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

[Siri]

Yeah, agreed on all fronts regarding the SD Card after looking into it - provided the punter picks up a decent card that supports the right speed (U1?), both that and the eMMC is going to be just as quick, if not quicker than any bog standard mechanical drive.

NVME is just very silly nice-to-have speed, especially if you're used to it. but honestly, most electronics stuff already get a massive benefit *just* from moving away from a drive that clicks and spins into life. I couldn't tell you the difference between a bog-standard SATA SSD over an NVME, in comparison.

[Uzi]

2 minutes ago, Siri said:

Yeah, agreed on all fronts regarding the SD Card after looking into it - provided the punter picks up a decent card that supports the right speed (U1?), both that and the eMMC is going to be just as quick, if not quicker than any bog standard mechanical drive.

NVME is just very silly nice-to-have speed, especially if you're used to it. but honestly, most electronics stuff already get a massive benefit *just* from moving away from a drive that clicks and spins into life. I couldn't tell you the difference between a bog-standard SATA SSD over an NVME, in comparison.

https://www.picstop.co.uk/micro-sdxc/sandisk-ultra-microsdxc-card-120mbs-class-10-uhs-i-256gb.html

 

This should meet those reqs and its only around £26 delivered - waiting for stock to come back in! 

[Not Thread Owner]

4 minutes ago, Siri said:

I couldn't tell you the difference between a bog-standard SATA SSD over an NVME, in comparison.

 

It's like night and day. On a desktop PC anyway. The likes of Photoshop load instantly on NVMe, but still can take 30 seconds on a SATA SSD.

 

Even Windows 10 in an SATA SSD is starting to feel slow these days - like it was on a spinning disk when W10 first came out.

[Siri]

23 minutes ago, deKay said:

Even Windows 10 in an SATA SSD is starting to feel slow these days - like it was on a spinning disk when W10 first came out.

Odd - I've still got Windows 10 on whatever was the budget drive Crucial was pumping out (BX100? idk) a few years back, and starting up in the morning is still a matter of seconds to the point where I've got to make my porridge after I've logged into work. I do keep the drive as strictly a boot drive, however, and keep as much downloaded crap off of it as I can.

Granted, Windows 10's update system takes that 'Matter of seconds' and throws it right in the fucking bin on regular occasion on startup, so I can see your point. Haven't touched Photoshop after the release where they added video editing either, so I can also concede that Adobe's feature bloat would make NVME's super good!
 

24 minutes ago, Uzi said:

https://www.picstop.co.uk/micro-sdxc/sandisk-ultra-microsdxc-card-120mbs-class-10-uhs-i-256gb.html

 

This should meet those reqs and its only around £26 delivered - waiting for stock to come back in! 

Ooh, thanks for the heads-up - I did see a HUKD for a 512 card, but I figured I'd pick one up closer to release. I know these faster cards don't charge a premium over standard cards, it's just grabbing the right one at the right time.

You could stick hundreds of indie or pre-360/PS3 games on that fucker - things like Batocera is going to flourish a good few 'Hey plug this SD card into your Steam Deck so it plays everything in existence' tech Youtube videos, that's for sure.

[Uzi]

For some work based applications and OS sure - for most games - not really a perceivable difference unless huge loading in with larger install sizes. I say that having a mix of SATA and NVME on my PC. The majority of smaller games on Steam are barely a few gigs in size - many prob under 5GB and don't need to load in a tonne of data - those will likely load the same on sd as on the nvme with no perceivable delay in loading 

[davidcotton]

20 hours ago, Ry said:

 

I seen a guy playing Sea of Thieves and Gears 5 at 60fps on the emulating the specs we will see on the deck, he bumped down a load of options (no idea what they all mean) . 

 

Both games looked amazing. 

 

I don't mind putting the res to 720p and turning off all the fancy stuff as long as I can get 60fps. 

 

To be fair though, I will not be playing the newer big budget games on this. Why would I when I have a series x? 

 

You can’t play a series x on the shitter or the bus?

