SteamPal is a fact. Valve announced their first handheld console named Steam Deck

[GoodBytes]

Oh, I was rewatching the trailer of the device.. and humm.. yea... even in the trailer they could not hide how heavy the device is:

 

Notice how she had 3 pillows to rest her arm to hold the device.

I am not surprised, it is heavier than my Surface Pro 3, and that thing is heavy (a common complain too). I have to use the kickstand as a handle for my hands to help hold it.. but after 15min, I can't continue to hold it. 

 

Pillow shortage incoming?

[AlexGoesHigh]

33 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

Oh, I was rewatching the trailer of the device.. and humm.. yea... even in the trailer they could not hide how heavy the device is:

 

Notice how she had 3 pillows to rest her arm to hold the device.

I am not surprised, it is heavier than my Surface Pro 3, and that thing is heavy (a common complain too). I have to use the kickstand as a handle for my hands to help hold it.. but after 15min, I can't continue to hold it. 

 

Pillow shortage incoming?

Definitely a chungus that's gonna sit on the lap 99% of the time.

[Falkentyne]

You can install windows on this thing.  You don't need to roll with Steam OS.

I see a huge use for this.  Besides just steam indie games and arcade game emulators, this will make studying chess a lot more convenient.  I won't have to haul my four year old DTR laptop all over the place now to study chess and run Stockfish (i can't keep my opening databases and chess books on my phone).

[Velcade]

12 hours ago, CerealExperimentsLain said:

Are users even committed to purchase at this point?  I think we only get 'invites' to buy when they're available.  No where in the terms of the reservation did I agree to another payment.

Nope! and you'll get your money back if you decide to cancel.

[saltycaramel]

7 minutes ago, Falkentyne said:

You can install windows on this thing.  You don't need to roll with Steam OS.

I see a huge use for this.  Besides just steam indie games and arcade game emulators, this will make studying chess a lot more convenient.  I won't have to haul my four year old DTR laptop all over the place now to study chess and run Stockfish (i can't keep my opening databases and chess books on my phone).

 

wat

 

I’m no chess expert but this sounds exactly the kind of thing an iPad Mini would be perfect for. Not sure how an heavy x86 7” 16:10 Windows handheld would be of any help. This “Stockfish” you mention is on iOS as well. Browsing books quickly, I’d go with an iPad over windows.

[GoodBytes]

29 minutes ago, Falkentyne said:

You can install windows on this thing.  You don't need to roll with Steam OS.

I see a huge use for this.  Besides just steam indie games and arcade game emulators, this will make studying chess a lot more convenient.  I won't have to haul my four year old DTR laptop all over the place now to study chess and run Stockfish (i can't keep my opening databases and chess books on my phone).

Sure... installing Windows... but... you know... it needs drivers...

Until Valve has a page where you can download the needed drivers, you are locked out of actually enjoying Windows on it.

Probably fTPM and Secure Boot is also disabled, just so that Windows 11 would pass specs...

 

[Helpful Tech Witch]

I know all the issues that there's going to be with getting windows on it, no drivers, etc, but I'm sure that someone will start to disect the version of steamos and port the drivers, or just write some themselves.
Because man if you can get windows running with drivers on it, this will be the best PC handheld ever.

I'd probably get one if I can get windows on it, gamepass, egs, steam and gog on a PS4 (on paper) that you can hold on your hand, that's fucking amazing.

[GoodBytes]

6 minutes ago, HelpfulTechWizard said:

I know all the issues that there's going to be with getting windows on it, no drivers, etc, but I'm sure that someone will start to disect the version of steamos and port the drivers, or just write some themselves.
Because man if you can get windows running with drivers on it, this will be the best PC handheld ever.

Yea.. but this is like installing Android on the Nintendo Switch, or some other OS in other consoles. The console isn't open. It's just used as marketing.

 

6 minutes ago, HelpfulTechWizard said:

I'd probably get one if I can get windows on it, gamepass, egs, steam and gog on a PS4 (on paper) that you can hold on your hand, that's fucking amazing.

