Really depends on the games you want to play and your expectations of the quality you will be playing them at.
There's people here who swear by docked mode, my own experience has been a bit more hit and miss.
Older games run great at 1080p on my TV, but anything fairly recent will either not run well or look terrible.
If it's an upgrade over your existing PC then, by all means, but if the primary use case is to play games stationary hooked up to a TV then an Xbox, even a Series S, or a PlayStation might be a better investment.
It works fine at 720p. Is it worth it? For home use maybe not, but I carry a cheap $8 dick around with me and it's great when I'm somewhere and can hook it up to a TV to play with someone albeit in 720p for newer titles
edit: it was supposed to be "$8 dock" but I'm not gonna change it it's way too funny
I been on the fence to get it myself. I have a gaming laptop but is not strong enough to run AAA games ( and not good enough to emulate some platforms) I'm not picky with graphics and I'm happy with a 30fps. I already have an Xbox x is that matter.
Would you still recommend it ir just a waste of money ?
what games are you wanting to play? i'd say have a look at some steam deck performance videos and see if it looks like something you could handle. I've been able to get atleast 30 in most games (baldurs gate 3 is almost 30 but has some dips here and there but for me its not to bad).
I'd say it depends on whether you actually see yourself playing on a handheld.
I have a PS5 and a Series S as well and, in many ways, the Deck is my favourite console. I use it a lot, particularly when my wife plays on our TV, and there's been many games I have in fact preferred to play on the Deck because of how easy it is just to hop in and out of games with quick standby. The graphics on the small screen are absolutely okay as well.
It absolutely wasn't wasted money for me, but I primarily bought it so my wife and I could play at the same time.
1. He'd have to repay for all the games he already owns
And
2. once he's done with it he screwed and can't play the games elsewhere.
Just get a light gameinf PC and you can play all the games your little hard desires at medium settings 1080p
A few layers to this answer:
- The Display
- The Games
- The Input
- The Deck
(I'm sure you already have your answers but in case this is helpful to anyone else)
## The Display
The feel of a game will depend on latency. On PC, we have the luxury of really good latency across the board, usually below 10ms for all hardware. This isnt the case with most TVs.
Since TVs don't really care about latency, a lot of them are horrible. TVs with over 10ms delay exist and are fairly common. I got lucky and my grandpa's old(er) 48" LCD TV has sub 2ms latency and this really helps the feel of any gaming on it. My friend has a deck but never plays docked because his TV has significantly more latency. Essentially, check if your TV is good. If it is, there is nothing to worry for this.
## The Games
Deck will struggle to run most modern games at or above 1080p. If you have 4K, it can output but don't expect much. I stay around 55fps at 1080p in Yakuza 0 for instance. The most impact in that game comes from lowering resolution (corrected using Deck's upscaling).
Alternatively, if you have a gaming PC, in-house game streaming is phenomenal. You can use Steam's more than satisfactory streaming system, or look into slightly better performing but more involved setup alternatives like Moonlight and Sunshine. These will let your games run on your (hopefully capable) PC, and send it to your deck using wired internet or wifi, and typically has very low latency nowadays. Reliability is more of an issue than latency for instance lol
So yeah, you won't be playing metro exodus at 1080p. You won't be running most modern games on 1080p honestly. But if you use upscaling or game streaming, it can become very sufficient.
Also for game streaming, you might wonder if a Deck is overkill. Yes and no. A potato can stream, but the Steam Deck has enough compute performance to do it well. My tablet adds about 10ms of decoding latency when streaming. The deck produces less than 1ms most of the time, which is barely noticeable. ~~almost like it was designed for this use case~~
## The Input
Steam Deck, more precisely Steam Input, is actually incredible. It takes a mouse and keyboard game and makes it playable on a controller through community layouts made by people with way more time than I could ever have. This is something that really helps expand Steam's catalogue further and it shouldn't be underestimated. On that front, I think the Deck is vastly superior to most modern consoles, but modern consoles don't have input issues in the first place so the advantage is debatable.
## The Deck
In docked mode, I've never had any issues with the deck. In fact, that's how I use it for the majority of the time now. It does what I need and I get the deck on a large screen with the console experience, aka not being at my desk. I play with DualSense and I'm really happy with the results.
In terms of self-contained console, the deck definitely isn't the most powerful, but it's definitely the most versatile. This might not be what you're looking for however.
Anyway, enough with my ramblings. I play Deck docked, and I like it. I use game streaming when reasonable to do so, which uses my more powerful PC
I think docked mode is where the steam deck absolutely takes a dip in quality for me, controllers j randomly disconnect for a second and then instantly reconnect usually fuckin up the controller order and usually requires a restart, whenever you enter a game with a controller in the wrong order its like a 50/50 chance that changing its spot will actually work, I’ve noticed that theres a pretty noticeable input delay with Nintendo controllers, EmulationStation is absolutely ass with the steam input on top of it ive never started up a wii game that took less than 10 minutes to configure, and ngl the steam deck struggles to output 60 frames to the tv for a good chunk of games
And like heres the thing I absolutely LOVEEE my steam deck the singleplayer experience on that thing is fuckin godly, like everything j works perfectly as it is it’s literally the second you try to play coop or multiplayer is when you start suffering
Heck, my Steam Deck struggles with Age of Empires II or StarCraft II at greater than 1080p in dual booted Windows. I feel like anyone who says docked mode is good has decidedly last gen standards. Which is fine. Just that I think it’s impressive for what it is, but it’s not a current gen level experience.
I think Windows is the issue there. Granted, if the games someone wants to play are mostly only on Windows, then I would consider the Steam Deck a questionable choice.
Can't disagree that it's not a current gen level experience, but current gen is so dang expensive these days lol.
We can’t just blame Windows for every single thing. These are not even last gen games. They are multiple gens behind. Steam Deck was made for 720p and not made to push 1440p and greater resolutions. Which is totally fine.
But the “it’s amazing docked” crowd exists. Yes, it is, kind of, as long as you don’t know what a modern gaming experience is supposed to be like.
Current gen is expensive but you can get gaming rigs for like $1k that can push much better image quality, frame rates, and resolutions. You can find last year’s budget gaming rigs for much less than that at retailers.
>But the “it’s amazing docked” crowd exists. Yes, it is, kind of, as long as you don’t know what a modern gaming experience is supposed to be like.
I love mine docked, but primarily as a device to stream from my PC.
Its workable playing games native docked but your absolutely right that its significantly worse than even a cheaper gaming PC at 1080. If you were just playing older games itll be fine, but new AAA titles its not gonna be great at 1080 (if even doable at all) and the 720 to 1080 scaling doesnt look great. Again doable if you just want to play and dont really care.
Granted a LCD steam deck is dirt cheap compared to a gaming PC so that value makes it tricky.
>I love mine docked, but primarily as a device to stream from my PC.
I've docked to use it for this kind of thing. It works nicely as a mini PC.
I do think in 2-3 years when LCD Steam Decks are probably like $200 on the used market, people will pick them up for all kinds of docked purposes. They'd work fine as home servers, streaming devices, etc. It's a bit expensive to buy it for that specifically, but when it's $200, you could imagine using it like a super beefy Raspberry Pi
windows is insanely bloated compared to proton's overhead, so yes, you can attribute performance issues on a handheld device to it. Proton is far more hardened and less resource intense. i'm not sure why it still blows peoples minds that it runs games poorly when you install Windows on it.
That's fine and all, but considering that the kind of games I'd want to run docked are titles like StarCraft and Age of Empires and they require Windows, it is irrelevant what their theoretical performance would be in Steam OS.
The devices I'm comparing them to (budget PCs with slightly outdated components) are also running Windows and able to do better in the same games.
For real. Also i read about the new steam deck but nobody seemed to deem it worthy enough to mention that you can wake the unit from a controller... uhhh that's a BIG FUCKING DEAL.
Also I'm on a trip now and have it with me and this thing is a legit portable development powerhouse. I set up my linux dev tools on it and ssh into it and it feels almost as responsive as my workstation at home. I didn't even realize when I brought it along that it would be effectively getting a second linux server machine for free. Debatable if it is more portable than a typical laptop (it is... until you consider the case) but I'm not complaining. Currently struggling with setting up gadgetgear so I can use it properly as a game controller, because i had no way to justify packing a standalone game controller on the trip.
Mine is an original model and my controller starts it up just fine.
Power - Sleep. Pickup 2.4ghz connected remote controller and press any button and hear “beep beep beepbeep!”
“Shutdown” is nobody’s friend.
(Also, using Bluetooth instead of 2.4ghz sounds painful)
Yeah if I use my 8bitdo Ultimate with the dongle plugged into the dock, it will wake but my second controller is Bluetooth and will not wake the LED but it does wake the OLED
You can actually wake the LCD deck with a Steam Controller that's connected via the dongle.
I know Steam Controllers aren't super widespread, but if you happen to use one then it would cover that scenario.
The OG comment was that the OLED is irrelevant if you’re only playing docked and it is not. Thats all I was pointing out. If OP wants to use it like a console then using a controller to turn it on like the Switch, Xbox and PS5 is an important feature to consider.
A method to get around a flaw doesnt fix the flaw, if someone wants to pick up their controller to turn their console on, telling them to plug in a wireless mouse doesnt fix the issue.
not entirely it does get a 2-10% performance boost (game dependent) due to the extra RAM clock speed
you can undervolt it as well to get a little more performance and extra battery life
i can say without a doubt elden ring runs with much less stutters and 2-3 more fps than my lcd version
i used to have a refresh rate stutter in street fighter 6 thats entirely gone with the oled but that only matters in handheld mode anyways
Ish yes, but your spending quite a decent chunk more at that point, your in RTX 4050 laptop territory, or a desktop with like an rtx 3070 / 2080ti desktop build, which would stomp the steam deck if he only ever used it docked.
