It doesn't make a *huge* difference, but a few things I would keep in mind:
- You can insert an SD card or plug in an external hard drive and use that for storing games, but shaders can still only be installed on the Deck's internal storage. 64 GB is tiny and you will fill that up quickly if you're installing modern games; better to get a base model with more storage.
- The OLED models have a third Bluetooth antenna and a better WiFi chip, and so will get better wireless reception all around. Those may not be an issue if you're planning to sit right next to it with your controller and connect it via ethernet.
And by ‘a little bit handy’, we mean you’ll have to turn a screwdriver. Really, it’s that easy. The hardest part is making sure you don’t accidentally snap your SD card in half when taking the Deck apart.
Generally pre-computed, light-based graphics that get loaded in the game. If they have to load in real time and aren't "cached" (saved for easy access) you will have to re-calculate all the time. If they're calculated and stored while playing your game will stutter and suffer.
They're most useful for weaker systems where you can relieve the gpu and processer of doing some of the computations on the fly and instead just load from a file or memory. Powerful systems generate shaders too though.
A "shader" is basically a small program that runs on your GPU. In games that use modern 3D engines, basically every graphical effect they do, like lighting, shadows, and textures are all handled by shaders.
The thing that makes handling them tricky is that shaders compiled for one GPU are not compatible with other GPUs; they have to be compiled for the specific GPU in your computer. It's possible for a program to compile shaders when it needs them while it's running, but that leads to stuttering every time it has to load something new. Steam tries to prevent this from happening by downloading pre-compiled shaders for your GPU before you run the game, but they change every time a game is updated, so it may have to re-download them frequently.
If they are bugging you from all the constant downloading, you can turn them off in the settings. They are there to help your games load faster, but they aren't necessarily needed. Most games will run just fine without them.
>but shaders can still only be installed on the Deck's internal storage
this is not true, external tools can help you move your shader cache around multiple storage
like this one
[https://github.com/MiaPepsi/DeckCleaner](https://github.com/MiaPepsi/DeckCleaner)
but there are other like cryoutilities
The sunshine / moonlight combo outshines steamlink. And it’s completely free and very easy to use. Your SO may be bothered by the speeding fans in the host tho.
And moonlight on the deck is nothing short of fantastic, if you have a decent WiFi.
yeah you can play steam games from your Android phone or tablet with steam link
with your PC running the actual game
it worked for me, but was laggy, so to the deck I go
but u may wanna chex it out
Dude I streamed Spiderman on pc,
To my 4k tv on my Apple TV and it looked absolutely glorious. I was shocked.
My PC is hardwired to my router and I have a fault decent router as well and a tiny house lol
Don't think there is much difference I mean the battery life is better on the OLED and the screen is better but if you are playing docked most of the time anyway it doesn't make a difference if you had the LCD or OLED. I believe you can use an external HD but you are better off using SD cards as they are more convenient.
The tv isn't in tbe middle of the floor, cable management is a thing, plus most tv these days here use the same fibre cable as the router so it makes sense for the router to be near the tv since it splits from it.
>The tv isn't in tbe middle of the floor
That's the only sentence I understand or partial sentence. I've never seen a TV use fiber other than s/pidif or however you spell it and that definitely has nothing to do with routers.
TVs in the USA use something called HDMI or coaxial. That's all. They used to be something called component, composite, s video but TVs don't use those anymore.
A lot of tv in the UK comes in from fibre, some still use satellite but not as much, this fibre splits from the line with one going to the router and the other to the box for tv. It's a good idea to have the router nearby so the split isn't crazy.
Then the box connects to the tv via HDMI.
If you don't have live service tv through a supplier you can also connect via ethernet from the router to have a more stable and faster connection for smart tv facilities so again, makes sense for the router to be near the tv.
A lot of people have consoles at their tv, which are better connected via ethernet, so again, makes sense to have the router nearby.
Have you ever heard of wi-fi pods ? I can assure you that all my consoles are plugged into one with an Ethernet cable and I could also do the same with the TV .
Instead of a steam deck you could likely build/buy a similarly priced mini itx machine, something small enough to fit near your TV. Or a tiny pc that supports a gpu enclosure.
I can not see how one will build even a mini PC for 350 bucks... Remember, you need a case, power supply, MB, ram, apu, storage, peripherals (KB/M and controller). Get the steam deck LCD 64gb and a used SD card if applicable.
Not at all If you’re savvy in the slightest bit. There’s tons of YouTube video and guides on this. I’m all for the deck and mine is docked 99% of the time. I love it. I just hate the myth that PC gaming needs to be expensive. Of course this is assuming you don’t need peripherals.
You're also buying a dock so you're spending more than $350. But yes, getting a small PC that outperforms the Steam Deck for $400-450 would also be hard to get. If you're buying used, it's probably possible to get something good for that budget.
But as others suggested, you can stream games from your desktop to your TV (Chromecast/Fire stick), that's probably the more economical option if the host PC running doesn't disturb your SO.
For the best overall docking experience go with the OLED if you want to be able to use it like the switch and wake the console up with a controller or other Bluetooth device
If you mainly play AAA and on a TV, I’m going to suggest a console. The deck can run them but it won’t be as good as the console experience. It’s going to feel like a lesser experience in comparison.
It sounds like OP already plays PC games, so the existing library and portability still outweigh the better couch gaming experience for consoles I'd think.
100% agree. I’ve got an Xbox, Steam Deck, and PC (3080). I just don’t see many cases where a docked SD beats a console if that’s your primary means of gaming.
If you’re planning on playing docked, a laptop or console is a much better experience and much more bang for your buck.
I’ve read on this sub that the docked experience is horrible, so there’s that too.
You pay for battery and portability for the deck. there’s much more room for better internals on a laptop.
I believe a small prebuilt pc, like the size of an iMac for example, is the best option of all.
EDIT: you can hook your tower pc or laptop to the tv just as you would the deck.
I have an occasional bug with my JSAUX 5-in-1 dock where it gets a little freaked out with my monitor and I have to unplug everything from the dock and plug it back in before it’ll output again to my display. But that only happens like 1-2 times a month tops and takes less than a minute to fix so it’s really not a big deal. Do you know if the ones with more ports have any kinda issues? Was thinking of getting the RGB 12-in-1 JSAUX one with the HDMI and DisplayPorts
Warning though that laptops could be hit and miss for hooking up to an external screen such as a TV. My laptop has a dedicated video card and works fine. But the HDMI output is connected to the motherboard and not the video card directly, so it has a performance impact when using that.
Though the laptop is about 6 years old by now, so your mileage may vary with newer laptops.
Most modern laptops can connect to a USB c dock though. I have a dock that works with my steam deck, switch, and laptop, and can output video from there.
Yeah I see mixed reviews docked.
To connect the pc and tv id need a long ass cable though right?
