Submitted 2 months ago by monogram@feddit.nl to steamdeck@sopuli.xyz
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cross-posted from: 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.
Which doni choose? The $300 dollar deck and a $100 tb drive
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
I have a Steam deck, here’s the answers to my knowledge:
Yes, you can connect a keyboard and mouse, and even in SteamOS they let you access KDE in a separate “Desktop mode”
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)
It runs a 4 core/8 thread AMD laptop chip so assuming you get a mouse/keyboard it should work pretty well.
It has a 5W mode in the power settings in SteamOS so I’m assuming around that much at idle.
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 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!
In short yes. I use it as a mini pc, with dual monitor set-up.
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 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).
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.
steam deck is locked to a steam account
it requires internet to verify that on first launch
otherwise it is a great device. If it could use apple’s messages.app i would be so happy and give up having a phone and laptop
You can still install whatever OS you want on it, unlike a PS5. It would be nice if you could get into desktop mode without signing in once, but that’s not the end of the world. You need a Steam account to even buy it in the first place, and they’re not tracking you nearly as much as say Microsoft.
If it could use apple’s messages.app then i would be so happy.
That’s an Apple problem, not a Steam Deck or Linux problem. Apple refuses to allow support on non-Apple hardware.
Don’t they HAVE TO open their messaging app now with the “EU Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act”?
I won’t be getting either, but if I was forced to choose, the PS5.
Yeah, but can any of those play the saves I already have on my computer??
Yes, the Steam Deck can use saves you have in the Steam cloud. You can also probably manually copy the files over.
The Steam saves, yes, the Steam deck would play them just fine.
Um… Yeah? You about Steam Cloud, right?
Besides that, if it’s a none-Steam game you could just… Transfer the same file to the Deck. Did with a couple of games through Google Drive.
Only issue you’ll probably have is if the cloud saves are for a different OS, so if you’re playing on Windows make sure it’s the Proton version of the game that’s installed on the Deck, if you’re playing a native Linux version of the game on your PC then make sure it’s the native Linux version that’s installed on the Deck (usual defaults to the Proton version).
It is rare to see a game get this wrong, the last one I saw was a Borderlands. If you look at a game’s Steamdb cloud listing, they list Windows’s save location, and then Mac/Linux saves are expressed as a rewrite rule.
Cloud saves on PS are handled quite simply - if you didn’t pay for your very own PS Plus then go fuck yourself. I have lost dozens of Aloy hours on my brother’s PS4.
As others already stated, its possible, provided the game itself is compatible with Steam Deck. While there is the Steam Cloud that saves and loads saves automatically (which does not cost you anything BTW), some games do not support the Cloud. As this is PC basically where you have access to the filesystem, you can copy files over. Only thing that is a problem is, that Steam Deck will not get recognized as a drive if you plug it to USB connection. That’s a whole other story, but to answer your question, yes.
I’m legitimately worried about next gen, since Sony is doing the same thing with their pricing as GPU manufacturers.
That thing being, the increase in price is >/= the actual increase in performance. The PS5 Pro is a 75% price increase over the similarly disc-driveless $399 PS5 (hardware which is almost a half-decade old now).
The PS5 Pro pricing is testing the waters for PS6 pricing. If they can’t sell well, they can easily drop prices (the PS5 Pro barely costs more than the PS5 to produce). They’re just gathering data on what people will accept.
Doing that with the PS6 is too risky. Sony botched the launch of the PS3 and it backfired on them hard letting MS get a foothold with the 360. MS then did the same with the XBone launch and the PS4 ran away with it.
If people signal to Sony now that the PS5 Pro is way too much (it’s £700/$913 here ffs), then the PS6 will be cheaper. Don’t accept their greed.
I mean, a pound don’t buy what it used to. We’ve had rampant inflation, and it’s going to be hard to keep any next gen console in a price point that we think of as suitable. I mean, this is the first gen where the price has gone up during it. PS2 slim went down to under £100 by the end. I paid about £80 for a GameCube late in the gen. I remember Xbox having to give money back to people because they launched at about 300 and Sony immediately went down to £199. It was carnage.
