-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
With cross gen ending in 2024, how long can Steam Deck keep up?
- Thread starter Sid
- Start date
OP
OP
What about software support for the first one? seems a bit too soon for a cutoff
It will play some of those, plus pretty much all mid-small sized games, plus a big chunk of everything else released in the last 40 years. Plenty to choose from still. If you only care about the latest releases, Steam Deck has never been the right choice between power and Proton compat considerations. It makes it up by providing access to tons of games in general.
I am not familiar with steam deck but why would the sw support go away with an theoretical sequel? (Not counting the case where the HW is not up for it.)
Plenty of software will continue to come out that can run on Deck 1, but it was always going to be the case that it eventually wouldn't be able to run some major releases.
There is no "cut off" as support is tied to PC gaming, not Deck exclusives.
They can still continue supporting it. It isn't like Valve will ditch the OS and create a new one for Deck 2. Just consider it like upgrading PC hardware. New hardware, but still the same OS.
It'll most likely fall off for PS5 games for sure, but anything below that will be fine and there are tons of indie games. Mines is basically an indie machine.
As long as the games are resonably optimized with a wide range of settings, Steam Deck should work fine as long as you keep your expectations in check. At minimum, games that also releases on Switch should work on Steam Deck. But Steam Deck wasn't made for the latest and most cutting-edge games.
It will probably be capable of playing more of those AAA games than you might think. Plus it'll be fine for playing the majority of PC releases outside of those for a very long time.
The fact it's a PC means there's no cut off point, as long as software is made for the platform there will be plenty that can also work on the Deck.
The fact it's a PC means there's no cut off point, as long as software is made for the platform there will be plenty that can also work on the Deck.
Valve comments on Steam Deck 2, Steam Controller 2 and Steam Machines while dismissing AMD Ryzen 7 6800U handhelds
Valve has confirmed details about its plans to release newer versions of the Steam Deck and the Steam Controller. The company has also disclosed hardware upgrades for the current Steam Deck that would otherwise go unnoticed.
www.notebookcheck.net
In short, Valve does not consider the Ryzen 7 6800U and Radeon 680M enough of a performance jump from the Aerith APU in the Steam Deck. Although neither Griffais nor Yang dismissed the notion of Valve using another custom APU, it seems that the Steam Deck 2 will launch with the same APU as its predecessor. With performance improvements off the table, Valve is focusing on bringing better battery life and improved display technology to the Steam Deck with a second-generation model.
It's gonna be a while before we see a 'Steam Deck 2' with a meaningful level up in power.
I'd be surprised if any games suddenly became unplayable. PC gaming is all about scalability after all, and the SteamDeck is proving capable with PS5 games already, such as the Spider-Man Remaster. Of course that's not a 'true' PS5 'exclusive' though, for whatever that's worth technically.
You'd need to scale things back I imagine, but that's an assumption already in place with the SteamDeck.
You'd need to scale things back I imagine, but that's an assumption already in place with the SteamDeck.
haven't they confirmed that Steam Deck 2 won't get a bump in specs. Only an improved screen and battery life.
That's the great thing about PC gaming is you can play everything from decades past, and always a slew of new low spec indie games.
Between my own personal shift in enjoyment of indie titles over big budget games, and the ever -present underbelly of individuals on YouTube trying to make the latest games run on Potatoes older than the Deck, I know I'm going to enjoy it until that point, at the very least.
I don't think we'll see any hardware revisions until then, anyway - both battery and APU technology need to take a significant leap to what we have right now to make a compelling upgrade. commercially viable APUs have only started getting RDNA2 baked in so that's basically the hardware scene for the next couple of years, and battery tech has been stagnant for god knows how long. Expecting anything significant like desktop refreshes is folly.
I don't think we'll see any hardware revisions until then, anyway - both battery and APU technology need to take a significant leap to what we have right now to make a compelling upgrade. commercially viable APUs have only started getting RDNA2 baked in so that's basically the hardware scene for the next couple of years, and battery tech has been stagnant for god knows how long. Expecting anything significant like desktop refreshes is folly.
If the Steam Deck gets more popular by then, I could see some devs even try to provide Steam Deck specific settings to allow for at least the basic 30FPS target to be hit. Specific optimisations for the Deck (which would also help lower-end PC hardware in general) are not impossible, but I don't see most devs care enough about the platform to justify such an effort.
At least for me, the Deck is a great companion device, and more interesting for older titles or AA games. So I don't expect to run into any problems there. It will be interesting to see if people who want to use the Deck as their main gaming platform will continue to have a good time in the coming years.
At least for me, the Deck is a great companion device, and more interesting for older titles or AA games. So I don't expect to run into any problems there. It will be interesting to see if people who want to use the Deck as their main gaming platform will continue to have a good time in the coming years.
