Moving from Nintendo Switch to Steam Deck OLED

[Fenixp]

Hi there,

okay, holy wall of text Batman ... Brace yourselves. I'm sorry, when I write things, I WRITE things.

So I've been gaming on various PCs for most of my life, but then life happened and my free time went down the drain. So like five years ago, a wild Nintendo Switch has appeared and I've been gaming more or less exclusively on it. But by now, in addition to my fairly large Steam library, there is a huge collection of PC games I'd like to play or re-play and gaming on my rather beefy work laptop is just unbearable to me. When experimenting and trying to figure out why that is, I found two main reasons:

1.) The Switch has a quick resume function. I can press the power button, leave it on the table and not worry about leaving a computer in a fully powered state in the house so it then doesn't matter whether I carry on gaming two minutes or two days later. I just press the power button again and continue.

2.) The Switch can seamlessly transfer between large and small screen and between screens. I know that numbers tell us that Switch owners usually only really play either in dockerd or handheld more - that doesn't quite apply to me as I do actually make heavy use of both docked and handheld play and utilize the option of just taking the device out of the dock in my office and putting it in a dock in my living room to game in any form factor and way I feel like at the moment. And before someone comes up with streaming the games to my TV using Remote Play, see 1.) - I can't press a button and put my gaming to sleep easily when doing that.

So now I'm finally getting to the questions I wanted to ask in the first place:

Are these two things feasible when buying Steam Deck and two docking stations?
Can Steam Deck seamlessly handle moving from small to big screen?
And does the quick resume function work as advertised?

I'm just wondering whether there are people out there using the Deck in this way.

I'm using Linux (Mint specifically) on my desktop and I'm routinely working with Debian and Red Hat at work, so I'm quite at home in that environment. I don't expect everything to "just work" as with Nintendo Switch, but I do expect Steam Deck to handle those two points in most scenarios and without having to fiddle with them every time I resume from sleep / dock-undock the system (even if it meant gaming in 800p on big screen. I don't mind weird resolutions. I don't even mind small resolutions or gaming at 30 FPS, hell, I'm gaming on the Switch.)

As for the docking, from reading discussions I got the feeling that the official docking station is kind of crap and most third party ones handle it much better - would you think that is the case? And if so, which third party docks do you think work well?

For the record, I'm considering buying OLED model, due to the longer battery life and ability to wake it up with a controller. I didn't even consider the original deck, because 1.5 hours for more demanding games is just unacceptable. 2 hours is ... Acceptable, albeit still not great.

[WarnerCK]

I haven't used a dock, so I can't say about that, but

Originally posted by Fenixp:

does the quick resume function work as advertised?

Yes.

Given your primary points - "there is a huge collection of PC games I'd like to play or re-play and gaming on my rather beefy work laptop is just unbearable to me" and "not worry about leaving a computer in a fully powered state in the house so it then doesn't matter whether I carry on gaming two minutes or two days later" - the handheld Deck is already the solution you're looking for. The extent that you also fit docking into your gaming workflow is icing.

[reimei04]

The only problem with the Steam Deck is that it can't download in the background. Apparently, it was not added because it has a power-hungry x86 processor unlike the Switch with an efficient ARM chip.
My Steam Deck works well with my MacBook type C hub. I use it when comfigurating the system in desktop mode at 2560x1080p. It's like connecting any laptop to a monitor since the Deck is a PC.
It's a good idea to stream AAA games if you have Wi-Fi 6 at your home. If done correctly, you can play games remotely and easily put them in rest mode. Chiaku4Deck has a settings option that puts your ps5 in rest mode when you suspend your Deck. For steam remote play, you can download the steam link app for Linux in desktop mode. Before running it, but disable overlay in the app's property. That way you will only get the overlay coming from your PC. That'll make it easier to suspend games when you're finished. Also, stream your games at 800p to get a higher graphics performance with less strain on your PC. I can get at least 5 hours of AAA gameplay by streaming at a higher graphic settings, which is better than playing it natively at a lower settings for under 3 hours.

[Zef]

1) yes, it has great quick resume unlike windows handhelds
2) no idea, i don't use a dock

[Lala Satalin Deviluke]

u seem to be a linux elitest, to which why bother asking on forums? if ur switch to deck, it more about hacking to which deck has more options so why ask? also dock is crappy to some 3rd parties as dock has official software that interferes with tv conncetions while deck direct usb c to hdmi has less problems to which steam wont fix as its important to output a connection whith dock as (input online with tv accepetabile for content collecting (generic pc output was killed off after updates))

[Drak3]

Originally posted by reimei04:

The only problem with the Steam Deck is that it can't download in the background. Apparently, it was not added because it has a power-hungry x86 processor unlike the Switch with an efficient ARM chip.

I’d imagine the firmware and the driver for the Wifi card also doesn’t support it, and I imagine there isn’t strong OS support for it either without a ton of leg work on Valve’s part.

BTW, ARM isn’t really that efficient. It’s a low power uArch, but that comes at a performance cost.

[deaddoof]

Originally posted by Lala Satalin Deviluke:

u seem to be a linux elitest

What is your definition of linux elitest? Its pretty confusing.

[Fenixp]

Thank all of you for the replies. All right, so from I gather, the quick resume works really well. Did any of you try this with SP games that require constant connection? Like AC: Origins / Odyssey, stuff like that. They should run according to ProtonDB, but that's all I can gather online - I'd be worried that the online services would go bonkers when the game client suddenly disconnected for a few days and then tried to carry on from where it stopped.

