Trying to decide if the deck would be cheaper than building new PC.

[CapNKirkland]

So I've had the same PC since 2013. I dont have the full specs on my phone to copypasta (might update that in later) but this thing was almost a Ferrari back then with 32gb ram, windows 7 on an SSD and a GTX670 graphics card and some other fancy bits that I cant remember the names of rn..
It could perfectly benchmark all the crysis games on max settings (showing my age on that one)

And if you can believe it, not a single component on this thing has broken yet, not even a screw has been replaced. But, obviously, it's been too old for a while now.. I can still play a lot of older games I own just fine but it's not handling the newer ones very well.

Anyway, that was 2000$ back in 2013 and I do NOT have that kinda throwaway cash anymore.

I CAN afford a deck though if I save for a few more months. So would it be cheaper overall to get a deck?

[Mahjik]

It depends on your expectations. If you want to be gaming at 1080p or 4K, then it's not the right move. The Steam Deck is designed around playing games at 720/800p. That independent of a desktop resolution that's the targeted gaming resolution.

[bean]

which model we talking though? If you are looking to get the 512gb then I would suggest saving a little more and buying a PC/updating yours.

on the other hand, if your issues are coming from your old PC reaching the end of the line (win 7, no 670 drivers/support, non-tpm, shader support etc) instead of a lack of raw horsepower then a steam deck will certainly help in that regard.

i guess it comes down to price and whether you rather get current gen games to work asap or take the time to build something that will give you a couple more years.

[Gormar]

Just buy used GeForce 2060 Super or Radeon RX 6600. Eventually GeForce 3060 Ti or Radeon RX 6700 XT and you should be good for more than three years. SteamDeck wouldn't provide similar service for that period of time.

[CapNKirkland]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Gormar:

Just buy used GeForce 2060 Super or Radeon RX 6600. Eventually GeForce 3060 Ti or Radeon RX 6700 XT and you should be good for more than three years. SteamDeck wouldn't provide similar service for that period of time.

I'm not so sure its compatable with my over 10 year old hardware is the thing.. and I've long since lost the recipts so I dont even know exactly the names and models of everything in the machine.

[Haruspex]

I wouldn't look at the Steam Deck as a replacement or alternative to a gaming PC. While it is a PC and it can be used as such, it's strong suit is really as a portable handheld gaming device. "Portable" and "Handheld" being key words here.

Unless your main motivation to get a Steam Deck is handheld PC gaming, you're really better off getting a more generalized PC. If you still need the portability but not necessarily the extreme portability that a handheld provides, get a laptop. If you don't require portability at all, get a desktop.

Of course cost is a factor in all this, and for the cost you'll struggle to match the performance of the Steam Deck for the money. It can be done, but expect to spend some serious time tracking down really good deals and/or buying used.

[CJM]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Gormar:

Just buy used GeForce 2060 Super or Radeon RX 6600. Eventually GeForce 3060 Ti or Radeon RX 6700 XT and you should be good for more than three years. SteamDeck wouldn't provide similar service for that period of time.

The Horizon: Zero Dawn benchmark seems to be indicating a CPU bottleneck on Horizon: Zero Dawn with my GTX 970 and Quad Core i7, or perhaps the PCI-Express 2.0 bus is the bottleneck. I cannot get stable frame rates past 40 FPS.

The overall performance of my gaming computer does not always outperform the Steam Deck. The Steam Deck has actually gotten better frame rates on Spider-Man: Remastered at the same quality settings.

This is a strong indicator that the 2060 Super, and RX 6600 would suffer similar bottlenecks on an aging system.

Worse, the Radeon cards would be limited by 8x PCI Lanes, vs the 670's 16x lanes, keeping the old system from fully benefiting from the GPU upgrade. Though, I cannot guarantee that the NVIDIA GPUs would be backwards compatible with anything before PCI-Express 3.0.

Oprindeligt skrevet af CapNKirkland:

I'm not so sure its compatable with my over 10 year old hardware is the thing.. and I've long since lost the recipts so I dont even know exactly the names and models of everything in the machine.

It is perhaps better to think of the Steam Deck as a portable version of your existing PC. The faster RAM and RDNA2 will provide some performance improvements, but might not be worth replacing your desktop. Also, the Steam Deck does not come with Windows, which comes with added cost for a proper desktop environment.

The Steam Deck is not likely to be a worthwhile upgrade over a GTX 670 gaming rig, as long as you have a Quad Core i7 CPU, and the 4GB GTX 670.

[CapNKirkland]

Oprindeligt skrevet af CJM:

The Steam Deck is not likely to be a worthwhile upgrade over a GTX 670 gaming rig, as long as you have a Quad Core i7 CPU, and the 4GB GTX 670.

I'm not sure how to check for that anymore. Like all my computer knowledge came from when I was looking up parts for my current rig... 10 years ago.. and I've not looked at pc parts since.

[Mahjik]

Oprindeligt skrevet af CapNKirkland:

Oprindeligt skrevet af CJM:

The Steam Deck is not likely to be a worthwhile upgrade over a GTX 670 gaming rig, as long as you have a Quad Core i7 CPU, and the 4GB GTX 670.

I'm not sure how to check for that anymore. Like all my computer knowledge came from when I was looking up parts for my current rig... 10 years ago.. and I've not looked at pc parts since.

https://www.bloomberg.com/faq/question/how-do-i-check-my-pc-hardware-specifications/#:~:text=To%20check%20your%20PC%20hardware,Settings%20menu%2C%20click%20on%20System.

[CapNKirkland]

thanks.

GPU: GeForce GTX 670
CPU: Intel Core i7-3770k CPU @ 3.50GHz 3.90GHz
Memory: 16.00 RAM (15.96 GB Usable)
64-bit
Windows 7 Home Premium

guess i was wrong about the ram. but anyway, that doesn't really tell me what brand and model that things like the motherboard
(i think its gigabyte), ram cards and my SSD are though. i think those matter with compatability and bottlenecking that CJM mentions don't they?

[shadowboy813]

Oprindeligt skrevet af CapNKirkland:

Oprindeligt skrevet af Gormar:

Just buy used GeForce 2060 Super or Radeon RX 6600. Eventually GeForce 3060 Ti or Radeon RX 6700 XT and you should be good for more than three years. SteamDeck wouldn't provide similar service for that period of time.

I'm not so sure its compatable with my over 10 year old hardware is the thing.. and I've long since lost the recipts so I dont even know exactly the names and models of everything in the machine.

I used an RTX 2070 on a first gen i7 (i7-980X which was an upgrade to the original i7-930 I got in 2010, to eek a few more years out of it). You'll definitely be CPU bottlenecked with something like a 2070 @ 1080p, but at 4k your current CPU will still serve.