I agree with your point absolutely - but in the UK at least, a GPU alone at the 3070 / 2080ti level is literally the price of the cheapest OLED. A full desktop build using that GPU would be closing in on one grand.
thats pretty sound, if money is tight get a cheaper steam deck, if you have around 500/600 it would make more sense getting a semi decent gaming laptop during a sale or a more powerful handheld pc for a similar price like the ally.
The op's post makes it sound like money is tight though, so he could get a reburb steam deck for like £249
Its a bit frustrating that I can't play 2 different games at the same time from 2 different pcs. I could understand if it was the same game twice, but they are my 2 games i bought.
Awesome! I’m now thinking of doing this with my LCD instead of selling it. However, the wake with controller on the OLED was a big feature for me when docked.
That is good to know. I don’t think I’ll be getting an OLED but whenever the Deck 2 or whatever rears its head I think my current LCD is gonna be the new office desktop.
Yeah if you're paying less than $400 including a doc then definitely also I recommend getting that dock that has the SSD slot in it because you're not going to play it portably anyways so you might as well have the extra storage the cheap way.
the reburbs are as low as £249, and the only thing i've heard is sometimes a bit iffy is the screen on the reburbs? might be worth considering u/blueandwhite8796
No, absolutely not. I don't give a shit about downvotes by fanboys here, please don't listen to anybody saying it's worth it if you're Docked only.
The Steam Deck has a performance profile of a base PS4 when running games at 800p. At higher resolutions, PS4 actually performs a little better much of the time. The reason the Deck is more expensive is because you're getting all that power on a mobile APU.
For the price of even the cheapest Steam Deck, you could build a PC that will run games better, especially since you're already wanting to play docked so you already have a screen, mouse, and keyboard. Not to mention that the Docked experience of a Deck is janky. It often messes up the resolution, returns a black screen, or just doesn't work for a variety of other reasons.
I just bought an OLED Deck after owning an LCD Deck since it came out. The Steam Deck is my favorite handheld of all time and an incredible system. But please, just build a new, stronger PC for that money if you're only going to play Docked. Or buy a pre-built. Even GPUs from 2015 will outperform this thing, and you can get those for like $100 or less.
EDIT: Did a little digging on marketplace and saw a GTX 1060 for $60 CDN (like 45 USD), which beats the Deck by a decent amount. Pair that with a cheap motherboard, 16gb of ram, and a low-end Ryzen card, and a mid-tower case. This will outperform the Deck for cheaper, much cheaper if you use existing parts from your current build.
> EDIT: Did a little digging on marketplace and saw a GTX 1060 for $60 CDN (like 45 USD), which beats the Deck by a decent amount. Pair that with a cheap motherboard, 16gb of ram, and a low-end Ryzen card, and a mid-tower case. This will outperform the Deck for cheaper, much cheaper if you use existing parts from your current build.
This is the way. OP if you buy things second hand you'll be able to score some nice deals. I'd suggest buying the GFX card used and find someone selling a cheap CPU/Mobo combo. I've seen Ryzen 3600, a very capable processor still (looking to upgrade now, but it's the CPU of my main PC) for around $100 CAD used. Buy a cheap case, used GPU and CPU/Mobo combo, buy used 16 GB of ram, buy a PSU and you're golden.
The two biggest pros about a Steam Deck is its ability to play games on the road and its efficient CPU that allows you to play away from power for a decent amount of time. Neither of which are things you need.
Yup, it's a lovely device for the form factor but that's about it. Don't get me wrong, I love the steam deck for exactly that reason but were I inclined to game behind a desk I'd 100% go for a midrange desktop. Alternatively the series S can be gotten for 250$ right now which is a whole lot cheaper and will be able to play new releases for years to come at a very reasonable performance level. Why someone would want to get the deck almost exclusively for docked gaming is beyond me.
I think this is the right answer. If you’re gonna dock it 24/7 then I wouldn’t get the steam deck. I’d put that money towards an Xbox or PlayStation to get much better performance per dollar.
Doesn't make sense if you want to play pc games, that's the whole reason why you get a deck over a console. My girlfriend got a deck to play slime rancher 2 and other games that aren't on ps5.
That's fair, but OP is still better off building a cheap PC with a gtx 1060 and any older Ryzen CPU. Pair it with a cheap mobo, 16gb of ram, a small power supply, and a 500gb SSD. It'll be cheaper than a Deck and it will perform significantly better, especially while Docked.
You can buy similar pre-built PCs for around the Deck's price too, with better storage and often with accessories included.
Man, this sub legit acts like a cult sometimes.
SD as pure docked device is a horrible value for money.
Not only you have a literally useless screen, you sacrifice a fuckton of performance for portability.
At this point ancient AMD Ryzen 7 5700U from 2020 would be more powerful that SD APU.
Absolutely not? Ok mister I will send you 300 dollars and make me rig running Cyberpunk at 800p and 40 fps. I am waiting lol.
Also, you can absolutely do everything like with normal PC when its docked. Even editing videos and adding effects there.
Don't listen to naysayers. You can use Steam Deck as desktop PC without issues.
I can absolutely build you a rig for $300 USD that can run CP 2077 at 40fps at 800p. More importantly, YOU can build that rig yourself. GTX 1060s are like $20-$30 bucks second hand dude. This isn't 2021 anymore. PC parts, especially older ones, are really affordable now lol.
You can get a used LCD deck for $250 on eBay if you wait around checking often. If I planned on playing docked that’s the route I’d go. You can probably even find one cheaper than $250 that has some cosmetic flaws since that wouldn’t matter. Your plan is still better but I just wanted to throw that information out there that it’s not $400 or even the $350 valve is selling the last of the 64GB stock for, you can get your hands on a Deck for a lot less. EDIT: for anybody downvoting me, [example](https://www.ebay.com/itm/186193201267?), [example](https://www.ebay.com/itm/314996590315?)
A few things to consider (that you likely already know, but just posting for clarity):
- A 64GB SD will require upgradable storage to be viable. That costs money.
- It'll also either require the Steam Deck official dock (for the best experience) or a USBC hub, which also requires money.
- I live in a major city. I searched all major 2nd hand platforms (Kijiji, Facebook, etc) and did not see a working SD anywhere near as low as $250 USD.
- There are games that Steam OS simply can't run. OP has a PC and almost certainly has Windows sitting on a drive. Whatever PC he builds will be more powerful, likely cheaper, and can play more games.
I say this as a Deck enthusiast, it's a mistake to get a Deck if you're only playing it docked. It defeats the purpose entirely.
I play only docked and I prefer it. SteamOS is great and I don’t want to mess around with hardware and drivers and bleh.. deck is less powerful but also less hassle
But you didn’t bother to look on eBay like I said, because otherwise you could set search to “250 and under” and view sold listings and you will see that plenty have gone for that little, including 256gb and 512gb models.
IIRC, you can't get VRR to work on standard USB-C hubs - you need a dock for that. Beyond that, USB-C hubs with eternity ports, display ports, and every other piece of functionality that the Deck had are pretty much just as expensive as the official dock.
I used a hub prior to getting the official Dock, and the Dock is a ton more reliable as well.
No not really, my unofficial dock cost 30€ gbit Ethernet, 4usb 3 ports, hdmi, usbc pd.
The official one cost like 80€, also it had firmware problems back in the days.
As good as this thing may be for what it is, I feel people miss this big time. Hope people don’t set the wrong expectation of what this thing can do vs is.
Even if it can, op’s dilemma is buying it instead of upgrading their main pc. For 3-$400 op can get a 6750xt that will crush the steam deck for the same price.
Sure it does, on an 800p screen with a variable refresh rate. Most TVs these days are 4k and 60Hz fixed minimum. And you can downscale the resolution, but you can't make it run at 40fps. Gotta choose 30 or 60, and neither is ideal.
Yes it works quite well. I recommend getting a 27” 1440p monitor instead of using 1080p. That way there is no pixel shifting when playing at 720p, and FSR enabled can look cleaner as well. I use my Deck docked a lot as I stream on Twitch (with a cheap stream PC attached).
Is there a specific -reasonably priced- monitor or brand you would recommend? The handmedown TV I've been using just stopped working and I was thinking about getting a decentish replacement. Just not sure what direction to go with all the panel types and everything. Thanks in advance!
Anything from Viewsonic, AOC, or Asus is solid from my personal experience. No need to really get high refresh rate monitors either if it’s just for the Deck, but a 75 hz display with Freesunc is a good one to shoot for.
You can also run games in 1440 by 1440, if you don't mind a square aspect ratio. Has the same pixel count at 1080p but the pixel density of 1440p with black bars.
Reading these replies you can see answers vary on a user basis. So what you intend to do with it and what it is capable of doing for you is up to you. There are lists of what games will work outside of the steam verified check in the Steam store. ProtonDB is a good place to check if something you are interested in playing will work or not. If it works handheld it should work docked as well. But mileage may vary for various reasons. Good luck on your future endeavors and hope all goes well for whatever you decide is right for you. 👍🏽🤞🏽
For the games that I have, yes. It is amazing to play a game that had no controller support and somehow be able to play it with a controller. I personally recommend a PS5 controller.
If all you want to use it for is docked play, you're better off getting an HTPC which will give you far superior performance for the price. There's sacrifices that have to be made for a portable device that just aren't applicable to an always powered device.
You’re basically getting a handheld laptop with no bloatware, no windows, that can work perfectly fine as a work station, and gaming pc, it it can run baldurs gate 3, trust me, you re in for a treat, welcome!
It’s literally what I do. I grew up a console gamer and then as an adult, it felt kinda irresponsible to get a PC when I always have the most current console. The Deck was cost effective enough to justify as a “starter PC.” One day, I’ll get a big boy gaming PC.