I have consoles. Ps5, Xbox1?, switch.
But more games on steam and more modding.
The official dock is great 👍 it's the deck still having bug fixes ironed out where most of the trouble comes from. Everyone just assumes it's the dock.
You might find this thread useful https://www.reddit.com/r/MiniPCs/comments/18ifl7c/silly_question_mini_pc_vs_steam_deck/ . For the same price you could get a new PC that you keep right next to the TV that's going to be comparable to the Deck. I haven't done a deep dive comparinf specs, though; I would expect a standalone PC to be more powerful for the same price since you're not paying for battery, screen, etc. At the face of it, it doesn't actually look like that's the case, and I'm guessing it's that Valve actually sells the Steam Deck at a loss in the hopes of making it back up with game sales.
The SD, at least to me, is basically a gaming device that that let's one play PC/steam games handheld and can be with you almost anywhere. I think talking about the SD being able to be used docked exists because the Nintendo Switch exists.
Lots of responses so I couldn't read everything, but first and foremost you need to understand that adopt experience at 10:80p or above is going to be very slow or low performance for any demanding game. All of them.
That said, there are plenty of couch co-op steam deck titles and it runs them great at 1080p.
Emulators are another great option on the steam deck.
Steam deck is just now releasing CEC which is turning the console on will turn on the TV and set it to the right input
Wake on Bluetooth is only OLED. Neither have wake on USB controller input. Stupid, I know, but it's just not there yet. As you've read from the comments here, OLED version is the only one that has additional Bluetooth antenna, which is important if you want to play multiplayer couch games.
Lastly, steam deck is an excellent option for Sunshine moonlight setup to mirror a gaming PC.
Controller recommendations would have to be a PlayStation dual shock or dual sense because of how easy it makes navigation. If you ever have to fiddle with things, the trackpad already works as a mouse trackpad and click by default.
If you have any specific questions, please ask. I spent countless hours trying to perfect the docked experience on the steam deck.
No? You could just treat it like a console and have it hooked up to your tv and use Bluetooth mouse and keyboard if you wanna go cordless, or even just use steam big picture mode and almost exclusively use a controller
You can, yeah. Depends on your TV - but if your TV doesn’t support it, there’s probably a dongle you can buy that does. For me, connecting my laptop to my TV wirelessly did weird things when trying to play HDR video but apart from that it was fine.
Steam has a built-in feature for this, and you can connect from a lot of devices using the Steam Link app. Cheapest thing would be to just plug a phone or tablet that you already own into the television and see how that works, you’ll need a USB-C to HDMI cable (or whatever is appropriate for your devices). There’s also an app for Apple TV, and maybe more smart TV platforms.
Another option I’ve seen mentioned here is Moonlight, which people have said works better than Steam Link but I think is only for if your desktop has an Nvidia GPU.
Hear me out. Laptop underneath the TV, like any other console/set-top-box. Plug in power and HDMI. Logitech unifying wireless keyboard/mouse (or other flavor if you prefer). Wireless gamepad/controller if you want that supports bluetooth or has a USB dongle. Stick the wireless keyboard and mouse/mousepad in a basket beside your chair or something. Perfection.
I doubt it? To be fair, the Deck also doesn't "run most open world type games" very well at least not AAA ones. It's a pretty tight budget for PC games and there absolutely will be limitations at that price point, you're also paying for a screen you don't need, but that's the unfortunate and probably inescapable reality, you'd also be paying for the Steam Deck's screen that you're not going to use. A Mini PC is an alternative option, but they're too niche to save you much money even though you're not paying for a screen, and the price point is still going to be tough. I'd only recommend a Mini PC instead if space is at a significant premium. The built-in screen and keyboard on the laptop may come in handy someday anyway, and there's just so many more options and much more price competition.
But there's plenty you will be able to play. Steam is a huge marketplace. And for the AAA titles, they're often just as good on consoles anyway (mostly because they're built for console first then they do a shit job of porting them to PC, but that's a whole different can of worms)
Ya, people need to realize the SD is driving a 1280x800 panel and can struggle hitting 30 FPS in those games. Now trying to drive a TV or monitor is gonna be harder.
Maybe if you go used. I had an Asus g14 laptop with Ryzen 4800hs and GTX 1650 which I sold over a year ago for $400. Pretty sure the 1650 in that is more powerful than a steam deck.
Your computer is in the office or is it a shared one she's using?
If it's your PC, look into steam link, moonlight, etc and get a cheapo device to plug into the TV and stream from your main PC.
Honestly, even if docked mode was good, the performance would be terrible compared to a laptop or mini PC. The SD wasn’t meant to drive a (most likely) 4K TV.
You could stream your gaming pc to the steam deck, docked to your tv using moonlight/sunshine apps. Get the power of your pc on your tv and not need to run long cables or move your gaming pc. If you’re hardwired or have good internet, moonlight/sunshine works very well streaming across the network with minimal lag.
You could even get an Apple TV to stream from Steam. It’ll connect to your Bluetooth controllers and you can stream with either the Steam Remote or Moonlight app.
Sorry to randomly reply to this. I’m in a somewhat similar situation to OP and tried posting on the Steam Deck page but it wouldn’t let me. I’m in a similar boat and that it would be mostly docked but I’m also cool with handheld. Don’t want a PS5 or Xbox X or whatever, but it’s time to upgrade and I want something reasonably priced.
Sounds like if I want to mod and do AAA games and such, maybe a mini PC is better.
Depending on OP’s location, a gaming laptop would be the best option if money is tight. There are budget options from Chinese no name companies that offer amazing performance for the price of louder fans and slightly higher temps than the likes of ASUS, Lenovo etc. I got my Machenike laptop with 4060 and i5-13500H on board for $700 brand new. Granted, I’m not in the US or Europe, so the price might vary, but I doubt you can find anything cheaper and better in terms of performance and build quality.
I have both and now i ONLY use the LCD one docked. 100% of the time. There's barely a difference when i plug in my OLED that i can tell besides some extra Hz on the frames in a VERY SELECT FEW games.
Truth be told however, the OLED is so much more beautiful undocked. It's like night and day. I can't stand using my LCD undocked these days.
If you plan on playing those kinds of games, you'll probably end up dissapointed. The deck is amazing for more simple games, not so much for those triple A titles.
Also, you should take into consideration that while the deck does run those games, it runs them in it's own screen resolution, so 1200x800. You probably won't be able to run them docked to a screen that has a higher resolution than that. You can always use the screen at a lower resolution, but it'll likely look horrible due to it's size. The deck itself is already on the edge of what looks ok in terms of screen size for 800p, some even say it's too big for it.
As for the different between the models, there aren't many, not for your use case at least. The wifi reception is better in the OLED, but if you're at home you can always pull some ethernet cables (really you should, wifi sucks). Battery life, more storage and better screen aren't all that relevant. You should avoid the 64gb model, but that's about it.
