Emulation on the Steam Deck.

[Daidek]

In terms of emuation what kind of specs are we looking at? (IE. Is this able to handle Desume, Dolphin, Citra, etc.)

[BlueRobin]

It's pretty comprehensive. Check out EmuDeck for an all-in-one setup, apparently it's pretty awesome.

[Boblin the Goblin]

I can handle up to the PS2 fairly easily. When you get to the PS2 it starts to vary pretty wildly depending on the game.

[Daidek]

Originally posted by KittenGrindr:

I can handle up to the PS2 fairly easily. When you get to the PS2 it starts to vary pretty wildly depending on the game.

Are we talking all the way back, like Atari?

[CasePB]

I was using RPCS3 and playing Ridge Racer 7 on it last night. It didn't run perfect, but I was still very impressed.

[Boblin the Goblin]

Originally posted by Daidek:

Originally posted by KittenGrindr:

I can handle up to the PS2 fairly easily. When you get to the PS2 it starts to vary pretty wildly depending on the game.

Are we talking all the way back, like Atari?

Yep.

[Daidek]

Originally posted by KittenGrindr:

Originally posted by Daidek:

Are we talking all the way back, like Atari?

Yep.

If I wasn't convinced before, I sure am now.

[Mahjik]

To give you an idea of how most of the emulators can look:

https://youtu.be/4PeC9Y94ltA

[Daidek]

Originally posted by Mahjik:

To give you an idea of how most of the emulators can look:

https://youtu.be/4PeC9Y94ltA

Thanks, I'll give this a watch in a more convient time.

[PopinFRESH]

Emulation works extremely well on Steam Deck and using EmuDeck + Steam Rom Manager makes it super easy to get setup. I've been playing Wind Waker HD via CemU and it works flawlessly.

One thing to note if you are doing any type of optimizations on the Deck (e.g. chaining the refresh rates, etc. this will break most emulation because they run dependent upon the refresh rate. If you're doing emulation leave your global Steam Deck performance at its defaults and then do per-game modifications to 40Hz, etc. to help extend battery life for regular Steam games. You can also however configure the clock speed and power limits for the APU and tune them down a fair amount for most of the emulators and you'll get quite a bit of battery life for them.

I'm currently waiting on a Switch jig so I can dump my Switch games and system keys to use with Yuzu but all of my other rom collection works pretty much perfect on Steam Deck.

Get a 1TB SanDisk Extreme Pro U30 A2 microSD card and load up your dumps and you won't be disappointed. Steam Rom Manager will put all the games with corresponding artwork into your Steam library so you can launch them just like any other game.

[Daidek]

Originally posted by PopinFRESH:

Emulation works extremely well on Steam Deck and using EmuDeck + Steam Rom Manager makes it super easy to get setup. I've been playing Wind Waker HD via CemU and it works flawlessly.

One thing to note if you are doing any type of optimizations on the Deck (e.g. chaining the refresh rates, etc. this will break most emulation because they run dependent upon the refresh rate. If you're doing emulation leave your global Steam Deck performance at its defaults and then do per-game modifications to 40Hz, etc. to help extend battery life for regular Steam games. You can also however configure the clock speed and power limits for the APU and tune them down a fair amount for most of the emulators and you'll get quite a bit of battery life for them.

I'm currently waiting on a Switch jig so I can dump my Switch games and system keys to use with Yuzu but all of my other rom collection works pretty much perfect on Steam Deck.

Get a 1TB SanDisk Extreme Pro U30 A2 microSD card and load up your dumps and you won't be disappointed. Steam Rom Manager will put all the games with corresponding artwork into your Steam library so you can launch them just like any other game.

A 1TB SanDisk Extreme Pro U30 A2 microSD card?

[PopinFRESH]

Originally posted by Daidek:

A 1TB SanDisk Extreme Pro U30 A2 microSD card?

