[The Verge] Valve’s huge Steam Deck update is now ready for everyone, including rival AMD handhelds

I've been running Bazzite on my desktop PC for 6 months now. As long as you don't play games that still require kernel-level anticheat (eg Valorant) everything works fine, just as good as Windows and sometimes even better performance. Games I've played on it (no particular order):
Are you running AMD or NVIDIA?

As someone with an HTPC/living room PC with a 5090 I'd love to run Bazzite or Steam OS, but the last time I looked into it, NVIDIA support just wasn't quite there yet, especially HDR support, which is important to me.

I'd really like to see Valve push for better Linux drivers for NVIDIA to bring them up to par with AMD drivers.
 
This is a pretty stupid comment.

First off, the non-deck handhelds are drastically more powerful than the Steamdeck and you get all the UI benefits plus better performance.

That reason alone is all you need.
I'd far rather compatibility benefits than UI benefits but each to their own.
 
And if you need Xbox game pass plus anti cheat games, You can use something like Winhance to remove Handheld Windows bloatware, then download 'Gamesdows' to boot Steam as your Windows shell.
 
Imagine buying a windows handheld to then just put steamOS on. Absolutely pointless. Just buy a steam deck if you want steamOS.
I was going to comment almost the exact opposite of this.
"It's funny how before the Steamdeck released everyone was talking about 'installing Windows on it' but then Valve's work turned out to be so good that people are going in the opposite direction".

And if you tried a Steamdeck/SteamOS first hand you'd know why that's happening.
 
Haha, they are "Steam Powered" after all.
wizard of oz GIF
 
I'd far rather compatibility benefits than UI benefits but each to their own.

Quite a few games run better on Steam OS than Windows, thanks to the shader generation they have less stutter/frame pacing trouble.

I feel like people DRASTICALLY overstate incompatibility too, doubly true for people who don't care for multiplayer games.

If you own ~2000 games on Steam, I'd bet maybe 50 don't work on SteamOS.

Windows has many benefits, but it also has way more annoyances in the handheld space. A usable sleep mode is one of the biggest I see commonly referenced, and for a handheld that's a pretty big deal.
 
Perhaps that should have been your first take in the thread rather than proclaiming it "pointless" which it clearly isn't to many people.
Its an even dumber take than his first one. Anything that is compatible with SteamDeck will be compatible with a STeamOS/bazzite handheld and get better performance.
 
It took a while to install. Made me kind of nervous. First thing I did was set the battery charge limit since mine is plugged in more than not.
 
It took a while to install. Made me kind of nervous. First thing I did was set the battery charge limit since mine is plugged in more than not.

My install never completed. Got to where it was trying to start the GUI part of the installation and then all I had was a cursor and a blank screen. Guessing this Legion Go is just nerfed somehow. I'll be returning it so no big deal.
 
My install never completed. Got to where it was trying to start the GUI part of the installation and then all I had was a cursor and a blank screen. Guessing this Legion Go is just nerfed somehow. I'll be returning it so no big deal.
Sounds like it may have been broken when they sold it to you. That sucks. I usually have good success with open box stuff. I've been thinking about trying to find one for SteamOS to get the extra horsepower.
 
I'd far rather compatibility benefits than UI benefits but each to their own.
The biggest issue with Linux gaming is anti-cheat support for multiplayer games. However, people who primarily play singleplayer games will not have this problem. And with better performance courtesy of SteamOS (or any other distro) having a smaller overhead, I'd take SteamOS over Windows any day.
 
I'm going to just type out my thoughts here about which handhelds I'm looking at.

Here are my options:

1) Stick with the current Legion Go. Bought it the other day, open box for $700. Big screen but 16GB and no VRR. I don't care about the detachable controls.

2) Rog Ally X. Best buy has an open box for $735. 24GB and VRR, but only 7" screen.

3) Lenovo Legion Go S, Z1 Extreme with SteamOS. Comes out Sunday for $830. 32GB. 8" screen with VRR. Expensive, but checks all the boxes.

