Steam Deck reservations continue to grow, now at its highest point

Quoting: EikeWoohoo!
Placed my reservation at March, 2nd, after having read all those good things about it. (Stupid me!)
every time I read about more devices produced and people getting up in the queue I look it up again.
This time, I moved forward, Q3 as well!

... and there it is, my invitation. :D

Quoting: constI wouldn't put witcher3 or gta on that :D

Oups! Currently, I'm running Rise of the Tomb Raider, Bioshock Infinite, The Outer Worlds and Resident Evil Village on my MicroSD Sandisk Pro... The loading times are a little longer, but for my part, it's not a deal breaker... It runs great... Am I doing a mistake?

Quoting: Mohandevir

Quoting: constI wouldn't put witcher3 or gta on that :D

Oups! Currently, I'm running Rise of the Tomb Raider, Bioshock Infinite, The Outer Worlds and Resident Evil Village on my MicroSD Sandisk Pro... The loading times are a little longer, but for my part, it's not a deal breaker... It runs great... Am I doing a mistake?

Neh. I put guardians of the galaxy on it. It's a bit slower in terms of load times but other then that, no issues. And you can always move the games back to the ssd.

Quoting: BlackBloodRum

Quoting: const

Quoting: PixelDrop

Quoting: BlackBloodRum

Quoting: PixelDropSweet, mine got moved from Q4 to Q3 too. I'm a 64GB model since I'm okay with slower load times off SD cards.

Don't worry! If you get a good SD card you won't even notice that you're running off an SD card. Certainly not to the point of feeling "slower load times"

I have two SD Cards and use them for games without any performance degradation, despite having the 512GB model

So no worries!

That's what I'm hoping. Of course at this point anything better than the switch will be like lighting. Switch games tend to take forever to load, especially if they're off a cart. Baffles me to no end why they made the game carts slower than reading of an SD card.

Especially with my A2 V30 (sandisk extreme pro, samsung pro plus) cards, I really don't feel a difference. Have an additional 1TB A1 for emulation (sandisk ultra) and while I don't feel a difference for emulation, I wouldn't put witcher3 or gta on that :D

Yup. I myself have two modest Samsung 512GB Pro Plus cards and have run games like God of War on them with no problems!

So long as your card is legit (not a fake from amazon) you should be golden!

I'd suggest watching for deals on the western digital store by now. Got some cards really cheap there and it's probably the safest way to get a legit card.


Last edited by const on 26 August 2022 at 10:22 am UTC

Quoting: tfk

Quoting: Mohandevir

Quoting: constI wouldn't put witcher3 or gta on that :D

Oups! Currently, I'm running Rise of the Tomb Raider, Bioshock Infinite, The Outer Worlds and Resident Evil Village on my MicroSD Sandisk Pro... The loading times are a little longer, but for my part, it's not a deal breaker... It runs great... Am I doing a mistake?

Neh. I put guardians of the galaxy on it. It's a bit slower in terms of load times but other then that, no issues. And you can always move the games back to the ssd.

That's absolutely true.
Moving big games from internal to sd when I don't feel like playing them for a while and back to internal on demand is really comfy. And chances are you won't feel any difference, anyway. I specifically named GTA and witcher3 since those are the only two games so far where I think the experience was a little improved from internal, though I can't back up that claim :D

Quoting: const

Quoting: tfk

Quoting: Mohandevir

Quoting: constI wouldn't put witcher3 or gta on that :D

Oups! Currently, I'm running Rise of the Tomb Raider, Bioshock Infinite, The Outer Worlds and Resident Evil Village on my MicroSD Sandisk Pro... The loading times are a little longer, but for my part, it's not a deal breaker... It runs great... Am I doing a mistake?

Neh. I put guardians of the galaxy on it. It's a bit slower in terms of load times but other then that, no issues. And you can always move the games back to the ssd.