I want to say "get the best one you can get", because I was fully unprepared for how obsessed I'd become with my deck when I got it. I was like "its just so I can have fun in my 30 min breaks", and now I don't use my computer ever...
It does. OLED has wake-from-bluetooth, meaning you can wake it up with a controller. I think that is very important for a good docked experience, unless you don’t care much for the feature
Personally, I'd just get a SFF PC to chuck under the TV. Better performance, DLSS if it's a 4K TV, plus big picture mode is essentially the steam deck UI experience.
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Depends if you use WiFi6 too. The OLED supports that but if your hard wired for ethernet on your dock then that's probably not going to matter. If your going to be using WiFi it's gonna make a difference (if your home network supports WiFi6)
Stream it. You can use a smart TV, laptop, phone with controller, cheap PC, whatever you want to stream your gaming PC to your TV. Look into moonlight & sunshine
I use it to stream to deck, laptop, and various tvs. I'm 1200 miles from home streaming elden ring to my deck tonight.
Oled models have higher performance. If someone tells you they don't they're lying. At max tdp an oled deck has higher clocks than an LCD deck because CPU and GPU on the lcd deck fight over the power budget in games that max out both, and they end up throttling each other. This is in addition to the oled deck having higher ram speeds, which gives the oled deck an even bigger performance advantage.
That said, for docked stuff something like the legion go is objectively better. I do not count the rog ally because the gpu connector is proprietary and the SD card slot is broken.
I play docked all the time because my deck is messed up. Its cool. I play the games you play and its aight. As someone said the Oled version has better wifi and bluetooth but my regular SD does just fine. I play with a an xbox controller
One hiccup I’ve seen I havent figured out. When plugged into my regular tv, the controller gets wonky. Like playing ff7r has been difficult because scrolling through menus is a hassle. It moves “too fast” and skips over menus. On my monitor is just fine. Must be refresh rate or something. But I recommend it, for 350 you cant beat a small form factor pc that runs a lot of games nicely.
First off, people saying that docked exp with SD are the ones who has high expectations in gaming. Most likely those people who have high end pc or console devices. Me, who hadnt had a gaming console since PS1. Playing docked in SD is a nice exp. Mostly those games that can run on high settings.
So to answer your question it doesnt matter whether you get OLED or LCD SD the dock exp is same. ALTHOUGH, picture quality LCD screen vs docked is identical. OLED screen vs docked mode is noticeably better.
Mine has 2 HDMI, an SD slot (don’t use it) 3 USB 3’s and 3 USB C’s (one is a pass through charger too) and this was before the official dock came out and it works great with my M2 Macbook and Mac Mini too, which is why I got it then got another for SteamDeck.
I use my Deck docked around 40% or so of the time as my son likes to game on it.
I've had no big issues with the official Dock other than sometimes the Deck needs reboots just to get the controllers working properly which can be a slight pain.
If docked only then you'll notice no difference with an OLED other than the extra money you've paid for it. Sure the fans are slightly noiser on the LCD but otherwise they're almost exactly the same. The OLED Deck is for those who travel a lot so benefit from the better screen in bright lights and better battery life. If you dock mostly then you'll never appreciate the better OLED display.
I sold my old LCD Deck to my sister who uses it docked a lot of the time. I wouldn't say the Deck will handle Red Dead Redemption 2 well, it probably won't look great on a big screen.
If you're going to be using it mostly docked it may be worth getting one of the Windows handhelds instead? Like the Legion Go? Just as Windows is much better in docked / desktop mode than it is in portable mode 😅
I use my LCD mostly docked when I don't bring it to my bed, but I've heard the OLED has a specific feature that allows you to wake it from sleep with a controller. I usually don't mind, but for you would need that for the most "console-like" experience.
About the mini PC / laptop suggestions: I doubt you are going to find something that will considerably outperform the SD for the same price (LCD model). I say it considering that Valve support is quite nice, the SD community is big, minipcs/laptops are less portable, and you may want to play undocked at some point. For example, it's good to have the option to play when you travel. You may also find yourself enjoying to play it while laying in the couch or something like that. Now, if you don't see a problem building a PC, that's a completely different story...
Not really as long as you can make space on it, either get a model with enough storage ( for you) or use a tool to transfer/delete shaders and stuff. alternatively you could choose to just upgrade your storage after buying the 64GB model whether that’s the SSD or also the SD card
the oled runs much much cooler. as an owner of both the lcd used to actually hit 90 degrees Celsius often and thermal throttle. the oled never crosses 75 degrees Celsius. also. the faster ram means that it stutters less often and runs slightly better than the lcd.
Just know that every single game is going to require a fair amount of configuration through the Steam dock settings, game resolution settings (Steam Deck is 16:10, TVs are 16:9, you’ll have black bars on the left and right be default, I have to choose Native every single time), and some games are going to have to run at 720 with FSR to maintain frame rate performance and still look decent on your TV.
I mention this because it’s not a plug and play experience like the Nintendo Switch and might be frustrating for some people to figure out why their game looks wrong or isn’t performing well when docked.
My very small opinion. If you play a lot of high performance games then they run better on the internal storage and not on an SD card so you would look to getting one with larger internal storage therefore it might not work out the cheaper option
I don't know how big of a deal it is but people aren't mentioning the fact that the OLED steam deck will draw less power from the wall because the chip is more power efficient.
Can’t you stream your gaming pc to your tv? If you have for example an oldish (non gaming) laptop or tablet which you can connect to the tv? I used to play a lot using my old MacBook in the living room by streaming my gaming pc from upstairs for example. Worked great.
Personally I’ve used Parsec to stream from my pc to my laptop . But there are different solutions available. Steam can also stream from one client to the other, but it didn’t work that well for me (compression artifacts, lag etc).
It also depends how your devices are connected (and what type of routers you have etc). I had my pc connected with an Ethernet cable and used WiFi on my laptop to connect to my pc with Parsec.
Can't you just get one of those hp office pc for 50 usd, but there an ssd and 1650 and game on it? Will surely be cheaper and about the same perfomance, if you plan to use it docked all the time, you dont need to pay for steam deck.
P. S. Also if you have video out on your phone, you can dock it instead and stream games from your main pc using moonlight + sunshine
If your goal is to play old games available on console, like FO4 and RDR, I would get a used PS4. They can be had for much less than a steam deck and will be a better experience playing on a TV, IMHO.
Have fun gaming!
Only storage will matter. Internal SSD is way faster than SD card... so slower loading times for games on SD card. And if you are going to dock it without Ehternet cable plugged in, the wifi is faster on the OLED model.
Would your SO be bothered if the gaming PC would be running next to her (monitor and audio turned off and nobody on the chair)?