What do you guys think?



Bazzite is pretty awesome.
I would wait for confirmation on whether the RNA3.5-based handhelds can support FSR4 or not. ML-based upscaling is pretty much a requirement for handhelds to have real longevity and scaling as later-gen releases come out. Currently, handhelds are forced to play at very low resolutions near 480p to run the recent releases, and unfortunately, FSR2/3/basic xess are just horrible at those resolutions.
 
I would wait for confirmation on whether the RNA3.5-based handhelds can support FSR4 or not. ML-based upscaling is pretty much a requirement for handhelds to have real longevity and scaling as later-gen releases come out. Currently, handhelds are forced to play at very low resolutions near 480p to run the recent releases, and unfortunately, FSR2/3/basic xess are just horrible at those resolutions.

Nah, I don't mind being a gen or two behind on handhelds myelf. The screen size is so small that the details that are eyesores on big 4K TVs are not nearly as much of a problem on a 7 or 8" screen. FSR4 seems to be struggling to get game support overall so that's another issue with newer tech and I say that as a guy who has a PC with 9070 XT GPU.
 
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Are you running AMD or NVIDIA?

As someone with an HTPC/living room PC with a 5090 I'd love to run Bazzite or Steam OS, but the last time I looked into it, NVIDIA support just wasn't quite there yet, especially HDR support, which is important to me.

I'd really like to see Valve push for better Linux drivers for NVIDIA to bring them up to par with AMD drivers.
AMD. I sold my 3080 for a 7900XT specifically for it.
 
I will probably stick to windows on my Legion Go. Maybe if I didn't have it pretty much config'ed how I wanted I would give a different OS a try. I had bought it for right under $500 several months (maybe a year?) ago on a heck of a deal. Upgraded to a 2tb ssd and bought a 1tb sd card....and it still isn't enough space. I figure a 2tb sd card will be enough. I really just have emulation(switch, ps2 and ps3) along with the usual suspects on steam, gog, xbox, epic and some others that are slipping my mind.

It runs everything I cared to try (WWE games, Assassin creed games, Red dead are just a couple examples), but switch emulation is a bit funny sometimes. I have a switch (of course) but it's often easier to just have everything in one place, you know?

Latest game I am playing is The Precinct, but no surprise that can run, lol.
 
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StereoVsn StereoVsn We may be seeing a paper launch on the the Legion Go S Z1 Extreme. Best Buy has the Z2 Go version for SteamOS, but not the Extreme. Still says "coming soon". I'm thinking the tepid response to the Z2 Go version killed any hype. Why they called both versions Legion Go S, I have no idea. Should have called it Go S Extreme to differentiate itself.

Either way, I got the Ally X. Z2 Go isn't worth it. Might as well just get a Steam Deck at that point.

I've installed Bazzite since the Rog Ally X version of SteamOS lacks TDP control at this point. Bazzite is pretty kick ass.
 
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StereoVsn StereoVsn We may be seeing a paper launch on the the Legion Go S Z1 Extreme. Best Buy has the Z2 Go version for SteamOS, but not the Extreme. Still says "coming soon". I'm thinking the tepid response to the Z2 Go version killed any hype. Why they called both versions Legion Go S, I have no idea. Should have called it Go S Extreme to differentiate itself.

Either way, I got the Ally X. Z2 Go isn't worth it. Might as well just get a Steam Deck at that point.

I've installed Bazzite since the Rog Ally X version of SteamOS lacks TDP control at this point. Bazzite is pretty kick ass.
Nice! Are all functions properly mapped in Bazzite? Ally X is still damn good handheld and 24GB and large battery make it "just right".
 
Nice! Are all functions properly mapped in Bazzite? Ally X is still damn good handheld and 24GB and large battery make it "just right".

Yeah.....it is like it is tailer mode for Ally X. After using Legion Go, I'm glad I have a 1080p screen. I played Obivion on both and Ally X is definitely a crisper experience playing at the native screen resolution versus reducing down on Legion Go.
 
