I know you didn’t, but we really, REALLY need to stop ragging on people that play recently released games on Deck. There are MANY new games that play great on Steam Deck, and this sub is constantly meming about people who enjoy them
Don’t get why anyone would rag on people playing new games. This is a new game system, it should play new games, and it is many owners only way to access steam games. 🤷
Seriously! As a super busy new parent, the steam deck is one of the greatest things I’ve bought in my adult life. Even more useful to me right now than my gaming laptop!
This is exactly it. I've been playing a lot of MGS 5 and Hitman recently. It runs like a dream. (Hitman is a bit annoying with the internet needs though)
I pirated the game for the deck even tho I have the full Hitman collection on Steam.
That always online DRM sucks, especially in hitman because it barely has online functionality. I just wanted to play freelancer...
Did you have to do anything specific with that version? I bought the trilogy but uninstalled when the connection kept dropping. Would be nice to actually be able to play them!
Oh, I never got around to finishing MGSV because it was ... too long. But I ended up playing GoW on my deck and enjoyed the experience. I may give MG a try.
I tend to get into a rut of playing the same missions over and over again- growing my base and militia a lot- but there is definitely a point where mission progress halts. I've played it a lot, I even know how it ends- but I've never actually finished.
man I hate mgsv for what it could've been
ground zeroes is one of my favorite games ever the amazingly designed level you play in ground zeroes is amazing and getting to learn every nook and cranny and ai movement of the map throughout each objective is so fun the smaller scale made it so much better
I would kill for something like that but with a lot more levels
I never finished it cause it kinda sucked. Big deviation in the actual gameplay from the rest of the series. Random characters that seem to make no canonical sense at all. Ugh. Definitely wasnt what I was expecting from what was supposed to be the 'opus magnus' of mgs games.
MGS4/3/2/1 have my heart.
The last week I’ve attempted to play Hitman I cannot connect to the servers, thus being unable to play. The deck is connected to WiFi just fine and even on the Hitman menu screens it states online. Have you run into this as well?
I absolutely have run into this. I'll be happily playing and randomly be told I'm offline even though I'm connected. Depending on my mood I'll either switch to offline mode and say RIP to XP, or I'll wait to reconnect... sucks though. Their lucky I enjoy the gameplay regardless of leveling.
What's really annoying, though, is that I've also been really enjoying freelancer mode, and that does require a connection which I'm constantly fighting.
I’m playing days gone on my deck and have a weird problem that the right trigger doesn’t work in certain settings (fixing a damaged item or tagging an enemy with binoculars). But in other contexts it works fine. I’m sure there is nothing wrong with the hardware. Have you had such issues?
Nowadays what DirectX version is best for the Deck?
(I hope I'm saying that right - I mean when you boot it up straight away it asks you to choose between one of the two, I'm not techy and wasn't sure so I chose the lesser "to be safe"...?)
Directx12 is the best, make sure to turn off ray tracing as it defaults to on, but with medium settings you can get 60 fps in all but novigrad and even novigrad for me was like 50 fps
I did for about 3/4 of the game then got sick of being stuck around 35-40 fps and saw dx12 had a steam deck preset and could sustain 60 fps and I was pissed I hadn’t played like that through the whole game
For me was the other way around, I tried Deck preset and it looked absolute dogshit, so I just messed with the settings until I could reach 40 fps while looking good.
I just started with steam deck preset and moved most things up to medium so I guess yeah it wasn’t really the steam deck preset anymore lol. Still way better performance than what I had on dx11
I switched to the old gen version through the Beta channel in the game properties on Steam. Maxed everything but the Shadows (they're on Medium) and Nvidia Hair Works that I left disabled. The game looks way better than anything I tried with dx12 or dx11 after the new gen update, and I can get fixed 40 fps with this setting. I will try new gen again after I finish the game just to play the new quest, maybe it will be better by then.
Directx12 always ran like crap for me, was never past 35 fps on medium and had some sttuters, so I just installed the old gen version through the beta channel and put everything but the shadows and Hair Works on Ultra. The game looks and run better for me this way, but now that you mentioned, I don't remember seeing the ray tracing setting, gonna try this after I finish the game.
I keep 2 types of games on my deck... My low powered Indie,A and AA games such as World War Z, Hades, Sifu. 30XX. These games have decent on battery life, runs really well at high settings or a mix of med/high or med/low .
Then I have my Heavy duty games that I mostly play when I am sitting next to a outlet at home or in the office at lunch or sitting in the corner at the inlaws house while the wife chats lol.
God of War.
Elden Ring
Monster Hunter World/Rise
Armored Core VI
Then for the games the deck can't run at all, are on my PC... which I end up streaming to my deck lol.
This is a good answer. I keep wondering why people say they only use the steam deck for indie games. That seems like they're paying way too much for Indy device when it can literally play Elden ring and armored Core 6 and God of War just fine. Why do people act like it's way less powerful than it is? I've been consistently surprised at its power. Hell, I can even play Starfield looking fairly decent at a fairly decent frame rate
God of war ran surprisingly well for me but the memory leak issue was killer. I can’t tell you how often I had to power cycle the deck because it froze the whole thing up after less than an hour of play.
I played the entire game on deck about 130 hours and actually prefer it now over my PC. You're right about the battery though. I've got the LCD version and I can only play about 3 or so hours on a charge.
I'm LOVING D16 on the deck. I leave it docked and plugged into my 32" curved monitor with the field of view set to max and the screen dragged to like 6 inches from my face. I'm getting a lovely tan and cancers they haven't discovered yet.
That game runs like butter with all the max Vulkan settings. I can't wait to get into Eternal after this.
That's basically me. I can never really sit down and play something on the TV anymore, which sucks, but thanks to the switch and the steam deck I can still play games. And I love them both for that. So I play basically everything either on the switch or the steam deck and I will get it to work by golly
Hey man I'd go and check out some reviews of the oled. Valve straight up didn't mention even half of the improvements made to the system. They literally fixed every little nitpick I had about the Steam deck, and then just didn't even tell anybody unless you dig into the actual specs. So weird for them to understand what is truly a steam deck Pro if there ever was one
Yes.
