The Steam Deck Now Runs Windows (theverge.com) 42
Valve shipped its $400 handheld gaming console, the Steam Deck, before all its promised features were ready -- but one of the biggest is now here. From a report: You can now install Windows 10 on a Steam Deck and actually expect it to work because Valve has just released the all-important GPU, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth drivers you'll need to download and play games. Importantly, you'll need to wipe a Steam Deck to do this, there's no dual-boot yet, and Valve says you can only install Windows 10 since the Steam Deck's current BIOS apparently doesn't include firmware TPM support (which Microsoft infamously requires for Windows 11). Speakers and headphone jack don't work yet as there are no audio drivers.
Year of Windows on the desktop? (Score:3)
I really want to run my games on Windows, but until they catch up with the state of Linux drivers out the box without tweaks and faffing I just can't see gaming on Windows taking off...
Most people will use it like this (Score:2)
I think that most people will end up using it with Windows. Once the drivers are fully fleshed out. Linux game compatibility just isn't there yet. Especially with things like anti-cheat holding game compatibility back. I think the only thing that would hold most people back would be the small amount of internal storage on the base unit. I really wish they had made it easier to upgrade the storage and support full size NVME. I don't think most people would have cared about a little added thickness on the ba
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If I had a Steam deck, I would rather just use Remote Play to stream games from a desktop. It's not like this is a powerful device. In fact, I don't know why they don't have a streaming only deck.
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In fact, I don't know why they don't have a streaming only deck.
Because any flagship smartphone can do the exact same thing. I've tried it with my iPhone 13 mini. It pairs just fine to an Xbox controller and works well enough on my home WiFi.
Trying to game while out and about is another story. Spectrum's shitty upstream connection in my neighborhood is inadequate for good gaming performance, and I suspect that even if my home broadband wasn't a hot mess, that T-Mobile's inconsistent speeds might also be a problem in some places.
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Yeah, they can do that. I would rather have a device with its own battery and hardware buttons built in and that won't allow call and text notifications to pop up over the game. Holding a controller and a phone at the same time is a bit unwieldy. And any of the controller "docks" that hold the phone are either junk manufacturers or may not work with the next phone. And potentially blocks the speakers.
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You can run Steam Link on a Raspberry Pi 4, and there are various sorts of complete kits [experimentalpi.com] to make the device portable. Downside is the screen is tiny and a crappy 480p resolution.
IMHO, I still think the phone method provides a better streaming/cloud gaming experience, as modern high-end smartphones have extremely high resolution OLED displays, but to each his own.
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If you want to just do remote play, then just run Steam Link on your phone. There's quite a few controllers that work with your phone.
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Then you have to hold two devices at the same time or get something with an awkward phone-holding mechanism. Not many good choices.
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Except for having to buy an iPhone if you're an Android user.
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Except for having to buy an iPhone if you're an Android user.
In that case, you can use a Razor Kishi: https://www.razer.com/mobile-c... [razer.com]
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In fact, I don't know why they don't have a streaming only deck.
Because those won't work on an airplane. Or anywhere else where the wifi is shitty bitrate / expensive / laggy as hell.
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Gamers want to play games, geeks to tinker. There might be a significant overlap though.
Gamers who just want to play games buy a console. PC gaming is still a minefield of "gotchas" when it comes to whether or not a game will actually run well (or it's an older game from the WinXP era, whether it will run at all), so being willing to tinker with shit just comes with the territory.
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Full size PCIe 3 NVMe drives can get really HOT. And that's just the older PCIe 3.0 ones. PCIe 4.0 drives can get just as hot, if not hotter. In any case I wouldn't want anything that can hit temps of 70-90c on its own in a large, air-cooled PC case trapped in a tiny enclosure like the Steam Deck.
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I suppose most people would go for a Steam Deck because they want to play games on it and not because they want drive heavy stuff like farming Chia coin, or doing data processing on any significant scale.
So perhaps that happens if you install a game that comes with a single large file that manages to saturate the bandwidth of the memory controller causing it to heat up, which can be remedied by throttling t
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I disagree. I have an older MyDigitalSSD BPX NVMe SSD (512GB) and it even idles hot. In a huge case with tons of fans and no local heat sources (CPU + GPU are watercooled using an external rad), it idles at ~44C for the main temp sensor and 77C for the controller sensor. I also have a Samsung 970 EVO that runs cooler, though the controller still idles @ ~44C. Those things would get out of control in a Steam Deck.
