This myth that ARM is more efficient needs to die already. The ISA has almost no impact on efficiency, and especially no impact on gaming, where the GPU is the much more important thing.
Comment on Valve is working on a version of proton for ARM devices
Vincente@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Amazing, so maybe we can buy a steam phone someday?
Zamundaaa@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
Blisterexe@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
I always figured the reason arm chips tend to be more effecient is that theyve been developped for phones
entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.org 1 week ago
The architecture was originally developed for desktop PCs, but they discovered it was incredibly efficient at the time (late 80s, early 90s), so Apple partnered with ARM to develop it for the Newton.
The first commercial device with an ARM chip that I remember fondly was a Gameboy Advance.
Lemzlez@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
And perform terribly because it’d have to emulate x86 because there’s no native ARM games (for Windows).
There’s no way there’ll be an ARM steam deck, unless valve wants to build an android gaming handheld for some reason.
chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Perform terribly on modern AAA titles, sure, but that’s a tiny % of the total Steam library. A lot of people these days don’t even bother with new AAA titles, instead playing older games or indie games. I bet Valve knows this and is working on the ARM transition specifically because of this fact.
Lemzlez@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
That’s fair. I do mostly play AAA games on my deck, so “yet another android gaming handheld” isn’t at all appealing to me though.
Vincente@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
And the second example is Rosetta 2 for gaming on ARM-based Macs, especially in the context of Apple Gaming. You mentioned that some emulators running x86 games are inefficient. That’s the point! emulation is not the same as translation.
Translation is generally more efficient and can sometimes even match or exceed the performance of native execution.
Lemzlez@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Apple’s M-chips have dedicated hardware to accelerate rosetta 2 (support for x86 memory ordering), please stop using rosetta2 as a show of what x86 on ARM can do, as it is a vertically integrated piece of software that is not indicative of the current market for anyone outside of apple.
Just take a look at windows on those new qualcomn chips - when they do the translation, the performance is underwhelming to say the least.
Yes, it will improve, but it currently does not exist outside of Apple.
Vincente@lemmy.world 1 week ago
It is actually strongly related to Valve because Rosetta 2 or the Game Porting Toolkit are based on the open-source Proton, which was developed by Valve. So, it’s not an Apple-exclusive technology; it’s closely tied to Valve. I believe Valve has the ability and ambition to do the same thing, but better than Apple.
Vincente@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Which you said is a backward compatibility issue. Some games that are developed only for x86 or the DirectX API have performance issues, but other games that support cross-platform or cross-platform APIs like Vulkan do not have this problem.
An obvious example is the Nintendo Switch, which goes against your argument.
Because of backward compatibility, x86’s efficiency still can’t match ARM’s. That’s why I said games would be more efficient, lighter, and smaller when they natively support ARM.
If you have any doubts, just look at the Nintendo Switch!
skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl 2 weeks ago
DirectX is being translated to Vulkan in the background using dxvk already. And box64 exists for intercepting those translated Vulkan (and OS) calls and running them through native code instead.
There’s a performance hit to engine code to be dealt with, but on the graphics side these tools already exist. With Qualcomm producing ARM CPUs that run x64 software as well as some mid tier x64 CPUs using emulation, and with the Steam Deck already being a low spec machine, I don’t see why running Windows games on a Qualcomm Steam deck would have to be a problem.
Vincente@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
That’s a backward compatibility issue, which means some games developed for x86, Windows, or DirectX just can’t be translated without glitches. This means not every game developed for x86, Windows, or DirectX can be translated well.
I said that ‘some games that are developed only for x86 or the DirectX API have performance issues’; I didn’t say ‘every game.’ I mean that games with native support or cross-platform support are certainly better than those developed only for DirectX, Windows, or x86.
For example, many games developed exclusively for Windows/DX can’t be played on SteamOS. So how can I be certain that games developed for x86, Windows, or by DirectX would be well supported on ARM?
And you mentioned Qualcomm. Fine, look at the Qualcomm X Elite SoC computers. Do they run x86, Windows, or DirectX software or games steadily, efficiently, and well? Do they have many glitches when running Windows and x86 software?