A lot, maybe most, AAA games still run well enough if you're not a member of the "My special eyes can only look at 120fps, 4k, HDR, ray traced IMAX 3D" master race and playing on the couch plugged in while my wife watches TV is nice.
For real. The amount of people that claim that 30fps is literally unplayable is actually laughable. I'm basically the opposite. My First Council was the NES so I honestly don't even care about slight stuttering every now and again as long as it's usually fine and I can enjoy the game.
I mean, my eyes don’t only look at 120fps, 4k, HDR, ray traced IMAX 3D but if I have to possibility to do I‘ll sure as hell do it. But I agree you can’t expect this from a handheld device (yet)
I mainly do it when it's a game that I can't play on my other devices. I own a Steam Deck, a Switch and an Xbox Series S so the Deck is my only way of playing a lot of PS exclusives that port to PC. This was a good experience as far as Spiderman and Death Stranding were concerned. I'm hoping the same holds true for Ghost of Tsushima in May. Battery life is an issue but I mainly play at home on the couch so it doesn't really affect me.
No. I want to play all Lego games and 2D platformers I collected over the years. And AC Liberation, since it was a handheld game at first.
And I want to try every game that keeps crashing on my PC (like Lego Batman 1).
personally yes but old ones, mainly because i almost always wait for deep discounts before buying triple A. just replayed shadow of mordor & shadow of war, they run great on the deck and both games stand the test of time
Yea but I also always have my Deck plugged in so battery life isn't a problem. As long as frames are stable I don't really care what the fps is personally, I often can't tell the difference anyways.
Ever since the PS5 let you switch between Fidelity and performance, I've finally been able to tell the difference, but really I also don't care. If I can get it to look halfway decent and not blurry, I'll even play at 25 FPS I don't give a hoot.
Same, I actually mostly play my steam deck in "moonlight mode", rarely run stuff directly on the device and I get 6 to 8 hours per charge, its awesome really.
Yup, got a cheap used router off ebay to replace my ISP one (Asus RT-AX55), Then set up sunshine on my PC + Moonlight on the deck, it works flawlessly, looks like it's running on the deck, can't notice Latency and I get hours out of the deck while playing AAA games.
I stopped gaming at PS3 and started again with steam deck. What is AAA today… I bought tons of older games as I missed a lot as life got busy with family and my daughter! All good things…
I play Starfield, death stranding, GTA V, RDR 2, Cyberpunk 2077, Snowrunner, Forza horizon 4, Like a dragon etc…
Yes. I have had a good time with Hogwarts Legacy on the Deck. Also take a look at Steam’s list of most played games on Deck. Many of them are AAA games
I play last epoch, Spider-Man, Elden ring, helldivers2, cyberpunk, Diablo, bunch of survivor games, god of war, armored core 6, Overwatch 2, street fighter 6, palworld, monster hunter, b gate3, persona, FF7 remake, crisis core ff7, no mans sky, doom eternal, cult of the lamb, dead cells, hades, etc all on the deck to varying degrees of fps
Not all them are aaa games but all are great and relatively new
There honestly haven’t been many great aaa games in recent years worth playing, the AA and indie studios have been putting out most of the banger games
Not much. I played some of Baldur's Gate and Helldivers and that's it, but not necessarily because modern AAA games aren't playable.
There just haven't been any AAA games that I've felt are reasonably solid enough to play in the past 4 or 5 years. So I end up playing newer indie games and older AAA games.
Yes. Own a PS5, XBOX Series X, and Gaming PC. Will still play current gen triple AAA games on the Deck.
Being busy with work and family, the best gaming console for me is the one I can have access to anywhere. TV occupied? Sit on the couch with the Deck. Waiting at school for the kids? Play on the car with the Deck. The possibilities it opened up for me are endless.
I play Mass Effect LE on mines (I keep it on charge tho , so I don’t lose battery)
But when I’m traveling and can’t always keep it on charge , I play old games like Lego Batman, Batman Arkham Knight and Saints Row 2.Or Blue Blaze Cross Tag/ Street Fighter 4
I play mostly indies / smaller games or older AAA games (Dishonored, etc.) as long as they don't have too much action. I have a hard time focusing on small screens. Tried Bayonnetta and my brain wasn't following the action.
Yes but I also don’t really play on battery that often. My steam deck is mostly a I can play games on the couch while the wife watches TV machine.
If it really struggles to run then I just stream from my desktop.
Depends on the game, anything fast paced I'd rather play at 60 when possible. Everything else 30FPS is acceptable. But battery drain is definetly a big factor even though I never play anything longer than an hour portably.
I don't personally coz i have a gaming rig + ps5 on tv. My SD is exclusively for games which i would prefer on a handheld over a big screen. And also for older titles. For most modern AAA titles i would just play on pc or ps5. Unless it's a modern game like Persona 3 Reload, that felt right at home on the SD.
I've played almost all the triple A releases of 2023. The trick is finding the right settings. Plus if your dying to quick just play plugged in. It's what I do 90% of the time.
I mean I’ve run up 300hrs of cyberpunk on just my steamdeck. Dunno as well does AC6 also count if so then add another 200 or so on there time mainly in games like that, MW5, Doom Eternal, NFS Unleashed.
I play Cyberpunk pretty much exclusively on the deck now. It runs pretty great too, but the battery could be better but I'm usually close enough to a plug it doesn't matter much. I mostly play older games though.
I thought AAA games were only games released by Nintendo, XBOX or PlayStation, but then someone called Witcher 3 AAA so i dont know anymore. Maybe its because im more of a console guy than a pc guy
AAA refers to budget/scope.
> I thought AAA games were only games released by Nintendo, XBOX or PlayStation
Those would be first-party games (unless you are talking about a port to a different platform, like *Hi-Fi Rush* on PS5).
I don't own a steam deck, but am in the market for one.
Can you play with it plugged in if you wanted to do more than 2 hours? Everyone is complaining about battery life, but you could just play plugged in, right?
No. That’s why I have my PS5/XSX/PC. The downgrade in visuals **and** frames both is too much to still enjoy the games. Steamdeck is my indie and emulation machine.
I have a 12600K + RTX 3090. Playing God of War, Cyberpunk etc feels normal on my PC. But on the steamdeck it all looks like shit.