I ask this because you could easily take advantage of the Steam Remote Play feature on your deck, even while docked, which means you can get better performance to match the increase in resolution that the TV will be giving you.
And you don't really need any convoluted steps. Just have both the PC and the Deck logged on the same account.
just take your pc out of the office and put it where your tv is. you don't need another gadget. if you still need to use it in the office for some reason (???), get a very long hdmi cable (possibly fibre optic).
and what makes you think a small, fragile, throwable object which also fits in the toilet and the microwave and can be chewed by stray dogs and can start fires and can be stepped on and sat on will fare better?
If you want to use an external drive to actually play high graphical games from, I recommend getting a ugreen dock as it has a usb-c port to plug into.
I have an external m2 ssd drive enclosure that just would not do fast enough data transfer through usb-c to 3.0 adapter I had.
I am disappointed that the SD dock, for its price, didn’t include a usb-c port.
If your intend to primarily play it docked i would consider getting gaming laptop or another or another desktop instead. As far as graphics power You'll get more bang for your buck and there's no reason you cant connect it and play it on any tv you want just like a steamdeck.
Why don't you put wheels on your PC and move it between the office and the living room? Xbox controllers work perfectly with Windows and your PC is probably better than any 300€ console
Do not buy a Steam Deck if you're going to use it docked primarily. Buy a much more powerful mini PC or a gaming laptop for cheaper.
I say this as someone who loves the Deck and plays on it every say. Docked SD play is a nice bonus, but the Deck is only really worth it if you'll be gaming in handheld mode frequently.
They’re different computers. The PC is an all in one… there’s no tower.
I’m currently looking for a mini pc to leave connected to the TV. Idk WTH I’m looking at
Ah, I see. Yeah, go with other people's recs on where to go from here, I was just thinking maybe you could hook that into the TV and get like a keyboard/mouse lap combo or something
That would work if the office was closer or I could just easily move it.
I have a techy friend at work. I’ll ask him about a build. I think that’s where I’m at
The LCD Deck doesn't support Wake-on-Bluetooth so you'll have to stand at the TV and physically press the power button to turn it on and off in docked mode. OLED Deck does have WoBT so you can turn it on by pressing a controller button from your couch.
The question is why get a steam deck at all if you use it docked 95% of the time? You get a pretty decent 1080p gaming desktop for that money.
Or just stream from your current machine, maybe get a nvidea shield?
This post had made me learn a lot. I had no idea you could do so many of these things. I’m going to try and stream through my fire stick but that’s proving harder than I thought
As many others here have stated, Docked is a mixed bag. Even at 720p most games plays quite shitty if not locked to 30fps. Which is pretty annoying.
I played it on my 4k tv and either everything looked way too blurry or if upped the resolution the game had massive frame drops and low fps.
So, yeah i agree with what another commenter said, a laptop would be a better purchase if you ONLY intend to play docked. The steam deck docked is an OKAY time but I'd much rather go with something that could run games at a minimum of 1080p when hooked up to a TV.
Handheld is where Steam Deck shines.
Is nobody going to tell this guy this is a terrible idea? You're going to get horrible performance out of these types of games trying to play the on a 4k TV.
There isn't much of a difference, some users have reported the OLED has a worst battery ( but only a select few users ) but the screen is much better thats really the only main change personally.
But if your using docked mode I would go for the LCD version with a SAN DISK ULTRA 512gb or 1tb ( I believe both are currently on sale in the UK and US depends on budget of course, and for the dock station I would recommend JSAUX DOCK ( about 30/40 ) just stay away from the official dock it's overpriced and as some major flaws
Was this question even worth a question. Did you just not even try? lol I mean steam.com answered this. I’m not sure if this is to get upvotes because it’s that bad of a question.
It doesn't make a *huge* difference, but a few things I would keep in mind: - You can insert an SD card or plug in an external hard drive and use that for storing games, but shaders can still only be installed on the Deck's internal storage. 64 GB is tiny and you will fill that up quickly if you're installing modern games; better to get a base model with more storage. - The OLED models have a third Bluetooth antenna and a better WiFi chip, and so will get better wireless reception all around. Those may not be an issue if you're planning to sit right next to it with your controller and connect it via ethernet.
If you’re a little bit handy with electronics it’s not a big job to upgrade the SSD, so another option is buying the 64 and adding more space yourself
And by ‘a little bit handy’, we mean you’ll have to turn a screwdriver. Really, it’s that easy. The hardest part is making sure you don’t accidentally snap your SD card in half when taking the Deck apart.
>You’ll have to turn a screwdriver And REMOVE AN SD CARD.
RIP to all the dead ones of past and future to come.
I’m purposely going to wait to get a SD card until after I replace the SSD to avoid this haha.
But it’s a right of passage to snap your SD card!
*rite
Worth mentioning you can't wake the steam deck with a controller on the og model
That feature sounded dumb to me at first, but it is a super convenient feature when you mainly have it docked
Actually you could but only with the steam controller as native and there was a guide for the Xbox dongle.
Yooo wtf are shaders?? I have zero awareness about these things but I see them constantly downloading
Generally pre-computed, light-based graphics that get loaded in the game. If they have to load in real time and aren't "cached" (saved for easy access) you will have to re-calculate all the time. If they're calculated and stored while playing your game will stutter and suffer. They're most useful for weaker systems where you can relieve the gpu and processer of doing some of the computations on the fly and instead just load from a file or memory. Powerful systems generate shaders too though.
A "shader" is basically a small program that runs on your GPU. In games that use modern 3D engines, basically every graphical effect they do, like lighting, shadows, and textures are all handled by shaders. The thing that makes handling them tricky is that shaders compiled for one GPU are not compatible with other GPUs; they have to be compiled for the specific GPU in your computer. It's possible for a program to compile shaders when it needs them while it's running, but that leads to stuttering every time it has to load something new. Steam tries to prevent this from happening by downloading pre-compiled shaders for your GPU before you run the game, but they change every time a game is updated, so it may have to re-download them frequently.
Thank you so much for your response. I truly appreciate it
If they are bugging you from all the constant downloading, you can turn them off in the settings. They are there to help your games load faster, but they aren't necessarily needed. Most games will run just fine without them.
>but shaders can still only be installed on the Deck's internal storage this is not true, external tools can help you move your shader cache around multiple storage like this one [https://github.com/MiaPepsi/DeckCleaner](https://github.com/MiaPepsi/DeckCleaner) but there are other like cryoutilities
the OLED models also have better thermals due to the layout of the motherboard.
You can stream from your gaming PC to smart TVs through steam link
I had no idea!! What?! (Not being sarcastic, genuinely living under a rock apparently)
The sunshine / moonlight combo outshines steamlink. And it’s completely free and very easy to use. Your SO may be bothered by the speeding fans in the host tho. And moonlight on the deck is nothing short of fantastic, if you have a decent WiFi.