That's absolutely true.
Moving big games from internal to sd when I don't feel like playing them for a while and back to internal on demand is really comfy. And chances are you won't feel any difference, anyway. I specifically named GTA and witcher3 since those are the only two games so far where I think the experience was a little improved from internal, though I can't back up that claim :D

It's not really an issue, imo. To each your own.

Personnally, I really do like my 512gb model (coupled with a 400gb sd) and don't regret it at all, but if I had to choose again, I'd probably pick the 256gb model with a 1tb SD. I would pick the 64gb model, but I'm not sure if it's enough to handle all the texture cache data that seems to be downloaded on the internal storage, no matter what. If you install lots of AAA titles... hish!

SHORT WINDED: Very good news! Although there is a lingering curiosity for me: do we have an approximate knowledge of what percentage of Steam Decks out in the wild are still running SteamOS and what percentage are running Windows?

--------------------------

LONG WINDED: Speaking in paradox, or, "out of both sides of my mouth" as the saying goes....

....on the one hand, I am actually happy that Steam Deck is open and flexible and exploitable enough that should someone WANT to install Windows, they can. Having this option available will also increase overall buy-in on the Deck at large and improve the long-term prospects of the Deck enterprise and its inevitable successors, and just the greater portible computer / console movement at large, since there is no barrier to entry for those for whom Windows is a non-negotiable.....

....on the other hand, the FEWER people putting Windows on their Decks*, the HAPPIER I am. Or perhaps, more saliently, the MORE people putting Windows on their Decks, the SADDER I am, because one of the biggest points of excitement for me about the Steam Deck coming into it was just what HUMONGOUS potential it had for the advancement of Gaming on Linux at large!

I mean, the growth of gaming on Linux has already been simply explosive already, even with just small, loosely connected [at best], disparate nerds working without any kind of flagship device to coalesce around. I mean, I guess they were coalescing around Steam Proton, but now we have a distro and a device to put all our energies behind, which is...just HUGE! If we got to, what is it, 80% of native Windows games playable on Linux in, what, just 5yrs or so WITHOUT a coalescence point, just imagine what we could do WITH one? But... the more people who put Windows on this thing, the more that is undercut and the more the potential impact of that is softened. So, the fewer Windows Steam Decks, the better.

However, through anecdotal observations, it seems that Windows is a lot more prominent than I had been hoping. Prior to the Deck's release, I "came out of retirement as a blogger" to write about it, and I had posited at the time that only very few would likely do it. It seems that I was sadly mistaken on that point. Based on what I see in Steam Deck groups on social media, I would have no trouble believing that it could be as many as 40% of Steam Decks have Redmondsoft on them.

But again, I have not found any way of actually knowing. So I thought I'd ask the group! Thanks in advance for any insight you might have!

Cheers!!

*= "Windows on the Deck": I chuckle inwardly at the thought of someone from the past seeing this, not knowing what we're talking about, and struggling to envision panes of glass being installed in the wooden outdoor spaces usually found affixed to the backs of houses. 😂

Quoting: NerdNoiseRadioBased on what I see in Steam Deck groups on social media, I would have no trouble believing that it could be as many as 40% of Steam Decks have Redmondsoft on them.

The Steam hardware survey seem to contradict that theory. Thing is, my experience is that the Windows fanboys in the facebook groups I follow are really vocal, but few are actually doing the move and many regret it aftward. It feels more like a vocal minority, imo, but I do not have any proof of that either.

Windows is just unfit for the task. Too much heat, drains the battery much faster and there is a lot more fan noise. On top of that, a desktop OS on a handheld... It's awkward, at best. SteamOS is a big part of it's best aspects. Users love it. Removing it makes the SteamDeck another boring PC... Or "How to transform a handheld into a laptop".

Edit: Not saying you are wrong, there might be a lot of dualbooting though, from what I read: "Xbox gamepass, Destiny 2, COD Warzone..." but since SteamOS doesn't support that, it's not a trek for the faint of hearts... Non techy users might not be really enticed by that solution.