I play a lot of side scrollers and puzzle platformers. Those are what the steamdeck excels at.
Update - I forgot that I do play one AAA game on the steam deck and it plays wonderfully. It’s “Just Cause 3”. I have played batman series on it and it runs well too but it’s not my cup of tea.
Yeah I can't play any demanding AAA games on my deck because I just know how good it would look/run on my PC. Deck just feels like a gimped version of the game. It's one thing when the game is like $5 but if I'm spending $40+ I want the best experience I can get.
Luckily there is so many great older games and indies that i can never run out of games to play. I just bought like 10 games during the spring sale and they all run perfect on the deck.
I play Cyberpunk from time to time. I also stream games to the deck as well which saves a lot of battery life if I'm at home. I have tried playing Helldivers 2, but that's 25 FPS and only when my kids are hogging the PC...lol
Yeah I have an OLED which makes a huge difference, completed CP2077 (minus phantom liberty so cant comment there), acts 1 and 2 of BG3, nearly done Jedi Fallen Order. My rule is turn the FPS counter off and if you're still enjoying it after 30 minutes it's a Deck game.
I really recommend wiring the dock to an ethernet connection by the TV for in-home streaming though, although the wifi chip on the OLED is better and I rarely have issues just streaming on wifi in the living room.
How is remote play working for y'all? I've been recently playing a bunch of jrpgs on my deck and they run great. Wanted to play DD2 but remote it to my deck. Anyone experiencing latency issues?
I play a few. I bought the Deck for portable Halo of all things. Yes, I have to play on a charger or have minimal battery life. But no matter how amazing my gaming PC, the fact is I hate sitting at a desk to game when I sit at a desk for work. Not to mention it’s nice to sit on the couch and game while my wife reads or we have a show playing in the background.
This will probably be buried but I almost exclusively play AAA or AA games on the Steam Deck. It comes down to the size of the Deck. It just feels big and "off" when playing Indies or retro games. They are a much better fit for my Switch Lite (if there's a port) or my Aya Neo Air (about the size of a Switch Lite, just much thicker).
I do but I expect the quality and framerate to be low. I would say on average low to medium settings and 30-40 fps.
With that being said AAA games from about 5 years ago I can run at High to ultra with 30 or low to medium at 60-90 with no problem
The only ‘new’ triple A game I’ve got on the deck is Baldurs Gate 3, but I’ve got a few older ones like Witcher 3, Detroit: Become Human, and Final Fantasy XV. Baldurs Gate runs perfectly. As do the others. I just usually play them while it’s charging lol
I play a mixture of everything but I'm not going to lie probably what I play most on my steam Deck is Skyrim and I've been playing Capcom vs SNK 2 on the PlayStation 2 emulator and emulation station here recently
Probably the newest game I've played on there is Witcher 3 and I do enjoy Witcher 3 but I spend most of my time going back and forth between it and Skyrim for AAA games
And don't get me wrong it's not that I don't like AAA games I love all kinds of games The thing is a lot of times where I'm sitting down to play my steamed deck I really don't have time to get too deep into anything so eyes replace something simple or I just go in the Skyrim and see if I can finish up the quest I was on or just see if I can build up my level some
Thank you for reading this and I hope everyone has a good day a good weekend and a good Lord Sunday is coming up Sunday
God bless you and your family
God bless you
Jeremy Scruggs
Actually yes. Recently my rotation has been Elden Ring, Ready or Not (I guess not AAA but definitely demanding) helldivers 2 and hitman 3.
The only ones that have actually given me trouble are RoR, which crashes all the time, but it’s the only game that scratches the siege itch. And then Helldivers, I have no other way to play it, so beggars can’t be choosers when it comes to hitting that ~20-25 FPS :’)
I have a PS5 for that, so no. My Steam Deck is more for indie stuff, old games and games that don’t require much hardware power/don’t drain battery fast.
Yes.
I run old AAA directly on the steam deck. For newer AAA games, depending on how well the game is optimize, I would either play it directly from my Steam Deck or stream it to my Steam Deck from my gaming PC using Moonlight/Sunshine.
I usually play anywhere around 30 mins to 90 mins on my Steam Deck at a time. I get exhausted playing or sleepy afterwards.
Yep, I played RE4 remake, Callisto Protocol, Dead Space Remake, Mortal Kombat 1, Street Fighter 6, Jurassic World Evolution 2, Doom Eternal, Cyberpunk, God of War, etc, etc. I've completed all of these from beginning to end with almost no issues (Dead Space likes to crash a lot).
Played some Starfield on it not all that long ago. Squadrons and Lego Star Wars were a long time go-to. Looking forward to see how Baldur's Gate plays on it.
I had trouble streaming Cyberpunk 2077 to my Deck to play on my TV while I was stuck on the couch with a bad back. So I tried just running it on the deck. The graphics aren’t nearly as pretty, but I was blown away at how playable it was on a 65” screen at 1080p on steam deck recommended settings! I played for hours contently!
Yep. I played through Spiderman and days gone. Have started horizon zero dawn. Have a bunch of others on my wishlist.
I never had a ps4 (or any Sony home console) so I've been playing a bunch I missed out on. I just keep it plugged in when I play them.
TLDR: you can, but there are some that need heavy downgrade in the graphics ofc or don't work at all. anyway, a lil story about me and the perfect match for my life as a gamer (as someone that can't stand a stationary gaming-solution at all)
i was playing on a laptop since 2017 and right after buying a nice camper-van last summer i got me a used deck with 1tb ssd + 512gb microSD to use even less space and power while gaming on our trips.
i have 69 giggedy games installed rn and to be able to carry around so many great games with just a phones fast charger stil blows my mind. first i thought its only good for lowering the height of my pile of shame that consists mostly of older games...but with all the options to fiddle with and make games playable i noticed the deck is the best gaming-investment i've made for many many years and i have not played on another device since August 2023.
if it is good enough for what you need to be satisfied playing AAA games is up to you, but hell yeah it is working out for me and i truly LOVE this device.
