5 ms·

SteamOS 3.5 Delivering Some Decent Performance Gains for the Steam Deck

87 points by WithinReason 3y ago

Night_Thastus 3y ago
I'm glad Valve created the Deck. Seems a lot of people are enjoying it, and they lit a fire under some competitors to create similar competing products. And DiYers are having a lot of fun too. Looks like it's been good all around.
- gambiting 3y ago
  It's honestly my favourite gaming device, even though I still think it's way too big and that the screen is...not great(quality wise, not resolution). But the price beats everything else and the software is top notch, it allowed me to play more games and enjoy them more than my very fancy gaming PC, PS5 and Xbox combined. I'm definitely preordering Deck 2 the second it's announced.
  - redundantly 3y ago
    > still think it's way too big and that the screen is...not great(quality wise, not resolution I want a larger screen. My aging eyes have difficulty with the small screen on it now. Sure, I can connect it to an external monitor, but that defeats the point of it being a portable.
    - theodric 3y ago
      Grab an Xreal (formerly Nreal)Air and plug it into the USB-C port. Instant massive screen size increase. I've been happy with mine on the Deck.
- Yhippa 3y ago
  I'm trying to think of a tech device that has made me this happy in a long time and I can't think of many. They did a lot of things right with this.
- robotnikman 3y ago
  Same, its nice to see the Steam Deck really took off compared to their previous efforts. It seems the iterated upon their previous attempts and ended up with a great product in the end.
- LelouBil 3y ago
  Don't forget the Linux gaming part ! Valve worked with anti cheat developers to make sure most games work on the Steam deck, and the few that don't just need to flip a switch to allow proton. Like rainbow six: siege for example, game works perfectly offline and solo play, but because they didn't enable the features, you get kicked when trying to play online.
unpopularopp 3y ago
I want the Steam Deck so badly but at this point I'm afraid they will just announce a new/better version of it. Knowing my luck that would happen like 1 month after I've bought it lol
- gambiting 3y ago
  Valve said the new revision isn't coming for a while, and tbf it's a "relatively" inexpensive device so you'd be able to sell it without losing a lot of money even when a new one is announced. I'd recommend getting the cheapest 64GB version and upgrading the drive yourself.
  - mey 3y ago
    Before cracking the case and doing surgery try running it with a microSD card first. ~40 USD for a good 512GB micro SD card provides sufficient performance for many games. Lastly, remember to remove the micro SD card before opening the case otherwise you will snap the SD card.
    - delecti 3y ago
      I agree. I have the 64gb with a 512 SD card in it, and it was totally sufficient for over a year. In the last month I also upgraded the internal drive, and that's another nice performance improvement, but it was still a great experience before that.
    - stavros 3y ago
      They make 512GB microSD cards now? This really is the future.
      - mmetzger 3y ago
        They (SanDisk, etc) currently make and sell 1TB microsd cards. 2TB ones are supposed to enter production late this year / early next.
  - robotnikman 3y ago
dougmwne 3y ago
SteamOS 3.5 fixed a major SMT bug in the Linux kernel. Basically, certain CPU heavy workloads would get hit with major stuttering unless you disabled multithreading. Lots of emulators and older games were affected. Now SMT works as intended without the performance hitches. https://www.pcgamer.com/steamos-35-is-almost-here-includes-a-fix-for-the-steam-decks-sneakiest-performance-bug/ https://www.pcgamer.com/steamos-35-is-almost-here-includes-a...
gumballindie 3y ago
Valve doing god’s work. Other companies should take note. The amount of good will steam is buying with their linux gaming contributions is through the roof. And i am pretty sure valve is making a killing in profits.
LegitShady 3y ago
Based on the article itself it seems mostly in counterstrike, which tbh I would never play using a controller. Everything else seemed pretty marginal. Should use some more popular titles to test. Whats the difference in dark souls 3, or starfield, or Baldur's Gate 3?
emptysongglass 3y ago
Anyone using a Steam Deck as their full-time PC? It's one of the best power to price ratios out there and has sterling Linux support for those who value preinstalled Linux on their machines. Only downside is SteamOS doesn't support FDE so it's a no-go for enterprise.
sl-1 3y ago
One cool feature that 6.1 kernel brings to Steam Deck is ability to limit the max charge of the battery straight via kernel by: echo 80 > /sys/class/hwmon/hwmon4/max_battery_charge_level You need to have the preview installed, or wait until they release it for GA. Preview need developer settings enabled and some other stuff I don't acutely remember. You can check your kernel version with `uname -a`, if it starts with 6, you are good to go.