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I've been running a 1TB Samsung 970 EVO as well for almost 3 years and have been monitoring temperatures constantly via HWiNFO64. In my machine, which is well ventilated and uses the heatsink that came with the ASUS ROG Crosshair Hero VIII, temperature 1 pretty much never gets over 60C, while temperature 2 pretty much never gets over 72C. And so far I've had over 145,000GB host writes.
Anyway, according to thermal testing that was already done on the Steam Deck
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I don't think you understand how thermals work? That 970 EVO would overheat in a Steam Deck. The SSD in there already is likely putting out a lot less heat.
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I've only given you the extreme (high) values of almost 3 years of operation, including hot summers, having written enough data to being close to 50% TBW. The values are still blow the extremes for the Steam Deck that they tested in their air conditioned studio.
When I play games, the 1TB 970 EVO stays below 50C for Temp1 and below 60C for Temp2, because during regular gaming it almost does nothing except for reading a bit of data now and then and perhaps writing a couple of mb in
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The Steam Deck has no way to dissipate the kind of wattage that a 970 EVO puts out from the controller chip, or the controller of many other full-length SSDs. You can't run something that hot inside such a tiny, restricted enclosure. I don't know why you think the temps in your setup mean anything, other than to prove my point. If you had something running in the low 40s or less in a NUC or similar then you might be on to the right class of product. As it stands, you don't.
My BPX can throttle in an open
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You claim that the controller of your 970 EVO idles at ~44C. Where's the problem there? What are the temperatures while playing games?
And on what M.2 slot do you have it installed? Because if you put it between the graphics card and the CPU you'll get a lot of indirect heat from the CPU or GPU or both during gaming (mostly the GPU), which can easily inflate the temper
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btw your 970 EVO runs a lot hotter than mine.
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I think the only thing that would hold most people back would be the small amount of internal storage on the base unit.
The storage issue is easy enough to remedy. From the YouTube videos I've seen, it doesn't appear to be difficult to replace the SSD. The only gotcha seems to be that larger capacity M.2 NVME drives in the 2230 form factor are kinda hard to come by at a reasonable price. But that's become par for the PC gaming course lately anyway, have you seen current GPU prices?
That being said, I'm personally not going to be buying a Steam Deck. I already own a Nintendo Switch and it's been docked the majority of the
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https://cdn.discordapp.com/att... [discordapp.com]
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What's so special about them? (Score:2)
I'm surprised they have to make custom drivers, I figured they'd use bog-standard Realtek, Qualcomm, or similar parts for these peripherals.
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Linux user experience (Score:2)
This will give Windows users a taste of what it is like to run Linux. Delayed support for drivers. Obvious things like the headphone jack not working. Only the most dedicated fan of an OS would bother to dive into this.
This thing will be a Colossal failure (Score:1)
I actually don't know who would buy this, regardless of OS. It looks like an absolutely terrible way to game weighing far more than a comfy and light Xbox or PlayStation controller, and lacking the controllability of a keyboard + mouse for more complex games that require keybinds to be competitive.It seems to be suited to 10 minutes of MAME playing space invaders, donkey kong or asteroid
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How can it "lack the controllability of a keyboard + mouse for more complex games that require keybinds to be competitive" when you can just plug in keyboard and mouse when you're not on the go?
This isn't a glorified Nintendo. It's an actual PC in a handheld form factor.
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This AC is my personal troll. He posts this sort of stuff on about every other post I make. He doesn't even realise that you can play games on SteamOS right now on the Deck where everything works fine. Including keyboard, mouse and xbox controller, all things that OP complained about being needed for gaming.
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It also has touchpads and a touch screen. I'm not going to predict its success or failure, but I really don't think control methods are its achilles heel.
I really don't know what games you're thinking of when you say "require keybinds to be competitive" because I think you can macro any required keybinds to button combos. If your game requires a FULL keyboard then, yeah, it might be cumbersome, but obviously that's not the games this is intended for.
Oh, and instead of just thinking of MAME, try thinking "ev
Omission from Original Article (Score:2)
FTFY.
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Requiring TPM support is absolutely necessary for Windows to satisfy its primary mission, acting as part of the global panopticon. Microsoft is well-known to be a part of the PRISM citizen spying program.