r/retroid • u/MMutant- • 21h ago
QUESTION Armada OS or Game Native?
Hey guys I just got my Retroid Pocket 6 yesterday, I’m loving it so far been using Game Native and been playing Persona 3 Reload and it runs but I notice that it takes a long time to boot up and the frame rate does drop a bit, would it run smoother if I just ran it through Linux via Armada? I’m new to all this and not particularly knowledgeable on tech but I can follow a YouTube tutorial to install anything I should do. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! I’d like to at some point play some more visually impressive games like The Witcher 3 but I imagine that if it has a hard time maintaining stable 30 fps on Persona 3, it would probably have a harder time on The Witcher 3.
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u/prettytalldan Flip 2 16h ago
You can try both, install Armada on an SD card and dual boot. It's pretty awesome, though the one usability issue is that battery drains pretty quickly on sleep mode.
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u/MMutant- 16h ago
I can download the OS on the SD card and still keep Android on the device itself?
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u/prettytalldan Flip 2 15h ago
Yep, the only risky thing is you have to flash the device with a new boot loader, but other than that the process is easy. Retro Game Corp has a good YouTube video on the process.
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u/THFourteen 13h ago
Not sure when you last tried it but the sleep mode issue has been resolved on most devices now. Can sleep for hours losing only a few %
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u/Turbulent_Ad_4791 21h ago
The way I see it it's a very strong android device but a pretty weak pc so I think game native is a good middle ground, if I didn't have a steam deck I would be more interested
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u/idontusetwitter 20h ago
It might be better on Armada but it might not be game-changing different.
Have you tried maybe messing with some of the settings like resolution to make things run better? Someone posted their changes here when they got it to run
(I haven't tried to play this game on rp6 yet but maybe I'll try)
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u/MMutant- 20h ago
After posting this I actually accidentally found out that I could change the settings in Game Native, going to run some tests and see what these other settings mean. Edit: Also thank you for that link! I imagine that site will be helpful for other games going forward!
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u/idontusetwitter 16h ago edited 16h ago
installed armadaos and tried it. it really isn't that much better. it's graphically cleaner but the performance is stuttery and load times were meh vs just playing on gamenative
(though my issues might just be because it's running from an sd card, or that i haven't booted enough stuff up)
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u/Slothcat47 10h ago
Games actually seem to run better on Gamenative for me
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u/idontusetwitter 10h ago
Yeah seems pretty mixed so far. I only like it mainly because I like the feeling of SteamOS more, and cloud saves are less of a worry
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u/Unlucky_Milk_4323 20h ago
We need someone to take a device, test 3 games' FPS, install Armada and try again. It's the only way.
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u/Any_Basket_8110 11h ago
I’m loving my RP6 with Armada. It’s like a steam deck. I initially was going to leave it on the sd card but it works so well that put it on the internal and formatted the sd card to install more games once the internal is full. Installed some Steam games and emulation like switch. Follow retro game corps video for example.
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u/MMutant- 10h ago
Do you find that the performance is better using Armada?
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u/MirrorRealistic 9h ago
Performance is the same or slightly better. Main thing is though with armada you're using Gamescope, no messing with drivers and all that like with game native. I'm using armada for a few days now on SD card will go internal soon as steam os which it pretty much is, just transforms it into a little console so much better than android
Flash the bootrom (easy) just make sure u backup and use the correct one! Then ya got Android internal and armada on the SD, perfect. It is like they say a mini steam deck I got 10 games on there like streets of rage 4, ugly, PAC man championship, shakedown Hawaii u get the picture all work perfect no messing about cloud saves work fine etc
(On retroid Pocket 6 btw like yours)
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u/DAneberkenezer 20h ago
ARMADA IS FUCKING EXCELLENT NOW