A triple-A game I’ve been eyeing is finally down to a reasonable price on a third party website.
But after seeing how much better Diablo IV performs on my friend’s Xbox, I am really disappointed in myself for buying the PC version to play on my Steam Deck. I play mostly docked and connected to a TV, so the visual experience is something I value.
Diablo IV isn’t the first game I’ve regret purchasing on PC instead of Xbox. For older games, the Steam Deck is great; but it seems like modern games I really need to be wary of. You know what they say, fool me once, strike one, fool me twice… strike… three.
Has anyone else had a similar experience, wishing they’d spent the money on another platform? Is there a rule of thumb you follow on what to purchase, where?
Would it be okay to list the specific games I’m wondering about for input? I love my Steam Deck; but I’d rather not feel platform envy again.
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Yeah, “AAA games on high / beautiful graphics settings” isn’t really the Deck’s forte. FSR upscaling covers up a lot of the worst of docked ugliness, but it has its limits.
If visual fidelity is a huge deal for someone, and they are going to play docked 90%+ of the time, then they’d probably have been better served by a gaming laptop instead of a Steam Deck. And if one picked up the Deck because it was the best overall value for what they could afford, then they should probably be happy with the capabilities it has, and adjust their expectations a bit.
What if you just stream from a gaming pc to the deck? Is that a decent option?
If you have good local internet, absolutely. I don’t have a separate pc to stream from personally, but I’ve heard nothing but good things. I’m sure you can find some guides online to get the details.
I do a lot of streaming AAA games from my gaming pc to my deck and it’s excellent.
Steam Deck seems to be the wrong device if you are docking it to a TV most of the time… The SoC is optimized for low-to-mid quality on the 800p screen. The situation is similar if not worse than docking a Switch to a large flatscreen TV.
I’ve played games on both Switch and Steam Deck, and older games the Steam Deck blows the Switch out of the water at 1920x1080. Examples include Avicii Invector, Skyrim, and Yooka-Laylee.
It’s games like Diablo and Metal Hellsinger that make me concerned about Hogwarts Legacy and LEGO 2K Drive.
I have tried running Hogwarts Legacy on my Deck. It could achieve a stable ~30fps at all medium settings and FSR 2 Quality at 2/3 full resolution (1280x800) on-device. The frame rate will likely drop a bit if you are going to run it at 1080p or you need to try FSR 2 Balance or Performance. It should run fine with lower settings though.
Some really, really lightweight games can be done at 4k and depending on the graphical style it might be a good result. The two I know of are Rush Rally Origins (60 FPS at 4k maxed out! 14 watts! Only during the gameplay, menus are oddly more intense lmao) and Offroad Mania.
But aside from the odd game here and there you’re not supposed to expect 1080p from the Deck, not with recent/AAA games. I actually managed to trick myself into disappointment when I got it! Not knowing what to expect, and also not wanting to wait for a long download I tried Offroad Mania. Worked like a charm, obviously. Then I installed Hot Wheels Unleashed… and that’s what created disappointment. See, it runs maxed out at 800p same as my desktop with a 3060 runs it at 4k: “it’s the same as my computer but at a lower resolution! Sweet!”
Didn’t last long before reality hit me XD
The Steam Deck shines as a handheld because you only have middling graphics power but it’s only trying to drive a small screen (small in both size and pixels). If you plug it into a TV then that tradeoff stops working and it’s going to look worse than any console (except the Switch).
I do use my Deck on the TV and it isn’t as bad as I was expecting, but I’ve got a PC as well for demanding games.
IMO the Steam Deck is one of those machines that takes the “sure, we don’t recommend it, but we’ll let you do it” approach. You can run AAA games, and some even run surprisingly well, but in general I find that I would really much rather play AAA games on my PC than on my Steam Deck. It’s really best for indies, AA, and emulation, where the convenience of the Deck over a PC significantly offsets the comparatively weaker performance
I run everything at 720 so I can go seamlessly from docked to handheld, and quite frankly, this little magic Gaben rectangle has no business performing as well as it does.
If you’re trying to run games at 4k, then yeah, it’s not gonna be as good. Temper your expectations
I’ve been tinkering with docked 1080p and it really struggles with AAA gaming. best case scenario all-low settings Cyberpunk or Elden ring is playable but doesn’t look pretty.
as another commenter mentioned, forte is definitely older games and emulation. I never played Skyrim when it came out but plays just about flawlessly. Emulation is absolutely incredible; PS3, PS2 and Gamecube is a great experience docked or otherwise.
Great targeted hardware as a console should be. Older games or using it as a Linux PC make it worth it.
If all you are concerned about is the graphics, just get a better computer and you already own the game… Plus if you want to play the game but not sit at a desk you can hop back on the deck.
Diablo IV is amazing on the deck for me, but I only dock the Deck occasionally. I already have a mid-high end PC at the desk with an HDMI running to the TV. Only thing that bummed me out was lack of local co-op for PC. Would love to share the Diablo experience locally.
Personally the Deck docked isnt really for AAA titles, but more for all the lighter indie games and even better party games like Jackbox, PlateUp!, and all the emulated games I can bring to a LAN party and everyone pairs their controller to.
I played Miles Morales though on my deck in handheld, had to cap it at 30 to stabilise it, but it was more than playable.
40 was fine for me. Eats the battery like no other.
I personally only play AAA/demanding games on PS5, everything else on the deck. If the fan spins up and the device gets hot in my hands it puts me off playing almost completely.
I’ve found that the Steam Deck is great for playing AAA remotely. I have a high spec PC and use Steam remote play, or Chiaki for PS5 remote play. It’s a bigger investment but it definitely keeps the Steam Deck more relevant even for titles that don’t run natively.
My deck is for indies, old games and mid-tier games. AAA games tend to suck anyway lol
I bought got the Steam Deck for the handheld PC gaming experience. I did my research before pre-ordering and was aware that playing docked on a tv or 4K monitor would have its limitations. The key is to perform the necessary due diligence to understand the hardware and its limitations to set the correct expectations before buying. To be honest, my use case for docking the Steam Desk is for primarily its desktop mode. The most demanding AAA title I play regularly is Cyberpunk 2077, and I am thrilled that I can play it with good fidelity on the go.
This has been my challenge… The whole reason I bought a Steam Deck was to experience Steam Games that I couldn’t already play on Xbox/PS5/Switch.
TBH - there aren’t a lot…
The big recent one has been the System Shock remake… Buuuuut… it’s Windows only (at least the demo was), so there are extra steps involved there.
It looks like the full release runs natively on the Steam Deck fine.
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/02/new-system-shock-remake-demo-on-steam-deck/
It’s very much a wait and see from my experience. The beefier the game the more risk you have that you’ll have to play with settings.
Me personally since I have one of the originals, it has some fan issue that I haven’t looked into getting replaced yet, so beefier games straight up will overheat it at varying speeds, which is a very frustrating experience.
While it does work docked and that’s great, keep in mind one of the biggest benefits is being able to be portable as well, which isn’t as easy for most desktops (especially switching between the two)
Definitely worth keeping track of when the steam OS is actually out of it’s testing periods.