Yeah.....it is like it is tailer mode for Ally X. After using Legion Go, I'm glad I have a 1080p screen. I played Obivion on both and Ally X is definitely a crisper experience playing at the native screen resolution versus reducing down on Legion Go.
That's good. Seems like a good compromise considering Go 2 Extreme is likely to be $$$$ and Go 1 Extreme performance is the same or worse depending on screen resolution.
 
Good. I hope SteamOS is a huge success. Anything that takes market share away from Windows is a net win in my eyes.

I hope SteamOS/Linux is so successful that someday Windows is forced to become just another Linux distro.
 
They need to solve anticheat problem to stand a chance. I have no problems with windows on Ally X.
The anticheat problem will be solved the day there's enough people playing on linux, forcing devs to create native ports and in that case of kernel level anti-cheats, it would have to be ported too.
 
Eh....SteamOS ain't "ready". Really needed more time in the oven before pushing this out to everyone. Rog Ally barely functions. Installation is a chore and you have to make sure you have a fast installation device for some reason.

Going back to bazzite for now
 
Charge limiter is the biggest improvement for me. Odd that the Deck released without it. Nice thing is that they made it adjustable, so you can set it even lower, if you keep your Deck plugged in at all times.
 
From source :
you can now set a Battery Charge Limit to 80 percent for longevity's sake

Does it work for you guys? Just set it the other day but noticed today, it's still charging to 100%
 
If Valve adds eGPU support I'll happily move away from Windows
Bazzite (which has same SteamOS frontend) support AMD eGPUs right out of the box.
Can the please launch a version of steam is for desktops? That would be totally fetch.
Bazzite runs on desktops, which you can have start in "SteamOS" mode (like a Deck) or just go straight to desktop & use big picture.

I run it on my desktop (5800X3D/7900XT) and play everything from indie/AA stuff to modern AAA with almost no issues.
 
Bazzite (which has same SteamOS frontend) support AMD eGPUs right out of the box.

Bazzite runs on desktops, which you can have start in "SteamOS" mode (like a Deck) or just go straight to desktop & use big picture.

I run it on my desktop (5800X3D/7900XT) and play everything from indie/AA stuff to modern AAA with almost no issues.

Steam is Steam regardless of what flavor of Linux being used, for the most part. I'm using Bazzite on Rog Ally right now and running Arch Linux (just vanilla Arch, not SteamOS) on desktop. Both work exactly the same as far as Steam is concerned except for the additional Bazzite menu that provides a few more options.
 
Steam is Steam regardless of what flavor of Linux being used, for the most part. I'm using Bazzite on Rog Ally right now and running Arch Linux (just vanilla Arch, not SteamOS) on desktop. Both work exactly the same as far as Steam is concerned except for the additional Bazzite menu that provides a few more options.
No, the "SteamOS" mode with gamescope is not the same. You have to pick a specific version of Bazzite to get it, and nvidia GPUs are still not supported.

I use Bazzite on my Legion Go and my desktop (HTPC in Living room) because they both boot straight into the SteamOS interface at boot with no logins or need to fiddle with m+kb.

If you're just dropping Linux on any old desktop to use at a desk then sure, it doesn't matter. But if you want that console-like experience on desktop hardware SteamOS (either official or via Bazzite) is the way to go.
 
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No, the "SteamOS" mode with gamescope is not the same. You have to pick a specific version of Bazzite to get it, and nvidia GPUs are still not supported.

I use Bazzite on my Legion Go and my desktop (HTPC in Living room) because they both boot straight into the SteamOS interface at boot with no logins or need to fiddle with m+kb.

If you're just dropping Linux on any old desktop to use at a desk then sure, it doesn't matter. But if you want that console-like experience on desktop hardware SteamOS (either official or via Bazzite) is the way to go.

Fair enough. I was generally just talking about how the games play rather than the UI, but now I'm thinking I'm making some poor assumptions. Are there benefits to launching straight into the Steam interface versus running Steam normally from the desktop like one would do on PC other than for HTPC purposes?
 
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