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[The Infectious Paradox]

Currently, I am not inclined to spend money in a gaming PC. I have both next gen consoles and that's enough for me. However, I want to play Bleak faith and I know Counter strike 2 is coming. Both of these games I'm very interested in playing.

Now, I have recently found a lot of fun in playing my Xbox and Playstation games on remote play while I've outside my house. I guess I'm a console peasant, but I still want to be able to play games on PC. But I don't want to deal with a gaming PC right now. Is the Steam deck a good middle man? I like gaming without much complication, but I do want a good middle man. Should I invest in a steam deck? I hear you can stream on your TV with it.

Convince me to get one, if it sounds right for what I'm looking for.

I have a great 4k oled that would do well for a gaming pc, but I'm wondering If I can find what I need in a steam deck

Just realized the title says deack. Forgive the cringe.

 

[SeraphJan]

Its mainly for portability. If you don't like building your PC, get a pre build or a laptop

 

[skneogaf]

I've used mine for an hour in about 3 months of ownership.

 

[Leonidas]

It's a great device, but it'd never replace my desktop gaming rig for games that can use more power. Seems better suited as a companion.

I love the thing since my Steam library is 1000+ games and I can load many of those games on the thing, which I already had before buying the Deck.

Maybe worth it if you're really into portable gaming.

You'd probably end up getting destroyed trying to play Counter-Strike 2 on the device.

 

[The Infectious Paradox]

I've used mine for an hour in about 3 months of ownership.

Why have you not used it more?

 

[The Infectious Paradox]

Maybe worth it if you're really into portable gaming.

You'd probably end up getting destroyed trying to play Counter-Strike 2 on the device.

This is what I needed to hear.

 

[JCK75]

I've had it for almost a year and I'm still amazed every time I pick it up

 

[Topher]

If you enjoy mobile gaming then it is great as long as you don't mind the larger form factor. Of course, being a console gamer, you won't have much a library in the beginning unless you install Windows for Game Pass PC. It isn't nearly the same experience though as it is with Steam OS.

 

[The Infectious Paradox]

I've had it for almost a year and I'm still amazed every time I pick it up

I am not a pc gamer. But do you ever find yourself connecting it to your TV and playing? I have wondered if it's seamless

 

[Sleepwalker]

I am not a pc gamer. But do you ever find yourself connecting it to your TV and playing? I have wondered if it's seamless

You can but games won't scale well to 4k, at 1080p you can run games mostly fine. And yeah it is seamless with a dock (sold separately).

As for counter strike, you can hook the deck up to a monitor and play with keyboard and mouse. Otherwise you're gonna have a bad time against other pc players haha


I love my Deck, best gaming purchase of 2022 for me.

 

[Demigod Mac]

Great for retro gaming / emulation and fighting games. But definitely not my choice of input for FPS.

 

[The Infectious Paradox]

You can but games won't scale well to 4k, at 1080p you can run games mostly fine. And yeah it is seamless with a dock (sold separately).

As for counter strike, you can hook the deck up to a monitor and play with keyboard and mouse. Otherwise you're gonna have a bad time against other pc players haha


I love my Deck, best gaming purchase of 2022 for me.

I like the idea of the deck, but maybe I should take the time to learn about PC gaming. I like my consoles, but I have always idolized mods and other games I can't get not on PC.

This really was a thread to see if I need to just invest. Seeming like i need to just invest. But thank you for this insight.

 

[Come On Tars]

My passion for playing games was waning big time before I got it. I just didn't care to play any single player games at my desk, bro i'm not going to sit in an office chair and play Spiderman get the fuck out of here. I thought getting a Series x and playing on the couch and TV would save my interest. Nope. It was my last hail mary, maybe I care jusssst enough to play laying in bed or while watching netflix with the wife. It worked.

First thing I played was Wind Waker, love playing it in small chunks. Next I wanted to mess around with how powerful it is and installed Resident Evil 2 remake. Plays flawlessly. It's got me interested in playing through games again. I can sweat playing Apex at my computer still when I feel like it, but single player stuff in bed before sleepy deepy is noice. Great companion to playing sweaty multiplayer on main rig, VR.

 

[Sleepwalker]

I like the idea of the deck, but maybe I should take the time to learn about PC gaming. I like my consoles, but I have always idolized mods and other games I can't get not on PC.

This really was a thread to see if I need to just invest. Seeming like i need to just invest. But thank you for this insight.