Just a suggestion depending on how large your rom collection is. Its a bit easier to have EmuDeck setup your rom library on a microSD card rather than the internal storage depending on your situation. I have a desktop PC with linux on it as well so its very easy for me to move my microSD card to that desktop with a USB microSD adapter/hub and move my roms around.

Any decent microSD card with sufficient storage will work fine though

[Boblin the Goblin]

Originally posted by PopinFRESH:

Originally posted by Daidek:

A 1TB SanDisk Extreme Pro U30 A2 microSD card?

Just a suggestion depending on how large your rom collection is. Its a bit easier to have EmuDeck setup your rom library on a microSD card rather than the internal storage depending on your situation. I have a desktop PC with linux on it as well so its very easy for me to move my microSD card to that desktop with a USB microSD adapter/hub and move my roms around.

Any decent microSD card with sufficient storage will work fine though

Also just setting up a network folder works. I have a folder in my NAS that I use for storage.

[Daidek]

Originally posted by PopinFRESH:

Originally posted by Daidek:

A 1TB SanDisk Extreme Pro U30 A2 microSD card?

Just a suggestion depending on how large your rom collection is. Its a bit easier to have EmuDeck setup your rom library on a microSD card rather than the internal storage depending on your situation. I have a desktop PC with linux on it as well so its very easy for me to move my microSD card to that desktop with a USB microSD adapter/hub and move my roms around.

Any decent microSD card with sufficient storage will work fine though

While I sincerely apperciate this advice, do you know where I can. buy this where the error rate is low. AS when I looked up this exactly product on Amazon, there were many very concerning reviews.

[PopinFRESH]

Originally posted by Daidek:

Originally posted by PopinFRESH:

Just a suggestion depending on how large your rom collection is. Its a bit easier to have EmuDeck setup your rom library on a microSD card rather than the internal storage depending on your situation. I have a desktop PC with linux on it as well so its very easy for me to move my microSD card to that desktop with a USB microSD adapter/hub and move my roms around.

Any decent microSD card with sufficient storage will work fine though

While I sincerely apperciate this advice, do you know where I can. buy this where the error rate is low. AS when I looked up this exactly product on Amazon, there were many very concerning reviews.

You can buy them directly from Western Digital (who owns SanDisk) if you are concerned about fake microSD cards.

https://www.westerndigital.com/products/memory-cards/sandisk-extreme-uhs-i-microsd#SDSQXAV-1T00-AN6MA

https://www.westerndigital.com/products/memory-cards/sandisk-extreme-pro-uhs-i-microsd#SDSQXCD-1T00-GN6MA

Samsung also has some good Pro plus and Evo models that work well

https://www.samsung.com/us/computing/memory-storage/memory-cards/pro-plus---reader-microsdxc-512gb-mb-md512kb-am/

Alternatively you can try to purchase one from a local retailer and inspect the packaging before purchase to ensure it is factory sealed and genuine.

[Daidek]

Originally posted by PopinFRESH:

Originally posted by Daidek:

While I sincerely apperciate this advice, do you know where I can. buy this where the error rate is low. AS when I looked up this exactly product on Amazon, there were many very concerning reviews.

You can buy them directly from Western Digital (who owns SanDisk) if you are concerned about fake microSD cards.

https://www.westerndigital.com/products/memory-cards/sandisk-extreme-uhs-i-microsd#SDSQXAV-1T00-AN6MA

https://www.westerndigital.com/products/memory-cards/sandisk-extreme-pro-uhs-i-microsd#SDSQXCD-1T00-GN6MA

Samsung also has some good Pro plus and Evo models that work well

https://www.samsung.com/us/computing/memory-storage/memory-cards/pro-plus---reader-microsdxc-512gb-mb-md512kb-am/

Alternatively you can try to purchase one from a local retailer and inspect the packaging before purchase to ensure it is factory sealed and genuine.

Respectufully speaking, this is a great link, as it seems this has the lowest rate of failure, because this purchase would be 1/3 of the price of the steam deck I had in mind.