[Fry Crayola]

5 minutes ago, davidcotton said:

You can’t play a series x on the shitter

 

I'd look again at who you're talking to.

[Not Thread Owner]

1 hour ago, Uzi said:

For some work based applications and OS sure - for most games - not really a perceivable difference unless huge loading in with larger install sizes. I say that having a mix of SATA and NVME on my PC. The majority of smaller games on Steam are barely a few gigs in size - many prob under 5GB and don't need to load in a tonne of data - those will likely load the same on sd as on the nvme with no perceivable delay in loading 

 

"Smaller games" to me are a few hundred MB tops

 

And different architecture, I know, but the PS5 version of Gods and Monsters loads a million times faster than the Switch version.

[JoeK]

2 hours ago, deKay said:

 

It's like night and day. On a desktop PC anyway. The likes of Photoshop load instantly on NVMe, but still can take 30 seconds on a SATA SSD.

 

Even Windows 10 in an SATA SSD is starting to feel slow these days - like it was on a spinning disk when W10 first came out.

 

Love to know what version of PS you're running, as mine's been running like a piece of absolute shite for years now. I mean, I use the thing every single day, but it is woeful at times.

[iwan_canobi]

Do we think that there will be steam deck specific versions of games to optimise the install sizes a bit? Some games are getting a bit ridiculous and I don't really think you need to have huge 4k textures etc when you're only playing at 800p? I pre-ordered the 512GB anyway, but just curious. 

[Not Thread Owner]

26 minutes ago, JoeK said:

 

Love to know what version of PS you're running, as mine's been running like a piece of absolute shite for years now. I mean, I use the thing every single day, but it is woeful at times.

 

CC 22? 23? Whatever the latest is. From a WD Black SN850 it takes maybe three seconds to open. If you've a load of plugins or something then maybe it takes longer but I have none.

[rafaqat]

10 minutes ago, deKay said:

 

 If you've a load of plugins or something then maybe it takes longer but I have none.

 

Bro do you even photoshop?

[Not Thread Owner]

2 minutes ago, rafaqat said:

 

Bro do you even photoshop?

 

Not really that often, no.

[simms]

3 hours ago, Mallet said:

One of the things I am most looking forward to about the Deck is the community that will be built around it.

 

I expect to see controller configurations, people testing the Deck to it's limits to find the optimal settings for just about every notable game. I wont even be surprised if we get versions of emulators tuned to the Deck's configuration if it's successful. 

The emulation scene around the deck will be interesting.  Are there emulator for Steam Desks flavour of Linux or would it be less faff to get windows on there are use those emulators?  For example retro arch and the like

[Not Thread Owner]

If it's available for Linux, it's available for the Steam Deck in 99.99% of cases.

 

[Uzi]

9 minutes ago, simms said:

The emulation scene around the deck will be interesting.  Are there emulator for Steam Desks flavour of Linux or would it be less faff to get windows on there are use those emulators?  For example retro arch and the like

I understand most emulators are built in linux 

[Siri]

Yep. Most of the emulators you'd want are already in Linux Respositories (basically, the predecessor of Apple/Google App Stores). You'd just open up what Steam OS has, and download and compile/install it from pressing a button.

The real interesting shit is going to be when the community starts slapping together alternative operating systems that you add ROMs to on the same SD card and boot from that to have a nice boxed environment for that stuff - Batocera does just that for whatever office PC you have a spare USB slot for, so it's not going to take very long.

[Mr. Gerbik]

I would be very surprised beyond all reason if we don't see specifically made and tuned for Steam Deck versions of all popular emulators appearing like RetroArch and Dolphin. Probably with user-made controller configurations and per-game optimal settings included if you so desire.

[Fry Crayola]

Absolutely. Every handheld under the sun seems to get one, it'd be an aberration if the Deck didn't.

[shirubagan]

I'm looking forward to receiving this and having a £600 machine solely dedicated to OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast.

[Mallet]

A new Aya Neo has been announced, Ryzen 4800u, 16gb of ram and 1TB of nvme.