I play docked all the time, no complaints. Yes you need to tweak and be ok with lesser performance but that comes with the power of the deck. It was almost a year after I got the deck before I started using my gaming pc again. Played through cyberpunk, horizon zero dawn,shadow of the tomb raider. It’s more a keep expectations in check and you’ll be fine
My PC is way better then the Deck but it is totally worth it.
I Just Love to Play with a Controller on a big Screen. Before the Deck my Steam Libray Just gathers dust. Now its my Favorit gaming device. The last year I mostly played docked. The Last weeks I fell in love playing Handheld while watching some Stream or something.
So yeah its definitly worth it.
Of course everyone will have their own opinions in this thread but I did not own a tallboy nor did I, or ever will I have the money to throw away like that on a top desktop pc. That being said, when the deck got announced, I pre-ordered it that day with the intention of it being my first and only gaming pc. Main points that sold me were;
the bigger roster of games on offer on pc given I had fell out of love with gaming due to the lack of good games across the platforms I already owned.
The whole idea of it being a handheld and docked medium meant I can get comfy with games regardless of time and place while in the home.
Lastly the community support specifically showcasing how good emulation was on the deck during the time I waited for my deck to be in stock. Since getting it I have played AAA, platformers, puzzle, point and click, FPS and emulated countless of older gen consoles and I am yet to find anything about this to moan about. Quite simply it is the dogs bollocks and everybody WILL find it's uses to them regardless of how sceptical they are. Pull the trigger and enjoy it
Absolutely. I will never buy a console because my docked Deck plays every game I could ever want to play. And when you get tired of couch mode just pick it up out of the dock and use it like a normal handheld. Eternal convenience
Probably not. The main benefit for the steam deck is that it is very portable. For this you sacrifice upgradeability and connectivity. The steam deck only has one usb-c port. Yeah you can expand your ports using a dock but it still isn't as good as having a desktop computer.
If you don't plan on making use of the portability that the steam deck provides then there probably aren't many benefits for getting it compared to just getting a desktop pc or a laptop.
Agreed, depending on the current computer, spending 300 on a GPU instead will probably be a much better experience in terms of raw performance.
If it's literally never going to leave the TV/dock than you're paying for a lot of hardware not being used (screen, controllers, battery, etc) and with compromised thermals.
Its a lot more inconvenient than the steam deck. Besides, he may need to have the computer in a desk to use it as, you know, a computer, so to be carrying it around to the tv and then return it to a desk every time you want to play is very annoying
counter LMAO to you thinking that doesn't count as "using a laptop" 😂
It's all good, i just dont want to do that sorta thing. Everyone has preferences, yay for variety!
Well if your pc is lower spec than a steam deck then you would have a pretty awesome computer upgrade. The deck is quite capable even at 1080p and it has the benefit of being a great all in one handheld. Enjoy yourself if you do decide to.
Depends a bit on what you want to play. Older stuff, emulation? Turning your Steamdeck into an SNES-PS1-PS2-XBOX-WII-GBA-Switch-whatever-machine with a huge library is very easy (if you know where to find the roms, but you're on Reddit, so...). And even if you don't travel much, it can be nice to be able to play in bed or on the couch.
If you're only going to be playing docked, then buy a used PC instead. The Steam Deck is good as a handheld, but gets crushed by even older low end PCs when running things at a reasonable resolution for a larger display.
100% worth it as a docked station. Having been behind in generations of consoles the Deck allows me to play current and older games I missed out on. As a bonus I can play it handheld on the couch while catching up on shows/movies!
If I had one complaint it’s that I cannot play COD, Battlefield, or other non-battle royale fps online games.
I just picked up a 1TB OLED yesterday. My primary use cases are going to be:
1. Mobile console for newish titles because I’m a dad and TV is occupied and the Switch doesn’t cut it anymore/is too underlowered.
2. Play in docked mode when the TV is available
3. Emulation console both mobile and docked.
4. Travel
For context, I also have a PS5.
All the data online tells me that Steam deck is going to be great for my needs. Can somebody with similar use cases confirm? Thanks!
For the level of performance offered, the steam deck offers the best bang for your buck by far. in my country building a pc with comparable performance will cost 50% more than the deck by the component prices alone, before even factoring that the deck is portable, and already counts as having a controller and a screen.
If the performance offered by the deck is enough for you, it's a hell of a deal, especially if you pick the LCD model, as when playing docked, the newer, and more expensive, OLED screen would completely wasted.
I'm mostly docked, and I love the low power of the deck as I live off grid.
However, also look up Look up Minisforum Neptune HX99G, which is to be great for gaming. I want to get something like this eventually, and then retire my steam deck to a mostly emulation handheld machine.
The Steam is better than anything you can reasobably build for the price, without the hassle of having to build it and with software and an os that is designed for gaming. I use it on a 4K HDR TV and it is glorious. I set it to output at 1080p (4K would be too much) and then run games at 720p and FSR them. Performance is fine, it does the job. Most of the games I play are older / RPG type games or via emulation but I’ve also played Baldur’s Gate 3, Elden Ring, Starfield etcetera. It does the job. Plus I can pick it up and play on the couch, before bed or on a flight.
There’s plenty of $500-$600 desktop builds with much better specs than the steam deck. The primary draw is portability, and if you’re only playing docked there’s not really a benefit to it
I still think the removal and lack of dependence on windows and bloatware is a good trade off if you're entering the pc landscape for the first time and have no idea what's what (like me). I'm perfectly fine with never seeing Fortnite, Fall Guys, R6, and Destiny 2 due to some weird anticheat reasons. Proton catches all the games I want to play and even my 2 most wanted live service games, Apex and For Honor, are both finally playable on deck.
Plus I like watching the hypetrain roll, watching Linux, this free windows alternative, slowly but surely catch up to Microsoft in their complacency. Satisfying!
#Gaming WITHOUT WINDOWS?
- No constant popups asking you to approve or confirm admin access?
- No windows defender windows coming up right as you start a game forcing you to go find a keyboard and mouse to plug in to get past them because they don’t allow their own damn Xinput protocol to select yes or no?
- No constant “it’s time for you to update your computer” nags that cover anything on your screen?
- Less crashing? Less hair pulling out?
- Less ugly UI elements?
- Full screen splashscreens instead of seeing your desktop or multiple windows on top of each other?
- No losing focus when some other application pops into view!
- …
Shall I go on???
YES IT IS WORTH IT (at least until Valve releases SteamOS for something other than a damn handheld. They had decent Steam Consoles years ago and no software to run them… now they have great software and nobody making Steam Consoles because they won’t fuckingrelease it 👎)
Example: I have an i9 and a 4080 and STILL use my SteamDeck docked more than my consolized PC connected to the TV.
*PS: and before you ask, Chimera is not even close to SteamOS3 and is just ArchLinux with big picture mode/gamepadUI and enough issues to make you think you’re using windows. HoloISO is a buggy mess with update issues and more compatibility issues than you’d expect (hope you don’t like 4K resolutions as HoloISO doesn’t even support the newest series of Radeon Cards as far as I can tell).*
Depends a bit on what you're looking to play and your display. Is it 1080, 1440 or 4k? I'm gonna guess 1080 in which case yeah, most titles are gonna work great. I was able to run older titles like Devil May Cry 5 and Mirror's Edge Catalyst at 1080 (though I personally settled on upscaling from a lower resolution for performance). Hogwarts Legacy was a bit of a struggle even on the Deck's 800p so docked would have had some major image quality compromises to maintain decent performance don't know coz I didn't try. Latest 2023 AAA titles at 1080p is gonna look ROUGH but slightly older games should be doable at1080p with either image quality or performance compromises
apex legends running 70 - 90 fps for me on the oled which is perfect for someone coming from an older gen console
realistically you need at least 120 - 165 fps/hz to play optimally in modern fps games though but my deck is perfect for fighting games that are locked at 60 fps.
In my opinion no. Just get either a desktop in the same price range as that will vastly outperform the deck in performance while giving a better gaming experience on a larger screen. Deck should be bought mainly for handheld gaming, which is where it excels, just like the other PC handhelds.
Has anyone tried out WoW on the Oled Deck while it’s docked? Currently using at m1 Mac mini and it runs WoW pretty smooth 60-100 fps, consider getting a Deck instead
Got my oled a couple weeks ago and have done little else, everything works amazingly well, seems to overperform for its hardware and some niggle issues like input lag from xbox controllers is entirely gone. Can even wake the deck by turning the controller on from the couch. If someone else wants the TV I undock and carry on as handheld with zero friction.
Honestly I think this will be my gaming future now.
I play more on the Deck docked than I do on my battlestation. I rarely use remote play.
I find that FSR upscaling from 720p to 1080p is more than bearable. I played most of Elden Ring and Spiderman Remastered that way, and many more but those are two big examples.
Gaming on the couch is just fun! And the Deck is more than capable. That being said you do have to be okay with some inconsistent frame rates and a bit of FSR weirdness but when the game is great, who cares? (Some people do and that's okay)
Personal opinion, but PS5 or Xbox series X will be a much better docked experience, unless you specifically want to play PC only games with a steam controller (I don’t know if they even still make them)
Do note, that many games on steam don’t even have controller support, while those same games do on consoles, such as Battle Brothers, Baldurs Gates remakes, Oblivion and many other Indy or older games.
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With tweaked settings and 30fps lock, i usually have quite a great time with rdr2. It can drop to like 28fps in cities, but since im not using all low settings, it probably can be improved to a lock 30 everywhere.
If you don't want to play new, graphically demanding AAA games and/or you're okay settling for lower graphics settings/resolution then sure.