£299 felt like a standard price point for ages. My Amiga 1200 cost about that in the early 90s, and I paid the same for a PS2 nearly 10 years later, and the Xbox 360 was about the same.
£700 feels like a piss take though, and the sales figures will surely reflect that. PS6 has got to be under £600 I reckon, and we’re probably about 5 years away from that.
Ps5 pro Gpu is apparently way more powerful, but it might be bottlenecked by the similar cpu and ram to the base model
I dont know abut ram but its very unlikely that CPU will be a bottelneck in most games . Its not a high end pc targeting 120 frames per second where cpu matters more. There of course will be exceptions ( space marine 2 apparently might have lower framerates on ps5 due to cpu so its unlikely that ps5 pro will fix this but who knows ).
A laptop because I have no where to go.
Can youuse a de k on an external monitor?
Yes.
Two actually
Nice
The difference is that Steam Deck is actually cheap compared to what the competition does. It’s also the first generation of Steam Deck and the upgrade with an OLED (and lot of other stuff too) is actually substantial. And there are multiple versions of the Deck available to choose less drive space. Imagine this was an option on PS5 Professional too. Contrary, the PS5 Professional is the most expensive console compared to its competition. It’s so expensive, that it set a new bar.
That’s the opposite of what Steam Deck does. Steam Deck is the only current generation game console that gets cheaper over time. Also one is a handheld format, which is hard to make cheap, especially because its compatible to PC hardware (and software).
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.
Neither of them are capable of true 4K 120Hz+ gaming, so until then I’ll stick with my PC.
Which you bought for 700 also, eh.
That’s the point I’m making. They’re too cheap for proper gaming.
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.
And the once PlayStation exclusive games have also been made available to Steam, thereby making them also accessible to Steam Deck. So the latter is infinitely a better choice!
Got mine for my birthday. Of all the computers I’ve owned in my life, this is my favorite.
2pt_perversion@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Now that the Steam Deck and linux gaming has found some success I really hope Valve or someone else revisits the home console market with a similar approach.
You couldn’t really build a PC for the same price as a PS5 with the same performance unless you’re buying used parts in most places but that’s not because Sony is selling consoles at a loss right now like the olden days. A large system integrator like Valve (or xbox if they want to change their formula) could offer similar perf/price without all the downsides of these locked down consoles.
egonallanon@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Honestly I think the trick for valve there would just be to release a build of steam OS people can install themselves into desktops (if they don’t already) and just have folks building their own machine for TV pc use.
MajorHavoc@programming.dev 2 months ago
Yeah. If Valve releases a remotely viable desktop console OS, I’ll immediately build one for my living room. If for no other reason, to keep the rest of the family away from my StaamDeck.
nekusoul@lemmy.nekusoul.de 2 months ago
That’s always been their plan, but it’s getting hit with Valve Time. My guess is that they won’t do it until all issues the major with NVIDIA GPUs have been fixed, as a public build that doesn’t run properly on a majority of machines wouldn’t go well. The latest driver is pretty good, but the Big Picture mode is still pretty much unusable.
At the very least they’re currently trying to bring official support over to other handhelds, as they’ve already confirmed support for the ROG Ally and pushed out a update to SteamOS for the controller support.
TheBat@lemmy.world [bot] 2 months ago
If that happens, will that affect Microsoft’s share price?
thejevans@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
It won’t have the same performance as a PS5, but the new Minisforum MS-A1 with a user-upgradable CPU is a really interesting proposition. The Ryzen 8700G is pretty good, but I would expect solid upgrades to be available in the next few CPU generations.
I currently have an Nvidia Shield Pro (2019), and it’s fine. I have Moonlight installed and can stream from my desktop PC using Sunshine (I do this on my Steam Deck, too), but I don’t expect that Nvidia will make a replacement, and I don’t know if I would get it if they did.
The software outside of Steam’s big picture mode isn’t ready for a full Linux couch experience, but it’s close. The two projects to watch are KDE Plasma Bigscreen and Waydroid (some people are starting to get Android TV working) which would be a nice bridge to use apps designed for a TV UI until native Linux versions become available.
YarHarSuperstar@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Isn’t that kind of what steam machines are supposed to be?