 

$1200

 

I find it amazing that people think the Deck is expensive, compared to what? Match it against any similar product on the market and it's a bargain, even compared to the Switch it's amazing value. 

[Siri]

1 hour ago, Mallet said:

A new Aya Neo has been announced, Ryzen 4800u, 16gb of ram and 1TB of nvme.

 

$1200

 

I find it amazing that people think the Deck is expensive, compared to what? Match it against any similar product on the market and it's a bargain, even compared to the Switch it's amazing value. 

It's mad, isn't it? Even the cheapest configuration with 512gb of storage is $925. And that's something with RDNA1 Vega Graphics (fine at a high power envelope, but say goodbye to your battery life) and LPDDR4 (Reminder that integrated graphics really likes fast ram with multiple channels).

I'd be concerned that Valve are making a loss across the entire lineup if that's what the competition is offering, not just the cheerful $399 headline-grabber.

Although TBH, PC owners have probably paid more than enough to fund Valve running themselves into the ground via Wii U scale failures until I'm dead and buried.

[Uzi]

The deck is insane value for the entire package of hardware. Anyone thinking it's expensive is delusional. 

 

You're already getting people surprised that it doesn't run "better" when "docked" (ie is plugged into a power source). That's because the design and power envelope has been pushed so far and refined so well that it runs in "docked mode" as switch owners now completely wireless and handheld. 

[Mallet]

10 minutes ago, Siri said:

It's mad, isn't it? Even the cheapest configuration with 512gb of storage is $925. And that's something with RDNA1 Graphics (fine at a high power envelope, but say goodbye to your battery life) and LPDDR4 (Reminder that integrated graphics really likes fast ram with multiple channels).

I'd be concerned that Valve are making a loss across the entire lineup if that's what the competition is offering, not just the cheerful $399 headline-grabber.

Although TBH, PC owners have probably paid more than enough to fund Valve running themselves into the ground via Wii U scale failures until I'm dead and buried.

They have to be losing money, on the entry model at the very least.

 

Gabe said they would welcome other PC manufacturers to make their own version but who would be willing to compete with that price? 

 

 

[davidcotton]

I’d imagine that hardware support will be better with Valve if anything happens.

[rafaqat]

I gotta say that I thought the steam deck was overpriced especially when people talk about it potentially struggling to do ps4 era graphics at 60fps.  It's all the other things surrounding it like emulators and the fact that the usb c port means you can plug all sorts into it that the £350 version certainly begins to look like good value for money. 

 

 

[bear]

The 4800u is Vega right? I don't think there has been any widely available RDNA 1 APU and it looks like there won't be as it seems AMD are going to go with RDNA2 for their next big update. 

[Fry Crayola]

38 minutes ago, rafaqat said:

I gotta say that I thought the steam deck was overpriced especially when people talk about it potentially struggling to do ps4 era graphics at 60fps.

 

If it only played PS4 games, then it's still a £350 handheld that's more powerful than a PS4. In those terms, it's not exactly overpriced.

[Siri]

It's also kind of a reach to say that the Deck is struggling with PS4 graphics, when the PS4 itself struggled with its own games later in life - I fully remember playing God Of War in glorious 1080p/30fps on the base system. And, uh, I still had fun with it. Honest.
 

51 minutes ago, bear said:

The 4800u is Vega right? I don't think there has been any widely available RDNA 1 APU and it looks like there won't be as it seems AMD are going to go with RDNA2 for their next big update. 

Yeah, everything's Vega still to this point. I forgot original RDNA was just the big cards. Probably because I had one and thought it was a bit bobbins before it killed itself within a month 
 

[Uzi]

It's significantly more powerful than a PS4 because:

 

PS4 games typically rendered at 1080p which is significantly more demanding than 720p/800p - pushing around twice the pixels

The PS4 had an absolute fucking joke of a CPU

This has significantly faster memory and more of it

The RDNA2 gpu and work on Linux means FSR should work on an insane amount of titles to squeeze even more performance out of some titles