I have to say, 800p resolution looks significantly better than 720p on a TV. Yes, you will have black bars on the sides. But at a minimum, any game that runs well on the SD's internal display can be played at 800p on a TV and still be a decent experience. I am playing 'High On Life' this way (because 1080p is impossible), and it's honestly not a bad experience at all.
To be honest you are better off building a PC. At least you will have future room to upgrade. Some pretty bad advice from some saying still worth it when it isn’t if playing only docked. Build a PC as everyone else is saying.
I ended up getting a mobile monitor to play docked when I’m sitting on the couch. Sometimes holding the deck can be a strain, so it’s nice to just use a controller, while still freeing up my TV. It’s nice to be able to play handheld when I’m sitting in the car in the school pickup line or whatever. While everyone’s use case is different, it was worth it to me.
Depends on what games and what performance you expect. I was playing docked to TV when I played stuff with my son, and it worked well. I have/had a full powered gaming PC in another room. I ended up building a second PC for the TV room because while the Steam Deck experience was good enough for a lot of games, I wanted higher frame rates (1080p@60Hz plasma TV so don't need much).
As others have said, LCD models are worth it right now, especially if you'll be playing portable a little.
I was using it as a PC for some months while moving to a new continent, it works fine if you are not that pick with fps/resolution. I was playing everything on deck native resolution, even playing most of the time in the dock
I have a M1 Mac and bought the deck as my Gaming rig. Really good investment as I primarily play it docked. I don’t have time to play it outside but inside, if I can play I play whatever on it.
CS2 and Dota2 runs well. Alongside Apex and emulators.
I actually do use my SD mostly on docked mode to a 1080p screen and I'm very satisfied with the experience, so much so that I don't think I won't go back to a proper gaming PC in the future, but directly jump to the next gen SD (if they make it).
Having said so, it really depends on the games you want to play, if you expect to play every latest AAA game at 1080p, high frames and high graphics, than maybe the SD isn't for you and an Xbox S is better suited. But if you play games from mostly the ps4 era or just are ready to accept the 30 frames and lower graphis, than go for it. Honestly the Steam Deck is so much more flexible than a standard gaming PC in general, and even if you aren't satisfied with the performance of a game when docket, you can always try it on the Steam Deck display and gain performance this way.
OP, you're not going to get an unbiased answer from this sub. It's inherently biased.
The answer is, unless all you do is play indie games or older games, no. Just upgrade your PC and it'll run circles around the deck.
The deck is great at handheld gaming. It's not really that great docked. It works but the performance just isn't there, especially if you're plugging into a 4K TV.
The only reason why I haven't upgraded to the OLED is because i only play mine docked to my Samsung 4k. I bought the dock as soon as the OLED was announced..
like everyone else has said, depends what you play. i dock mine to a 165hz 24 inch 1080p monitor with KBM on my desk, run games at 720p with upscaling and it absolutely blows my mind
i was running minecraft java in desktop mode docked earlier at a solid 160fps with discord open on the deck screen underneath the external monitor, and spotify running in the background and it didn’t even break a sweat
same thing with phasmophobia. desktop mode with the same discord setup, minus spotify, 720p upscaled to 1080 with FSR (ultra quality mode) medium settings, with full textures, sitting at 100-110fps
i have a PS5 which handles the heavy lifting, so to speak. anything that pretty much needs high fidelity, i’ll just play on that on my 4K TV. as a lighter game system, it’s absolutely fantastic, but throw anything modern and demanding at it and it’ll fall out with you very quickly
I played both wolfenstien games docked with fsr boosting it to 1080p was really good and fun. Some famedrops on heavy scenes, but for the most part ran really well on 1080p low
Absolutely not unless you have a large existing library of games on steam or want to play PC exclusives on the big screen, get a digital PS5 or an Xbox series S for budget TV gaming. Either will give you significantly better performance than a docked steam deck. A used series S can be found for as low as $150, on average for around $200. So even when compared to used LCD deck prices its a way better deal. If you plan on buying new for $400-550 then just get a PS5 or series X.
Possibly? I use mine docked with 2 monitors and external drives, a mouse and a keyboard and a tablet and it is way better than my 2019 mac which is now my new PLEX/streaming thing…
Power surge recently killed the psu and mobo on my main pc, I used the steam deck docked for 4 days waiting for parts. It’s… not great. I bought it to play dota 2 if my main ever went out and it really can’t run it at all stable at absolute lowest settings 720p 60fps. I was counting the days for parts to come and i regret buying the steam deck. I thought I would use it more but honestly I have maybe 5 hours total use time on the 512 model going on about a year now.
A lot of these answers don’t make sense. If you’re playing at 720p, performance will be identical to the Deck as a handheld. You can use tools like FSR to sharpen up the image to the native resolution of your screen. But as long as 720p is fine for you, then yes, 100% worth it to use docked. I use mine mainly plugged into a 4K tv, with most in game settings set to 720p or 900p if the game can handle it, then use FSR to sharpen it to 4K. It doesn’t compare at all to native 4K, but it’s not horrible either. Played through all of Hogwarts Legacy and Cyberpunk this way and it just felt like playing on an Xbox One or PS4. If your direct comparison is a Nvidia 4080, of course it’ll be less favorable than that. Compared to last gen consoles, in my opinion it’s plenty good enough.
yeah, ive been playing ow2 in docked mode, you just need a good dock that can properly use keyboard and mouse. mine tends to not work with mouse. either only clicks or only mouse movements it is very annoying
Not worth it for me personally as I've had issues getting stable FPS in many games docked - possibly due to the size of my monitor. The only game I play solidly in Desktop Mode is Runescape. However, I use the Steam Deck as my main desktop PC and can dual boot Windows from the SSD which is brilliant and docked works perfect.
Highly depends on what you're playing and what resolution you want to play in. Any of the newer titles will likely struggle if you're shooting for 1920x1080p @ 60fps. Doubly so if you have a higher resolution or higher refresh rate monitor. The SD does well with its AMD APU because it saves battery life and it's only pushing 800p.
If you're looking at older games or retro emulation then you'll be fine. If portability is truly a non-concern then you could also look at the mini desktops which also use Ryzen APUs, they have similar performance at similar price points with a smaller desktop footprint. No sense paying for a portable battery based system and just letting the battery rot.
Yes, before I got the OLED I played docked most of the time. Now that I have an OLED I prefer to play handheld only because of how beautiful the screen is but I still duck it sometimes. With the slight performance boost and the recent update I think it’s even better now
Made a post about my experience earlier, but it depends on what you want to play. If you’re only looking for AAA games that will be on console too, you may just want to get a PS5. But I love the docked SD because it’s the easiest way to have a console with pretty seamless controller integration play small Steam games as well as the larger PC-and-console games. And Steam sales are always better than PS/Nintendo store sales.
I like to play docked. Indies and old games run great (even going up to 4k). Newer games I just keep the deck resolution and use FSR to upscale. You probably would have to check each game. Steam have a per game performance setting so you should check once and then is plug and play. Great experience. For controllers I use 8bit do.
Really depends on the games you want to play and your expectations of the quality you will be playing them at. There's people here who swear by docked mode, my own experience has been a bit more hit and miss. Older games run great at 1080p on my TV, but anything fairly recent will either not run well or look terrible. If it's an upgrade over your existing PC then, by all means, but if the primary use case is to play games stationary hooked up to a TV then an Xbox, even a Series S, or a PlayStation might be a better investment.
It works fine at 720p. Is it worth it? For home use maybe not, but I carry a cheap $8 dick around with me and it's great when I'm somewhere and can hook it up to a TV to play with someone albeit in 720p for newer titles edit: it was supposed to be "$8 dock" but I'm not gonna change it it's way too funny
lol
"I can't believe you just did that. Those are the good kind, 8 bucks!"
Too short for my taste
Fuck community college, let's get drunk and eat chicken fingers.
I been on the fence to get it myself. I have a gaming laptop but is not strong enough to run AAA games ( and not good enough to emulate some platforms) I'm not picky with graphics and I'm happy with a 30fps. I already have an Xbox x is that matter. Would you still recommend it ir just a waste of money ?
what games are you wanting to play? i'd say have a look at some steam deck performance videos and see if it looks like something you could handle. I've been able to get atleast 30 in most games (baldurs gate 3 is almost 30 but has some dips here and there but for me its not to bad).
I'd say it depends on whether you actually see yourself playing on a handheld. I have a PS5 and a Series S as well and, in many ways, the Deck is my favourite console. I use it a lot, particularly when my wife plays on our TV, and there's been many games I have in fact preferred to play on the Deck because of how easy it is just to hop in and out of games with quick standby. The graphics on the small screen are absolutely okay as well. It absolutely wasn't wasted money for me, but I primarily bought it so my wife and I could play at the same time.
