If you're wanting something similar to SteamOS right now that has much wider hardware support for your gaming handhelds like the Lenovo Legion Go, ASUS ROG Ally, GPD, Ayaneo or even your laptop / desktop then Bazzite is likely one of the best choices.
And now for desktop / laptop users with NVIDIA GPUs, you can try out the latest Bazzite Beta which finally includes expanded support for the Steam Deck-like Gaming Mode (which uses Steam's newer Big Picture Mode).
Noted in an announcement Bazzite creator Kyle Gospodnetich mentioned:
As of today, bazzite-deck-nvidia is now available as a beta thanks to improvements in the latest Nvidia drivers. While this is very clearly not a stable experience everyone should jump on, this should at least give our users something to play with and a tool to help report the remaining bugs to Nvidia.
Some important caveats:
- Most bugs present here cannot be fixed by us, please do not report them to us if they’re already known issues. See our Discord and/or GitHub issue tracker.
- This will not allow Nvidia eGPUs on handhelds. Due to issues caused by installing the Nvidia drivers this support most likely won’t come until NVK is ready to replace the proprietary driver.
- Only nvidia-open will be supported by these images. That means no GTX 9xx or 10xx support.
- If the UI is laggy, go into desktop mode and open steam settings in the desktop client and make sure
Enable GPU accelerated rendering in web viewsis enabled in the interface settings (enabling this can cause graphical glitches in the steam UI in desktop, Big Picture Mode and gamemode), then return to gamemode.
I'm seriously tempted to acquire another handheld just so I can test stuff like Bazzite on it. I don't want to mess with the SteamOS install on my Steam Deck since it's properly official and supported. Perhaps I should look into one.
See more in the announcement and download from the official site.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Speaking of Bazzite, Valve seems to be flattered! “We have nothing against it,” says Yang. “It’s a great community project that delivers a lot of value to people that want a similar experience on devices right now,” says Griffais, adding later “In a lot of ways Bazzite is a good way to kind of get the latest and greatest of what we’ve been working on, and test it.”
But he says Bazzite isn’t yet in a state where a hardware manufacturer could preload it on a handheld, nor would Valve allow that. While users can freely download and install the SteamOS image onto their own devices, companies aren’t allowed to sell it or modify it, and must partner with Valve first.
https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/7/24338405/valve-steamos-beta-other-handhelds-beyond-steam-deck
hardpenguin 13 hours ago
- If the UI is laggy, go into desktop mode and open steam settings in the desktop client and make sure Enable GPU accelerated rendering in web views is enabled in the interface settings (enabling this can cause graphical glitches in the steam UI in desktop, Big Picture Mode and gamemode), then return to gamemode.This is something we NVIDIAns still struggle with -_- I have to deal with laggy Big Picture so I don't get visual glitches, flickering. I just wish it could work as well as it does on Steam Deck.
Did a minor addition to the text to specifically mention Gaming Mode.
You're the man, Liam.
Sorry but I'm still a noob for Bazzite. Do I need to update something so that I can get this driver update? Tried the big picture settings suggestion and it is still laggy. Tried also discover update and system update, nothing new.
Caldathras 10 hours ago
I'm not a Bazzite user, but, as I understand it from the article, you would need to install the Bazzite Beta from ISO to test the new Nvidia support. It's not available in Bazzite Stable.
Last edited by Caldathras on 9 Jan 2025 at 4:58 pm UTC
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