Steam Deck query

[VaderCraft_]

So, I've been saving a while for a steam deck, I have about $550 USD saved for it now. I was going to buy the 512gb OLED model, but the older models just went on sale for $320ish. What I'm wondering is, does it make sense to buy the cheaper one but upgrade it using the rest of my money or should I just buy the OLED model? (or wait for steam deck 2) 

[Agall]

48 minutes ago, VaderCraft_ said:

So, I've been saving a while for a steam deck, I have about $550 USD saved for it now. I was going to buy the 512gb OLED model, but the older models just went on sale for $320ish. What I'm wondering is, does it make sense to buy the cheaper one but upgrade it using the rest of my money or should I just buy the OLED model? (or wait for steam deck 2) 

Honestly, unless you have a situation where a device like this is immediately necessary, I would wait till the beginning of 2025 when the Z2 Extreme and Intel Core Ultra 200V powered devices hit the market. Its quite likely the Steam Deck will see a refresh with one of these parts.

 

Otherwise, the heavily discounted LCD models are hard to argue against when it comes to value. Same with the Z1 non extreme version of the ROG Ally since at 15W, it performs the same as the Z1 Extreme model. 

 

It really depends on how you intend to use the device on what product is best.

 

This is coming from an owner of both the Steam Deck OLED and Ally X, with friends who's main machine is also a handheld with the Z1 Extreme ROG Ally. I might even upgrade to the MSI Claw AI 8+ since the Core Ultra series so far is dominating performance, and there's a model with 32GB of system RAM which matters for my use-case.

[VaderCraft_]

3 minutes ago, Agall said:

Honestly, unless you have a situation where a device like this is immediately necessary, I would wait till the beginning of 2025 when the Z1 Extreme and Intel Core Ultra 200V powered devices hit the market. Its quite likely the Steam Deck will see a refresh with one of these parts.

 

Otherwise, the heavily discounted LCD models are hard to argue against when it comes to value. Same with the Z1 non extreme version of the ROG Ally since at 15W, it performs the same as the Z1 Extreme model. 

 

It really depends on how you intend to use the device on what product is best.

 

This is coming from an owner of both the Steam Deck OLED and Ally X, with friends who's main machine is also a handheld with the Z1 Extreme ROG Ally. I might even upgrade to the MSI Claw AI 8+ since the Core Ultra series so far is dominating performance, and there's a model with 32GB of system RAM which matters for my use-case.

I was leaning toward the Steam deck because of the ecosystem integration, and the games I play would easily get good frame rates, etc. on the Steam deck (Risk of Rain 2, Apex, Factorio. I also have built a steam machine for my home media setup, and I think it might be a good edition. Especially since I will be going to college soon, I will probably want to keep that ecosystem there too. 

[Alex Atkin UK]

9 minutes ago, VaderCraft_ said:

I was leaning toward the Steam deck because of the ecosystem integration, and the games I play would easily get good frame rates, etc. on the Steam deck (Risk of Rain 2, Apex, Factorio. I also have built a steam machine for my home media setup, and I think it might be a good edition. Especially since I will be going to college soon, I will probably want to keep that ecosystem there too. 

On the other hand, I play a fair few indie games on my Steam Deck OLED that do 90fps and the vibrant screen makes games look less downgraded on low settings to my eyes than the LCD does (I have both).  So I wouldn't personally want to go for the LCD when given the choice, though its hard to argue against its great value right now.

 

30 minutes ago, Agall said:

I would wait till the beginning of 2025 when the Z1 Extreme and Intel Core Ultra 200V powered devices hit the market. Its quite likely the Steam Deck will see a refresh with one of these parts.

 

I assume you mean Z2 Extreme?  I think it remains to be seen if its enough of a jump in performance for Valve to consider it.  They said it would need to be quite a big improvement before the would consider a full revision as it will really complicate the Steam Deck compatibility rating system once they have two vastly different SKUs.

[voyager_]

I would go OLED, I have one of the first steam decks with the regular screen and my wife just got an OLED and it's a nice upgrade. If you can wait they may run sales around the holidays. We both pretty much only use the steam deck for emulators and the screen quality with the OLED is very noticable

[Alex Atkin UK]

3 minutes ago, voyager_ said:

I would go OLED, I have one of the first steam decks with the regular screen and my wife just got an OLED and it's a nice upgrade. If you can wait they may run sales around the holidays. We both pretty much only use the steam deck for emulators and the screen quality with the OLED is very noticable

I never felt the LCD was bad like some people did, but then I saw the OLED.  Having a vibrant screen with good contrast ratio really helps legibility with these small screens, quite apart from looking stunning in general.