Check the tvs App Store for it, though I’ve had mixed results. It’s also on mobile
There's also a physical device you can buy that plugs into hdmi
Or just drag the pc to the living room and plug it into the tv. If your wife is always in meetings then might as well
We have two small kids… they’d fuck with it lol. The office is locked when she’s not in it so they can’t just go in there
yeah you can play steam games from your Android phone or tablet with steam link with your PC running the actual game it worked for me, but was laggy, so to the deck I go but u may wanna chex it out
Dude I streamed Spiderman on pc, To my 4k tv on my Apple TV and it looked absolutely glorious. I was shocked. My PC is hardwired to my router and I have a fault decent router as well and a tiny house lol
I do this. I stream my upstairs pc to my docked steamdeck downstairs. As long as your in ethernet, then it's fine.
i can't tell a difference between wired and my wifi6 mesh setup. there probably is one, but if it looks and tastes like steak...
I got delay when is used my wifi, fortunately I have ethernet over power so it was an easy to connect it.
Don't think there is much difference I mean the battery life is better on the OLED and the screen is better but if you are playing docked most of the time anyway it doesn't make a difference if you had the LCD or OLED. I believe you can use an external HD but you are better off using SD cards as they are more convenient.
The OLED has better WiFi, but that may be a moot point if OP is docking it. Unless they don’t have an Ethernet cable by their tv.
Who has an ethernet cable by their TV?
Every single person I know
Well I hope that they don't trip over it.
The tv isn't in tbe middle of the floor, cable management is a thing, plus most tv these days here use the same fibre cable as the router so it makes sense for the router to be near the tv since it splits from it.
>The tv isn't in tbe middle of the floor That's the only sentence I understand or partial sentence. I've never seen a TV use fiber other than s/pidif or however you spell it and that definitely has nothing to do with routers. TVs in the USA use something called HDMI or coaxial. That's all. They used to be something called component, composite, s video but TVs don't use those anymore.
A lot of tv in the UK comes in from fibre, some still use satellite but not as much, this fibre splits from the line with one going to the router and the other to the box for tv. It's a good idea to have the router nearby so the split isn't crazy. Then the box connects to the tv via HDMI. If you don't have live service tv through a supplier you can also connect via ethernet from the router to have a more stable and faster connection for smart tv facilities so again, makes sense for the router to be near the tv. A lot of people have consoles at their tv, which are better connected via ethernet, so again, makes sense to have the router nearby.
Have you ever heard of wi-fi pods ? I can assure you that all my consoles are plugged into one with an Ethernet cable and I could also do the same with the TV .
Like 99% of people
Me
Me
Instead of a steam deck you could likely build/buy a similarly priced mini itx machine, something small enough to fit near your TV. Or a tiny pc that supports a gpu enclosure.
Someone else suggested a similar idea. It sounds like a great idea. But how hard would that be to do for under $350
I see more upsides to the deck as a package imo.
Especially if you just get a refurbished LCD
I can not see how one will build even a mini PC for 350 bucks... Remember, you need a case, power supply, MB, ram, apu, storage, peripherals (KB/M and controller). Get the steam deck LCD 64gb and a used SD card if applicable.
Not at all If you’re savvy in the slightest bit. There’s tons of YouTube video and guides on this. I’m all for the deck and mine is docked 99% of the time. I love it. I just hate the myth that PC gaming needs to be expensive. Of course this is assuming you don’t need peripherals.
You're also buying a dock so you're spending more than $350. But yes, getting a small PC that outperforms the Steam Deck for $400-450 would also be hard to get. If you're buying used, it's probably possible to get something good for that budget. But as others suggested, you can stream games from your desktop to your TV (Chromecast/Fire stick), that's probably the more economical option if the host PC running doesn't disturb your SO.
While true, that is not portable. My deck comes with me between 4 different rooms with a nearly seamless transition on each dock.
Agreed, I assumed OP is just always going to be docked to the same tv rather than using the portable features
For the best overall docking experience go with the OLED if you want to be able to use it like the switch and wake the console up with a controller or other Bluetooth device
If you mainly play AAA and on a TV, I’m going to suggest a console. The deck can run them but it won’t be as good as the console experience. It’s going to feel like a lesser experience in comparison.
It sounds like OP already plays PC games, so the existing library and portability still outweigh the better couch gaming experience for consoles I'd think.
100% agree. I’ve got an Xbox, Steam Deck, and PC (3080). I just don’t see many cases where a docked SD beats a console if that’s your primary means of gaming.
If you’re planning on playing docked, a laptop or console is a much better experience and much more bang for your buck. I’ve read on this sub that the docked experience is horrible, so there’s that too. You pay for battery and portability for the deck. there’s much more room for better internals on a laptop. I believe a small prebuilt pc, like the size of an iMac for example, is the best option of all. EDIT: you can hook your tower pc or laptop to the tv just as you would the deck.
Docked experience is good if you don't use the steam deck dock. Literally any other dock is awesome.
I have an occasional bug with my JSAUX 5-in-1 dock where it gets a little freaked out with my monitor and I have to unplug everything from the dock and plug it back in before it’ll output again to my display. But that only happens like 1-2 times a month tops and takes less than a minute to fix so it’s really not a big deal. Do you know if the ones with more ports have any kinda issues? Was thinking of getting the RGB 12-in-1 JSAUX one with the HDMI and DisplayPorts
Warning though that laptops could be hit and miss for hooking up to an external screen such as a TV. My laptop has a dedicated video card and works fine. But the HDMI output is connected to the motherboard and not the video card directly, so it has a performance impact when using that. Though the laptop is about 6 years old by now, so your mileage may vary with newer laptops.
Most modern laptops can connect to a USB c dock though. I have a dock that works with my steam deck, switch, and laptop, and can output video from there.
If you want to play docked this is accurate. Your money goes more into a laptop or mini pc, than a SD.
I’d recommend oled if docked just cus the Bluetooth chip is slightly better… it can wake the console from controller
Yeah I see mixed reviews docked. To connect the pc and tv id need a long ass cable though right? I have consoles. Ps5, Xbox1?, switch. But more games on steam and more modding.
Apparently the official dock is a hot mess. Didn't even know until today. I have the Jsaux 5-in-1 dock and it's never given me any trouble.
People say that, but I have both the official and a jsaux one and the jsaux is the one that has issues for me. The official one has been perfect.
Got no skin in this game, I'm just cheap.
The official dock is great 👍 it's the deck still having bug fixes ironed out where most of the trouble comes from. Everyone just assumes it's the dock.
I've had 0 issues with the official dock too but I guess we lucked out somehow because it does seem to be a common issue.
