this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2025
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Steam Deck

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Is the Steam Deck performance struggling with new AAA games? Should I be concerned buying a Steam Deck now?

I'm guessing/hoping not because most game developers would optimise the games for the Switch 2 and Xbox Series S which have similar performances as the Deck.

I think 30 fps (consistent) is perfectly fine, and I don't mind medium details.

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[–] twistypencil@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I don't play retro games. I have the OLED. I don't feel like it's outdated. I don't care about FPS and I play some AAA games.

[–] cloudless@piefed.social 1 points 1 week ago

Thanks for sharing your experience and your straight forward answer!

[–] lpinfinity@retrolemmy.com 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

If you aren't too sensitive to a bit of input lag, you could keep your laptop around and stream the more demanding games over steam link. Streaming these demanding games will also significantly increase battery life, but I don't think it will work away from home. Most games run quite well if you drop the settings (outside of those using intrusive anticheat), and it runs lighter games very well.

[–] cloudless@piefed.social 2 points 1 week ago (5 children)

That's true. But I really hate the noise from my laptop. It can be heard from another room.

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[–] VirgilMastercard@reddthat.com 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

My brother has a Lenovo Legion Go (the original one, not the S). I am definitely in envy of the big display, the higher refresh rate, and the more powerful chip. However it's a bit ehh in terms of ergonomics. It also runs windows but that's irrelevant because you can install steamOS.

There's a good chance I'll get a Legion Go next and stick steamOS on it unless we see a steam deck 2 soon that's bigger and punchier. I know we all love our retro and indie games, but it is nice to be able to play more demanding games from time to time.

[–] cloudless@piefed.social -3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yeah ergonomics is extremely important to me. I also try to avoid products from Chinese companies.

[–] TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Are there electronic goods on the market that aren't, in some part, made in China?

[–] cloudless@piefed.social -4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I am not trying to start a political discussion here, only stating my preference.

[–] TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I didn't think my question was political, but rather about logistics. I just don't know of any video game console, or electronics manufacturer in general, that is promising that none of their components are made in China.

[–] cloudless@piefed.social -1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I never mentioned anything about "made in China". I said "Chinese companies".

[–] TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Oh, sorry, I conflated those two things. So, if I'm understanding this right, you don't mind if the components were made in China or purchased from Chinese companies, but the seller of the final product cannot be a Chinese company? That's a far easier rule to satisfy.

[–] cloudless@piefed.social 6 points 1 week ago

I prefer to avoid everything from China, but that's not realistic. So for now I avoid products designed/sold by a Chinese company. That includes video games created by Chinese companies.

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[–] mcforest@feddit.org 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That's a pretty personal opinion but I'm a Switch owner and if there is one thing I don't miss on it, it's AAA games. Not because I dislike AAA, but because I think in handheld mode I really preferred games with simpler graphics, like Mario games (2D and 3D), sidescrollers, the top down Zelda games or (S)NES games. I really had a hard time when I tried Breath of the Wild and ended up playing it in the dock almost completely. I think it's a real missed opportunity that the new Pokemon games aim for 3D and open worlds because it not only hurts the games performance, but for me also the playability.

I'm interested in switching to a Steam Deck but I don't think I would play visually complex games on it. That's what my PC is for. But I don't know if that's just me or if other people feel the same.

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[–] boletus@sh.itjust.works 19 points 1 week ago (2 children)

If you are looking for an affordable device to play AAA games well on with no issues, get a ps5.

If you are looking for a hand held to play indie titles and the plethora of older games available I'd go for the steam deck.

I think it'll be a while until we get a hand held experience like the steam deck but with AAA capable hardware.

[–] cloudless@piefed.social 5 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Do you mean that the Steam Deck is currently not capable of AAA?

[–] AGuyAcrossTheInternet@fedia.io 12 points 1 week ago

Its relatively "low" resolution really helps it achieve better fps, but the trend of not optimizing and praying FSR does it good enough may be an issue.

I've never tried the really big titles on it, so I can't say reliably, I'm afraid.

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[–] CrayCray@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It works imho best for games in the 2014-2018 time range. Newer games work fine but can run at 30-40 fps. The UE5 Games I have tested run only with a lot of upscale (lords of the falling in particular) but still playable.

[–] cloudless@piefed.social 1 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Yeah that's my concern as many new AAA games will be UE5. I've also read that Oblivion Remastered struggles on the Deck. (I prefer the original Oblivion anyway).

[–] mephiska@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

Oblivion remastered runs perfectly fine on my steam deck.

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[–] cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 67 points 1 week ago (2 children)

me, who bought the steam deck primarily to play roms of games from 30 years ago: never had a problem so far.

[–] cloudless@piefed.social 14 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Yeah I will very likely spend half of the time playing retro games on it. At the same time I don't want to regret when there is a new AAA game that I really want to play. (There is nothing annouced that I considered as "must play", and I am not interested in GTA6).

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[–] simple@piefed.social 47 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It depends, a lot of modern AAA games run fine but a good amount of them are very unoptimized and run poorly on the Deck.

Valve said not to expect a hardware refresh soon since newer chips are more expensive and not that much faster, just look at the handheld PCs selling for ~$900 that are only 25% faster.

There are plenty of benchmarks online so you can check if the games you want will work properly or not.

[–] unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Yeah there isnt anything of the same size with significantly more power afaik. Gotta go with a laptop then if u need the power.

[–] cloudless@piefed.social 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I actually have a laptop with RTX 3050, but it gets extremely noisy while playing games. I also prefer to play handheld. Currently I stream games to my tablet via the cloud or from my laptop.

It seems that most gaming laptops are noisy and expensive. The Steam Deck appears to be reasonably priced with decent performance.

[–] dabaldeagul@feddit.nl 11 points 1 week ago

If you remote play from the laptop that you have now the performance will be better than playing directly from the deck, but the noise can be in another room. And since the deck isn't doing much compute, battery life should be great too. And you can stream at the Deck's native resolution so your fps will be higher than your laptop's display (assuming that is full hd)

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[–] Noerknhar@feddit.org 15 points 1 week ago

My crystal ball says buy one now.

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