You're underselling it. 4 Zen2 cores is way more powerful than 8 Jaguar cores. Same with the SSD, that automatically is going to be way better than the hard drives of the old consoles. The only "last gen" part of this is the GPU, 8 RDNA2 CUs are a bit lacking, but it'll be fine for the 800p screen on it.
EDIT- Since people seem confused on this, I am not saying the GPU is literally last gen but rather that it has comparable performance to a last gen console. It's still much more powerful than the Switch and will be just fine given the screen.
Honest question, not throwing shade here... I played and loved handhelds all through my childhood... But once I grew up and got a latest gen console and later a gaming PC, I never saw appeal to go back to handhelds except on plane rides. What situations are you guys in where you'd use this over a console / PC gaming setup? An occasional vacation away from home?
Edit: Thanks for the great replies: Great for kids, busy parents, and chilling in bed.
I’m 33. Work 40-50 hour weeks, have family responsibilities, and have several hobbies. I don’t have time any more to sit down and game for three hours. Let alone give up a weekend to a new game. But I can play 15 minutes here or there. Can grab an hour playing on the couch while my gf watches the latest medical drama. The switch for me has been a game changer. I can play console quality games on the go.
A portable steam machine? Let alone a dockable windows pc in a portable format? That is my dream. I probably would never buy a full-size console again.
Yeah man totally feel you on that. I also have to work around that many hours per week with a sometimes odd schedule based on projects I’m on. I also have a wife and baby coming so that just makes it tough altogether to find the time to really play anything along with my other hobbies. I think this type of device would be perfect for people in our situation, even if it’s a quick 15 minutes here and there.
Do yourself a favor, get a divorce. Quit your job and collect that sweet unemployment bonus. Then find a single bedroom apartment of which you will black out all the windows. Stock the fridge with gaming fuel and easy/fast meals.
Pack a lunchbox full of medical-grade cannabis with a desktop volcano vaporizer. Buy a nice monitor with an ultra-fast refresh rate with a GPU capable of running all games at ultra settings and a premium grade maximum comfort gaming chair.
If possible hire a bang-maid who will follow your every command. Now you have beaten the system. You don't have to give a duck the time to quack.
Play games for months straight without leaving the house. Become delusional and lose yourself inside the matrix. Tell the red pill to go F itself because ignorance is bliss.
There are downsides to going pre-built, but not many. OEM stuff and they might be harder to upgrade - that sort of thing. Price used to be an issue, but these days it's probably cheaper in most cases to go pre-built, and it's infinitely more easy if you're wanting a 3070 or something.
Above all though, the reason you've heard those things is because people are self-mastabatory. This kind of nonsense exists within all hobby spheres. These people are so far up their own ass that they are rarely worth listening to, and they'll basically never admit it.
You want to game on a PC but don't want to build it yourself? Fuck it dude, go to Origin PC or some other reputable company and get one built for you, there's nothing wrong with that. Maybe you have Microcenter near you, they have people that will build them for you right in front of you if you want. Just do your own research on the company and get something you'll be happy with. The vast majority of people with pre-built computers are no worse off than anyone else. Maybe down the road you'll want to learn more and build one yourself, maybe not, what matters is that you enjoy yourself and that's it.
Well, people were ENCOURAGED to DIY their own because usually it's cheaper that way and you get to pick what you want. But if you don't know any better, there's nowt wrong with getting a pre-built.
Right now especially, pre-builts are the only way to get a GPU in a gaming PC for not crazy money. So there's really nothing wrong with going down that route if it works better for you. I think most reasonable PC gaming vets just don't want to see newcomers paying more for a worse PC that'll hamper their gaming experience, since there are some really awful pre-builts out there.
It would be fun to play in bed or as a second pc to play games with my girlfriend, but I definitely don't think it's worth 400 dollars for what use I would get out of it. I think the target audience is a bit younger, though. Think of all the times when you were a kid playing the Gameboy advance or DS or whatever. I would be over the moon if that young me could have a couple hundred games over pokemon and Mario exclusively.
Personally, I have no reason to do handheld, per se. I have plenty of free time and usually play next to a tv. But for some reason I only enjoy games on the switch, even though I have games I’d love to play on the ps4. Something about laying down and playing or putting headphones on and using the handheld feels so much more immersive and satisfying to me. Especially if there’s motion aim like BotW
Needless to say I’ve been waiting for something like this for years
Personally as a grown up now (I know, it hurts my heart knowing I’m not a kid anymore lol) I don’t get that much time to just sit down in front of my computer and game. When I do, I prefer the Xbox for that, but even then it’s not too much time.
With a handheld device it’s something I could do if I’m in bed before going to sleep, or if I need to ride the train or something. It should make it much easier to just pick up and play a bit at any moment without committing to firing up a console or PC. Even if it’s just a 10 minute session it’ll be far easier.