 

I don't think I've even played any HDR games yet either.

[VaderCraft_]

Honestly, I think the OLED would be really nice because I've never used an OLED screen, so it probably would be a world of difference-type stuff there.

[VaderCraft_]

Oh yeah I forgot the screen isn't the only difference, the extra 10 Watt hours, and the wifi 6e

[Agall]

16 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

I assume you mean Z2 Extreme?  I think it remains to be seen if its enough of a jump in performance for Valve to consider it.  They said it would need to be quite a big improvement before the would consider a full revision as it will really complicate the Steam Deck compatibility rating system once they have two vastly different SKUs.

Yeah, fixed it.

 

Even if Valve went with the Z1 Extreme that's been well established as a successor to their SoC, it would be worth the wait. The fact that a Zen2 RDNA2 APU at 15W at 800p can effectively match the Z1 Extreme at 15W and 1080p, including the ROG Ally X's more advanced set of power profiles with 13W provide sufficient evidence that a well tuned Z1 Extreme in the Steam Deck 2 might be the absolute goat (and hopefully they add USB4).

 

13 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

I never felt the LCD was bad like some people did, but then I saw the OLED.  Having a vibrant screen with good contrast ratio really helps legibility with these small screens, quite apart from looking stunning in general.

 

I don't think I've even played any HDR games yet either.

Personally, its not that big of a deal to me. For me, OLED's biggest advantage is battery life, and the Deck OLED's is mid grade, still better than a great IPS, but not significantly better than the ROG Ally X's for me to feel like its a compromise. The 800p resolution is surprisingly noticeable at 7.4" compared to 1080p at 7" on the Ally X that I prefer its screen.

 

HDR is great though, on a proper QLED or OLED. That's where it definitely shines, I just don't think it outweighs the lower pixel density that the Deck OLED comes with compared to a quality IPS at 1080p. 1080p is really the sweet spot in most of these scenarios in my opinion, even up to 8.8" like what's likely to come on the MSI Claw 8 AI+.

 

28 minutes ago, VaderCraft_ said:

I was leaning toward the Steam deck because of the ecosystem integration, and the games I play would easily get good frame rates, etc. on the Steam deck (Risk of Rain 2, Apex, Factorio. I also have built a steam machine for my home media setup, and I think it might be a good edition. Especially since I will be going to college soon, I will probably want to keep that ecosystem there too. 

If you're looking for something right now, the cheapest LCD version might be worth it since you can get it for half the price of the OLED.

 

The handheld market for the most part is dependent on price. Below $400, the Deck LCD is really hard to beat, second close is the ROG Ally Z1 non-Extreme for power consumption, but I'd rather have a Deck LCD at that point.

 

Above that, it becomes difficult, because the Deck OLED is really the next jump until you're getting towards the Ally X's $800 price point. Everything else is just not worth it since RAM/VRAM becomes a major issue in a lot of games with total system RAM limited at 16GB. The Deck OLED doesn't as much because of Linux and its lower 800p resolution.

[Alex Atkin UK]

1 hour ago, Agall said:

I just don't think it outweighs the lower pixel density that the Deck OLED comes with compared to a quality IPS at 1080p. 1080p is really the sweet spot in most of these scenarios in my opinion, even up to 8.8" like what's likely to come on the MSI Claw 8 AI+.

In an ideal world I'd agree and its nice to have for any lower spec games which can properly utilise it.  But if you need FSR to get there, I don't think its worth it.  I'd rather have a pixel sharp 800p than a blurry, jittery 1080p.  I found Tears of the Kingdom pretty much unplayable on Switch because the FSR upscaling was terrible (though in that case it was upscaling from some unholy low resolution), though granted on a big TV as I don't like playing big open world games on tiny screens.

 

The only gotcha with the Steam Deck is VRR would be a massive improvement, but this seems to not exist for OLED in these sizes so they couldn't do it.  I'm hoping by the time they release a better SKU this situation will have changed as games like Pinball FX are annoying as each table has different performance requirements, so one will lock at 72fps while another will drop to 60fps, requiring me to constantly change the refresh rate.

 

So overall I'm fine with 800p as a compromise to get more games to actually run.

[VaderCraft_]

I gotta update ya'll, I did get the LCD 512 GB and it works like a dream, I love it, and I don't regret my decision one bit.