If you wanna delve into PC gaming and I mean, mods, cheats, etc then you'll be throwing yourself off the deep end with the deck, it is a PC yes but it's also a Linux PC unless you install windows on it. So despite being 90% there as a handheld console experience, you'll want to learn about compatibility of applications with linux and some things can become a little convoluted. Most things will run don't get me wrong, but you will need to tinker around so you have to ask yourself if you're a tinkerer or you don't enjoy that.

Windows is a bit easier as most things are straight up coded to run natively on it.

 

[ReBurn]

Wasn't worth it for me. I found that games just didn't feel right on it. I sold it because I wasn't using it.

 

[The Infectious Paradox]

Wasn't worth it for me. I found that games just didn't feel right on it. I sold it because I wasn't using it.

Why didn't it feel right? These are the type of opinions I want to hear. Elaborate of you don't mind.

 

[Fafalada]

I have a great 4k oled that would do well for a gaming pc, but I'm wondering If I can find what I need in a steam deck

Get a 6800U handheld and a GPU dock (6800U based devices pretty much all have USB4 ports) if you want portable AND 4k/HDR. Thanks to Auto-HDR in Windows 11, a great deal of older games that never got HDR on PC (or even on console) benefit too. Or even without GPU dock - most of these handhelds run nicely at 30W or above, so you can still get better docked performance.

For the Switch-like experience, current version of Deck isn't really it. It is of however, much more affordable than above.
Of course - if you just want a Living Room Gaming PC - none of the handhelds are great 'price/performance' - not even the Deck.

 

[ReBurn]

Why didn't it feel right? These are the type of opinions I want to hear. Elaborate of you don't mind.

I found the device itself to be bulky and awkward and kind of tough to use on the go. I'm also not used to playing my PC games with game pad controls. My mind just couldn't seem to make the connection.

Don't get me wrong, it's a solid device. I would just rather play on either my laptop or a console.

 

[64bitmodels]

wtf is a steam deack

 

[Unknown?]

If you wanna delve into PC gaming and I mean, mods, cheats, etc then you'll be throwing yourself off the deep end with the deck, it is a PC yes but it's also a Linux PC unless you install windows on it. So despite being 90% there as a handheld console experience, you'll want to learn about compatibility of applications with linux and some things can become a little convoluted. Most things will run don't get me wrong, but you will need to tinker around so you have to ask yourself if you're a tinkerer or you don't enjoy that.

Windows is a bit easier as most things are straight up coded to run natively on it.

Eh it's not that bad even on Linux. If you aren't tech savvy, even Windows would be hard for that stuff.

 

[Captain Toad]

I used to have a gaming PC. I guess i technically still do. Honestly, I hate gaming on PC. So, it's nice having a SteamDeck when there's a game I want to play isn't on consoles and for the games I'd rather play portably.

 

[The Infectious Paradox]

wtf is a steam deack

I'm sorry

 

[Shakka43]

I'm able to play RE4:R while traveling and away from my PC/PS5 so yeah, so far it's been worth it.

Also it is the first handheld I owned that has proper console like controls so that is a big plus over the rest.

 

[Come On Tars]

I'm able to play RE4:R while traveling and away from my PC/PS5 so yeah, so far it's been worth it.

Also it is the first handheld I owned that has proper console like controls so that is a big plus over the rest.

How does it look on the deck? Similar to RE2 and RE3?

 

[Beechos]

It's great. Only thing I'm really disappointed with is that it's still not to the point of console where you can install and go. Even the steam deck verified games sometimes you need to play around with different settings/launch options to run. Battery life is hit or miss depending on what you're playing and it feels like it takes a while to charge.

Overall it's great and just what I want in a portable system. I'm hoping ms finally makes the xboy. To be able to download and play my xbox library on the go would be a gamechanger. Ms already has the delivery system in spades with cloud/saves autosync and smart delivery. A portable series s for $500 prob can be done. The series s is already 299, 249 when on sale prob will be 199 this holiday. Another 200 for a screen and battery should be sufficient.

Yeah there's xcloud, but at this point, it only works best with Xbox 360/ps3 or lower games and indies.

 

[Nocturno999]

You still need to have certain technical knowledge to operate it. Not all games are compatible or flawless.

I'm not sure if you really want one. Counterstrike can be cool for casual play, but I wouldn't recommend competitive on a portable.

 

[Topher]

wtf is a steam deack

 

[ZenTheShogun]

I've used mine for an hour in about 3 months of ownership.

Same.