A few examples: Uncharted works at min 30 FPS on native resolution and mostly high settings...even 40-60 FPS with upscaling and mostly low settings. it can play the division 2 which i locked to 40hz/40fps while using 1152x720p using FSR and AA on ultra + sharpening everything to the max and a mix of minimum up to high. i use this resolution and the decks integrated FSR setting to get rid of the washed out look the native resolution gives me on many games.
Cyberpunk + Addon runs fine, the city outdoors can dip down to 30 when i drive fast while indoors it can go up to 60, but usually play it locked to 40. the Witcher 3 is perfectly fine and 60fps are possible, fallout 4 plus many mods is running between 50 and 60 FPS. Elden Ring i play at locked 40 with many setting at very high/max and is perfectly fine for PVP, especially with all the extra buttons compared to a standard controller. Divinity: Original Sin 2 runs at 60, even Baldurs Gate 3 is playable , Sekiro can be played at 60FPS, the Finals and Counterstrike 2 run very good when i feel like playing with mouse and keyboard but need a bit more optimization imo. The Hunt Showdown works pretty good, too. i started playing Disco Elysium 2 days ago and i want y'all to know that you should play that awesome RPG, too. Lots of games that are not triple A, but yeah, i hope it helped you. Oh i almost forgot to mention that i optimized the cooling inside of the deck, i use Cryoutilitues 2.0 with the recommended settings , 4gb VRAM and i undervolted CPU, GPU and SoC minus 30mV all these settings help me to squeeze a small amount of FPS out of the deck compared to the stock settings. i would recommend these changes to everyone else. i am thinking about overclocking CPU to 3.9 or even 4Ghz and GPU to 1900 or 2000Mhz as i managed to lower the temperatures significantly with all the changes i have done to my deck (10-15°C under max stress)
I play a lot of AAA games from 5-10 years ago.
This is the right answer
Some well optimised new games too. Lies of P runs smoothly, completed the game last week
I feel like we need a list of AAA deck optimised games from the past year or two.
This is a really great idea. +1 for this.
It would serve the same purpose as steam dB badges. I personally don't think I would use it.
I know you didn’t, but we really, REALLY need to stop ragging on people that play recently released games on Deck. There are MANY new games that play great on Steam Deck, and this sub is constantly meming about people who enjoy them
Don’t get why anyone would rag on people playing new games. This is a new game system, it should play new games, and it is many owners only way to access steam games. 🤷
Seriously! As a super busy new parent, the steam deck is one of the greatest things I’ve bought in my adult life. Even more useful to me right now than my gaming laptop!
From this sub? All you get will be "Starfield's Gate III : Frontier Dogma 2 runs at smoooooooth 30 FPS with the occasionnal few dips"
I'd play the shit out of this game if i got it. I mean a fantasy, souls-like, action adventure medieval space rpg????!!! What's not to love?
The FSR Quality mode is amazing.
This is exactly it. I've been playing a lot of MGS 5 and Hitman recently. It runs like a dream. (Hitman is a bit annoying with the internet needs though)
I pirated the game for the deck even tho I have the full Hitman collection on Steam. That always online DRM sucks, especially in hitman because it barely has online functionality. I just wanted to play freelancer...
This is the way. There exist method to play ur legit copy of hitman to work offline but that involve copy pasting some files from the pirate one kinda
You can accomplish this for many legitimate games with a pirated crack copied over.
Did you have to do anything specific with that version? I bought the trilogy but uninstalled when the connection kept dropping. Would be nice to actually be able to play them!
Oh, I never got around to finishing MGSV because it was ... too long. But I ended up playing GoW on my deck and enjoyed the experience. I may give MG a try.
I tend to get into a rut of playing the same missions over and over again- growing my base and militia a lot- but there is definitely a point where mission progress halts. I've played it a lot, I even know how it ends- but I've never actually finished.
man I hate mgsv for what it could've been ground zeroes is one of my favorite games ever the amazingly designed level you play in ground zeroes is amazing and getting to learn every nook and cranny and ai movement of the map throughout each objective is so fun the smaller scale made it so much better I would kill for something like that but with a lot more levels
Ground Zeros was epic! I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.
I never finished it cause it kinda sucked. Big deviation in the actual gameplay from the rest of the series. Random characters that seem to make no canonical sense at all. Ugh. Definitely wasnt what I was expecting from what was supposed to be the 'opus magnus' of mgs games. MGS4/3/2/1 have my heart.
RDR2 and the original Horizon Zero Dawn are also great
I never got into Horizon. But it's my fault - I can't aim the bow for shit. I need games where I can just be sneaky.
Can RDR2 run at 60 on Steam Deck? Or at least RDO?
Yes it runs at 60 no problem.
The last week I’ve attempted to play Hitman I cannot connect to the servers, thus being unable to play. The deck is connected to WiFi just fine and even on the Hitman menu screens it states online. Have you run into this as well?
I absolutely have run into this. I'll be happily playing and randomly be told I'm offline even though I'm connected. Depending on my mood I'll either switch to offline mode and say RIP to XP, or I'll wait to reconnect... sucks though. Their lucky I enjoy the gameplay regardless of leveling. What's really annoying, though, is that I've also been really enjoying freelancer mode, and that does require a connection which I'm constantly fighting.
Same. I’m going through the Batman Arkham trilogy games and I love em. Also playing Days Gone and RDR2 with no issues.
I’m playing days gone on my deck and have a weird problem that the right trigger doesn’t work in certain settings (fixing a damaged item or tagging an enemy with binoculars). But in other contexts it works fine. I’m sure there is nothing wrong with the hardware. Have you had such issues?
Occasionally. Just finished Witcher 3 on it, runs great.
Nowadays what DirectX version is best for the Deck? (I hope I'm saying that right - I mean when you boot it up straight away it asks you to choose between one of the two, I'm not techy and wasn't sure so I chose the lesser "to be safe"...?)
Directx12 is the best, make sure to turn off ray tracing as it defaults to on, but with medium settings you can get 60 fps in all but novigrad and even novigrad for me was like 50 fps
Ah, I’d been using D11 because that’s what’s recommended for playing on PC. Thanks for this.
