Digital Foundry: 'Too Big' For Steam Deck: AAA Games Are Struggling On Valve's Handheld

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Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
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Join Oliver Mackenzie for the latest episode of 'Too Big' For Steam Deck - where we do our best to run the latest triple-A games on Valve's handheld. Which games run well? Which games run well and look decent? And which games are indeed simply 'Too Big' for Steam Deck? Does a more powerful handheld like the Asus ROG Ally power past the Deck's problems? Everything you need to know is in this video.

00:00 Overview
00:54 Not Too Big for Steam Deck: Lego Horizon Adventures, God of War Ragnarök, Metaphor Refantazio, Black Myth: Wukong, Dragon Age: The Veilguard
05:57 Too Big for Steam Deck: Final Fantasy 16, Horizon Forbidden West, Space Marine 2, Dragon's Dogma 2, Silent Hill 2, STALKER 2
08:58 ROG Ally Testing
10:01 Analysis and Conclusion



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Text article:

www.eurogamer.net

Too big for Steam Deck? Many triple-A games are unplayable on Valve's handheld

Can Valve's Steam Deck produce playable experiences on the most demanding PC games of 2024? Digital Foundry reckons it's starting to struggle.
www.eurogamer.net www.eurogamer.net
 
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I often use remote play from my PC to play games that struggle on Deck. I think it is time for Valve to be floating a more capable version of the device.
 
I would never play AAA stuff on my Deck, as I feel the small screen seldom do games like that justice. Not the same immersion as sitting in front of my monitor.
For indies and clsssic jrpgs etc, I really love it.
It's basically been my YS and Trails machine for the last year!
 
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Richard: wichard here fwom digital fowndwy and today i will be giving my fwend and colleague alex bugaga my full fat 4k expewience

Alex: no papi Richard it's too big for my Steaming deck I can't handle it papi

Richard: yor input bandwidth is about to get truly twansformative, the results speak for themselves
 
Who tf buys a Deck with 2021 hardware to play 2025 AAA games?
The Deck is great, and I'm always in awe of how well it holds up, but people should know what to expect - and what not to.
 
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I'd say that in Veilguard Xess work much better than FSR, but yeah some newer games are way off limits for the deck. Still some surprises, AssCreed Shadows is very playable on it.
 
This is normal for hardware that is more than 3 years old, it's time for a replacement, the interesting thing now would be to know how the new NS2 moves those AAAs.
 
It's a 15w mobile device. People need to keep their expectations in check.

By the time a steam deck successor arrives - people will be clamoring for a deck 3 to keep up with tomorrow's AAA games. Not to mention there's no current chipset with the same tdp efficiency and performance increase that would deliver the generational leap valve are holding out for.

If you're a power user, stick to your desktops. For everyone else - there's another 10k games you can play just fine. For what it delivers as a handheld device, the steam deck is incredible.
 
I only bought mine to play PS360 era PC games and retro emulation. No disappointment guaranteed with performance levels that way.

Accept what it can do and what it can't and enjoy it until a more powerful deck arrives.
 
Horseganador said:
This is normal for hardware that is more than 3 years old, it's time for a replacement, the interesting thing now would be to know how the new NS2 moves those AAAs.
Click to expand...

The Switch 2 has a smaller battery and a weaker CPU. It's going to struggle from day 1.

Handhelds in general don't have a good future as developers move towards more complex dynamic lighting and virtualised geometry.
 
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ReBurn said:
I often use remote play from my PC to play games that struggle on Deck. I think it is time for Valve to be floating a more capable version of the device.
Click to expand...
This is why I think a handheld dedicated to RemotePlay is a better option. It would easily prolongue the life of something like the Steamdeck.

Then again, the benefit of a dedicated handheld is that you don't need additional hardware. At least, not until you reach this point.
 
I mean half of those games don't even run well on very capable PC builds lol.

I think anyone who expects this thing to run AAA games 5 years later are fucking delusional.

The Deck is an amazing device for more lightweight/older PC games and emulation - it's not some daily driver for an enthusiast though.
 
Mibu no ookami said:
You need a soc with pretty advanced upscaling otherwise you're not going to see much in the way of gains...
Click to expand...

Even with advanced upscaling handhelds will struggle, as nothing would be stopping developers from using the same techniques to upscale from low resolutions on stationary platforms.
 
ClanOfNone said:
Patiently waiting on the second iteration, wish they'd at least announce a successor.
Click to expand...
the reality is that there is no chipset in existence that will provide much better performance without totally killing battery life.

When I had my Steam Deck I used it to play older and 2D games and was great at that. I don't think Valve ever meant for it to play AAA titles for years at high settings.
 
With ROG Ally, however, I'm playing many current games quite well (some phenomenally).... The person who gift it to me was torn between SteamDeck and ROG Ally. He was right on the election😄

That said, everyone buys a device based on their needs. After four years, and thinking It more for games from the XBO/PS4 era, it was clear that its ceiling was approaching.
The positive thing is that even without running current games, it's perfectly functional and can still run many past, present, and future games and emulators that fit perfectly with a portable console.
 
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rodrigolfp said:
A "cheap" 45W handheld PC is embarrassing how??
Click to expand...
Just to get this out of the way, I love Steam and I am in full support of them.

This is really bad.

Steam Deck is not cheap. It costs more than a PS5....and some of those honestly look like late gen PS2 games.