All of the downsides of PC gaming without the upside IMO.

Things that bothered me:

-Laughable battery life.
-Games that are Steam Deck verified still require a decent amount of tweaking.
-SD Card is only detected half the time (might be a problem specific to my SD).
-Multiple OS glitches (I'm not even in the beta program).
-Buttons sort of have that cheap 3rd party controller feel.
-The track pads are jerky.
-The fan gets PS4 level loud.
-Oh, and the thing is comically massive.

At this point my wife uses it as a Tetris box. The one great thing about the SD is emulation. I genuinely regret buying it.

 

[Thaedolus]

I’ve found it’s reinvigorated both my love of gaming, but specifically PC gaming. I play more games on my desktop now that I can pick up where I left off on a handheld.

Absolutely the best piece of hardware I’ve picked up in many years. I’ve hardly touched my consoles since I got it

 

[Bluecondor]

In my case, I really like my Nintendo Switch and have played it a lot these past few years. The SD appealed to me because it was similar to the Switch in terms of being portable, with the huge opportunity of having the Steam library of PC games available for purchase. While I had a Steam account, I never really played many PC games, as my laptops are pretty basic and not at all optimized for gaming.

As others have said, different games can be hit-or-miss on the SD. That said, if there are PC games (with mods as you mentioned) that really interest you, the SD could be interesting for you.

 

[Tams]

Yes, it goes well with my teak furniture, which is the peak of fashion. Well, when my bird isn't pecking at it with her beak.

I do seek someone who would leak the next Steam Deack though. I would freak out!

 

[Sleepwalker]

Eh it's not that bad even on Linux. If you aren't tech savvy, even Windows would be hard for that stuff.

I know it's really not that hard but he stated he wants to go straight to modding and stuff, he will need to find deck specific guides etc, every little thing has extra steps on the deck, like getting to run a trainer is not as easy and all that. I personally love tinkering so I dont care haha.

How does it look on the deck? Similar to RE2 and RE3?

Plays great, locked 40 with decent settings or you can go full performance and get 50-60.

 

[Shakka43]

How does it look on the deck? Similar to RE2 and RE3?

Yes, looks similar but runs slower. I have found 45fps with some low to medium settings to be the sweet spot, FSR or interlacing degrade the image quality too much so I left those off.

 

[Come On Tars]

Yes, looks similar but runs slower. I have found 45fps with some low to medium settings to be the sweet spot, FSR or interlacing degrade the image quality too much so I left those off.

Yeah RE2 looked like blurry shit initially and I was disappointed in the deck. Then I figured out to turn fsr off and all that and it looked awesome.

 

[KiteGr]

Got it. Loved it.

• It's very powerful and can do wonders.
• It's surprisingly ligh.
• It can run nearly all emulators.
• The community around it is very active, and streamlined most modifications you'll have to do your self.
• It's fantastic for indies and most last gen games.
• Valve have been ultra consumer friendly with the Deck! Every hardware is sold bellow cost, including the docking station, that at first glance it looks expencive until you realise how much the included charger costs independently. They also allow returns and replacements without much banter, allow competitior's stores to work on it, and released them selfs tuttorials on taking the console appard to repair, upgrade or modify it.
• The console's controler is also very compatible. It's structured like an Xbox controler and is as compatible with that. It uncludes trackpads, touch screen and gyros for the times you'll need a mouse, Rumble and analogue triggers for the games that make use of it, Steam's support for all other controlers, bluetooth or wired, and 4 extra buttons on the back for god knows what. It's hard to find a known game that won't work (Check ProtonDb for more accurate compatibility).

However!...

• If you are playing a resource heavy game or a demanding emulator you should expect the battery to drain as fast as even an hour and a half. On lower games it can even reach 6-8 hours. There is a seperate options button to help you squeese more life with a few downgrades.
• If you are planning to play the most recent AAA games, it wouldn't possibly run them without major sacrifices. It's like playing a PSP port of a PS3 game. No mater how groundbreaking it is for a portable console, it's still a portable "console" so stuff are going to look downgraded. At least the SSD prevents most lags and loadings.
• It's based on linux, so not all games are compatible. Valves rating often marks as incompatible games that actually are, or would be with a custom upgrade to Proton (linux emulator) that you'll have to do your self. Check Protondb for the true compatibility.
• The linux operating system can make it hard to run mod tools. Many mods don't support linux, and running them through compatibility tools can be a learning experience.
• If you plan on installing windows, it's still not recomended as they are slower.
• While being called, "portable", it's still quite big. It won't fit on any pocket, and you wouldn't want it anywhere in the wild outside it's case.