Last edited by Mohandevir on 26 August 2022 at 2:43 pm UTC

Quoting: Mohandevir

Quoting: NerdNoiseRadioBased on what I see in Steam Deck groups on social media, I would have no trouble believing that it could be as many as 40% of Steam Decks have Redmondsoft on them.

The Steam hardware survey seem to contradict that theory. Thing is, my experience is that the Windows fanboys in the facebook groups I follow are really vocal, but few are actually doing the move and many regret it aftward. It feels more like a vocal minority, imo, but I do not have any proof of that either.

Windows is just unfit for the task. Too much heat, drains the battery much faster and there is a lot more fan noise. On top of that, a desktop OS on a handheld... It's awkward, at best. SteamOS is a big part of it's best aspects. Users love it. Removing it makes the SteamDeck another boring PC... Or "How to transform a handheld into a laptop".

Edit: Not saying you are wrong, there might be a lot of dualbooting though, from what I read: "Xbox gamepass, Destiny 2, COD Warzone..." but since SteamOS doesn't support that, it's not a trek for the faint of hearts... Non techy users might not be really enticed by that solution.

I have had a similar thought occur to me previously that it's only 40% of the enthusiasts that are actually going to Windows, where the radical majority of the more "casual laity" are just sticking with what it came with, meaning, of course, Linux. It's not that these laypeople are actively choosing Linux like you or I or the people in the group would, but passively choosing it by consequence of simply demurring to actively pursue the alternative. However for the purposes of our aims of pushing Linux gaming forward, these disinterested "I'm just here for the games, man" people, I'd say are still probably 90% as valuable to us and our purposes as "we passionate much fewer" are, since Gaming on Linux is still advancing through them even if only by coincidence. I left this out of my last comment because even with the "long-winded" caveat, I was probably coming up on the limits of how long I should make my reply, figuring we could deal with it in follow ups like this one. :-)

Dual-boot situations occurred to me as well, of course, but [and I could definitely be talked out of this], for the purposes of "propelling or curtailing the advance of Linux gaming, I tend to consider them to be more akin to the Windows-only curtailing than to the Linux-only propulsion.

Lastly, as for the desktop situation, i will admit to ignorance over whether or not Steam has a "Steam Mode" client equivalent for Windows like we do in Linux. If so, then I suppose it becomes a distinction without a difference on handheld and TV / couch gaming at that point, except for the battery / thermals / performance things that you mentioned. I had presumed they had had such a client, but I could be wrong. But if they don't have a "Steam Mode" for Windows, and they'd have to do everything on the small screen in Desktop mode and the full-fat desktop Steam Client, then yeah, I could see that really killing the experience.

The one quibble I'll make, and this may not even be a point of contention between us, necessarily, is that here in Linux, I absolutely LOVE that we have desktop mode. Sure it COULD work as a super quirky little laptop with a kickstand and an external KBM, but I basically never use it this way. However, hooked to a USB-C dock on a pair of 1080p monitors and a KBM at a computer desk, or even outputting 1440p on a 49" 4K living room TV using a USB-C dock and wireless KBM, I find the desktop experience really good, and the fact that on top of everything else the Steam Deck is, it's also a full-fat Linux desktop PC that keeps the KDE I love, but gives me an alternative to Ubuntu to play around with that all my other Linux PCs are based on (two on Ubuntu Studio, and one on Ubuntu Web Remix) is I'd say no less than a full third of what makes this thing so valuable and exciting to me! :-)

The moment I'm most excited about is when I finally sit down to plan, record, produce, and publish an episode (or even multiple episodes) of my podcast ENTIRELY from the Deck. That's when I think I'll feel like this thing has finally FULLY arrived for me - or perhaps better said, when I'VE finally arrived for it! :-)

Maybe my December 2022 or January 2023 episodes will be where I get started with that. I'll make sure to say something in the show notes, in the actual episode itself - or both whenever I finally get a "Deck-made" episode done. :-)