Shame that most people don't seem to be using the docking function because I would really like to get some experience on how individual games react to the system changing screen / resolution. I suppose it will be very game dependent, unless Valve implemented some sort of mechanic to obfuscate the change on OS level.

Oh well, I suppose I'll install some games on my Mint laptop over the weekend and see how they react to plugging an external monitor in.

Originally posted by Lala Satalin Deviluke:

u seem to be a linux elitest

I indeed am the elitest, which is why I also ask for experience of other people.

Originally posted by WarnerCK:

Given your primary points [snip] the handheld Deck is already the solution you're looking for. The extent that you also fit docking into your gaming workflow is icing.

Then again I suppose that's fair enough. Even if I were to only play handheld, the OLED seems to have a rather nice screen that's also significantly larger than that of Nintendo Switch.

[1337Dude]

I'm your man with the answers.

Firstly, quick resume works with all games I've tested, including singleplayer "online only" games. It also works with games that require 3rd party launchers (e.g. Mass Effect Legendary Edition or the Need for Speed games). There are games that require online and I will start them at a location where I have Wi-Fi and then simply suspend my Deck until I want to play.

As for the docking experience, I'd describe it as functional but not smooth. Games will not dynamically change resolution depending on if you have the Deck docked or not. In fact, the Deck itself doesn't have a "docked mode". If you're playing on a 1440P monitor for example, you'll be docking the Deck and then manually changing your game resolution to 1440P.

Connecting the dock to an external display works best in "desktop mode", but that means you lose out on the Gamescope GUI, which gives you access to a lot of the Steam Deck's performance features. You can set some of them by adding command-line arguments to games, but obviously we're talking about some preparation and setup versus the Switch's plug & play philosophy.

The Steam Deck isn't a plug and play device. If you spend time setting it up, you should be able to get to to the ballpark of convenience you're looking for. But let's be honest, the Steam Deck is a significantly more powerful and versatile device than a Nintendo Switch. Just earlier I was playing Sunset Overdrive handheld, and then hooked it up to my PC to play it at 30FPS 1440P, and looks great on my 77" OLED TV. (For reference, nothing looks great on my Switch hooked up to my 4k TV. It's an eyesore all around).

[Emurikku]

Hi,

Everything has been said, but I too moved from Switch to the Deck. I can confirm that it’s not as “plug and play”, and that you’ll have to fine tune some things. But personally, I use Linux since 20 years and I feel right at home on SteamOS. You seem like quite the tinkerer yourself, so you’ll be at home too.

As for the dock, I had some recurrent sound delay problems with the official one before the big update, but it’s far less frequent now. Can still happen sometimes though, but I discovered it’s because of my Samsung TV, so depending on your monitor, you should be fine. Overall, I’m having a blast when docked. Just remember that you’ll have to change the controller order when switching from handheld mode to docked mode, but it’s not that much of a pain.

So yeah, not as smooth as the Switch, but I gained some freedom and I’m having fun with the OS. Like plugging in a USB hub to the dock with some external hard drives, and coding a bash script to backup my save files. I just love it!

[Fenixp]

Ah, dock experience, grand! What I was mostly worried about is the applications just crashing straight away when changing screens, I can handle some fiddling. If the experience can be improved by playing around with the OS then that's fine, I can do that.

Originally posted by 1337Dude:

I'm your man with the answers.

Yes. Emurikku is all right too I guess. (Seriously, thank you both.)

Originally posted by 1337Dude:

Connecting the dock to an external display works best in "desktop mode", but that means you lose out on the Gamescope GUI

What kind of issues are there when using it with the injected GUI?

Originally posted by 1337Dude:

For reference, nothing looks great on my Switch hooked up to my 4k TV. It's an eyesore all around

Yesterday I was reading an article over at ArsTechnica about running Starfield on the Deck[arstechnica.com] and looking at the screenshots I was like "What are you talking about, Kevin? This looks perfectly fine to me!" ... Well, provided I actually want to play Starfield on any platform.

Seriously though, I'm actually rather excited about being able to run a much larger library as opposed to the graphical upgrade, including a bunch of 4X or management strategy games that seem to run fine on the system and that I've been direly missing on the Switch.

[retro_Ed]

Most of the time docking experience is good. Sometimes it needs to reconnect and connect and/or power off on.

One little detail about docking. Even system is set to use native external display resolution games are locked to 1280x800 resolution until changing it to higher.
Under each games properties is option to set higher, even higher than displays own resolution. For example 1080p display it is possible to set max resolution to 4K and use it in game. This works well with older games.

This is per game settings.

When visiting second time under game properties setting there is new hidden menu visible.
Now it is possible use higher RENDERED resolutions even on decks own display.
Just enable this also.

With 120Hz display playing games 40fps flatline frametime is new gold standard.

[Fenixp]

So does that mean that FSR can upscale whatever internal resolution the game runs at to native? Can it do that automatically?

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by Fenixp:

So does that mean that FSR can upscale whatever internal resolution the game runs at to native? Can it do that automatically? Is it an easy thing to change?

It does that automatically once you enable FSR. It's disabled by default. Enabling it is dang-easy, takes well under a minute.

[MISO4EVER]

Get ready to switch back to your switch. The deck is nothing but disappointment, bad battery / bugs / and issues. The only thing it offers is some of the games not ported onto the switch to play hand held other wise switch is a better and more reliable device.

[󠀡󠀡]

Originally posted by MisoForever:

Get ready to switch back to your switch. The deck is nothing but disappointment, bad battery / bugs / and issues. The only thing it offers is some of the games not ported onto the switch to play hand held other wise switch is a better and more reliable device.

Tech illiteracy issue + Nintendo Nerd. 🤓🤓🤓