OP
OP
All tech gets outdated, but the Deck will be an indie machine for a long time to come.
I have about 40 games that I want to play on my Deck, so I won't be upgrading anytime soon. The deck was my favorite purchase in a long time, and I have no regrets.
I have about 40 games that I want to play on my Deck, so I won't be upgrading anytime soon. The deck was my favorite purchase in a long time, and I have no regrets.
Are we acting like AAA is all that exists or even that AAA games make up the bulk of games that are released every day? Steam Deck owners will have plenty to play. If they have capable PCs as well, they can always stream games to it at home also.
PC games are scalable, so the Steam Deck will truck on for a good while. The Series S is the baseline for (non PC only) gaming in the foreseeable future, so the Deck will be fine for most games.
And software support, OP? Do you even know what you're talking about or did you just want to whip up a FUD thread?
And software support, OP? Do you even know what you're talking about or did you just want to whip up a FUD thread?
The Steam Deck is a portable PC, so like everything, it depends on how good the PC port is, and what settings are available to tweak for the lower-end experience. There's such a wide range of hardware out there that this kind of low-end/high-end tweaking is a base expectation with PC games, which is fulfilled (Spider-Man) as often as it's ignored (Sonic Frontiers).
It also depends on what exactly makes your game current-gen. For example, one of the big current-gen promises with PS5/XSX was improved asset streaming time due to the assumption that every console is working from a decent SSD. This has been a standard for PC gaming for a long time, and every Deck uses eMMC/NVMe storage, so this is not going to be an issue.
It also depends on what exactly makes your game current-gen. For example, one of the big current-gen promises with PS5/XSX was improved asset streaming time due to the assumption that every console is working from a decent SSD. This has been a standard for PC gaming for a long time, and every Deck uses eMMC/NVMe storage, so this is not going to be an issue.
Steam deck doesn't need to keep up. It's got tens of thousands of games from all of PC gaming history that it can play, and going forward the majority of new indie games and smaller titles from big publishers will run on it just fine.
It's essentially just like having a budget gaming PC. Plenty of enjoyment can be had with one, but if you only look to play the latest big budget releases at good settings for years to come you are going to have a bad time.
It's essentially just like having a budget gaming PC. Plenty of enjoyment can be had with one, but if you only look to play the latest big budget releases at good settings for years to come you are going to have a bad time.
This thread brought to you by the creator of the critically acclaimed threads "Will the PlayStation 5 live on forever?"", "Do you think the Xbox Series S is holding back this gen's graphical capabilities?", and its thrilling sequel, "Let's finally settle this, is the Xbox Series S holding back the current gen or not?".
What are you talking about with "AAA current gen"? It plays Cyberpunk. Who knows what will happen in x years, there's no guarantee that the best 4090 that you buy today is going to play AAA games from x years from now, much less a Steam Deck.
In any case, outlook seems decent, as long as developers build their games to be played by the largest amount of people as possible, and with quality settings to enable that, so, no AAA will all the bells and whistle's, but playable and probably good looking even in it's screen.
Yeah, I know his threads/posts. It's all pretty transparent.
It is kinda a wake up call though when AAA stuff doesn't play great on the PS5. Nothing is eternal.
For instance, Guardians of the Galaxy - on the PS5 the raytracing mode runs like absolute shit. I would have refunded the game if it didn't have a performance mode - and even that had quite a bunch of framerate drops.
Then there's the strategy game Marvel's Midnight Suns - once again framerate gets really poor at times on a PS5.
So yeah, AAA or not, games not running well is nothing unique to a PC.
I expect over half of major games to still run playably through to the end of 2025. Albeit with increasing compromises. It'll get worse over time for AAA, but Indies at least should mostly be fine for a good long while.
DF has done some preliminary exploration into this they shared on patreon (they said they might turn it into a full video eventually). I won't post the specifics but basically early signs for UE5.1 are promising based on fortnite running on steamdeck under Windows (with nanite plus sw lumen). Very heavy games of course will be more challenging than UE5 Fortnite, but it is at least a signal that UE5 won't be an automatic death knell for any game vis a vis steam deck. The technology can be scalable, and performance focussed games probably will be.
DF has done some preliminary exploration into this they shared on patreon (they said they might turn it into a full video eventually). I won't post the specifics but basically early signs for UE5.1 are promising based on fortnite running on steamdeck under Windows (with nanite plus sw lumen). Very heavy games of course will be more challenging than UE5 Fortnite, but it is at least a signal that UE5 won't be an automatic death knell for any game vis a vis steam deck. The technology can be scalable, and performance focussed games probably will be.
Its a pc...
Games will still run on it. But they might not be playable.
There is certainly a contingency who seems to have either bought or are buying into the Steam Deck hype without fully understanding what the hardware is and what it isn't.