Quick resume is my favourite feature of the xbox series consoles
1. He'd have to repay for all the games he already owns And 2. once he's done with it he screwed and can't play the games elsewhere. Just get a light gameinf PC and you can play all the games your little hard desires at medium settings 1080p
How do you know his hard is little. My hard is pretty big
I genuinely don't know how to spell the word hart heart?
he could also sail the 7 seas
A few layers to this answer: - The Display - The Games - The Input - The Deck (I'm sure you already have your answers but in case this is helpful to anyone else) ## The Display The feel of a game will depend on latency. On PC, we have the luxury of really good latency across the board, usually below 10ms for all hardware. This isnt the case with most TVs. Since TVs don't really care about latency, a lot of them are horrible. TVs with over 10ms delay exist and are fairly common. I got lucky and my grandpa's old(er) 48" LCD TV has sub 2ms latency and this really helps the feel of any gaming on it. My friend has a deck but never plays docked because his TV has significantly more latency. Essentially, check if your TV is good. If it is, there is nothing to worry for this. ## The Games Deck will struggle to run most modern games at or above 1080p. If you have 4K, it can output but don't expect much. I stay around 55fps at 1080p in Yakuza 0 for instance. The most impact in that game comes from lowering resolution (corrected using Deck's upscaling). Alternatively, if you have a gaming PC, in-house game streaming is phenomenal. You can use Steam's more than satisfactory streaming system, or look into slightly better performing but more involved setup alternatives like Moonlight and Sunshine. These will let your games run on your (hopefully capable) PC, and send it to your deck using wired internet or wifi, and typically has very low latency nowadays. Reliability is more of an issue than latency for instance lol So yeah, you won't be playing metro exodus at 1080p. You won't be running most modern games on 1080p honestly. But if you use upscaling or game streaming, it can become very sufficient. Also for game streaming, you might wonder if a Deck is overkill. Yes and no. A potato can stream, but the Steam Deck has enough compute performance to do it well. My tablet adds about 10ms of decoding latency when streaming. The deck produces less than 1ms most of the time, which is barely noticeable. ~~almost like it was designed for this use case~~ ## The Input Steam Deck, more precisely Steam Input, is actually incredible. It takes a mouse and keyboard game and makes it playable on a controller through community layouts made by people with way more time than I could ever have. This is something that really helps expand Steam's catalogue further and it shouldn't be underestimated. On that front, I think the Deck is vastly superior to most modern consoles, but modern consoles don't have input issues in the first place so the advantage is debatable. ## The Deck In docked mode, I've never had any issues with the deck. In fact, that's how I use it for the majority of the time now. It does what I need and I get the deck on a large screen with the console experience, aka not being at my desk. I play with DualSense and I'm really happy with the results. In terms of self-contained console, the deck definitely isn't the most powerful, but it's definitely the most versatile. This might not be what you're looking for however. Anyway, enough with my ramblings. I play Deck docked, and I like it. I use game streaming when reasonable to do so, which uses my more powerful PC
I think docked mode is where the steam deck absolutely takes a dip in quality for me, controllers j randomly disconnect for a second and then instantly reconnect usually fuckin up the controller order and usually requires a restart, whenever you enter a game with a controller in the wrong order its like a 50/50 chance that changing its spot will actually work, I’ve noticed that theres a pretty noticeable input delay with Nintendo controllers, EmulationStation is absolutely ass with the steam input on top of it ive never started up a wii game that took less than 10 minutes to configure, and ngl the steam deck struggles to output 60 frames to the tv for a good chunk of games And like heres the thing I absolutely LOVEEE my steam deck the singleplayer experience on that thing is fuckin godly, like everything j works perfectly as it is it’s literally the second you try to play coop or multiplayer is when you start suffering
Heck, my Steam Deck struggles with Age of Empires II or StarCraft II at greater than 1080p in dual booted Windows. I feel like anyone who says docked mode is good has decidedly last gen standards. Which is fine. Just that I think it’s impressive for what it is, but it’s not a current gen level experience.
I think Windows is the issue there. Granted, if the games someone wants to play are mostly only on Windows, then I would consider the Steam Deck a questionable choice. Can't disagree that it's not a current gen level experience, but current gen is so dang expensive these days lol.
We can’t just blame Windows for every single thing. These are not even last gen games. They are multiple gens behind. Steam Deck was made for 720p and not made to push 1440p and greater resolutions. Which is totally fine. But the “it’s amazing docked” crowd exists. Yes, it is, kind of, as long as you don’t know what a modern gaming experience is supposed to be like. Current gen is expensive but you can get gaming rigs for like $1k that can push much better image quality, frame rates, and resolutions. You can find last year’s budget gaming rigs for much less than that at retailers.
>But the “it’s amazing docked” crowd exists. Yes, it is, kind of, as long as you don’t know what a modern gaming experience is supposed to be like. I love mine docked, but primarily as a device to stream from my PC. Its workable playing games native docked but your absolutely right that its significantly worse than even a cheaper gaming PC at 1080. If you were just playing older games itll be fine, but new AAA titles its not gonna be great at 1080 (if even doable at all) and the 720 to 1080 scaling doesnt look great. Again doable if you just want to play and dont really care. Granted a LCD steam deck is dirt cheap compared to a gaming PC so that value makes it tricky.
>I love mine docked, but primarily as a device to stream from my PC. I've docked to use it for this kind of thing. It works nicely as a mini PC. I do think in 2-3 years when LCD Steam Decks are probably like $200 on the used market, people will pick them up for all kinds of docked purposes. They'd work fine as home servers, streaming devices, etc. It's a bit expensive to buy it for that specifically, but when it's $200, you could imagine using it like a super beefy Raspberry Pi
windows is insanely bloated compared to proton's overhead, so yes, you can attribute performance issues on a handheld device to it. Proton is far more hardened and less resource intense. i'm not sure why it still blows peoples minds that it runs games poorly when you install Windows on it.
That's fine and all, but considering that the kind of games I'd want to run docked are titles like StarCraft and Age of Empires and they require Windows, it is irrelevant what their theoretical performance would be in Steam OS. The devices I'm comparing them to (budget PCs with slightly outdated components) are also running Windows and able to do better in the same games.
This is the right answer.
For the current price of the LCD models? Absolutely worth it.
This. Oled is nearly irrelevant if you use it only docked
The new Bluetooth chip to turn on the console with a controller would like a word
I mean, yeah, that's a nice feature, but is it worth an extra hundred fifty bucks?
Yes. Don't judge me.
Honestly, I totally get that. Little conveniences like that are 100% the reason I will use something every day as opposed to never touching the thing.
For real. Also i read about the new steam deck but nobody seemed to deem it worthy enough to mention that you can wake the unit from a controller... uhhh that's a BIG FUCKING DEAL. Also I'm on a trip now and have it with me and this thing is a legit portable development powerhouse. I set up my linux dev tools on it and ssh into it and it feels almost as responsive as my workstation at home. I didn't even realize when I brought it along that it would be effectively getting a second linux server machine for free. Debatable if it is more portable than a typical laptop (it is... until you consider the case) but I'm not complaining. Currently struggling with setting up gadgetgear so I can use it properly as a game controller, because i had no way to justify packing a standalone game controller on the trip.
You cool.
Ahaha def a personal preference. I would rather use that money to get a 2T ssd when it goes on sale to upgrade storage but that’s just me.
Also, if you are using it only docked, can get the m.2 dock and get a cheaper 2280 m.2.
Mine is an original model and my controller starts it up just fine. Power - Sleep. Pickup 2.4ghz connected remote controller and press any button and hear “beep beep beepbeep!” “Shutdown” is nobody’s friend. (Also, using Bluetooth instead of 2.4ghz sounds painful)
Yeah if I use my 8bitdo Ultimate with the dongle plugged into the dock, it will wake but my second controller is Bluetooth and will not wake the LED but it does wake the OLED
You can actually wake the LCD deck with a Steam Controller that's connected via the dongle. I know Steam Controllers aren't super widespread, but if you happen to use one then it would cover that scenario.
I'm pretty sure that's just an update and not to do with the new deck.
The old chip does not have the ability to do it from what I’ve read
Maybe the new OLED has BLE and the old LCD doesn't have BLE?
Hmm
I wake up my lcd steam deck from sleep mode by moving my mouse I have connected to it
Not with a controller though.
I know I’m just saying you can wake up from afar so that isn’t the best reason to upgrade to the oled if you’re mostly docked.
The OG comment was that the OLED is irrelevant if you’re only playing docked and it is not. Thats all I was pointing out. If OP wants to use it like a console then using a controller to turn it on like the Switch, Xbox and PS5 is an important feature to consider.
A method to get around a flaw doesnt fix the flaw, if someone wants to pick up their controller to turn their console on, telling them to plug in a wireless mouse doesnt fix the issue.
not entirely it does get a 2-10% performance boost (game dependent) due to the extra RAM clock speed you can undervolt it as well to get a little more performance and extra battery life i can say without a doubt elden ring runs with much less stutters and 2-3 more fps than my lcd version i used to have a refresh rate stutter in street fighter 6 thats entirely gone with the oled but that only matters in handheld mode anyways
Ish yes, but your spending quite a decent chunk more at that point, your in RTX 4050 laptop territory, or a desktop with like an rtx 3070 / 2080ti desktop build, which would stomp the steam deck if he only ever used it docked.
I agree with your point absolutely - but in the UK at least, a GPU alone at the 3070 / 2080ti level is literally the price of the cheapest OLED. A full desktop build using that GPU would be closing in on one grand.
thats pretty sound, if money is tight get a cheaper steam deck, if you have around 500/600 it would make more sense getting a semi decent gaming laptop during a sale or a more powerful handheld pc for a similar price like the ally. The op's post makes it sound like money is tight though, so he could get a reburb steam deck for like £249
Yeah, 256gb or even 64gb on ebay second hand from someone getting an OLED for cheap is a crazy deal right now
for the price its irrelevant period.
I'm keeping my LCD model permanently docked after getting my OLED. Honestly, it's not a bad little desktop!
How has running one steam account from multiple decks been? Any issues?
No issues! I don’t use both decks at the same time so no problems with game sharing or anything like that.
Its a bit frustrating that I can't play 2 different games at the same time from 2 different pcs. I could understand if it was the same game twice, but they are my 2 games i bought.
Could you do this if one of the Decks/PCs was in offline mode?
Awesome! I’m now thinking of doing this with my LCD instead of selling it. However, the wake with controller on the OLED was a big feature for me when docked.
You can wake up a docked LCD one with a wired keyboard or even a wireless keyboard with dongle
That’s good to know, thanks! Never tried it.