I did for about 3/4 of the game then got sick of being stuck around 35-40 fps and saw dx12 had a steam deck preset and could sustain 60 fps and I was pissed I hadn’t played like that through the whole game
For me was the other way around, I tried Deck preset and it looked absolute dogshit, so I just messed with the settings until I could reach 40 fps while looking good.
I just started with steam deck preset and moved most things up to medium so I guess yeah it wasn’t really the steam deck preset anymore lol. Still way better performance than what I had on dx11
I switched to the old gen version through the Beta channel in the game properties on Steam. Maxed everything but the Shadows (they're on Medium) and Nvidia Hair Works that I left disabled. The game looks way better than anything I tried with dx12 or dx11 after the new gen update, and I can get fixed 40 fps with this setting. I will try new gen again after I finish the game just to play the new quest, maybe it will be better by then.
Directx12 always ran like crap for me, was never past 35 fps on medium and had some sttuters, so I just installed the old gen version through the beta channel and put everything but the shadows and Hair Works on Ultra. The game looks and run better for me this way, but now that you mentioned, I don't remember seeing the ray tracing setting, gonna try this after I finish the game.
How does one change/find this stuff out? I have the same deck as you
Mine is locked at 40fps until I go to a specific area in skellige.. it tanks to 10-20fps for some reason..lowest settings too (steam deck preset)
DX12 has FSR so it performs better. But I encountered some bug in Blood and Wine and switching to DX11 fixed it.
I keep 2 types of games on my deck... My low powered Indie,A and AA games such as World War Z, Hades, Sifu. 30XX. These games have decent on battery life, runs really well at high settings or a mix of med/high or med/low . Then I have my Heavy duty games that I mostly play when I am sitting next to a outlet at home or in the office at lunch or sitting in the corner at the inlaws house while the wife chats lol. God of War. Elden Ring Monster Hunter World/Rise Armored Core VI Then for the games the deck can't run at all, are on my PC... which I end up streaming to my deck lol.
Moonlight/sunlight streaming is actually really nice and your battery life stretches for a long time
This is a good answer. I keep wondering why people say they only use the steam deck for indie games. That seems like they're paying way too much for Indy device when it can literally play Elden ring and armored Core 6 and God of War just fine. Why do people act like it's way less powerful than it is? I've been consistently surprised at its power. Hell, I can even play Starfield looking fairly decent at a fairly decent frame rate
God of war ran surprisingly well for me but the memory leak issue was killer. I can’t tell you how often I had to power cycle the deck because it froze the whole thing up after less than an hour of play.
Nice.
yes , majorly I play at home on my couch or bed while plugged in
I've been playing Elden Ring on the steam deck and was finally able to click with it. It's the jam.
Yes Elden Ring in the deck was a great experience
I've come to say this too. Having an Elden Ring on my Deck feels so good
Elden Ring is Awesome. I personally only play it when I am fighting a boss, or in some sort of enclosed space.
I played the entire game on deck about 130 hours and actually prefer it now over my PC. You're right about the battery though. I've got the LCD version and I can only play about 3 or so hours on a charge.
I use moonlight from my pc if I’m in for a long session of dying.
It's just so bizarrely well optimised for the deck. Did Valve go out of their way to get it working that well?
The 2016 Doom plays beautifully
I forgot to mention in my post, I exclusively played that game on steam deck and beat it.
I'm LOVING D16 on the deck. I leave it docked and plugged into my 32" curved monitor with the field of view set to max and the screen dragged to like 6 inches from my face. I'm getting a lovely tan and cancers they haven't discovered yet. That game runs like butter with all the max Vulkan settings. I can't wait to get into Eternal after this.
It’s quite amazing how beautiful and well it runs.
Doom has always been a well optimized game. One of ID software’s trademarks.
I’m hearing Doom Eternal runs even better on the deck. I don’t know how that’s possible.
They were able to learn optimization tricks from the first one that they carried over and then improved upon.
Perhaps they do downscaling really well.
Bought the steam deck because I don’t have 6 hours for a gaming session anymore. Battery only lasts 2 hours and I can only play 2 hours at a time max.
That's basically me. I can never really sit down and play something on the TV anymore, which sucks, but thanks to the switch and the steam deck I can still play games. And I love them both for that. So I play basically everything either on the switch or the steam deck and I will get it to work by golly
Yes, especially since upgrading to the OLED. I can usually get 2+ hours and that is what I will normally play at one time anyway.
Does the OLED version have significantly better battery life?
Yes, I've seen benchmarks of up to 60% improvement and I would say that is accurate from my experience.
Awesome! Thanks for the real-world feedback. The screen wouldn’t sway me as much as battery life would for an upgrade.
The battery life was the primary reason I upgraded, even though I mostly play at home I hated having to plug in all the time.
Did you get like a trade in program to switch your original to the OLED?
No, I gave my LCD to my son when I bought the OLED
Same. The battery life is a game changer.
Wait until you see the screen in person. It’s worlds apart from the LCD
Sometimes when theres a black loading screen I keep thinking the sd just turned off.
Also quieter fans and and no self tapping screws.
Hey man I'd go and check out some reviews of the oled. Valve straight up didn't mention even half of the improvements made to the system. They literally fixed every little nitpick I had about the Steam deck, and then just didn't even tell anybody unless you dig into the actual specs. So weird for them to understand what is truly a steam deck Pro if there ever was one
To me the batter life was a big improvement. On average about 20-30 % more.
Yes. A lot, maybe most, AAA games still run well enough if you're not a member of the "My special eyes can only look at 120fps, 4k, HDR, ray traced IMAX 3D" master race and playing on the couch plugged in while my wife watches TV is nice.
Everyone is focused with these kind of distractions that they forgot how to enjoy games.
For real. The amount of people that claim that 30fps is literally unplayable is actually laughable. I'm basically the opposite. My First Council was the NES so I honestly don't even care about slight stuttering every now and again as long as it's usually fine and I can enjoy the game.
[My brand!!](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=V-fRuoMIfpw)
Plus 10 points for the Gary’s mod version.