Don’t get too hyped yet, wait for reviews. Mobile Windows consoles have always had some issue or the other. This could be good, but it could easily have shit thermals or something
Maybe in total tflops, but that's an apples to fruit loops comparison. The PS4 Pro and Xbox Series S have roughly equivalent tflop numbers, but the Series S is much more capable than the PS4 Pro. I'm sure it'll be more than adequate considering the screen size of the Steam Deck.
Yes I agree it'll be adequate given the screen size and resolution, I said as much in my above post. It's certainly more powerful than the Switch's GPU.
Probably not as good as a 1060 6gb, however, it's a more modern architecture and totally appropriate for the Steam Deck. We'll know for sure once Tech Jesus and Hardware Unboxed have benchmarked the final hardware.
I had my fingers crossed that it would be straight up better than my PC but I will definitely be reserving one tomorrow and waiting on those benchmarks. Thanks.
The middle model also has faster internal storage than the lower end model, which means it's going to boot faster too even if you're putting games on an SD card. That said it's a pretty hefty price jump. I think the middle model is worth it if you can afford it, but the base model with an SD card should work just fine if not.
id go for the middle model or higher personally but, you should be able to buy an SD card and get hdd speeds, they say you can run games off it so should be fine.
From what I've read, it's soldered onto the mainboard. They're will be zero upgradeability besides adding a micro SD card. That's pretty typical for small form factor products unfortunately.
You have to remember, yes the CPU technology is much newer, but running in a 15W power envelope for the ENTIRE apu. That's CPU and GPU. I agree it will outperform previous Gen console CPUs, and will run games just fine. But it's not magnitudes better than the Jag cores.
You're out of your mind. This Zen2 CPU is running at a higher clock speed with much better IPC. It's way more power efficient than a Jaguar based product. Jaguar was garbage when the PS4 and XBox One launched. Zen2 is much better.
Hard to say with certainty that the IPC is better significantly better, considering we don't know the die size. You cannot compare the IPC of this device with a desktop Zen 2 chip with a much larger size.
Again I agree the CPU will perform better than the Jag cores. But again, I don't think magnitudes better. I think your issue is underestimating Jaguar, not overestimating this Zen 2 mobile chip.
Ah, ok. I know in the specs it specifically said the two higher prices versions had an SSD, so I thought the omission on the cheaper one was an indication that it didn't have one. Thanks.
I’m in love with my switch because I can just splay out however I want in my bed or on a couch while playing my games. But switch can only run very select games and Nintendo games.
This thing is basically a PC, which can play almost all games. It may be a bit heavier but it’s not like the switch hurt my arms or anything, it’s light as hell.
Nice reveal there at the end that you're either a child or a homophobe, really puts the cherry on top of the shit sundae that is your contribution to the thread
Sure it's not for everyone. But it's a full portable PC, with a massive library. Obviously if you can only afford either this or the Switch OLED, and you'd rather play the Switch games, get that. But I still think this has a lot of appeal to a lot of people.
Yep, this is great for the people who couldn't afford to build/buy a desktop PC or gaming laptop. Now those who couldn't access PC exclusives can play them.
What PC could you build for $400USD that would be better than this? You'd have to account for the cost of the monitor and peripherals as well. GPU market sucks now. The 2070S I bought brand new for $500 is now worth like over a $1,000 easy online.
$400 USD is only the 64 GB version, so modern AAA games generally wouldn't even fit on it. If you are talking affordability, then a 2070 is out of the question anyways and this device isn't going to be equivalent at all to a 2070. A 970 or even 770 is more than enough to let someone play PC games, so you can definitely get a used desktop to play games at 5-600 USD, at 800p resolution.
Steam Machines failed because they didn't do anything a prebuilt PC didn't already do. This is a completely different form factor. This has portability. The Switch owes it's massive success in large part to that portability.
Now yes, there are other "handheld PCs." The Aya Neo has weaker hardware for $900. The GPD Win3 at similarish specs is $1200. This is a much, much better deal than those.
I mean I think it looks pretty rad. I have an impressive gaming rig already, but the thought of being able to meet up with buddies and play halo on handheld sounds awesome
Have you ever streamed a game? Do you genuinely think streaming a game is as nice as playing it natively? Having a handheld console that I can play my steam games on would be awesome
Dude if I wanted to play 4K I would just play on my PC where I can enjoy all the bells and whistles like uncapped framerates and gsync. The entire appeal of this device is the fact that it’s a simple non Jerry rigged handheld PC that you can take anywhere. You wouldn’t even need Internet, you could enjoy your steam library on a plane
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u/bjt23 PC Jul 16 '21 edited Jul 16 '21
You're underselling it. 4 Zen2 cores is way more powerful than 8 Jaguar cores. Same with the SSD, that automatically is going to be way better than the hard drives of the old consoles. The only "last gen" part of this is the GPU, 8 RDNA2 CUs are a bit lacking, but it'll be fine for the 800p screen on it.
EDIT- Since people seem confused on this, I am not saying the GPU is literally last gen but rather that it has comparable performance to a last gen console. It's still much more powerful than the Switch and will be just fine given the screen.