That is exactly why I don't expect them to provide these drivers. They want you to use Steam, to get their money back, especially if you have the base model.

[Falkentyne]

2 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

Yea.. but this is like installing Android on the Nintendo Switch, or some other OS in other consoles. The console isn't open. It's just used as marketing.

 

That is exactly why I don't expect them to provide these drivers. They want you to use Steam, to get their money back, especially if you have the base model.

You have a point but Gaben is one of us.  I think he wants to do things right, and I'd rather trust him than GPD Win 3 "let's get a virus and spam emoticons" people.

The only other thing worth considering is an Aya Neo, but the asking price is just too damn high.  And with Half Life Alyx showing that Valve cares about gaming, I'll take my chances.  A LOT of people preordered this device.  I don't think Valve is going to drop the ball here.  Just need to worry about QA on the joysticks...

Besides, enough people buy it, we might get 3...

[GoodBytes]

5 minutes ago, Falkentyne said:

You have a point but Gaben is one of us.  I think he wants to do things right, and I'd rather trust him than GPD Win 3 "let's get a virus and spam emoticons" people.

Valve is not your friend. It is a company and goes where money is.

If he was "one of you", then he would not:

• Have and force its own DRM and allow additional DRM by publishers.
• Accept and promote assets flip games.
• Allow the sale of games that don't even have an executable to run
• Has policies like blocking trolling and illegal content, however, barely enforces them.
• Turned great games it made into disasters like TF2 in order to make money and ignore cheaters, and toxic people. Also leaves the game in an unbalance state and just ignores it. CS is another example.
• In game voice chat system is a joke... was a joke back 12 years ago, still a joke now. Horrible audio quality, lots of audio drops.
• Steam Store pushing pop-up advertising of games, complete with Steam being pushed to startup with your system to show them.
• Has a reputation of working on projects and quickly giving up on them. (All their hardware, and software features mode like chat and Big Picture Mode
• Horrible customer support that doesn't care about its users because it sees itself as on top of the world.
• Charges a heavy 30% on all developers, big and small, without doing any improvements to its service.
• A number of stories of bad working environment has come out over the years.

 

5 minutes ago, Falkentyne said:

A LOT of people preordered this device.  I don't think Valve is going to drop the ball here.  Just need to worry about QA on the joysticks... Besides, enough people buy it, we might get 3...

You won't get 3. 

[Falkentyne]

23 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

Valve is not your friend. It is a company and goes where money is.

If he was "one of you", then he would not:

• Have and force its own DRM and allow additional DRM by publishers.
• Accept and promote assets flip games.
• Allow the sale of games that don't even have an executable to run
• Has policies like blocking trolling and illegal content, however, barely enforces them.
• Turned great games it made into disasters like TF2 in order to make money and ignore cheaters, and toxic people. Also leaves the game in an unbalance state and just ignores it. CS is another example.
• In game voice chat system is a joke... was a joke back 12 years ago, still a joke now. Horrible audio quality, lots of audio drops.
• Steam Store pushing pop-up advertising of games, complete with Steam being pushed to startup with your system to show them.
• Has a reputation of working on projects and quickly giving up on them. (All their hardware, and software features mode like chat and Big Picture Mode
• Horrible customer support that doesn't care about its users because it sees itself as on top of the world.
• Charges a heavy 30% on all developers, big and small, without doing any improvements to its service.
• A number of stories of bad working environment has come out over the years.

 

You won't get 3. 

So In other words, Valve is a company, created by a gamer.  Got it.

Man you really have a jaded view of the world...how do you ever have any fun?

[Quackers101]

Okey in the video from IGN, they talked about 2 use cases for this device. Both being an handheld with the updating from the steam controller as this one has 2 trackpads too, which can be mapped, any good?

Also being used as an inbetween laptop/desktop with integrated graphics. You can game and browse at the same time? To using other launchers and install windows if its any good (software issues) and connect other keyboards and mouse too for the more laptop/desktop experince with its own dock?