My thoughts!
Get it in combination with a current gen console. PS5 for AAA and exclusives. Deck for everything else.

 

[Bakkus]

What I wonder is how is the d-pad? I've heard it's pretty stiff.

 

[Topher]

I've heard it's pretty stiff.

 

[Kenpachii]

As somebody that wanted a portable PC with him to distant locations where i can't bring my PC with me. Steam deck is godly, its really powerful and does practically everything i want it to do. It's basically a PC.

How i use it. ( now also posted from my deck right now:

I use it sololy in desktop mode which is linux based, but u can install windows on it ( still have to do it at some point but busy with other things atm )

I run this all together while playing games:
- youtube music ( 144p resolution, for maximum performance ), on the background through chrome
- whats app ( talk app everybody uses here )
- full screen windowed in every game so i can alt tab to both fast.
- have a stream on the background ( sound ) 144p again.
- Mobile next to me with the actual stream muted next to the deck ( so i hear it because of the stream running on the background
- run games i want ( heroes of the storm play with friends / they are billions RTS / pokemon fire red / zelda breath of the wild, riftbreaker, age of empire 4, and so much more.

It's basically a full blown PC.

I expanded the deck with the following

- Deck 64gb model, replaced SSD with 1TB version and added a 512 gb SD for total of 1,4tb of usable disc space. Disc space is important if u travel because internet download speeds are dog shit at those places.
- Docking station from jsaux with 3 usb connectors
- 10 buck mouse + keyboard and hyper cloud x 2 noise canceling headset.

Honestly the handheld is simple said amazing. I freaking love it. I will buy the steam deck 2 day one for sure, whenever that gets released.

However u need to be warned about something, its a heavy tinker system. Even getting ubisoft client to run on it in linux is a pain in the ass, but there is a large community willing to help you all the way and lots of people are building stuff for it. It's basically for a IT guy with autisme the absolute best shit i ever experienced.

Specially now i can't sit behind my PC at home, the deck basically is everything i need. It's great.

 

[Shadowstar39]

It's amazing. Especially if you are married or an adult with a family and need to sneak in any gaming time you can. It means gaming on the toilet (I'm serious), it means on the couch while the Mrs is watching some mind numbing TV show. It means on the porch. It will play most old games amazing and new games great. Shit you can play cyberpunk and red dead 2 on it. Not to mention emulation of everything.

I love the track pads as it makes mouse and keyboard strategy and city builders work on it. Plus the steam and community controls you save and upload /download are super helpful.

Play it everyday and I own a switch, ps5, desktop w/ 3060ti. I'm at my computer 10hour days for work. I need to get away from that I can still play my pc games and dock into the TV if I want.

For someone like me whose been on steam since day 1 with 100s of games it's a no Brainer.

 

[Mr Branding]

Yes, saved gaming for me.

 

[Come On Tars]

What I wonder is how is the d-pad? I've heard it's pretty stiff.

Not a big D pad connoisseur but I like it. I don't play fighting games tho

 

[Graciaus]

I use it all the time so i can watch TV and play games at the same time. It isn't as powerful as My pc but it doesn't need to be. Best purchase I've made in along time.

 

[EekTheKat]

It's arguably easier to point out reasons not to buy a Steam Deck.

It's big for a handheld, IMHO it's much more comfortable than a lot of smaller devices but not really something to daily carry if you don't walk around with a bag on you.

Battery life - don't expect mobile phone levels of battery here. Drain for PC titles is much more extensive. Such is the tradeoff for a high performance handheld. .

Text can be annoyingly small for certain PC only titles. Strategy games/RPG's may be difficult to read at times.

Steam OS - there are still some anti-cheat issues that may never get resolved without installing Windows. Mostly has to do with stuff like MW2 and/or some other proprietary anti-cheat software. Bigger/poorly optimiised titles may still be a problem for the Steam Deck, though a surprising large amount of PC games work well on the thing.

Of note - the recent Steam update allowing you to transfer your game installs from your main PC to a secondary device over your private network LAN (including a Steam Deck) has been downright jaw dropping magical. My own Steam library now exists on multiple devices without having to deal with multiple backup and restores and/or additional patching.

The nearest competitor to this thing is still expensive, and does not have Valve's team of engineers supporting it and making each game run on the Steam Deck on almost a game by game basis. Seeing a game go from broken/not working well on launch day to up and running sometimes overnight has been great.