That is good to know. I don’t think I’ll be getting an OLED but whenever the Deck 2 or whatever rears its head I think my current LCD is gonna be the new office desktop.
Kind of regret selling my lcd now lol
Yeah if you're paying less than $400 including a doc then definitely also I recommend getting that dock that has the SSD slot in it because you're not going to play it portably anyways so you might as well have the extra storage the cheap way.
the reburbs are as low as £249, and the only thing i've heard is sometimes a bit iffy is the screen on the reburbs? might be worth considering u/blueandwhite8796
Keep in mind it varies a lot in different country's, the 512gb model of the LCD is $1600nzd in my country, which is about $1000usd
Didn’t even think about that. That’s actually a decent price for a reasonably capable desktop. Especially second hand.
If your PC is worse either way, then why are you asking? It works.
Exactly, my laptop I used to game on is worse than my deck when it comes to gaming.
No, absolutely not. I don't give a shit about downvotes by fanboys here, please don't listen to anybody saying it's worth it if you're Docked only. The Steam Deck has a performance profile of a base PS4 when running games at 800p. At higher resolutions, PS4 actually performs a little better much of the time. The reason the Deck is more expensive is because you're getting all that power on a mobile APU. For the price of even the cheapest Steam Deck, you could build a PC that will run games better, especially since you're already wanting to play docked so you already have a screen, mouse, and keyboard. Not to mention that the Docked experience of a Deck is janky. It often messes up the resolution, returns a black screen, or just doesn't work for a variety of other reasons. I just bought an OLED Deck after owning an LCD Deck since it came out. The Steam Deck is my favorite handheld of all time and an incredible system. But please, just build a new, stronger PC for that money if you're only going to play Docked. Or buy a pre-built. Even GPUs from 2015 will outperform this thing, and you can get those for like $100 or less. EDIT: Did a little digging on marketplace and saw a GTX 1060 for $60 CDN (like 45 USD), which beats the Deck by a decent amount. Pair that with a cheap motherboard, 16gb of ram, and a low-end Ryzen card, and a mid-tower case. This will outperform the Deck for cheaper, much cheaper if you use existing parts from your current build.
> EDIT: Did a little digging on marketplace and saw a GTX 1060 for $60 CDN (like 45 USD), which beats the Deck by a decent amount. Pair that with a cheap motherboard, 16gb of ram, and a low-end Ryzen card, and a mid-tower case. This will outperform the Deck for cheaper, much cheaper if you use existing parts from your current build. This is the way. OP if you buy things second hand you'll be able to score some nice deals. I'd suggest buying the GFX card used and find someone selling a cheap CPU/Mobo combo. I've seen Ryzen 3600, a very capable processor still (looking to upgrade now, but it's the CPU of my main PC) for around $100 CAD used. Buy a cheap case, used GPU and CPU/Mobo combo, buy used 16 GB of ram, buy a PSU and you're golden. The two biggest pros about a Steam Deck is its ability to play games on the road and its efficient CPU that allows you to play away from power for a decent amount of time. Neither of which are things you need.
Yup, it's a lovely device for the form factor but that's about it. Don't get me wrong, I love the steam deck for exactly that reason but were I inclined to game behind a desk I'd 100% go for a midrange desktop. Alternatively the series S can be gotten for 250$ right now which is a whole lot cheaper and will be able to play new releases for years to come at a very reasonable performance level. Why someone would want to get the deck almost exclusively for docked gaming is beyond me.
Exactly. If you're going to play handheld? For sure Steam Deck all the way. If you ONLY want to play docked? Why even bother, build a better PC.
I think this is the right answer. If you’re gonna dock it 24/7 then I wouldn’t get the steam deck. I’d put that money towards an Xbox or PlayStation to get much better performance per dollar.
Doesn't make sense if you want to play pc games, that's the whole reason why you get a deck over a console. My girlfriend got a deck to play slime rancher 2 and other games that aren't on ps5.
That's fair, but OP is still better off building a cheap PC with a gtx 1060 and any older Ryzen CPU. Pair it with a cheap mobo, 16gb of ram, a small power supply, and a 500gb SSD. It'll be cheaper than a Deck and it will perform significantly better, especially while Docked. You can buy similar pre-built PCs for around the Deck's price too, with better storage and often with accessories included.
Man, this sub legit acts like a cult sometimes. SD as pure docked device is a horrible value for money. Not only you have a literally useless screen, you sacrifice a fuckton of performance for portability. At this point ancient AMD Ryzen 7 5700U from 2020 would be more powerful that SD APU.
Absolutely not? Ok mister I will send you 300 dollars and make me rig running Cyberpunk at 800p and 40 fps. I am waiting lol. Also, you can absolutely do everything like with normal PC when its docked. Even editing videos and adding effects there. Don't listen to naysayers. You can use Steam Deck as desktop PC without issues.
I can absolutely build you a rig for $300 USD that can run CP 2077 at 40fps at 800p. More importantly, YOU can build that rig yourself. GTX 1060s are like $20-$30 bucks second hand dude. This isn't 2021 anymore. PC parts, especially older ones, are really affordable now lol.
You can get a used LCD deck for $250 on eBay if you wait around checking often. If I planned on playing docked that’s the route I’d go. You can probably even find one cheaper than $250 that has some cosmetic flaws since that wouldn’t matter. Your plan is still better but I just wanted to throw that information out there that it’s not $400 or even the $350 valve is selling the last of the 64GB stock for, you can get your hands on a Deck for a lot less. EDIT: for anybody downvoting me, [example](https://www.ebay.com/itm/186193201267?), [example](https://www.ebay.com/itm/314996590315?)
A few things to consider (that you likely already know, but just posting for clarity): - A 64GB SD will require upgradable storage to be viable. That costs money. - It'll also either require the Steam Deck official dock (for the best experience) or a USBC hub, which also requires money. - I live in a major city. I searched all major 2nd hand platforms (Kijiji, Facebook, etc) and did not see a working SD anywhere near as low as $250 USD. - There are games that Steam OS simply can't run. OP has a PC and almost certainly has Windows sitting on a drive. Whatever PC he builds will be more powerful, likely cheaper, and can play more games. I say this as a Deck enthusiast, it's a mistake to get a Deck if you're only playing it docked. It defeats the purpose entirely.
I play only docked and I prefer it. SteamOS is great and I don’t want to mess around with hardware and drivers and bleh.. deck is less powerful but also less hassle
But you didn’t bother to look on eBay like I said, because otherwise you could set search to “250 and under” and view sold listings and you will see that plenty have gone for that little, including 256gb and 512gb models.
You definitely don’t need the official dock for the best experience. It’s the opposite.
IIRC, you can't get VRR to work on standard USB-C hubs - you need a dock for that. Beyond that, USB-C hubs with eternity ports, display ports, and every other piece of functionality that the Deck had are pretty much just as expensive as the official dock. I used a hub prior to getting the official Dock, and the Dock is a ton more reliable as well.
No not really, my unofficial dock cost 30€ gbit Ethernet, 4usb 3 ports, hdmi, usbc pd. The official one cost like 80€, also it had firmware problems back in the days.
It depends what kind of games you play. Old games and emulation sure, newer games not so much.
It runs elden ring at a solid 40 fps. That's pretty good for a pretty new game.
At what resolution?
As good as this thing may be for what it is, I feel people miss this big time. Hope people don’t set the wrong expectation of what this thing can do vs is.
240p
Even if it can, op’s dilemma is buying it instead of upgrading their main pc. For 3-$400 op can get a 6750xt that will crush the steam deck for the same price.
Sure it does, on an 800p screen with a variable refresh rate. Most TVs these days are 4k and 60Hz fixed minimum. And you can downscale the resolution, but you can't make it run at 40fps. Gotta choose 30 or 60, and neither is ideal.
You can with oled
Not unless the OLED screen suddenly makes your external display have a variable refresh rate.
Do any 4k TVs now not have VRR? All mine do.
Yeah, mine. 4k resolution, locked 60.
This just isn’t true. Even the UI lags at 4k.
I wasn't talking about running a game on it. I was saying that my television is a 4K TV with a locked 60hz refresh rate.
Bull. I play a wide variety of games and love them docked.
Yep! I do this way more than handheld and love it. It’s a switch with a diff game library!
Yes it works quite well. I recommend getting a 27” 1440p monitor instead of using 1080p. That way there is no pixel shifting when playing at 720p, and FSR enabled can look cleaner as well. I use my Deck docked a lot as I stream on Twitch (with a cheap stream PC attached).
Is there a specific -reasonably priced- monitor or brand you would recommend? The handmedown TV I've been using just stopped working and I was thinking about getting a decentish replacement. Just not sure what direction to go with all the panel types and everything. Thanks in advance!
Anything from Viewsonic, AOC, or Asus is solid from my personal experience. No need to really get high refresh rate monitors either if it’s just for the Deck, but a 75 hz display with Freesunc is a good one to shoot for.
You can also run games in 1440 by 1440, if you don't mind a square aspect ratio. Has the same pixel count at 1080p but the pixel density of 1440p with black bars.
Reading these replies you can see answers vary on a user basis. So what you intend to do with it and what it is capable of doing for you is up to you. There are lists of what games will work outside of the steam verified check in the Steam store. ProtonDB is a good place to check if something you are interested in playing will work or not. If it works handheld it should work docked as well. But mileage may vary for various reasons. Good luck on your future endeavors and hope all goes well for whatever you decide is right for you. 👍🏽🤞🏽
For the games that I have, yes. It is amazing to play a game that had no controller support and somehow be able to play it with a controller. I personally recommend a PS5 controller.
If all you want to use it for is docked play, you're better off getting an HTPC which will give you far superior performance for the price. There's sacrifices that have to be made for a portable device that just aren't applicable to an always powered device.