I understand some of the current gen games, but man....GOW for example was made in 2018 and it literally looks 10x better on the PS4.

Switch games are more impressive.

I hope to God that Steam Deck 2 is much better or I will have zero interest in it.

I want Steam to do well, but this ain't it.
 
Dr.D00p said:
Unfortunately, many people seemed to think they were getting a $1500 desktop gaming PC in handheld form, for $500.
Click to expand...
IKR?

Can you imagine how my PC struggled in 2004 with an Athlon XP 1800+ and a GeForce 2 when I played Far Cry?
And today, I'm playing the game smoother and better looking than back then - with just 8 watts of powerdraw, in the palms of my fucking hands.

The Deck is pure magic to me. A Deck 2 would be a no-brainer and a day-one purchase.
 
Hohenheim said:
I would never play AAA stuff on my Deck, as I feel the small screen seldom do games like that justice. Not the same immersion as sitting in front of my monitor.
For indies and clsssic jrpgs etc, I really love it.
It's basically been my YS and Trails machine for the last year!
Click to expand...
Same. I don't play big games on a tiny screen. Indies and smaller bite sized games are much better suited to handhelds.

I've recently taken my Steam Deck abroad and Balatro has sucked up a lot of my time lol. Such and amazing game.
 
ReBurn said:
I often use remote play from my PC to play games that struggle on Deck. I think it is time for Valve to be floating a more capable version of the device.
Click to expand...

I think that's exactly Sony's approach with Playstation 6.

Playstation 6 package includes:
Main console (Highest end gaming)
PSPortal-like peripheral that can play downported (PS6 games) and PS5/4 games locally.

To get console like quality on the go you need to utilize the cloud.

That would be fantastic solution if done properly.
 
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XXL said:
Just to get this out of the way, I love Steam and I am in full support of them.

This is really bad.

Steam Deck is not cheap. It costs more than a PS5....and some of those honestly look like late gen PS2 games.

I understand some of the current gen games, but man....GOW for example was made in 2018 and it literally looks 10x better on the PS4.

Switch games are more impressive.

I hope to God that Steam Deck 2 is much better or I will have zero interest in it.

I want Steam to do well, but this ain't it.
Click to expand...
PS5 is not a PC, doesn't have a screen and screens are not free. Some of those what look like late PS2 games?? The PS4/PS5 games on low settings??

PS4 is ~40W handheld PC??

Deck can run those Switch games better than Switch itself.
 
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XXL said:
Just to get this out of the way, I love Steam and I am in full support of them.

This is really bad.

Steam Deck is not cheap. It costs more than a PS5....and some of those honestly look like late gen PS2 games.

I understand some of the current gen games, but man....GOW for example was made in 2018 and it literally looks 10x better on the PS4.

Switch games are more impressive.

I hope to God that Steam Deck 2 is much better or I will have zero interest in it.

I want Steam to do well, but this ain't it.
Click to expand...

I don't care, I'm playing Super Mario Galaxy 2 in the palm of my hand at 1200p upscale on a glorious OLED screen. ☺️
 
rodrigolfp said:
PS5 doesn't have a screen and screens are not free. Some of those what look like late PS2 games?? The PS4/PS5 games on low settings??

PS4 is ~40W handheld??

Deck can run those Switch games better than Switch itself.
Click to expand...
Leave the current gen games out of it. I understand those.

The most unacceptable ones imo are GOW and Lego Horizon.

They are both PS4 games and both look embarrassingly bad....to the point that you can barely even see whats going on.

I understand the position of using it to play much much older games, but I expected much more out of those two.

Just curiously how does the Witcher 3 look on it? It would be interesting to compare that to the Switch version.
 
Kupfer said:
Click to expand...

Thanks.

It looks better on Steam Deck, but man both versions are pretty rough.

1.5 Battery life for Steam Deck?
1:30 to load the Switch version?
Drama Club No GIF by Nickelodeon
 
Why would anyone want to play those games one a little screen? Imo the Deck shines best when playing either 2D games, or older 3D games that don't have so much shit on screen.
 
Chrsit... upscaling should be banned from this earth. Especially fsr2.
Seriously... just run at low res and use bilinear upscaling.
WHAT IS THIS.
DF is not critical enough of this... Olivier runs every game in the video with fsr2. It's not acceptable. It's horrible
HG3zs46.png

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how much is steam deck nowadays? holy fuck just get ps5 digital for 300-400$ cmon
 
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This is why I shudder every time I hear MS and Sony are planning to release handhelds next gen. If the handhelds are doing their own thing, sure. But they better not mandate the same games to work across both console and handheld.
 
viveks86 said:
This is why I shudder every time I hear MS and Sony are planning to release handhelds next gen. If the handhelds are doing their own thing, sure. But they better not mandate the same games to work across both console and handheld.
Click to expand...
That's why portal is a great idea. Because you run games at full console quality.
Of course limited to online...

I miss real handhelds size of PSP.
 
viveks86 said:
This is why I shudder every time I hear MS and Sony are planning to release handhelds next gen. If the handhelds are doing their own thing, sure. But they better not mandate the same games to work across both console and handheld.
Click to expand...
it just really feels like gamers have gone insane. Like complaining their $500 consoles dont run games at max settings at 4K and full 60fps when a 4090 can't do it. And now they demand handhelds run games as well as expensive consoles that use 4-10x the power. It's totally crazy. But in a way these companies have brought it on themsleves.
 
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