase.
I don’t care how much of a graphics nerd someone is, that just isn’t worth it.
And if you’re that much of a graphics nerd, you own a PC.
Also the Steamdeck has games worth playing.
If I was forced at gun point to switch back to console gaming I’d pick the latest Xbox just because of the backwards compatibility.
Eventually, Sony will stop supporting the PS5 and it’ll be a brick. If Valve ever stops supporting the Steamdeck, it’ll keep running.
Also I’m that scenario, you know Valve only gave it up for something dramatically better.
Device, maybe. What happens to the games bought from a DRM monopoly?
While valve has a lot of deserved goodwill, that’s always the problem - they’re well-behaved, but set up in a way in which the customer has no leverage if they where to change their approach tommorow.
Good thing drm-free games run just as well on the steam deck.
It plays piracy-reclaimed games just fine.
These devices have different use cases. Steam Deck also is digital only. If a publisher decides to kill a game, they can control whether you can or can’t play the game. PS5 Pro is expensive, but so are video cards nowadays. PS5 Pro is just following a trend set years before, including the shift from physical games and cost. The only way to stop anti-consumer trends is to stop buying expensive hardware (PS5 Pro included). Also, give some love to physical copies of games.
Saying the Steam Deck is digital only is like saying a tower computer is digital only. That’s purely false. If you can put it on a tower computer, you can put it on the Steam Deck.
All the Steam Deck, like many modern tower computers, needs for physical copies is a USB media reader.
If we can argue that Sony will stop supporting the PS5 in the future, who’s to say in the future, (without the good leadership), Steam won’t restrict what can be put on the Steam Deck? We have a lot of arguments for wanting a Steam Deck and an alternative OS to boot for gaming, but saying PS5 will be bricked in the future is not a strong one.
Beacause, Today, I can already load another OS on the Steamdeck. Not so much on the PS5.
Because the Steam Deck is just computer hardware. I can already install whatever OS I want to and Steam won’t know that it’s a Steam Deck anymore.
- Take Steam Deck
- Wipe OS and install Bazzite/Nobara
- Install Heroic Launcher / Non Steam Launcher
- Install games from them
Nuclear apocalypse happens and internet is down
- Get ISOs of games in a USB drive
- Plug it into the deck and install
After over 3 decades as a gamer and tech user this is maybe the single most consistent important benefit for any open platform were you can just install Linux.
The rest is nice but this one means that 10 or 20 years from now your hardware might have been repurposed for something else and still be useful and in use whilst a closed platform will just be more junk in a junkyard or sitting in a box of those things you’ve kept just because you don’t like to throw expensive stuff away but will in practice never use again.
All (most?) of your games will run on your future computers.
You can play DOS games just fine right now, so yes it’s a good bet. And a far better bet than the PS6 being backwards compatible.
The crazy thing for me is that I have a little handheld specific for dos games. The problem I run into every time is having to setup computer keyboard bindings for each game to play them using the built-in controller. I really want retroarch or another dos emulator to do profiles for different games and I haven’t seen that yet.
Unless they change CPU architectures.
And even then it’s no guarantee. Plenty of games needed support from the likes of GoG to run. Hell, I couldn’t even play Ex Machina because I had a HDR monitor and the game detected that and completely broke. Disabling HDR in Windows did nothing.
Unless they change CPU architectures.
well. there’s already winlator (basically box86 / wine-wrapper for android).
Not as polished and far as Proton is, but the bones are there.A CPU architecture change wouldn’t be a deathblow.
Ex Machina the movie or the 1984 “game”? That’s before Mario was even a thing.
Fucking auto correct…
It was Nex Machina.
That’s a 2017 game
Yes, I know. And I already can’t play it due to changes in hardware.
That doesn’t make any sense. I can play multiple games from 2017 with no problem at all. I play games from 2012 and up just fine too. That’s something the devs messed up for that specific game, or it’s a problem with your PC.
Even if it’s priced too highly, the PS5 Pro will probably sell pretty well. The Playstation Portal is very overpriced for what it is, and yet it’s sold very well. There’s a lot of Playstation fans with money to burn apparently.
I won’t buy a portal. I probably would have bought a “PS4 in portal form factor” for twice the price, but streaming isn’t worth it.
But I have a friend who did, and have had my hands on it, and it is a genuinely really high quality implementation of the mediocre concept.
I probably would have bought a “PS4 in portal form factor” for twice the price, but streaming isn’t worth it.
Which brings us back to the Steam Deck, which can also stream PS5 games like the portal, except in HDR (if you have the OLED).
It would be a handheld console that would play their console library. They’d beat the Steam Deck’s sales volume as fast as they could manufacture them. Also, the Steam deck doesn’t do the triggers, which is a meaningful loss in plenty of PS5 games.
My actual point, though, was that the build quality for the price is really good.
The whole reason I bought my Steamdeck was because I couldn’t get the Portal (thanks to scalpers).
Now I hardly ever turn the PS5 on because I am playing tons of games on Steam instead. When I do I am usually running something over my LAN via Chiaki to my Deck so others in my house can watch TV.