As for the reasons to buy -

It's the most streamlined PC gaming experience I've ever seen. Literally just log into your Steam Account and go., no real messing around with Windows and drivers It's even easier now with the QR code system implemented on Steam. With the earlier mentioned Steam transfer system in place it's even easier to get up and running fast.

There's room for PC level tweaking if you're inclined to dive into it. You can squeeze a lot of performance out of it with a few settings/tweaks rercommended by tthe community.

 

[yet_another_alt]

I like gaming without much complication

I love my deck but it might be a dealbreaker for you how much tweaking is required to truly get the most out of it. Don't get me wrong, there's some games that are amazing out of the box. I was really surprised at how Monster Hunter Rise looks so good and runs at mostly 60 FPS with some dips but at those default settings the battery lasts 2 hours. You can lock it near perfectly to 60 FPS by using FSR but that comes with some blurriness. Alternatively, you can lock it to an acceptable 40 FPS retaining the visual fidelity while increasing the battery to 3 hours. Nier Automata also has similar compromises.

Another example, Skyrim at medium setting can reach 60 FPS but can dip to the high 40's on some occasions. Or you can pump it to high settings and stick with a locked 40 FPS. Fallout 4 is the same way except as a newer game, it's low setting for that 60 FPS with dips or medium setting for a locked 40. FSR is absolutely not recommended here because they're have small text which gets blurred to near unreadability by FSR. Both games are fully moddable on the deck unlike their console counterparts.

To me, Deck is basically a balancing act between what looks good, what feels smooth, and how much battery I can squeeze out. There are definitely some games that run perfectly at the default settings like Portal and some are a nightmare like No Man's Sky which took me hours of tweaking to minimize stutter.

Lastly, about your 4k TV. All I have to say is be realistic. The Deck is a portable device with an 800p screen. Its games run and look ok in a tiny 7 inch screen.

 

[ahtlas7]

I use mine for quick, check-out gaming. I waited almost a year on buying mine so I don’t have the horrible fan issues But battery life is questionable.
Wish I knew how to get Switch pc game codes so I can emulate my games and retire my Switch.

 

[Valkyria]

Best device that I ever bought. The true successor to Vita.

 

[rofif]

It’s a great device but I never used it. And it’s too big and heavy for portability. Screen sucks too.
I gave it to my nephew

 

[Fredrik]

Just played 2 hours of Elden Ring in bed before sunday breakfast, for me it’s worth every penny.
But it’s a PC gaming companion, I wouldn’t use it as the only way of playing PC games, it’s my lazy comfy gaming PC.

 

[Comandr]

Ok hi.

I think the steam deck is a great device if you just want to play steam games on it. You want to install Uplay, Origin, Battle.net ... literally anything else? Shit gets goofy, fast. I've had my steam deck for about... right at four months now and I have probably quite a few hours on the thing. Quite a few of those hours are tweaking settings and troubleshooting. I've had weird shit like not booting, SD card stopped being read, on screen keyboard stopped functioning, odd performance fluctuations.

If you don't want to spend the time fucking around with a gaming PC, the steam deck can be a great device, if you only want to play steam games usually on very low settings. The steam deck also does not have a native landscape display, this means that if you try to change the resolution in some games, it gets fucky. The native resolution is 1280x800. If you try to lower that to improve performance in some games, it flops these numbers and you have a super skinny portrait image that's stretched all weird.

I have come to love the deck's form factor. It's insanely comfortable to hold, and you can do it for hours without getting fatigued. Valve was wise to keep your hands far from the parts of the device that get hot. I've since moved on to a GPD Win4 and absolutely love the little guy; the physical keyboard is a godsend. But that fucker gets hot enough to make my hands sweat and it becomes uncomfortable to hold for a prolonged period.

TL;DR: The Steam Deck is a wonderful device if you accept it at face value. It's still extremely new, and tons of features that should have just been around from the beginning are still being added. Get the cheapest model, and stick a microSD card of your preference in there. Don't bother fucking around with the internal SSD because it doesn't make that much of a difference.

 

[ToTTenTranz]

I have a great 4k oled that would do well for a gaming pc, but I'm wondering If I can find what I need in a steam deck

The Deck is spectacular for gamers who want to play anywhere but the TV. It's not a device you want to connect to a large 4K OLED TV.

I only ever plug the Deck to a TV when I'm on vacation and want to play some simpler/older multiplayer stuff on the hotel room.