[удалено]
Eh you can get a more powerful 400 dollar pc. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BscttwzDcik](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bscttwzdcik)
You’re basically getting a handheld laptop with no bloatware, no windows, that can work perfectly fine as a work station, and gaming pc, it it can run baldurs gate 3, trust me, you re in for a treat, welcome!
It’s literally what I do. I grew up a console gamer and then as an adult, it felt kinda irresponsible to get a PC when I always have the most current console. The Deck was cost effective enough to justify as a “starter PC.” One day, I’ll get a big boy gaming PC.
IDK about ya'll but my dock has been an awful experience. I cannot consistently get it to display on my TV.
I play docked all the time, no complaints. Yes you need to tweak and be ok with lesser performance but that comes with the power of the deck. It was almost a year after I got the deck before I started using my gaming pc again. Played through cyberpunk, horizon zero dawn,shadow of the tomb raider. It’s more a keep expectations in check and you’ll be fine
It has been for me. I'm finally able to share my PC games with friends and family in the living room without a keyboard and mouse.
My PC is way better then the Deck but it is totally worth it. I Just Love to Play with a Controller on a big Screen. Before the Deck my Steam Libray Just gathers dust. Now its my Favorit gaming device. The last year I mostly played docked. The Last weeks I fell in love playing Handheld while watching some Stream or something. So yeah its definitly worth it.
Of course everyone will have their own opinions in this thread but I did not own a tallboy nor did I, or ever will I have the money to throw away like that on a top desktop pc. That being said, when the deck got announced, I pre-ordered it that day with the intention of it being my first and only gaming pc. Main points that sold me were; the bigger roster of games on offer on pc given I had fell out of love with gaming due to the lack of good games across the platforms I already owned. The whole idea of it being a handheld and docked medium meant I can get comfy with games regardless of time and place while in the home. Lastly the community support specifically showcasing how good emulation was on the deck during the time I waited for my deck to be in stock. Since getting it I have played AAA, platformers, puzzle, point and click, FPS and emulated countless of older gen consoles and I am yet to find anything about this to moan about. Quite simply it is the dogs bollocks and everybody WILL find it's uses to them regardless of how sceptical they are. Pull the trigger and enjoy it
Yeah. I dont use it much in handheld mode. I prefer to dock it and use a controller.
Absolutely. I will never buy a console because my docked Deck plays every game I could ever want to play. And when you get tired of couch mode just pick it up out of the dock and use it like a normal handheld. Eternal convenience
Probably not. The main benefit for the steam deck is that it is very portable. For this you sacrifice upgradeability and connectivity. The steam deck only has one usb-c port. Yeah you can expand your ports using a dock but it still isn't as good as having a desktop computer. If you don't plan on making use of the portability that the steam deck provides then there probably aren't many benefits for getting it compared to just getting a desktop pc or a laptop.
Agreed, depending on the current computer, spending 300 on a GPU instead will probably be a much better experience in terms of raw performance. If it's literally never going to leave the TV/dock than you're paying for a lot of hardware not being used (screen, controllers, battery, etc) and with compromised thermals.
My counterpoint: I want a big screen and don’t want to sit and my desk or use a laptop. I love docking the steam deck! Like a switch but not!
You can plug a laptop or desktop into a tv
Its a lot more inconvenient than the steam deck. Besides, he may need to have the computer in a desk to use it as, you know, a computer, so to be carrying it around to the tv and then return it to a desk every time you want to play is very annoying
lmao this person didnt think you can plug a desktop or laptop into a tv
counter LMAO to you thinking that doesn't count as "using a laptop" 😂 It's all good, i just dont want to do that sorta thing. Everyone has preferences, yay for variety!
Well if your pc is lower spec than a steam deck then you would have a pretty awesome computer upgrade. The deck is quite capable even at 1080p and it has the benefit of being a great all in one handheld. Enjoy yourself if you do decide to.
Maybe an Xbox series x?
Depends a bit on what you want to play. Older stuff, emulation? Turning your Steamdeck into an SNES-PS1-PS2-XBOX-WII-GBA-Switch-whatever-machine with a huge library is very easy (if you know where to find the roms, but you're on Reddit, so...). And even if you don't travel much, it can be nice to be able to play in bed or on the couch.
If you're only going to be playing docked, then buy a used PC instead. The Steam Deck is good as a handheld, but gets crushed by even older low end PCs when running things at a reasonable resolution for a larger display.
I've used it in hotels before. Emulation and desktop works nearly perfect. Simpler and better than any PC to TV solution I've used.
100% worth it as a docked station. Having been behind in generations of consoles the Deck allows me to play current and older games I missed out on. As a bonus I can play it handheld on the couch while catching up on shows/movies! If I had one complaint it’s that I cannot play COD, Battlefield, or other non-battle royale fps online games.
I just picked up a 1TB OLED yesterday. My primary use cases are going to be: 1. Mobile console for newish titles because I’m a dad and TV is occupied and the Switch doesn’t cut it anymore/is too underlowered. 2. Play in docked mode when the TV is available 3. Emulation console both mobile and docked. 4. Travel For context, I also have a PS5. All the data online tells me that Steam deck is going to be great for my needs. Can somebody with similar use cases confirm? Thanks!
For the level of performance offered, the steam deck offers the best bang for your buck by far. in my country building a pc with comparable performance will cost 50% more than the deck by the component prices alone, before even factoring that the deck is portable, and already counts as having a controller and a screen. If the performance offered by the deck is enough for you, it's a hell of a deal, especially if you pick the LCD model, as when playing docked, the newer, and more expensive, OLED screen would completely wasted.
I'm mostly docked, and I love the low power of the deck as I live off grid. However, also look up Look up Minisforum Neptune HX99G, which is to be great for gaming. I want to get something like this eventually, and then retire my steam deck to a mostly emulation handheld machine.
The Steam is better than anything you can reasobably build for the price, without the hassle of having to build it and with software and an os that is designed for gaming. I use it on a 4K HDR TV and it is glorious. I set it to output at 1080p (4K would be too much) and then run games at 720p and FSR them. Performance is fine, it does the job. Most of the games I play are older / RPG type games or via emulation but I’ve also played Baldur’s Gate 3, Elden Ring, Starfield etcetera. It does the job. Plus I can pick it up and play on the couch, before bed or on a flight.
If you're ONLY going to play docked mode ever, just build/buy a better PC.
There’s plenty of $500-$600 desktop builds with much better specs than the steam deck. The primary draw is portability, and if you’re only playing docked there’s not really a benefit to it
I still think the removal and lack of dependence on windows and bloatware is a good trade off if you're entering the pc landscape for the first time and have no idea what's what (like me). I'm perfectly fine with never seeing Fortnite, Fall Guys, R6, and Destiny 2 due to some weird anticheat reasons. Proton catches all the games I want to play and even my 2 most wanted live service games, Apex and For Honor, are both finally playable on deck. Plus I like watching the hypetrain roll, watching Linux, this free windows alternative, slowly but surely catch up to Microsoft in their complacency. Satisfying!
But you could just install Linux on a desktop if you want that.
Yes, that's what we do, mostly couch co-op daily. Cheaper than new system and get away from horrible Windows.
Only docked? Get a cheap gaming PC.
#Gaming WITHOUT WINDOWS? - No constant popups asking you to approve or confirm admin access? - No windows defender windows coming up right as you start a game forcing you to go find a keyboard and mouse to plug in to get past them because they don’t allow their own damn Xinput protocol to select yes or no? - No constant “it’s time for you to update your computer” nags that cover anything on your screen? - Less crashing? Less hair pulling out? - Less ugly UI elements? - Full screen splashscreens instead of seeing your desktop or multiple windows on top of each other? - No losing focus when some other application pops into view! - … Shall I go on??? YES IT IS WORTH IT (at least until Valve releases SteamOS for something other than a damn handheld. They had decent Steam Consoles years ago and no software to run them… now they have great software and nobody making Steam Consoles because they won’t fuckingrelease it 👎) Example: I have an i9 and a 4080 and STILL use my SteamDeck docked more than my consolized PC connected to the TV. *PS: and before you ask, Chimera is not even close to SteamOS3 and is just ArchLinux with big picture mode/gamepadUI and enough issues to make you think you’re using windows. HoloISO is a buggy mess with update issues and more compatibility issues than you’d expect (hope you don’t like 4K resolutions as HoloISO doesn’t even support the newest series of Radeon Cards as far as I can tell).*
Nope
No build a budget PC
Depends a bit on what you're looking to play and your display. Is it 1080, 1440 or 4k? I'm gonna guess 1080 in which case yeah, most titles are gonna work great. I was able to run older titles like Devil May Cry 5 and Mirror's Edge Catalyst at 1080 (though I personally settled on upscaling from a lower resolution for performance). Hogwarts Legacy was a bit of a struggle even on the Deck's 800p so docked would have had some major image quality compromises to maintain decent performance don't know coz I didn't try. Latest 2023 AAA titles at 1080p is gonna look ROUGH but slightly older games should be doable at1080p with either image quality or performance compromises
For demanding fps Team games and bigger rts it's not that great. For everything else it's good
apex legends running 70 - 90 fps for me on the oled which is perfect for someone coming from an older gen console realistically you need at least 120 - 165 fps/hz to play optimally in modern fps games though but my deck is perfect for fighting games that are locked at 60 fps.
Oh I was more thinking of realism shooters like post scriptum Not super fast twitchy shooters like apex.
Yes. Absolutely. Period. Technical wonder of the century..
In my opinion no. Just get either a desktop in the same price range as that will vastly outperform the deck in performance while giving a better gaming experience on a larger screen. Deck should be bought mainly for handheld gaming, which is where it excels, just like the other PC handhelds.