 

So it uses from previous projects, steam controller and newer custom settings? (Software) to proton and whatever else they do around it. steamOS for the tv, just now docked and can be attached to it?

 

Sadly as heavy it can be, the screen size and quality might be enough, storage is not, and battery life might need more, to some of the buttons might not be that good, but "works?".

[Quackers101]

17 minutes ago, Falkentyne said:

So In other words, Valve is a company, created by a gamer.  Got it.

Yeah, and they should be hit on some of those practices, although in some of these, valve offers a lot more. And its not like other companies does this too, although when its easier to compare it to an app store in some cases. I do feel like they could do so much more. But of course they want a ecosystem centered around steam. Like with trying to take over the remote play market.

[Master Delta Chief]

1 hour ago, Falkentyne said:

So In other words, Valve is a company, created by a gamer.  Got it.

Man you really have a jaded view of the world...how do you ever have any fun?

It's a company man, they are in it for the money. Valve hasn't been the same for a long time now. Whether this thing will actually succeed all depends on when it's released to the public. You and others on the internet are putting way too fucking much weight on the man's words who is just a figurehead now. 

[Mark Kaine]

Tldr: i dont think this is a "bad device" per say, it'll just be extremely niche, and comparing it with NSW is delusional, it ironically lacks the games, Steam isnt really known for high quality games ala Nintendo, more like csgo & co and cheap indies, this isnt the same target audience at all.

[Rauten]

8 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

Tldr: i dont think this is a "bad device" per say, it'll just be extremely niche, and comparing it with NSW is delusional, it ironically lacks the games, Steam isnt really known for high quality games ala Nintendo, more like csgo & co and cheap indies, this isnt the same target audience at all.

I agree that it isn't the same target audience at all, 100% with you there.

 

But it doesn't have games? No quality games? What in god's name are you smoking?

Sure, Steam has truckloads of utter shite and shovelware, but they're basically in the same situation as the PS2 was back in day - It gets all the random cheap crap that's looking for a quick buck, but it also gets ridiculous amounts of fantastic games, be they indie or AAA.

[Man]

I personally think that this console will be a hard sell once the reviews are out:

1. The graphical horsepower simply isn't there. Explained below.
2. Flash memory is pretty expensive ($230 for a SanDisk 1TB card).
3. Cloud gaming is becoming a thing.
4. It's huge and heavy, obviously, which will likely put a lot of strain on the wrist. 
5. Battery life will likely be atrocious, given the 15W TDP of the CPU alone.

As for GPU, Wikipeida suggests that the console has just 8 CUs so I took Navi 22's block diagram and came-up with the diagram below.

 

Basically a partially enabled RDNA 2.0 shader engine with 32 renderers, 512 shader cores, 1,536KB L2 cache.

 

Extremely crippled, as you can clearly see here. For comparison, Xbox Series S has the shader engine completely enabled with 20 CU, 1280 cores and the same 32 renderers. 

 

[Fasterthannothing]

1 hour ago, Man said:

I personally think that this console will be a hard sell once the reviews are out:

1. The graphical horsepower simply isn't there. Explained below.
2. Flash memory is pretty expensive ($230 for a SanDisk 1TB card).
3. Cloud gaming is becoming a thing.
4. It's huge and heavy, obviously, which will likely put a lot of strain on the wrist. 
5. Battery life will likely be atrocious, given the 15W TDP of the CPU alone.

As for GPU, Wikipeida suggests that the console has just 8 CUs so I took Navi 22's block diagram and came-up with the diagram below.

 

Basically a partially enabled RDNA 2.0 shader engine with 32 renderers, 512 shader cores, 1,536KB L2 cache.

 

Extremely crippled, as you can clearly see here. For comparison, Xbox Series S has the shader engine completely enabled with 20 CU, 1280 cores and the same 32 renderers. 