87 points by WithinReason 3y ago

I'm glad Valve created the Deck. Seems a lot of people are enjoying it, and they lit a fire under some competitors to create similar competing products. And DiYers are having a lot of fun too. Looks like it's been good all around.

gambiting 3y ago
It's honestly my favourite gaming device, even though I still think it's way too big and that the screen is...not great(quality wise, not resolution). But the price beats everything else and the software is top notch, it allowed me to play more games and enjoy them more than my very fancy gaming PC, PS5 and Xbox combined. I'm definitely preordering Deck 2 the second it's announced.
- redundantly 3y ago
  > still think it's way too big and that the screen is...not great(quality wise, not resolution I want a larger screen. My aging eyes have difficulty with the small screen on it now. Sure, I can connect it to an external monitor, but that defeats the point of it being a portable.
  - theodric 3y ago
    Grab an Xreal (formerly Nreal)Air and plug it into the USB-C port. Instant massive screen size increase. I've been happy with mine on the Deck.
Yhippa 3y ago
I'm trying to think of a tech device that has made me this happy in a long time and I can't think of many. They did a lot of things right with this.
robotnikman 3y ago
Same, its nice to see the Steam Deck really took off compared to their previous efforts. It seems the iterated upon their previous attempts and ended up with a great product in the end.
LelouBil 3y ago
Don't forget the Linux gaming part ! Valve worked with anti cheat developers to make sure most games work on the Steam deck, and the few that don't just need to flip a switch to allow proton. Like rainbow six: siege for example, game works perfectly offline and solo play, but because they didn't enable the features, you get kicked when trying to play online.

unpopularopp 3y ago

I want the Steam Deck so badly but at this point I'm afraid they will just announce a new/better version of it. Knowing my luck that would happen like 1 month after I've bought it lol

gambiting 3y ago
Valve said the new revision isn't coming for a while, and tbf it's a "relatively" inexpensive device so you'd be able to sell it without losing a lot of money even when a new one is announced. I'd recommend getting the cheapest 64GB version and upgrading the drive yourself.
- mey 3y ago
  Before cracking the case and doing surgery try running it with a microSD card first. ~40 USD for a good 512GB micro SD card provides sufficient performance for many games. Lastly, remember to remove the micro SD card before opening the case otherwise you will snap the SD card.
  - delecti 3y ago
    I agree. I have the 64gb with a 512 SD card in it, and it was totally sufficient for over a year. In the last month I also upgraded the internal drive, and that's another nice performance improvement, but it was still a great experience before that.
  - stavros 3y ago
    They make 512GB microSD cards now? This really is the future.
    - mmetzger 3y ago
      They (SanDisk, etc) currently make and sell 1TB microsd cards. 2TB ones are supposed to enter production late this year / early next.
- robotnikman 3y ago

dougmwne 3y ago

SteamOS 3.5 fixed a major SMT bug in the Linux kernel. Basically, certain CPU heavy workloads would get hit with major stuttering unless you disabled multithreading. Lots of emulators and older games were affected. Now SMT works as intended without the performance hitches. https://www.pcgamer.com/steamos-35-is-almost-here-includes-a-fix-for-the-steam-decks-sneakiest-performance-bug/ https://www.pcgamer.com/steamos-35-is-almost-here-includes-a...

gumballindie 3y ago

Valve doing god’s work. Other companies should take note. The amount of good will steam is buying with their linux gaming contributions is through the roof. And i am pretty sure valve is making a killing in profits.

LegitShady 3y ago

Based on the article itself it seems mostly in counterstrike, which tbh I would never play using a controller. Everything else seemed pretty marginal. Should use some more popular titles to test. Whats the difference in dark souls 3, or starfield, or Baldur's Gate 3?

emptysongglass 3y ago

Anyone using a Steam Deck as their full-time PC? It's one of the best power to price ratios out there and has sterling Linux support for those who value preinstalled Linux on their machines. Only downside is SteamOS doesn't support FDE so it's a no-go for enterprise.

sl-1 3y ago

One cool feature that 6.1 kernel brings to Steam Deck is ability to limit the max charge of the battery straight via kernel by: echo 80 > /sys/class/hwmon/hwmon4/max_battery_charge_level You need to have the preview installed, or wait until they release it for GA. Preview need developer settings enabled and some other stuff I don't acutely remember. You can check your kernel version with `uname -a`, if it starts with 6, you are good to go.