Is Steam Deck actually a better idea than a gaming PC?

[Vepar]

With the GPU prices going haywire crazy bonkers and being able to even buy them being a feat of heroes - plus - things seeming to go on like this for a while...

Is buying a Deck instead of a gaming PC actually a better idea?

I mean, if you don't plan on playing Doom Eternal in 8k on a 2250HZ refresh rate monitor or some crap like that...

If you have more "modest" expectations and needs...

I mean, not even top of the line GPU can cost more than the deck itself, and i mean, i don't really care, i don't even have a 4k monitor...

What do you think?
I think Valve kind of totally hit the market with it at the right time lol.
I just hope they can actually deliver on the demand and not be slaves to scalpers and "limited stock" like GPUs nowdays are.

If anyone can get a Steam Deck - anytime - i think this is the perfect time for it to shine.

[ShelLuser]

First... since no one actually has theirs yet I don't think this is the right time for such a discussion. But second, more on topic: is a gaming laptop a good replacement for a gaming PC?

Each to their own but I don't think so. As such I hold the same opinion about the Deck.

[ReBoot]

If the performance promise holds up, the Deck may und up some great bang for the buck.
It'll never come close to my 1,5 k€ battlestation, but for 1/3 of the cost and the promised power, it looks good. You'd have to price in a dock though, one USB-C plug is nowhere near enough.

[Silence]

ReBoot eredeti hozzászólása:

If the performance promise holds up, the Deck may und up some great bang for the buck.
It'll never come close to my 1,5 k€ battlestation, but for 1/3 of the cost and the promised power, it looks good.

What was promised to you or what are you expecting? I mean, a 1500€ PC is much more capable that the Deck in case of raw power, image quality and fps. The hole point of the deck is thats a handheld format, the price and that its fast enough for current games.

[ReBoot]

Silence eredeti hozzászólása:

What was promised to you or what are you expecting? I mean, a 1500€ PC is much more capable that the Deck in case of raw power, image quality and fps. The hole point of the deck is thats a handheld format, the price and that its fast enough for current games.

My point is, if the Deck delivers on the performance side of things, it'll be pretty good value, even compared to desktop PCs.

[hCerisu ❤]

Looking over the specs, it should be good enough PC substitute for playing pre-RTX AAA games and indies if you can attach it to a dock.

[Vepar]

ReBoot eredeti hozzászólása:

If the performance promise holds up, the Deck may und up some great bang for the buck.
It'll never come close to my 1,5 k€ battlestation, but for 1/3 of the cost and the promised power, it looks good. You'd have to price in a dock though, one USB-C plug is nowhere near enough.

Well, my question didn't involve overpowered gaming PCs as i explained, rather, less demanding iterations. In that "performance bracket" i think the Deck currently offers a lot of bang for the buck.
That is of course, if the performance is as advertised.

Silence eredeti hozzászólása:

ReBoot eredeti hozzászólása:

If the performance promise holds up, the Deck may und up some great bang for the buck.
It'll never come close to my 1,5 k€ battlestation, but for 1/3 of the cost and the promised power, it looks good.

What was promised to you or what are you expecting? I mean, a 1500€ PC is much more capable that the Deck in case of raw power, image quality and fps. The hole point of the deck is thats a handheld format, the price and that its fast enough for current games.

What about the price point of simmilar priced laptops or desktops? If the deck's performance is as advertised, i don't know of many PCs that can run Control or some such demanding game for 500 bucks... Well, not now at least with the GPUcalypse happening.

[ReBoot]

Vepar eredeti hozzászólása:

Well, my question didn't involve overpowered gaming PCs as i explained, rather, less demanding iterations. In that "performance bracket" i think the Deck currently offers a lot of bang for the buck.
That is of course, if the performance is as advertised.

Exactly my point!

[GeneralClayman]

I'd say for actual big games (Baldurs gate seems to be 150GB, Red Dead Redemption 2, other large open world/ detailed games) you'll be better off with an actual gaming PC. anything older than 2018 AAA wise (not made by IDsoft) should run fine on it. Indies nowadays too, if the devs even remotely cared about optimizing their game.