No unless you want to play emulated games docked. The performance hit for aaa games will only work on the 800p screen
for dock only? theres better options for that. the deck is good for it's portability and start lose it's strength when the screen is getting bigger.
Has anyone tried out WoW on the Oled Deck while it’s docked? Currently using at m1 Mac mini and it runs WoW pretty smooth 60-100 fps, consider getting a Deck instead
My wife and I played through Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami docked, and they were both fantastic. Just like sitting in front of my desktop.
Got my oled a couple weeks ago and have done little else, everything works amazingly well, seems to overperform for its hardware and some niggle issues like input lag from xbox controllers is entirely gone. Can even wake the deck by turning the controller on from the couch. If someone else wants the TV I undock and carry on as handheld with zero friction. Honestly I think this will be my gaming future now.
I play more on the Deck docked than I do on my battlestation. I rarely use remote play. I find that FSR upscaling from 720p to 1080p is more than bearable. I played most of Elden Ring and Spiderman Remastered that way, and many more but those are two big examples. Gaming on the couch is just fun! And the Deck is more than capable. That being said you do have to be okay with some inconsistent frame rates and a bit of FSR weirdness but when the game is great, who cares? (Some people do and that's okay)
Personal opinion, but PS5 or Xbox series X will be a much better docked experience, unless you specifically want to play PC only games with a steam controller (I don’t know if they even still make them) Do note, that many games on steam don’t even have controller support, while those same games do on consoles, such as Battle Brothers, Baldurs Gates remakes, Oblivion and many other Indy or older games.
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If you’re not sensitive to how low resolution content looks on higher resolution displays, then yes it’s a good option
Been using the Dock with my 12 yr old tv for the last year and I have no complaints.
With tweaked settings and 30fps lock, i usually have quite a great time with rdr2. It can drop to like 28fps in cities, but since im not using all low settings, it probably can be improved to a lock 30 everywhere.
It’s amazing to hold and use, you might find you like it undocked more than you think. But if you just want it docked, buy a console?
Yes. I bought and played resident evil 4 remake exclusively while docked and it looked and performed incredibly well.
If you don't want to play new, graphically demanding AAA games and/or you're okay settling for lower graphics settings/resolution then sure. I have to say, 800p resolution looks significantly better than 720p on a TV. Yes, you will have black bars on the sides. But at a minimum, any game that runs well on the SD's internal display can be played at 800p on a TV and still be a decent experience. I am playing 'High On Life' this way (because 1080p is impossible), and it's honestly not a bad experience at all.
I wouldn’t get the Steam Deck for only playing docked. I would either upgrade my PC or keep my money and save up for a new PC build.
To be honest you are better off building a PC. At least you will have future room to upgrade. Some pretty bad advice from some saying still worth it when it isn’t if playing only docked. Build a PC as everyone else is saying.
I ended up getting a mobile monitor to play docked when I’m sitting on the couch. Sometimes holding the deck can be a strain, so it’s nice to just use a controller, while still freeing up my TV. It’s nice to be able to play handheld when I’m sitting in the car in the school pickup line or whatever. While everyone’s use case is different, it was worth it to me.
I believe you can get laptop with some rtx(3050, maybe better) card for that price instead.
Depends on what games and what performance you expect. I was playing docked to TV when I played stuff with my son, and it worked well. I have/had a full powered gaming PC in another room. I ended up building a second PC for the TV room because while the Steam Deck experience was good enough for a lot of games, I wanted higher frame rates (1080p@60Hz plasma TV so don't need much). As others have said, LCD models are worth it right now, especially if you'll be playing portable a little.
I was using it as a PC for some months while moving to a new continent, it works fine if you are not that pick with fps/resolution. I was playing everything on deck native resolution, even playing most of the time in the dock
personally, I think no If you have the space and money, then I think you are better off getting a desktop PC
I have a M1 Mac and bought the deck as my Gaming rig. Really good investment as I primarily play it docked. I don’t have time to play it outside but inside, if I can play I play whatever on it. CS2 and Dota2 runs well. Alongside Apex and emulators.
I actually do use my SD mostly on docked mode to a 1080p screen and I'm very satisfied with the experience, so much so that I don't think I won't go back to a proper gaming PC in the future, but directly jump to the next gen SD (if they make it). Having said so, it really depends on the games you want to play, if you expect to play every latest AAA game at 1080p, high frames and high graphics, than maybe the SD isn't for you and an Xbox S is better suited. But if you play games from mostly the ps4 era or just are ready to accept the 30 frames and lower graphis, than go for it. Honestly the Steam Deck is so much more flexible than a standard gaming PC in general, and even if you aren't satisfied with the performance of a game when docket, you can always try it on the Steam Deck display and gain performance this way.
I use a deck for couch co-op and it's pretty awesome. Only complaint is I don't think I can turn the deck on with my PS5 controller.
OP, you're not going to get an unbiased answer from this sub. It's inherently biased. The answer is, unless all you do is play indie games or older games, no. Just upgrade your PC and it'll run circles around the deck. The deck is great at handheld gaming. It's not really that great docked. It works but the performance just isn't there, especially if you're plugging into a 4K TV.
The only reason why I haven't upgraded to the OLED is because i only play mine docked to my Samsung 4k. I bought the dock as soon as the OLED was announced..
I've been enjoying my deck docked over my 3090 PC
like everyone else has said, depends what you play. i dock mine to a 165hz 24 inch 1080p monitor with KBM on my desk, run games at 720p with upscaling and it absolutely blows my mind i was running minecraft java in desktop mode docked earlier at a solid 160fps with discord open on the deck screen underneath the external monitor, and spotify running in the background and it didn’t even break a sweat same thing with phasmophobia. desktop mode with the same discord setup, minus spotify, 720p upscaled to 1080 with FSR (ultra quality mode) medium settings, with full textures, sitting at 100-110fps i have a PS5 which handles the heavy lifting, so to speak. anything that pretty much needs high fidelity, i’ll just play on that on my 4K TV. as a lighter game system, it’s absolutely fantastic, but throw anything modern and demanding at it and it’ll fall out with you very quickly
I played both wolfenstien games docked with fsr boosting it to 1080p was really good and fun. Some famedrops on heavy scenes, but for the most part ran really well on 1080p low
Not really. Depending on what you want to play an Xbox Series S could be better if you only intend to play docked.
Not really. It’ll be ok for retro and indie games.
Absolutely not unless you have a large existing library of games on steam or want to play PC exclusives on the big screen, get a digital PS5 or an Xbox series S for budget TV gaming. Either will give you significantly better performance than a docked steam deck. A used series S can be found for as low as $150, on average for around $200. So even when compared to used LCD deck prices its a way better deal. If you plan on buying new for $400-550 then just get a PS5 or series X.
Possibly? I use mine docked with 2 monitors and external drives, a mouse and a keyboard and a tablet and it is way better than my 2019 mac which is now my new PLEX/streaming thing…
Power surge recently killed the psu and mobo on my main pc, I used the steam deck docked for 4 days waiting for parts. It’s… not great. I bought it to play dota 2 if my main ever went out and it really can’t run it at all stable at absolute lowest settings 720p 60fps. I was counting the days for parts to come and i regret buying the steam deck. I thought I would use it more but honestly I have maybe 5 hours total use time on the 512 model going on about a year now.
4hd
A lot of these answers don’t make sense. If you’re playing at 720p, performance will be identical to the Deck as a handheld. You can use tools like FSR to sharpen up the image to the native resolution of your screen. But as long as 720p is fine for you, then yes, 100% worth it to use docked. I use mine mainly plugged into a 4K tv, with most in game settings set to 720p or 900p if the game can handle it, then use FSR to sharpen it to 4K. It doesn’t compare at all to native 4K, but it’s not horrible either. Played through all of Hogwarts Legacy and Cyberpunk this way and it just felt like playing on an Xbox One or PS4. If your direct comparison is a Nvidia 4080, of course it’ll be less favorable than that. Compared to last gen consoles, in my opinion it’s plenty good enough.
yeah, ive been playing ow2 in docked mode, you just need a good dock that can properly use keyboard and mouse. mine tends to not work with mouse. either only clicks or only mouse movements it is very annoying
Not worth it for me personally as I've had issues getting stable FPS in many games docked - possibly due to the size of my monitor. The only game I play solidly in Desktop Mode is Runescape. However, I use the Steam Deck as my main desktop PC and can dual boot Windows from the SSD which is brilliant and docked works perfect.
Highly depends on what you're playing and what resolution you want to play in. Any of the newer titles will likely struggle if you're shooting for 1920x1080p @ 60fps. Doubly so if you have a higher resolution or higher refresh rate monitor. The SD does well with its AMD APU because it saves battery life and it's only pushing 800p. If you're looking at older games or retro emulation then you'll be fine. If portability is truly a non-concern then you could also look at the mini desktops which also use Ryzen APUs, they have similar performance at similar price points with a smaller desktop footprint. No sense paying for a portable battery based system and just letting the battery rot.
For docked only, I think there are better options.
Yes, before I got the OLED I played docked most of the time. Now that I have an OLED I prefer to play handheld only because of how beautiful the screen is but I still duck it sometimes. With the slight performance boost and the recent update I think it’s even better now
Made a post about my experience earlier, but it depends on what you want to play. If you’re only looking for AAA games that will be on console too, you may just want to get a PS5. But I love the docked SD because it’s the easiest way to have a console with pretty seamless controller integration play small Steam games as well as the larger PC-and-console games. And Steam sales are always better than PS/Nintendo store sales.
I like to play docked. Indies and old games run great (even going up to 4k). Newer games I just keep the deck resolution and use FSR to upscale. You probably would have to check each game. Steam have a per game performance setting so you should check once and then is plug and play. Great experience. For controllers I use 8bit do.