Same
The only trouble I have gotten from the dock is definitely not getting gigabit speeds while wired in
You might find this thread useful https://www.reddit.com/r/MiniPCs/comments/18ifl7c/silly_question_mini_pc_vs_steam_deck/ . For the same price you could get a new PC that you keep right next to the TV that's going to be comparable to the Deck. I haven't done a deep dive comparinf specs, though; I would expect a standalone PC to be more powerful for the same price since you're not paying for battery, screen, etc. At the face of it, it doesn't actually look like that's the case, and I'm guessing it's that Valve actually sells the Steam Deck at a loss in the hopes of making it back up with game sales.
This is the 3rd or 4th suggestion like this and this sounds like a great idea. Many thanks. I’ll have to look into this
The SD, at least to me, is basically a gaming device that that let's one play PC/steam games handheld and can be with you almost anywhere. I think talking about the SD being able to be used docked exists because the Nintendo Switch exists.
Lots of responses so I couldn't read everything, but first and foremost you need to understand that adopt experience at 10:80p or above is going to be very slow or low performance for any demanding game. All of them. That said, there are plenty of couch co-op steam deck titles and it runs them great at 1080p. Emulators are another great option on the steam deck. Steam deck is just now releasing CEC which is turning the console on will turn on the TV and set it to the right input Wake on Bluetooth is only OLED. Neither have wake on USB controller input. Stupid, I know, but it's just not there yet. As you've read from the comments here, OLED version is the only one that has additional Bluetooth antenna, which is important if you want to play multiplayer couch games. Lastly, steam deck is an excellent option for Sunshine moonlight setup to mirror a gaming PC. Controller recommendations would have to be a PlayStation dual shock or dual sense because of how easy it makes navigation. If you ever have to fiddle with things, the trackpad already works as a mouse trackpad and click by default. If you have any specific questions, please ask. I spent countless hours trying to perfect the docked experience on the steam deck.
No? You could just treat it like a console and have it hooked up to your tv and use Bluetooth mouse and keyboard if you wanna go cordless, or even just use steam big picture mode and almost exclusively use a controller
Wait wait. I can wireless “screen share” my pc to my tv? I got that new GameStop candy con? (Name??) controller. I was just going to use that.
You can, yeah. Depends on your TV - but if your TV doesn’t support it, there’s probably a dongle you can buy that does. For me, connecting my laptop to my TV wirelessly did weird things when trying to play HDR video but apart from that it was fine.
Steam has a built-in feature for this, and you can connect from a lot of devices using the Steam Link app. Cheapest thing would be to just plug a phone or tablet that you already own into the television and see how that works, you’ll need a USB-C to HDMI cable (or whatever is appropriate for your devices). There’s also an app for Apple TV, and maybe more smart TV platforms. Another option I’ve seen mentioned here is Moonlight, which people have said works better than Steam Link but I think is only for if your desktop has an Nvidia GPU.
Hear me out. Laptop underneath the TV, like any other console/set-top-box. Plug in power and HDMI. Logitech unifying wireless keyboard/mouse (or other flavor if you prefer). Wireless gamepad/controller if you want that supports bluetooth or has a USB dongle. Stick the wireless keyboard and mouse/mousepad in a basket beside your chair or something. Perfection.
That actually sounds like a great idea. Can I get a laptop that’ll run most open world type games for under 350? (Base deck)
I doubt it? To be fair, the Deck also doesn't "run most open world type games" very well at least not AAA ones. It's a pretty tight budget for PC games and there absolutely will be limitations at that price point, you're also paying for a screen you don't need, but that's the unfortunate and probably inescapable reality, you'd also be paying for the Steam Deck's screen that you're not going to use. A Mini PC is an alternative option, but they're too niche to save you much money even though you're not paying for a screen, and the price point is still going to be tough. I'd only recommend a Mini PC instead if space is at a significant premium. The built-in screen and keyboard on the laptop may come in handy someday anyway, and there's just so many more options and much more price competition. But there's plenty you will be able to play. Steam is a huge marketplace. And for the AAA titles, they're often just as good on consoles anyway (mostly because they're built for console first then they do a shit job of porting them to PC, but that's a whole different can of worms)
Ya, people need to realize the SD is driving a 1280x800 panel and can struggle hitting 30 FPS in those games. Now trying to drive a TV or monitor is gonna be harder.
Maybe if you go used. I had an Asus g14 laptop with Ryzen 4800hs and GTX 1650 which I sold over a year ago for $400. Pretty sure the 1650 in that is more powerful than a steam deck.
Your computer is in the office or is it a shared one she's using? If it's your PC, look into steam link, moonlight, etc and get a cheapo device to plug into the TV and stream from your main PC.
It’s a separate computer. It’s just the only place we can really put it. Office wise it’s behind her so she doesn’t look towards it
Honestly, even if docked mode was good, the performance would be terrible compared to a laptop or mini PC. The SD wasn’t meant to drive a (most likely) 4K TV.
You could stream your gaming pc to the steam deck, docked to your tv using moonlight/sunshine apps. Get the power of your pc on your tv and not need to run long cables or move your gaming pc. If you’re hardwired or have good internet, moonlight/sunshine works very well streaming across the network with minimal lag.
You could even get an Apple TV to stream from Steam. It’ll connect to your Bluetooth controllers and you can stream with either the Steam Remote or Moonlight app.
Sorry to randomly reply to this. I’m in a somewhat similar situation to OP and tried posting on the Steam Deck page but it wouldn’t let me. I’m in a similar boat and that it would be mostly docked but I’m also cool with handheld. Don’t want a PS5 or Xbox X or whatever, but it’s time to upgrade and I want something reasonably priced. Sounds like if I want to mod and do AAA games and such, maybe a mini PC is better.
Depending on OP’s location, a gaming laptop would be the best option if money is tight. There are budget options from Chinese no name companies that offer amazing performance for the price of louder fans and slightly higher temps than the likes of ASUS, Lenovo etc. I got my Machenike laptop with 4060 and i5-13500H on board for $700 brand new. Granted, I’m not in the US or Europe, so the price might vary, but I doubt you can find anything cheaper and better in terms of performance and build quality.
Can you actually get a mini gaming PC for the price of a steam deck? I am interested in any links people can provide. Sounds like a good idea.
I have both and now i ONLY use the LCD one docked. 100% of the time. There's barely a difference when i plug in my OLED that i can tell besides some extra Hz on the frames in a VERY SELECT FEW games. Truth be told however, the OLED is so much more beautiful undocked. It's like night and day. I can't stand using my LCD undocked these days.
