Valve reveals more Steam Deck hardware details: AMD Zen 2 SoC + RDNA 2 tech

[Brach Speicher]

I ordered one of these and it's already smoking all the competition. I love how people are saying "It's outdated" without even looking at the competition it's going up against- probably only aware of the Switch, and not of GPD, OneX, or Aya offerings in the same price range. This thing murders all of them in one important area- input. NO device or controller has as many buttons and input devices on it. The only thing it could have possibly done to get more input on it is a scroll wheel.

As for the one guy complaining about streamers needing to get a "real job", whatever that means, I genuinely want to know what about entertaining and educating people through the medium of video games that angers them. Do they think it's easy money or something? Why don't they come up with a better way to serve society then?

Finally to the people who think it's not going to do well: it's already sold out. That doesn't sound like a failure to me. Even if it did, Steam OS will be right around the corner for us to put on our gaming PCs. Valve is the only company I can think of that can take all the money they've been pocketing from their store as passive income and put it to work making a real alternative to using Windows for games. Oh, it's happening.

 

[Yenega]

Looking at the performance level supported by the GPU plus the price target, the screen seems like a perfectly reasonable choice. Why include a 2k 120+ hz screen if the performance target is 720p60 ? That makes no sense.

Personally, I prefer that to an underpowered device with an Oled screen like the Switch.


You might want to look at specs of handheld gaming devices that sold well historically vs those that didn‘t.

The device can do 60+ fps in some games and you can be sure it will do 90 fps in some games too, even more if settings are tweaked, so why settle with an extremely bad IPS panel without HDR, VRR and locked at 60 Hz? Makes no sense.

OLED, HDR and VRR improves the visuals ALOT and don't require any more performance. VRR will solve the low fps scenarios too and delivers tearing free gamepaly at all times.

Even low-end Android phones can do 90 Hz OLED these days, so why can't a device like this, especially the more expensive ones (cheapest Steam Deck is DoA anyway because of storage)

 

[Irata]

The device can do 60+ fps in some games and you can be sure it will do 90 fps in some games too, even more if settings are tweaked, so why settle with an extremely bad IPS panel without HDR, VRR and locked at 60 Hz? Makes no sense.

OLED, HDR and VRR improves the visuals ALOT and don't require any more performance. VRR will solve the low fps scenarios too and delivers tearing free gamepaly at all times.

Even low-end Android phones can do 90 Hz OLED these days, so why can't a device like this, especially the more expensive ones (cheapest Steam Deck is DoA anyway because of storage)

Again, handheld gaming devices that sold well - this is going back to the original Gameboy days - didn‘t have the best screens or hardware specs but instead focused on portability, battery life, price and gaming (fun).

And I‘m saying this as someone who bought an Atari Lynx over a Gameboy because it had better specs, a nicer (backlit) screen….

 

[Yenega]

Again, handheld gaming devices that sold well - this is going back to the original Gameboy days - didn‘t have the best screens or hardware specs but instead focused on portability, battery life, price and gaming (fun).

And I‘m saying this as someone who bought an Atari Lynx over a Gameboy because it had better specs, a nicer (backlit) screen….

Why are we compairing today with the past?
Back then we did not have other options, we do now.

Using such a crappy display ruins all immersion and it's insane that it does not even have VRR at all, considering this device will struggle with performance and fps dips.

However I doubt it will be a succes anyway. Most valve hardware fails hard and end up costing costing and going EoL shortly after.

They need to make a Pro version with OLED 30-90 Hz VRR + HDR to get me interrested, is all I am saying.

Switch OLED looks so much better than the original ONLY because of the OLED panel. Especially dark scenes look so much better. Backlighting completely ruins all dark scenes on LCD unless it has FALD with at least several hundred zones.

 

[Irata]

Why are we compairing today with the past?
Back then we did not have other options, we do now.

Using such a crappy display ruins all immersion and it's insane that it does not even have VRR at all, considering this device will struggle with performance and fps dips.

However I doubt it will be a succes anyway. Most valve hardware fails hard and end up costing costing and going EoL shortly after.

They need to make a Pro version with OLED 30-90 Hz VRR + HDR to get me interrested, is all I am saying.

Switch OLED looks so much better than the original ONLY because of the OLED panel. Especially dark scenes look so much better. Backlighting completely ruins all dark scenes on LCD unless it has FALD with at least several hundred zones.

Just pointing out the market. Back then it was Nintendo vs Sega vs Atari, later it was the 3ds vs the much more powerful PS Vita, now you have mobile Android / iOS games vs the Switch (not exactly high end hardware)and later on the Steam Deck.

I guess the Steam Deck is not for you, but looking at the overall market, the smaller, cheaper and easier version always won.

One advantage the Steam Deck has is that it allows you to easily play your existing Steam library on the go. So it‘s not a replacement for a gaming PC but an extension of it. This is imho pretty novel.

 

[Yenega]

Just pointing out the market. Back then it was Nintendo vs Sega vs Atari, later it was the 3ds vs the much more powerful PS Vita, now you have mobile Android / iOS games vs the Switch (not exactly high end hardware)and later on the Steam Deck.

I guess the Steam Deck is not for you, but looking at the overall market, the smaller, cheaper and easier version always won.

One advantage the Steam Deck has is that it allows you to easily play your existing Steam library on the go. So it‘s not a replacement for a gaming PC but an extension of it. This is imho pretty novel.

64GB base storage pretty much makes it DoA for playing your PC games on the go, slow loading from add-on storage. They should have went with 128GB and up to make it somewhat not DoA

 

[Irata]

64GB base storage pretty much makes it DoA for playing your PC games on the go, slow loading from add-on storage. They should have went with 128GB and up to make it somewhat not DoA

I think in summary we can say it‘s not for you then, neither the base model (that one isn‘t for me either) nor any other one for that matter.

As for the rest - the market will decide and I‘m curious how well (or not) it will do.