OS wise, what is the advantage of the Steam Deck compared to those other handheld gaming PCs such as the Aya Neo and OneXPlayer?

[Battousai01]

Hi guys, I am wondering why Steam is saying that the Steam Deck is a powerful gaming device and that "will run AAA titles really well" when the operating system is not even Windows where almost all PC games are made?

I understand that there is a compatibility layer being run to make PC games run on the SteamOS and we all know that games that are made for Windows will not run the way it was meant to run on a non-Windows OS. So what sets apart the Steam Deck from those other handheld PC gaming devices such as Aya Neo and OneXPlayer that natively runs Windows?

 

[TheELF]

Steam made a huge effort on that compatibility layer and a lot of games will run really well, sometimes even better since steamos is a minimal OS without much crap running in the background that could hurt performance, in parallel they are going through all of the games on steam and are rating them for how well the experience on the deck will be, including things like how easy the installation is going to be without a real keyboard, how visible the font is, if you can control it with only the thumbsticks and so on.

There really is no difference otherwise, all the other devices will be able to run the steamdeck os and steamdeck will also be able to run windows.
Valve just brings the A game in ease of use, people that get a steamdeck won't have to worry about how to make things work, as long as they choose games from the compatibility list.

 

[Commodus]

Hi guys, I am wondering why Steam is saying that the Steam Deck is a powerful gaming device and that "will run AAA titles really well" when the operating system is not even Windows where almost all PC games are made?

I understand that there is a compatibility layer being run to make PC games run on the SteamOS and we all know that games that are made for Windows will not run the way it was meant to run on a non-Windows OS. So what sets apart the Steam Deck from those other handheld PC gaming devices such as Aya Neo and OneXPlayer that natively runs Windows?

Proton (the compatibility layer) is generally pretty good. I'm not sure how much it hurts performance, but clearly not enough to discourage Valve from building a game console around it.

It all comes down to the interface and optimization. Valve has the resources and know-how to fine-tune the OS with a handheld in mind. It's not just shoving a desktop platform into a handheld, maybe throwing a semi-custom launcher on top and calling it a day; from everything I've seen, it will be a truly cohesive product that considers many of the challenges involved, like supporting games that weren't designed for gamepads.

 

[Battousai01]

Thanks guys for the feedback, so does it mean running games on a native Windows machine is still superior than running it on a non-Windows machine? Because if Proton is really good then we can all switch to Proton, and in terms of ease of use, isn't it running in Windows is much easier since you do not need to check for compatibility list with Proton, you just install it out of the box and play.

So the question remains, what is the compelling reason aside from the cost why you would want to play games on SteamDeck with games that are built for Windows when you have competing Windows handheld gaming machines.

 

[TheELF]

Windows uses up a lot of resources so any game that runs flawlessly on steamos would run better there, but yes not all games run flawlessly so windows is still better due to compatibility.

Cost is basically the only reason to prefer the steam deck but cost is also the biggest obstacle in people getting a handheld PC.

 

[Battousai01]

Windows uses up a lot of resources so any game that runs flawlessly on steamos would run better there, but yes not all games run flawlessly so windows is still better due to compatibility.

Cost is basically the only reason to prefer the steam deck but cost is also the biggest obstacle in people getting a handheld PC.

I completely agree with you.

If there is an official Windows version of the Steam Deck then this changes everything, this I would consider groundbreaking and I will prefer this over any other currently Windows PC handheld gaming devices.

So that leaves me thinking, Steam Deck running its own OS is no doubt a hardware level masterpiece but it is nowhere near being the perfect handheld gaming machine compared to a handheld Windows PC for the simple fact that the games you will 99.9% be running on it are not built for its OS.

 

[TheELF]

If there is an official Windows version of the Steam Deck then this changes everything, this I would consider groundbreaking and I will prefer this over any other currently Windows PC handheld gaming devices.

There is no official windows handheld at all, windows is made to run on anything that has drivers and when the steam deck comes out we will know within hours how compatible it is with windows and if there are drivers for everything or if there are going to be any issues.

 

[shortylickens]

We will let you know when it comes out. If you feel like experimenting, go ahead and buy it on day one. But some of us want to wait and see how well it actually works and how compatible the final product really is.

The main problem with devices like this is the seller makes all kinds of claims that aren't true and a lot of people are angry they wasted money.

 

[dlerious]

We will let you know when it comes out. If you feel like experimenting, go ahead and buy it on day one. But some of us want to wait and see how well it actually works and how compatible the final product really is.

The main problem with devices like this is the seller makes all kinds of claims that aren't true and a lot of people are angry they wasted money.

Gamers Nexus did a teardown on the Steam Deck. I'm sure they'll be doing more testing later. I don't know if I'll grab one, but the size is a big plus over doing mobile games on a phone.

Waiting for reviews and hoping it doesn't sell out if I decide to buy one is my main concern - seems like anything that's popular is snatched up and sold at a mark-up.