If you're looking for portable gaming, 100%. If you want something to just play most of the current existing games without caring about high end performance or graphics, also a good pick on the deck.
Is a laptop better? Maybe, I got one for work/ school that cost me about 100,- less than the 512GB Deck and it's a total ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ (8gb ram, 256 gb storage, no graphics card, I5-7000). If you spent another 600,- on a laptop you'd have a competent laptop, but you'd also be better off just building a pc from parts at that point.

[badboyec24]

If you don't want to spend lots of money on building a gaming pc, I suspect the Steam Deck will be worth the money. Though if you have the money I would probably say build yourself a beast of a pc so you can play AAA games at their best. Other than that really it is up to you to decide which one would be a better idea for your situation or your wants.

[KripTed]

No. According to some people playing it. It can barely push past 60 fps on medium/high.

[Synne]

Comparing Steam Deck to an expensive built PC base on performance is like comparing apples to oranges.

The Steam Deck is a tablet PC with a controller attached to it that's capable of playing video games with better ergonomics than a laptop which is designed to be square and placed on a flat surface. Essentially, Steam Deck is a PC meant to be able to "Play" games while your back is laying down on your bed, in the car, while pooping, or anywhere that requires tight space/limited mobility (like the seats at the back of a plane). Imagine Gameboys/PSP/Switch but you're not limited to cartridges or Nintendo/Sony games with access to PC/Emu games and do minor PC things.

So the question people need to ask themselves is do they want a PC in the form of a portable console. Also the limiting factor is that steam deck only have wifi and battery life.

[Haruspex]

The timing is pretty good.

If you're a potential new PC gamer, but scalpers and stock issues have priced you out of the market for a GPU, the Steam Deck starts to look like a pretty good deal. Add to that the benefit of portability, the disappointment of the Switch OLED reveal, and the general hype surrounding the device and the Deck seems to be very well positioned to be an absolute success. Whether that stays true beyond release is probably dependent on how well they keep up with demand, as well as how well the device holds up over time in the hands of real gamers. Battery or quality control issues would be a death sentence.

[Mailer]

There may be *a lot* of reservations to wade through by this point, but if by that eventual point in time you are still stuck on a 3rd-gen intel processor and a GTX 760, then the Steam Deck could be a great stepping stone, thanks to certain "modest" demanding games like Yakuza 0 perhaps.

Although, you may have been wanting to have a much more sizable Steam library by that point. The power of the Steam deck kind of comes with a big Steam library and not having good hardware before that kind of limits what you can do to make that happen in the first place.

[Quadsword]

I think a lot of people tend to forget that the average PC gamer isn't rocking a $1,500 gaming rig that can push all the latest AAA games to 144 FPS with all settings on high. The vast majority of PC gamers play on very modest rigs that can get Red Dead Redemption 2 to 60 FPS, but only if they disable a lot of the more demanding graphical options.

Time will tell if the Deck lives up to all the promises, but for someone like me who's going to be traveling a lot and be away from home for months at a time (Navy), the Steam Deck looks like the perfect option.

[Briggs]

Vepar eredeti hozzászólása:

With the GPU prices going haywire crazy bonkers and being able to even buy them being a feat of heroes - plus - things seeming to go on like this for a while...

Is buying a Deck instead of a gaming PC actually a better idea?

I mean, if you don't plan on playing Doom Eternal in 8k on a 2250HZ refresh rate monitor or some crap like that...

If you have more "modest" expectations and needs...

I mean, not even top of the line GPU can cost more than the deck itself, and i mean, i don't really care, i don't even have a 4k monitor...

What do you think?
I think Valve kind of totally hit the market with it at the right time lol.
I just hope they can actually deliver on the demand and not be slaves to scalpers and "limited stock" like GPUs nowdays are.

If anyone can get a Steam Deck - anytime - i think this is the perfect time for it to shine.

In the event that you don't care about HD gaming at high refresh rates... then yeah. But at the same time, I'm sure there are also other alternatives that might still work out better. Maybe a gaming chromebook?

That said, I very much am of the opinion that anyone, for any reason, getting a Gabe Gear instead of a gaming PC (or new video card) is going to be disappointed.