 

Ah yes so crippled that a 8cu GPU can only managed 1080p at 30+fps med settings on one generation older chip give me a break it's more than fast enough for gaming on a handheld. It has the same graphics power as a PS4. If you don't like it just say that. Also a 1TB SSD for the upgrade can be had for $150. External storage is even cheaper. Battery life isn't amazing on any handheld system when gaming it's estimate to get serval hours though if you lock it to 30fps.

[CerealExperimentsLain]

2 hours ago, Man said:

I personally think that this console will be a hard sell once the reviews are out:

1. The graphical horsepower simply isn't there. Explained below.
2. Flash memory is pretty expensive ($230 for a SanDisk 1TB card).
3. Cloud gaming is becoming a thing.
4. It's huge and heavy, obviously, which will likely put a lot of strain on the wrist. 
5. Battery life will likely be atrocious, given the 15W TDP of the CPU alone.

As for GPU, Wikipeida suggests that the console has just 8 CUs so I took Navi 22's block diagram and came-up with the diagram below.

 

Basically a partially enabled RDNA 2.0 shader engine with 32 renderers, 512 shader cores, 1,536KB L2 cache.

 

Extremely crippled, as you can clearly see here. For comparison, Xbox Series S has the shader engine completely enabled with 20 CU, 1280 cores and the same 32 renderers. 

 

I would not call this crippled' as as a minor correction, the CPU is not 15w alone, the entire APU is 15w.  That's CPU and graphics.

That said, I think some people have grossly overestimated the 'Modern AAA Performance' of the handheld since, well, it's a handheld at 15w.

 

That said, there's decades of backlog PC games that'd run great on this.  The 17yo PC gamers just need to learn that these exist and enjoy them.  Time to employ this logic, it's my whole intention with this thing:

 

[Intergalacticbits]

If it was me I would have done this differently.

After all the whole idea just like with everything today is to get as many people as possible hooked on your platform right?

I would have made the price lower so everyone would buy it including all the adults who now pc or console game.

I would have made the screen bigger. Made it like an ipad size screen with the same little handles they have on this on each side.

I also would have let it use thumb drives of any size for storage.

 

With just those changes I think this thing would have taken over the world in gaming.

[xAcid9]

2 hours ago, Man said:

The graphical horsepower simply isn't there. Explained below.

The GPU should be around 750 Ti/750 performance unless power limit constraint it. You can play GTA5 on Med-High@1080p60 with 750 Ti. 

2 hours ago, Man said:

It's huge and heavy, obviously, which will likely put a lot of strain on the wrist. 

Future gamer, ripped arm with jello butt. Yes pls. 

2 hours ago, Man said:

Battery life will likely be atrocious, given the 15W TDP of the CPU alone.

15w for the whole SOC right?

[Forbidden Wafer]

100k+ reservations

 

[CerealExperimentsLain]

27 minutes ago, xAcid9 said:

The GPU should be around 750 Ti/750 performance unless power limit constraint it. You can play GTA5 on Med-High@1080p60 with 750 Ti. 

Future gamer, ripped arm with jello butt. Yes pls. 

15w for the whole SOC right?

Don't forget the GPU is on DDR5 not GDDR6.  APUs have a performance hit due to memory.

I think it'd be best to wait for hardware benchmarks rather than trying to devine performance from numbers on paper.

[xAcid9]

10 minutes ago, CerealExperimentsLain said:

Don't forget the GPU is on DDR5 not GDDR6.  APUs have a performance hit due to memory.

I think it'd be best to wait for hardware benchmarks rather than trying to devine performance from numbers on paper.

IIRC, 750/750 Ti use 5000MT/s GDDR5. I don't know how inferior LPDDR5 compare to GDDR5 in term processing gaming load though.

[CerealExperimentsLain]

1 minute ago, xAcid9 said:

IIRC, 750/750 Ti use 5000MT/s GDDR5. I don't know how inferior LPDDR5 compare to GDDR5 in term processing gaming load though.

Spoiler: Badly

The usages of system memory is a big hinderance in any onboard GPU.  You can even see it in some discrete GPUs too, there are GDDR5 and DDR4 GT1030s, the newer DDR4 models see a significant performance decline vs the GDDR5 models.