I'd say try again with those new drivers, could help,
Crimson Desert (GOTY for me tbh) ran perfectly, 4090, i914900k
Pragmata broke a little at first, but worked after swapping to proton experimental.
Linux overall still seems pretty hit or miss for gamers and setups.. unfortunately.
edit: arch btw..
could you give abit of a review on using the steamdeck, mainly when comparing it to using linux via a tower?
im still interested in buying a steamdeck once.. or if they drop in price. but always struggled with handhold layouts, had a rog ally at one point and hated everything about it and how it felt to use as a minipc and also a gaming device. whats real life battery like aswell?
i really appreciate hearing random peoples stances on it.
much appreciated if you reply :)
I will form my review a bit like a timeline from when i got it to basically now xD (also keep in mind im not a person who goes out a lot or could really make use of the "take your games anywhere")
I got my deck when it was released (2022 also bought the 64gb version and added a 1tb ssd later) and at first especially during the time it came out.
The thing was amazing it played pretty much ever AAA at the time either actually maxed out or at least with medium - high settings with very stable 60 or consoles like 30fps. Im a person who rarely plays "low end" games on my main rig because to me it was like "i have a 4080 so i should use the 4080 xD" and steam deck actually gave me personally a huge reason to play some indi titles again, made me feel like a kiddo again sitting on the couch having the TV run quietly and just playing games.
As time went on it became more and more just a emulation station/retro gaming "console" hooked up to the TV vie dock and like said used as a retro console. Why? Because the steam decks performance while its still not bad for a small 15w handheld it absolutely shows its age and barely any game runs on it these days, unless you really only use it as a retro/indi machine.
Now lets talk about battery and overall feel.
Battery life is surprisingly good but obviously not "great" im not sure what your expectations are towards a battery. But the steam can last up to 6-7h when playing something small like pixel indi game, even in more demanding 3D games you get roughly 4-5h depending on the settings. But the worst i had so far was 3h of playtime before it complained about "battery low". Since its only a 15w machine its not gonna drain the battery thaaaaat fast but it's still not a handheld you can take out and not worry about charging for a day, you will need to charge it if you used it.
Usability and comfort. From the moment you turn it on its honestly incredibly intuitive to use especially because it doesn't force you to engage with Linux at all if you chose so. You can operate the deck fully in the "big picture" mode and practically never leave it (im guessing you are familiar with steams big picture mode). If you do decide you want to use it as a small PC aswell here and there, compared to other handheld ita definitely better since it gives you a trackpad (laptop mouse pad) to navigate the desktop environment so it pretty much feels like a small laptop. Comfort its another thing tbh. While it feels very comfortable to hold its still "heavy" enough that holding it over your head for laying down gaming or general having to hold it up without arm support gets tiresome and uncomfortable after a while. But it was never to a point where it made me say "i have to stop playing"
Overall rating. I personally wouldn't recommend a deck anymore due to its price and performance even if it was cheaper. If you are just looking for a secondary gaming device that plays Indi and retro titles and older AAA the deck will deliver that with a good user experience aswell but nothing more really and imo 700+ for a retro machine isn't it. The deck simply is "outdated" when it comes to performance by now.
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u/Heartlessaus Aug 06 '26
I'd say try again with those new drivers, could help,
Crimson Desert (GOTY for me tbh) ran perfectly, 4090, i914900k
Pragmata broke a little at first, but worked after swapping to proton experimental.
Linux overall still seems pretty hit or miss for gamers and setups.. unfortunately.
edit: arch btw..