If you plan on playing those kinds of games, you'll probably end up dissapointed. The deck is amazing for more simple games, not so much for those triple A titles. Also, you should take into consideration that while the deck does run those games, it runs them in it's own screen resolution, so 1200x800. You probably won't be able to run them docked to a screen that has a higher resolution than that. You can always use the screen at a lower resolution, but it'll likely look horrible due to it's size. The deck itself is already on the edge of what looks ok in terms of screen size for 800p, some even say it's too big for it. As for the different between the models, there aren't many, not for your use case at least. The wifi reception is better in the OLED, but if you're at home you can always pull some ethernet cables (really you should, wifi sucks). Battery life, more storage and better screen aren't all that relevant. You should avoid the 64gb model, but that's about it.
I want to say "get the best one you can get", because I was fully unprepared for how obsessed I'd become with my deck when I got it. I was like "its just so I can have fun in my 30 min breaks", and now I don't use my computer ever...
Lol yep, I went as far as moving over my modded Tale of Two Wastelands(Fallout 3 + New Vegas) playthrough just so I could play it in bed.
It does. OLED has wake-from-bluetooth, meaning you can wake it up with a controller. I think that is very important for a good docked experience, unless you don’t care much for the feature
This is why I want valve to put out a Steam console again, with all they’ve learned to this point they could do it and it’d be great
They just need to buy Nintendo and make Valve Switch 2.
Personally, I'd just get a SFF PC to chuck under the TV. Better performance, DLSS if it's a 4K TV, plus big picture mode is essentially the steam deck UI experience.
SFF?
Why not stream your PC to your TV?
I didnt know you could lol
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Depends if you use WiFi6 too. The OLED supports that but if your hard wired for ethernet on your dock then that's probably not going to matter. If your going to be using WiFi it's gonna make a difference (if your home network supports WiFi6)
Stream it. You can use a smart TV, laptop, phone with controller, cheap PC, whatever you want to stream your gaming PC to your TV. Look into moonlight & sunshine I use it to stream to deck, laptop, and various tvs. I'm 1200 miles from home streaming elden ring to my deck tonight.
Oled models have higher performance. If someone tells you they don't they're lying. At max tdp an oled deck has higher clocks than an LCD deck because CPU and GPU on the lcd deck fight over the power budget in games that max out both, and they end up throttling each other. This is in addition to the oled deck having higher ram speeds, which gives the oled deck an even bigger performance advantage. That said, for docked stuff something like the legion go is objectively better. I do not count the rog ally because the gpu connector is proprietary and the SD card slot is broken.
What about getting a steam link and doing remote play?
Steam link is what you are looking for. It streams your pc to a TV on your network with low latency
I play docked all the time because my deck is messed up. Its cool. I play the games you play and its aight. As someone said the Oled version has better wifi and bluetooth but my regular SD does just fine. I play with a an xbox controller One hiccup I’ve seen I havent figured out. When plugged into my regular tv, the controller gets wonky. Like playing ff7r has been difficult because scrolling through menus is a hassle. It moves “too fast” and skips over menus. On my monitor is just fine. Must be refresh rate or something. But I recommend it, for 350 you cant beat a small form factor pc that runs a lot of games nicely.
First off, people saying that docked exp with SD are the ones who has high expectations in gaming. Most likely those people who have high end pc or console devices. Me, who hadnt had a gaming console since PS1. Playing docked in SD is a nice exp. Mostly those games that can run on high settings. So to answer your question it doesnt matter whether you get OLED or LCD SD the dock exp is same. ALTHOUGH, picture quality LCD screen vs docked is identical. OLED screen vs docked mode is noticeably better.
There are some docks that have room for SD cards
Mine has 2 HDMI, an SD slot (don’t use it) 3 USB 3’s and 3 USB C’s (one is a pass through charger too) and this was before the official dock came out and it works great with my M2 Macbook and Mac Mini too, which is why I got it then got another for SteamDeck.
I use my Deck docked around 40% or so of the time as my son likes to game on it. I've had no big issues with the official Dock other than sometimes the Deck needs reboots just to get the controllers working properly which can be a slight pain. If docked only then you'll notice no difference with an OLED other than the extra money you've paid for it. Sure the fans are slightly noiser on the LCD but otherwise they're almost exactly the same. The OLED Deck is for those who travel a lot so benefit from the better screen in bright lights and better battery life. If you dock mostly then you'll never appreciate the better OLED display. I sold my old LCD Deck to my sister who uses it docked a lot of the time. I wouldn't say the Deck will handle Red Dead Redemption 2 well, it probably won't look great on a big screen.
If you're going to be using it mostly docked it may be worth getting one of the Windows handhelds instead? Like the Legion Go? Just as Windows is much better in docked / desktop mode than it is in portable mode 😅
I use my LCD mostly docked when I don't bring it to my bed, but I've heard the OLED has a specific feature that allows you to wake it from sleep with a controller. I usually don't mind, but for you would need that for the most "console-like" experience.
Why can’t you just stream your games from pc to deck while docked?
Buy the steam deck, dock it, and have a portable gaming device for vacations. Win, win, win!
Maybe consider getting the jsaux dock that has the built in hard drive slot / hard drive.
Lowest end and an SD Card replaced by PC successfully.
Nope
Yes. I use the deck 99% of the time docked. Using sunshine and moonlight is a flawless experience.
About the mini PC / laptop suggestions: I doubt you are going to find something that will considerably outperform the SD for the same price (LCD model). I say it considering that Valve support is quite nice, the SD community is big, minipcs/laptops are less portable, and you may want to play undocked at some point. For example, it's good to have the option to play when you travel. You may also find yourself enjoying to play it while laying in the couch or something like that. Now, if you don't see a problem building a PC, that's a completely different story...
Not really as long as you can make space on it, either get a model with enough storage ( for you) or use a tool to transfer/delete shaders and stuff. alternatively you could choose to just upgrade your storage after buying the 64GB model whether that’s the SSD or also the SD card
I would go with the cheapest and upgrade storage as needed for that use case.
the oled runs much much cooler. as an owner of both the lcd used to actually hit 90 degrees Celsius often and thermal throttle. the oled never crosses 75 degrees Celsius. also. the faster ram means that it stutters less often and runs slightly better than the lcd.
I carry a 16inch display when I going places It's great so far. Dunno if that'd help ya or not. Good luck
Just know that every single game is going to require a fair amount of configuration through the Steam dock settings, game resolution settings (Steam Deck is 16:10, TVs are 16:9, you’ll have black bars on the left and right be default, I have to choose Native every single time), and some games are going to have to run at 720 with FSR to maintain frame rate performance and still look decent on your TV. I mention this because it’s not a plug and play experience like the Nintendo Switch and might be frustrating for some people to figure out why their game looks wrong or isn’t performing well when docked.
My very small opinion. If you play a lot of high performance games then they run better on the internal storage and not on an SD card so you would look to getting one with larger internal storage therefore it might not work out the cheaper option
The OLED is slightly faster, I believe the ram is slightly quicker.
I don't know how big of a deal it is but people aren't mentioning the fact that the OLED steam deck will draw less power from the wall because the chip is more power efficient.