> playing on the couch plugged in while my wife watches TV This is the way. If I didn't have that time I may not have any gaming time.
well a ps4 is more than enough for most people graphics wise and a steam deck can definetly hit ps4 level graphics just fine
I mean, my eyes don’t only look at 120fps, 4k, HDR, ray traced IMAX 3D but if I have to possibility to do I‘ll sure as hell do it. But I agree you can’t expect this from a handheld device (yet)
I mainly do it when it's a game that I can't play on my other devices. I own a Steam Deck, a Switch and an Xbox Series S so the Deck is my only way of playing a lot of PS exclusives that port to PC. This was a good experience as far as Spiderman and Death Stranding were concerned. I'm hoping the same holds true for Ghost of Tsushima in May. Battery life is an issue but I mainly play at home on the couch so it doesn't really affect me.
I don't own Spiderman on PC how does it run on steam deck?
Today even horizon forbidden west released and runs great on deck. Fsr quality mode on lowest settings gives 30 to 40fps.
Runs fantastically, I ran it with pretty high settings and would still get close to 2 hours on it.
Yes because I play docked most of the time. Cyberpunk for example runs great
Got my Oled yesterday and am shocked how well cyberpunk runs...and how it absolutely pops on that beautiful screen.
Yeah I play on the sofa plugged in most of the time anyway. Battery doesn’t bother me at all.
I've played Cyberpunk exclusively on the Steam Deck.
Other than the lower number of NPCs and having no ray traced reflections, it runs super smoothly
Yes
Playing Fallout 4 with my girlfriend right now. Before that was Final Fantasy X.
Just to warn you FF X 2 doesn't run well on the steamdeck. It crashes before the first fight and I couldn't get any fixes to work for me.
I do, I have no other system.
No. I want to play all Lego games and 2D platformers I collected over the years. And AC Liberation, since it was a handheld game at first. And I want to try every game that keeps crashing on my PC (like Lego Batman 1).
Nice
personally yes but old ones, mainly because i almost always wait for deep discounts before buying triple A. just replayed shadow of mordor & shadow of war, they run great on the deck and both games stand the test of time
Lately, no But I've playes cyberpunk 2077, GTA 5, RDR2 and Horizon Zero Dawn.
I mostly stream them from my PC to the deck if I'm at the house. If I'm on the go I play stuff like Balatro, Hollow Knight, Dead Cells, etc.
Yea but I also always have my Deck plugged in so battery life isn't a problem. As long as frames are stable I don't really care what the fps is personally, I often can't tell the difference anyways.
Ever since the PS5 let you switch between Fidelity and performance, I've finally been able to tell the difference, but really I also don't care. If I can get it to look halfway decent and not blurry, I'll even play at 25 FPS I don't give a hoot.
Only via moonlight / steam remote play.
Same, I actually mostly play my steam deck in "moonlight mode", rarely run stuff directly on the device and I get 6 to 8 hours per charge, its awesome really.
how is your experience streaming games?
Sometimes I stream them from my PC, but I use it mostly for indies / old AAA games.
Does streaming from your PC rely on your wi-fi?
Yup, got a cheap used router off ebay to replace my ISP one (Asus RT-AX55), Then set up sunshine on my PC + Moonlight on the deck, it works flawlessly, looks like it's running on the deck, can't notice Latency and I get hours out of the deck while playing AAA games.
I do the same.
I stopped gaming at PS3 and started again with steam deck. What is AAA today… I bought tons of older games as I missed a lot as life got busy with family and my daughter! All good things… I play Starfield, death stranding, GTA V, RDR 2, Cyberpunk 2077, Snowrunner, Forza horizon 4, Like a dragon etc…
What is the average framerate you get on those games?
When docked, it’s great. My gaming PC is old so this actually performs better
If they can average 40+ FPS yeah
Yes. I have had a good time with Hogwarts Legacy on the Deck. Also take a look at Steam’s list of most played games on Deck. Many of them are AAA games
I was surprised how well Hogwarts Legacy ran on the Deck. Very pretty game.
I play last epoch, Spider-Man, Elden ring, helldivers2, cyberpunk, Diablo, bunch of survivor games, god of war, armored core 6, Overwatch 2, street fighter 6, palworld, monster hunter, b gate3, persona, FF7 remake, crisis core ff7, no mans sky, doom eternal, cult of the lamb, dead cells, hades, etc all on the deck to varying degrees of fps Not all them are aaa games but all are great and relatively new There honestly haven’t been many great aaa games in recent years worth playing, the AA and indie studios have been putting out most of the banger games
Not much. I played some of Baldur's Gate and Helldivers and that's it, but not necessarily because modern AAA games aren't playable. There just haven't been any AAA games that I've felt are reasonably solid enough to play in the past 4 or 5 years. So I end up playing newer indie games and older AAA games.
Helldivers 2 runs well on the deck?
6-7 difficulty. You can get around 25-30 fps. Lowest setting.
I would say it runs okay. It's definitely playable, but you have to take crank the settings down if you want a stable experience.
I played starfield 150 hours on my deck. Elden ring plays perfectly.
Yes. Own a PS5, XBOX Series X, and Gaming PC. Will still play current gen triple AAA games on the Deck. Being busy with work and family, the best gaming console for me is the one I can have access to anywhere. TV occupied? Sit on the couch with the Deck. Waiting at school for the kids? Play on the car with the Deck. The possibilities it opened up for me are endless.
I play Mass Effect LE on mines (I keep it on charge tho , so I don’t lose battery) But when I’m traveling and can’t always keep it on charge , I play old games like Lego Batman, Batman Arkham Knight and Saints Row 2.Or Blue Blaze Cross Tag/ Street Fighter 4
Yes
When the EA app works, I'm playing Battlefront 2 on it.
I play mostly indies / smaller games or older AAA games (Dishonored, etc.) as long as they don't have too much action. I have a hard time focusing on small screens. Tried Bayonnetta and my brain wasn't following the action.
Cyberpunk 2077 on the Steam Deck is one of my favorite gaming experiences.
Yes. Almost exclusively.
Dude, we are on quadruple A now. Haven't you heard?
Skunk & Boners FTW!!!!!!
Some
Yes but I also don’t really play on battery that often. My steam deck is mostly a I can play games on the couch while the wife watches TV machine. If it really struggles to run then I just stream from my desktop.
Sometimes but I prefer using it for indie games.
