Steam Deck (handheld from Valve) - shipping is 4-8 days from NL to UK

[deerokus]

Death Stranding has FSR 2.0 now. Looks phenomenonal on the deck.

[Ry]

10 minutes ago, deerokus said:

Death Stranding has FSR 2.0 now. Looks phenomenonal on the deck.

 

I'm a bit confused by all the FSR stuff. 

 

Is that something you select in game settings? If so what do you put the actual steam performance setting as? I always have mine set to the left hand side (linear I think) no idea what it all means though. 

[deerokus]

20 minutes ago, Ry said:

 

I'm a bit confused by all the FSR stuff. 

 

Is that something you select in game settings? If so what do you put the actual steam performance setting as? I always have mine set to the left hand side (linear I think) no idea what it all means though. 

For most games, the system level fsr is a nice upscaler and sharpener if you have to select a lower resolution in game for performance. Turn that setting to the right and adjust the sharpness to taste.  You probably only really need to use it for either AAA games to save battery or boost fps, or old games which run at fixed low resolution.

 

But if a game has *inbuilt* FSR, especially fsr 2.0, ignore the fsr setting in the deck settings and keep it to linear because upscaling as the game renders rather than afterwards works a lot better. In the game set the resolution to 1280x800 (or for DS, 720p) and turn on FSR IN GAME, which has its own quality settings. The lower the quality settings for that mode, the lower the internal resolution that fsr is then upscaling from, to whatever resolution you have set as the target. It's a bit counter intuitive at first but very effective. I've got ds at max settings, fsr 2.0 set to quality. Locked at 40 and very smooth but occasional hitches. Drop a few settings and I am sure you will save a lot of battery because that setup does chew through it, I was just stress testing.

[LaveDisco]

3 minutes ago, deerokus said:

For most games, the system level fsr is a nice upscaler and sharpener if you have to select a lower resolution in game for performance. Turn that setting to the right and adjust the sharpness to taste.  You probably only really need to use it for either AAA games to save battery or boost fps, or old games which run at fixed low resolution.

 

But if a game has *inbuilt* FSR, especially fsr 2.0, ignore the fsr setting in the deck settings and keep it to linear because upscaling as the game renders rather than afterwards works a lot better. In the game set the resolution to 1280x800 (or for DS, 720p) and turn on FSR IN GAME, which has its own quality settings. The lower the quality settings for that mode, the lower the internal resolution that fsr is then upscaling from, to whatever resolution you have set as the target. It's a bit counter intuitive at first but very effective. I've got ds at max settings, fsr 2.0 set to quality. Locked at 40 and very smooth but occasional hitches. Drop a few settings and I am sure you will save a lot of battery because that setup does chew through it, I was just stress testing.

I love my deck, but this post perfectly sums up why I prefer console gaming. 

[shirubagan]

I’ve had this around a month or two and my battery won’t charge beyond 93%. This doesn’t seem right. 

[deerokus]

16 minutes ago, LaveDisco said:

I love my deck, but this post perfectly sums up why I prefer console gaming. 

Sure but you don't have to mess with any of that. Some of us nutters just enjoy that flexibility.

[Mallet]

12 minutes ago, LaveDisco said:

I love my deck, but this post perfectly sums up why I prefer console gaming. 

That is fair.

 

But the reason you love the consoles is also the reason why when you go to play Dead space, a 360 game, on a much more powerful Series X console the game is stuck at 720p 30fps because the user has no control over it.

 

Both approaches have upsides and downsides, personally I get frustrated with consoles because they won't let me use the power I know is there. Why can we not have a 1080p 60fps mode that has some ray tracing? rather than relegating ray tracing to the 4k modes and dropping the frame rate to 30. I can't have what I personally want because I have no control over the hardware and the software I bought.

[Siri]

8 hours ago, shirubagan said:

I’ve had this around a month or two and my battery won’t charge beyond 93%. This doesn’t seem right. 

 

It's right in most cases - the deck does trickle charging beyond 80% to preserve battery health, so you'll rarely see 100% on it. Lithium batteries operate best between 20%-80% charge.

 

If you're that concerned, you can effectively calibrate the battery by fully draining it, and then charge the deck fully while it's completely off - but that's not really recommended because of the above.