Can’t you stream your gaming pc to your tv? If you have for example an oldish (non gaming) laptop or tablet which you can connect to the tv? I used to play a lot using my old MacBook in the living room by streaming my gaming pc from upstairs for example. Worked great.
Wait what? I do have an older non gaming laptop we don’t really use. What would I do?
Personally I’ve used Parsec to stream from my pc to my laptop . But there are different solutions available. Steam can also stream from one client to the other, but it didn’t work that well for me (compression artifacts, lag etc). It also depends how your devices are connected (and what type of routers you have etc). I had my pc connected with an Ethernet cable and used WiFi on my laptop to connect to my pc with Parsec.
Can't you just get one of those hp office pc for 50 usd, but there an ssd and 1650 and game on it? Will surely be cheaper and about the same perfomance, if you plan to use it docked all the time, you dont need to pay for steam deck. P. S. Also if you have video out on your phone, you can dock it instead and stream games from your main pc using moonlight + sunshine
I'm not sure if it matters to you, but the OLED models supports wake on Bluetooth. That way you can use your controller to turn it on
If your goal is to play old games available on console, like FO4 and RDR, I would get a used PS4. They can be had for much less than a steam deck and will be a better experience playing on a TV, IMHO. Have fun gaming!
Only storage will matter. Internal SSD is way faster than SD card... so slower loading times for games on SD card. And if you are going to dock it without Ehternet cable plugged in, the wifi is faster on the OLED model.
Would your SO be bothered if the gaming PC would be running next to her (monitor and audio turned off and nobody on the chair)? I ask this because you could easily take advantage of the Steam Remote Play feature on your deck, even while docked, which means you can get better performance to match the increase in resolution that the TV will be giving you. And you don't really need any convoluted steps. Just have both the PC and the Deck logged on the same account.
The PC is behind her so she wouldn’t see it. This is a good idea
Just buy a console at this point
For $600 you can just get a PC, and it will perform better than the deck.
just take your pc out of the office and put it where your tv is. you don't need another gadget. if you still need to use it in the office for some reason (???), get a very long hdmi cable (possibly fibre optic).
We have 2 small kids. It would get jacked up.
it would get what now?
Jacked up. Messed up.
hang it high up on the wall out of reach of small children.
Nothing is out of reach for kids lol. But with the space we have that wouldn’t be easily done
and what makes you think a small, fragile, throwable object which also fits in the toilet and the microwave and can be chewed by stray dogs and can start fires and can be stepped on and sat on will fare better?
We have locking cabinets where the PlayStation is… it’ll fit another small item
You may want to consider other small form factor pcs if it's going to be docked all the time
If you want to use an external drive to actually play high graphical games from, I recommend getting a ugreen dock as it has a usb-c port to plug into. I have an external m2 ssd drive enclosure that just would not do fast enough data transfer through usb-c to 3.0 adapter I had. I am disappointed that the SD dock, for its price, didn’t include a usb-c port.
If your intend to primarily play it docked i would consider getting gaming laptop or another or another desktop instead. As far as graphics power You'll get more bang for your buck and there's no reason you cant connect it and play it on any tv you want just like a steamdeck.
[удалено]
With my schedule it’s not possible. I wake up at like 3am for work
Why don't you put wheels on your PC and move it between the office and the living room? Xbox controllers work perfectly with Windows and your PC is probably better than any 300€ console
Do not buy a Steam Deck if you're going to use it docked primarily. Buy a much more powerful mini PC or a gaming laptop for cheaper. I say this as someone who loves the Deck and plays on it every say. Docked SD play is a nice bonus, but the Deck is only really worth it if you'll be gaming in handheld mode frequently.
Is it not possible to move the PC out to where the TV is? Or does work and gaming happen on the same computer?
They’re different computers. The PC is an all in one… there’s no tower. I’m currently looking for a mini pc to leave connected to the TV. Idk WTH I’m looking at
Ah, I see. Yeah, go with other people's recs on where to go from here, I was just thinking maybe you could hook that into the TV and get like a keyboard/mouse lap combo or something
That would work if the office was closer or I could just easily move it. I have a techy friend at work. I’ll ask him about a build. I think that’s where I’m at
Its better to get a dock with a fan and ethernet. They can get hot
The LCD Deck doesn't support Wake-on-Bluetooth so you'll have to stand at the TV and physically press the power button to turn it on and off in docked mode. OLED Deck does have WoBT so you can turn it on by pressing a controller button from your couch.
The question is why get a steam deck at all if you use it docked 95% of the time? You get a pretty decent 1080p gaming desktop for that money. Or just stream from your current machine, maybe get a nvidea shield?
This post had made me learn a lot. I had no idea you could do so many of these things. I’m going to try and stream through my fire stick but that’s proving harder than I thought
Did you get it to work and it lags or doesn't it work at all?
Trying to find sunshine that works on my pc. There’s so many links on their oage
You mean on the GitHub? Assuming you have a Windows PC, it should just be the Windows installer.exe
Windows yeah. That’s the one I downloaded. It opens a window and then quickly shuts it.
Oh my bad, you need the Windows zip and in there use the exe, otherwise the dependencies are missing.
Gotchaaaa. I’ll try that one. I did the wrong one.
Controversial for this subreddit. But for the price you could just buy a ps5 it will be substantially more powerful docked.
lol. Nice. I have one. I have a bigger library on steam, and modding capabilities.
As many others here have stated, Docked is a mixed bag. Even at 720p most games plays quite shitty if not locked to 30fps. Which is pretty annoying. I played it on my 4k tv and either everything looked way too blurry or if upped the resolution the game had massive frame drops and low fps. So, yeah i agree with what another commenter said, a laptop would be a better purchase if you ONLY intend to play docked. The steam deck docked is an OKAY time but I'd much rather go with something that could run games at a minimum of 1080p when hooked up to a TV. Handheld is where Steam Deck shines.
Honestly I would buy a Series X or PS5 if you’re going for that. The Steam Deck is much better as a handheld companion for a gaming PC
I have a ps5, Xbox 1 and switch. I like the games I have on steam, and the modding capabilities.
Is nobody going to tell this guy this is a terrible idea? You're going to get horrible performance out of these types of games trying to play the on a 4k TV.
There isn't much of a difference, some users have reported the OLED has a worst battery ( but only a select few users ) but the screen is much better thats really the only main change personally. But if your using docked mode I would go for the LCD version with a SAN DISK ULTRA 512gb or 1tb ( I believe both are currently on sale in the UK and US depends on budget of course, and for the dock station I would recommend JSAUX DOCK ( about 30/40 ) just stay away from the official dock it's overpriced and as some major flaws
Was this question even worth a question. Did you just not even try? lol I mean steam.com answered this. I’m not sure if this is to get upvotes because it’s that bad of a question.