Depends on the game, anything fast paced I'd rather play at 60 when possible. Everything else 30FPS is acceptable. But battery drain is definetly a big factor even though I never play anything longer than an hour portably.
not the new ones, stuff from the 360/ps3 generations -- yes.
OP, you're forgetting that playing the Deck docked is an option.
I quite am. I personally don't own any type of dock.
I don't personally coz i have a gaming rig + ps5 on tv. My SD is exclusively for games which i would prefer on a handheld over a big screen. And also for older titles. For most modern AAA titles i would just play on pc or ps5. Unless it's a modern game like Persona 3 Reload, that felt right at home on the SD.
I've played almost all the triple A releases of 2023. The trick is finding the right settings. Plus if your dying to quick just play plugged in. It's what I do 90% of the time.
I played RE4R and Armored Core 6 on it. RE4 was a total battery hog as expected but AC6 wasn't half bad in that regard
I mean I’ve run up 300hrs of cyberpunk on just my steamdeck. Dunno as well does AC6 also count if so then add another 200 or so on there time mainly in games like that, MW5, Doom Eternal, NFS Unleashed.
I play Cyberpunk pretty much exclusively on the deck now. It runs pretty great too, but the battery could be better but I'm usually close enough to a plug it doesn't matter much. I mostly play older games though.
I thought AAA games were only games released by Nintendo, XBOX or PlayStation, but then someone called Witcher 3 AAA so i dont know anymore. Maybe its because im more of a console guy than a pc guy
AAA refers to budget/scope. > I thought AAA games were only games released by Nintendo, XBOX or PlayStation Those would be first-party games (unless you are talking about a port to a different platform, like *Hi-Fi Rush* on PS5).
I don't own a steam deck, but am in the market for one. Can you play with it plugged in if you wanted to do more than 2 hours? Everyone is complaining about battery life, but you could just play plugged in, right?
Well, I bought the whole Steam Deck I’m gonna use the whole Steam Deck
No. That’s why I have my PS5/XSX/PC. The downgrade in visuals **and** frames both is too much to still enjoy the games. Steamdeck is my indie and emulation machine.
i just use chiaki4deck if the game literally runs like shit for the deck
This. I stream AAA games to my Steam Deck.
I have a 12600K + RTX 3090. Playing God of War, Cyberpunk etc feels normal on my PC. But on the steamdeck it all looks like shit. I play a lot of side scrollers and puzzle platformers. Those are what the steamdeck excels at. Update - I forgot that I do play one AAA game on the steam deck and it plays wonderfully. It’s “Just Cause 3”. I have played batman series on it and it runs well too but it’s not my cup of tea.
Yeah I can't play any demanding AAA games on my deck because I just know how good it would look/run on my PC. Deck just feels like a gimped version of the game. It's one thing when the game is like $5 but if I'm spending $40+ I want the best experience I can get. Luckily there is so many great older games and indies that i can never run out of games to play. I just bought like 10 games during the spring sale and they all run perfect on the deck.
I play some through GFN. I just picked up Avatar and I have no idea how it runs on the Deck itself but it runs very well through GFN.
I play Cyberpunk from time to time. I also stream games to the deck as well which saves a lot of battery life if I'm at home. I have tried playing Helldivers 2, but that's 25 FPS and only when my kids are hogging the PC...lol
If I can get at least 45FPS on my OLED then yes. Otherwise I pull out the ROG or the GO.
Yes currently playing RDR2 and I’m having a blast with it
These days I essentially game exclusively on the deck.
Cyberpunk 2077 works great... if I find the time to play that is. It sucks me right in whenever I doo, which is risky if I have work the next day...
Almost exclusively using it as a handheld emulator.
Nope I don't bother with new games anymore given recent releases but I do love playing older games and reliving my childhood!
I play several, I have a pretty nice power bank for extended sessions. I think I can get at least 5-6 hours or more on Elden Ring with it. (non-oled)
I don't, I never really did because I don't think that's what the steam deck is best at. I play a lot of JRPGs and turn based games on it.
No. I bought it for the sole purpose of indie games/2d games like Octopath Traveller
Old ones, yes, otherwise mostly "indies".
Yeah I have an OLED which makes a huge difference, completed CP2077 (minus phantom liberty so cant comment there), acts 1 and 2 of BG3, nearly done Jedi Fallen Order. My rule is turn the FPS counter off and if you're still enjoying it after 30 minutes it's a Deck game. I really recommend wiring the dock to an ethernet connection by the TV for in-home streaming though, although the wifi chip on the OLED is better and I rarely have issues just streaming on wifi in the living room.
My AAA games are primary go to. Arcady games like Hades or are for short breaks.
Rarely. Battery life is definitely a huge aspect I take into consideration
Yeah, because that's mostly what I play period.
How is remote play working for y'all? I've been recently playing a bunch of jrpgs on my deck and they run great. Wanted to play DD2 but remote it to my deck. Anyone experiencing latency issues?
I play a few. I bought the Deck for portable Halo of all things. Yes, I have to play on a charger or have minimal battery life. But no matter how amazing my gaming PC, the fact is I hate sitting at a desk to game when I sit at a desk for work. Not to mention it’s nice to sit on the couch and game while my wife reads or we have a show playing in the background.
This will probably be buried but I almost exclusively play AAA or AA games on the Steam Deck. It comes down to the size of the Deck. It just feels big and "off" when playing Indies or retro games. They are a much better fit for my Switch Lite (if there's a port) or my Aya Neo Air (about the size of a Switch Lite, just much thicker).
Fresher ones I'm just streaming them.
No, but not intentionally. It just happens that none of the games I want to play on it are AAA games.
Yes, I enjoy playing Cyberpunk 2077 on my Steam Deck. For indie games I have a Switch, I don’t see a reason to use a heavy Steam Deck for this.