[shirubagan]

Thanks @Siri, good to know. 

[Paulando]

Amazon have a couple of JSAUX docks for cheaper at the moment (for Prime accounts only, maybe?):

 

HB0603 - £39.99

HB0602 - £31.99

 

After seeing the price for the official one I think I’m going to get one of these. The more expensive one seems to have one extra USB and gigabit Ethernet, neither of which I think I’ll use. It’s wider too, which makes me think the Deck will be more sturdy, but it’ll also have a larger footprint when the Deck isn’t in it.

 

I dunno, does anyone have either of these? Are they fine?

[Ryan]

12 hours ago, Cyhwuhx said:

 

I already have the 512GB Deck; I ordered a Dock.

 

For me the Deck is my "dedicated gaming PC", mainly there to unlock the hundreds of games I (somehow) gathered on Steam and to have yet another portable version of Super Metroid with proper buttons/triggers available. The Dock is just icing on the cake.

 

Hahaha nice! I have a pretty hefty PC for work which will eventually be upgraded with an Nvidia card which can also game - just waiting for something affordable with enough memory (>16GB, ideally >20GB) because those ML models are memory hog.

[NickC]

Sorry for asking such a basic question, I'm a total noob to Steam:

 

I've seen a few websites that sell Steam keys to games for considerably less than buying them direct from the store. Will that work fine or are there reasons to avoid this? 

[bradigor]

Stick to Humble, CDKeys, Fanatical and IndieGala and you'll be fine. Avoid G2A and Kinguin like the plague 

 

[Siri]

11 minutes ago, NickC said:

Sorry for asking such a basic question, I'm a total noob to Steam:

 

I've seen a few websites that sell Steam keys to games for considerably less than buying them direct from the store. Will that work fine or are there reasons to avoid this? 

 

Generally, it will be fine, but of course it depends where you're buying from - some sites attain keys directly from publishers, some buy games by fraudulent means and sell them on, some do the above but without fraud, some sell review copies.

 

gg.deals is a good aggregate site of where you can get a good deal from a legitimate source. These include but not limited to - Humble, GMG, Fanatical, Gamersgate, Gameplanet UK and Gamebillet.

 

I personally fuck with CDKeys too, but it's not an official source of keys, so caveat emptor.

 

And avoid websites that sell you an account with the game on it like the plague, along with aforementioned Kinguin and G2A.

[Treble]

Quick PSA: Samsung Evo range of Micro SDs on sale for Prime customers:

 

https://www.hotukdeals.com/share-deal-from-app/4007425

 

£16.99 for a 256GB is the sweet spot on this one. 

[Ryan]

The SanDisk cards are on offer here in NL for Amazon Prime members (which I assume is everyone given it cost 3 EUR / month).

[Mallet]

59 minutes ago, Treble said:

Quick PSA: Samsung Evo range of Micro SDs on sale for Prime customers:

 

https://www.hotukdeals.com/share-deal-from-app/4007425

 

£16.99 for a 256GB is the sweet spot on this one. 

That's a good deal, thanks for letting me know. I might get 2 256gb and keep my emulation separate. 

 

I might order 1 of the docks as well

 

Done, I bought 2x 256GB cards and the upgraded Jsaux steam Dock for about £73, not bad. 

Edited October 11, 2022 by Mallet

[Gotters]

If anybody is looking for the next early access £4 vampire survivor style game Brotato is worth a look.

 

Deck verified and seems quite similar, not sure if the positive reviews are because its potato based but seems nice enough for £4.

[StephenM]

Crunch time time for attempt 2 - loads of weird back and forth on the Evri tracking, it’s either imminent or never coming. I reckon 50/50!

[ravnaz]

31 minutes ago, Gotters said:

If anybody is looking for the next early access £4 vampire survivor style game Brotato is worth a look.

 

Deck verified and seems quite similar, not sure if the positive reviews are because its potato based but seems nice enough for £4.

Vampire Survivors is really good.  +1.

 

Edit - Completely misread your post.  My comment is irrelevant.

[Mallet]

43 minutes ago, ravnaz said:

Vampire Survivors is really good.  +1.