I’m not a playstation fan but I’d buy a PS5 pro before I’d buy a steam deck TBHQ. I have a negative interest in portable gaming.
Honestly I think it’s a stage of life thing. As I got older, got married, and had kids I found it increasingly hard to find time to play on my PC. The steam deck is perfect for short sessions you can stop and resume anytime, and I don’t have to fight the kids for the TV or abandon everyone to sequester myself in the office.
I just straight up cannot do this. Either I’m spending time with family and giving them the attention they deserve. Or I’m spending time focusing on the game and the attention it needs for me to enjoy it. Multi tasking just leads to me ignoring both.
If it’s a small child and you just need to make sure they’re not killing themselves then I can do that. But besides that, to me it’s one or the other.
Can you actually use steamdeck as a desktop PC though? Can it drive dual external monitors? Is it a reasonable “minipc” type thing? How much power does it munch on in idle?
Can I maybe put some other linux distro on it? So many questions
In short yes. I use it as a mini pc, with dual monitor set-up.
I have a Steam deck, here’s the answers to my knowledge:
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Yes, you can connect a keyboard and mouse, and even in SteamOS they let you access KDE in a separate “Desktop mode”
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Not sure about multiple monitors but you can connect at least one. There are docks made for it to do just that (the USB C cable has display port support I think)
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It runs a 4 core/8 thread AMD laptop chip so assuming you get a mouse/keyboard it should work pretty well.
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It has a 5W mode in the power settings in SteamOS so I’m assuming around that much at idle.
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You can put other distros on it, it’s completely unlocked. You could even put Windows on it if you wanted. I’m not sure how easy the install process is though since I’ve just left SteamOS on mine.
You can even put Windows on it if you feel like committing blasphemy
Now I want to get MacOS on one just to make gamers twitch
Not sure if this counts but (Reddit link warning) someone managed to do it in a VM
Not sure about multiple monitors
Most usb-c ports with DP alt mode support up to 1 monitor at 4k@60Hz, or 2×1080p@60Hz, and I believe 2×1440p@30Hz. It comes down to bandwidth, so I think that as long as you’re fine with one monitor running at a slower refresh-rate or lower resolution, you can have your primary screen displaying in high-res.
Of course, you have to also take into consideration the GPU performance, running higher resolutions will usually degrade performance!
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Can you actually use steamdeck as a desktop PC though?
Depends on how many pixels you “need”. Running high resolution monitors, even for basic stuff can get costly performance wise pretty damn quick, but in my opinion that isn’t really asking the same question as whether the Steam Deck can be a good desktop.
You can absolutely use the Steam Deck as a desktop, I frequently use my Steam Deck in desktop mode… using the onboard controls. The only real limitation of the Steam Deck so long as you don’t expect it to be a top of the line gaming pc, is that most people who buy it are never truly going to be able to give anything else other than a mouse and keyboard an honest go, they are too impatient and won’t believe it can work but the sky is the limit for joystick+gyro input (our touchpad + gyro) for computers/gaming.
How good does it work on an external 4K monitor? Can you watch 4k video? I imagine youtube and browsing reddit or news online shouldn’t be a problem.
Basically I’d like an ultra low power PC for boring desktop stuff on 4k monitor.
That might be a reason to maybe consider some competitors of the Steam Deck that are a bit more powerful (but have their own tradeoffs, primarily that the wholistic experience just isnt going to be as good as the steam deck is right now), I don’t know the Steam Deck might run 4k fine but I’d be hesitant to recommend it, that is so many fucking pixels lol
If that’s all you need, a Raspberry Pi 5 will fit the bill nicely. It’s got two 4K HDMI outputs and it’s roughly on par compute-wise with a higher end Chromebook. You won’t be gaming on this thing – it can just about play a YouTube video at 4K60 – but it’ll gladly handle your desktop stuff. As a bonus it’s about an eighth the price of a Steam Deck.
Can you use a de k on an external monitor?
Two actually
Nice
Yes.
I already have a PS5, so the Steam Deck is much more tempting.
You can even stream from the PS5 to the Deck too, thanks to Chiaki4Deck (easily installable on desktop mode from the “Discover” app).
Oh, that’s cool. Now I just need €680 for a Steam Deck.
One can be used in an airport/aircraft/train and the other can not.
One is fit for travelling and the other is not
I won’t be getting either, but if I was forced to choose, the PS5.
Some of the points in the meme are weaker versions of the full truth:
Desktop OS and you can substitute your own.
Biggest game library and you can also side load your stuff from other stores.
It’s almost as if they’re two completely different markets
I love the steamdeck. In almost always dock it and use it as my default computer.
If I did not NEED windows for a SINGLE work app, it would probably be my only computer.
Which do i choose? The $300 dollar deck and a $100 tb drive
If the PS5 wasn’t my first PlayStation ever, I’d probably be pretty disappointed with it. Kinda wish I held off and waited for this one, since I’d rather have it, but financing this just doesn’t make sense in my current position. Would rather build a PC and use my Deck for remote play.
This is an aggressively mid generation, I have to admit.
I think the best thing about this gen is running those slightly too ambitious PS4 games at 60fps.