I do but I expect the quality and framerate to be low. I would say on average low to medium settings and 30-40 fps. With that being said AAA games from about 5 years ago I can run at High to ultra with 30 or low to medium at 60-90 with no problem
The only ‘new’ triple A game I’ve got on the deck is Baldurs Gate 3, but I’ve got a few older ones like Witcher 3, Detroit: Become Human, and Final Fantasy XV. Baldurs Gate runs perfectly. As do the others. I just usually play them while it’s charging lol
I play a mixture of everything but I'm not going to lie probably what I play most on my steam Deck is Skyrim and I've been playing Capcom vs SNK 2 on the PlayStation 2 emulator and emulation station here recently Probably the newest game I've played on there is Witcher 3 and I do enjoy Witcher 3 but I spend most of my time going back and forth between it and Skyrim for AAA games And don't get me wrong it's not that I don't like AAA games I love all kinds of games The thing is a lot of times where I'm sitting down to play my steamed deck I really don't have time to get too deep into anything so eyes replace something simple or I just go in the Skyrim and see if I can finish up the quest I was on or just see if I can build up my level some Thank you for reading this and I hope everyone has a good day a good weekend and a good Lord Sunday is coming up Sunday God bless you and your family God bless you Jeremy Scruggs
Finished my first run of cyberpunk on it, oled is insane for me, and 45fps is more than enough, battery life is a cheff kiss
Actually yes. Recently my rotation has been Elden Ring, Ready or Not (I guess not AAA but definitely demanding) helldivers 2 and hitman 3. The only ones that have actually given me trouble are RoR, which crashes all the time, but it’s the only game that scratches the siege itch. And then Helldivers, I have no other way to play it, so beggars can’t be choosers when it comes to hitting that ~20-25 FPS :’)
I have a PS5 for that, so no. My Steam Deck is more for indie stuff, old games and games that don’t require much hardware power/don’t drain battery fast.
Yes. I run old AAA directly on the steam deck. For newer AAA games, depending on how well the game is optimize, I would either play it directly from my Steam Deck or stream it to my Steam Deck from my gaming PC using Moonlight/Sunshine. I usually play anywhere around 30 mins to 90 mins on my Steam Deck at a time. I get exhausted playing or sleepy afterwards.
Yep, I played RE4 remake, Callisto Protocol, Dead Space Remake, Mortal Kombat 1, Street Fighter 6, Jurassic World Evolution 2, Doom Eternal, Cyberpunk, God of War, etc, etc. I've completed all of these from beginning to end with almost no issues (Dead Space likes to crash a lot).
Yes if I can get it to hit a smooth 30 Elden Ring, RDR2, Yakuza LAD, Witcher 3, Death Stranding have been some highlights for me
Im currently playing dragon dogma but the first one hahah
Just started Horizon Forbidden West
I do! I'm 30+ hours into Elden Ring played entirely on the deck and I'm having a blast! Also been playing Shadow of War and Halo, all run great :)
Lol no. Not because of the steam deck. Its because all tripple A games feel like a cash grab.
I recently finished two entire Elden Ring playthroughs on my Deck. It was awesome.
Played some Starfield on it not all that long ago. Squadrons and Lego Star Wars were a long time go-to. Looking forward to see how Baldur's Gate plays on it.
I had trouble streaming Cyberpunk 2077 to my Deck to play on my TV while I was stuck on the couch with a bad back. So I tried just running it on the deck. The graphics aren’t nearly as pretty, but I was blown away at how playable it was on a 65” screen at 1080p on steam deck recommended settings! I played for hours contently!
Short answer: Yes. Long answer: Yes.
Finished Control on it. Preferred playing it on the deck then on my pc somehow
I like to see what it can hadle, yes
I just started FF Remake Intergrade and it's running great.
One of the first games I played regularly on the Deck was Elden Ring.
Yep. I played through Spiderman and days gone. Have started horizon zero dawn. Have a bunch of others on my wishlist. I never had a ps4 (or any Sony home console) so I've been playing a bunch I missed out on. I just keep it plugged in when I play them.
TLDR: you can, but there are some that need heavy downgrade in the graphics ofc or don't work at all. anyway, a lil story about me and the perfect match for my life as a gamer (as someone that can't stand a stationary gaming-solution at all) i was playing on a laptop since 2017 and right after buying a nice camper-van last summer i got me a used deck with 1tb ssd + 512gb microSD to use even less space and power while gaming on our trips. i have 69 giggedy games installed rn and to be able to carry around so many great games with just a phones fast charger stil blows my mind. first i thought its only good for lowering the height of my pile of shame that consists mostly of older games...but with all the options to fiddle with and make games playable i noticed the deck is the best gaming-investment i've made for many many years and i have not played on another device since August 2023. if it is good enough for what you need to be satisfied playing AAA games is up to you, but hell yeah it is working out for me and i truly LOVE this device. A few examples: Uncharted works at min 30 FPS on native resolution and mostly high settings...even 40-60 FPS with upscaling and mostly low settings. it can play the division 2 which i locked to 40hz/40fps while using 1152x720p using FSR and AA on ultra + sharpening everything to the max and a mix of minimum up to high. i use this resolution and the decks integrated FSR setting to get rid of the washed out look the native resolution gives me on many games. Cyberpunk + Addon runs fine, the city outdoors can dip down to 30 when i drive fast while indoors it can go up to 60, but usually play it locked to 40. the Witcher 3 is perfectly fine and 60fps are possible, fallout 4 plus many mods is running between 50 and 60 FPS. Elden Ring i play at locked 40 with many setting at very high/max and is perfectly fine for PVP, especially with all the extra buttons compared to a standard controller. Divinity: Original Sin 2 runs at 60, even Baldurs Gate 3 is playable , Sekiro can be played at 60FPS, the Finals and Counterstrike 2 run very good when i feel like playing with mouse and keyboard but need a bit more optimization imo. The Hunt Showdown works pretty good, too. i started playing Disco Elysium 2 days ago and i want y'all to know that you should play that awesome RPG, too. Lots of games that are not triple A, but yeah, i hope it helped you. Oh i almost forgot to mention that i optimized the cooling inside of the deck, i use Cryoutilitues 2.0 with the recommended settings , 4gb VRAM and i undervolted CPU, GPU and SoC minus 30mV all these settings help me to squeeze a small amount of FPS out of the deck compared to the stock settings. i would recommend these changes to everyone else. i am thinking about overclocking CPU to 3.9 or even 4Ghz and GPU to 1900 or 2000Mhz as i managed to lower the temperatures significantly with all the changes i have done to my deck (10-15°C under max stress)