 

Edit - Completely misread your post.  My comment is irrelevant.

Giving love to Vampire Survivors is never irrelevant, such a fantastic little game.

[keptbybees]

2 hours ago, Gotters said:

If anybody is looking for the next early access £4 vampire survivor style game Brotato is worth a look.

 

Deck verified and seems quite similar, not sure if the positive reviews are because its potato based but seems nice enough for £4.

From the streams I've seen of it, the big difference is that there are a series of shorter waves and you get to buy upgrades and weapons in between each wave. Most items add to at least one stat and take from another so it is becomes about picking to your characters playstyle/ previous choices.

[Ry]

3 hours ago, Gotters said:

If anybody is looking for the next early access £4 vampire survivor style game Brotato is worth a look.

 

Deck verified and seems quite similar, not sure if the positive reviews are because its potato based but seems nice enough for £4.

 

I have bought 3 different VS type games and tried a few demos and they are all pretty poor compared to VS. 

 

I'm convinced it will never be bettered. 

[SMD]

On 10/10/2022 at 23:03, Yiggy said:

 

Reaching out from the support group. Did you get it? Has your status changed? 

 

My lack of delivery clusterfuck situation is still ongoing. Mine has been stuck on it's at the depot and we will let you know when we're delivering it for 12 days now. 

 

My original ticket to steam listed the issue as of 4 days ago. They responded after 48 hours saying DONT WORRY ITS SHIPPED! Fuckers. 

 

I have responded today stating that it's been nearly 2 weeks since it arrived in the UK, and I have no deck. Can they find out what's going on please?

 

I fully expect them to just say we have refunded you the money at some point soon. 😒

 

Then I will have to decide if I want to run the gauntlet of GLS/Evri delivery again. 

 

This ended up being absolutely bang on:

 

On 10/10/2022 at 12:10, Siri said:

I'd give it another couple of days, personally - if it hit the depot on Saturday, nobody's touching it until Monday for assigning to a delivery driver, and then another day for the actual delivery route.

 

Of course, at any point it's probably on eBay

 

[Yiggy]

16 minutes ago, SMD said:

 

This ended up being absolutely bang on:

 

 

They have come back and now declared that it’s ‘lost in transit’. They have said they are immediately dispatching me a new one. I don’t quite believe them but you never know. 

[SMD]

Just now, Yiggy said:

They have come back and now declared that it’s ‘lost in transit’. They have said they are immediately dispatching me a new one. I don’t quite believe them but you never know. 

 

Fingers crossed, I had my heart in my mouth the entire time.

[Siri]

16 minutes ago, Yiggy said:

They have come back and now declared that it’s ‘lost in transit’. 

 

Quote

it's probably on eBay

 

Sucks, but at least a replacement is being sent out.

 

Meanwhile, I really need to pull myself away from Tony Hawk to actually beat some games. I think I got myself into a rut of downloading games for the sake of trying them, after getting my mind broken by Murder By Numbers. Well, that and nearly giving myself a concussion yesterday, but anyway.

[bradigor]

Hope all is ok mate. 

 

I've been getting further into Gears Tactics and having a blast with it. 

[Isaac]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-microSDXC-Memory-Adapter-Performance/dp/B08GXXKY6P/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=5Jrki&content-id=amzn1.sym.6ccf0657-7880-474d-a681-f97ee419f982&pf_rd_p=6ccf0657-7880-474d-a681-f97ee419f982&pf_rd_r=Q9WA0XBR124K592CVSMR&pd_rd_wg=9wHEO&pd_rd_r=c0e30d97-5ffb-4434-b4b7-dab9f8f69708&ref_=pd_gw_deals_vi

 

Is this fast enough for the Steam Deck? £33 for 512GB seems like a great deal from here...

[Hawklord]

On 07/10/2022 at 11:11, Hawklord said:

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B013SL1YXO

 

 

I haven't bought the dock for use with games. I've been enjoying tinkering with the deck as much as playing on it and will be installing Windows hopefully at some point. Good to have a reasonably portable desktop (and handy for when you need to do stuff in Desktop mode)

 

Baws, this arrived yesterday and today it's dropped in price. Only £6 but is it worth me getting on to Amazon?