A couple months ago I ran into some money to get a new next-gen gaming console. At the time I had a PS4 and a PC with a 10th gen i3 and a 1650 graphics card. I was going to originally get a PS5 since my wife enjoys gaming more in front of the TV and the PS4 is getting phased out soon… but then the idea of a steam deck came up. So now we just mainly use the steam deck as a docked console.
It has been life changing. Sure, the graphics probably aren’t as good as a PS5 but my gaming has slowed down a lot in the past 10 years to a point where it doesn’t take much to wow me graphically. I’ve always cared more about gameplay, and this is what I’ve gotten. I’m currently in act 1 of BG3 on the SD and it’s not super pretty all the time but I am still able to have a great experience (so far). Just having an option to access the entire Steam store on something that works so seamlessly with a controller is life changing. We just bought Portal 2 for $0.99 and are about to play it for both of our first times.
There is also a massive backlog of games that I missed throughout the years, including Bioshock series, Fallout Series, RDR1, Skyrim, etc that I now have the ability to play, whether through emulation, Steam, etc. I’m playing Pokémon Violet, my first Pokémon game since Gen 3, and I also started a run of LoZ:WW for nostalgia’s sake.
tldr: if game catalog is priority over ultra graphics settings, the Steam Deck may actually be able to substitute a PS5/next gen console. YMMV, just my experience so far.
Very good point, and clearly graphics aren’t the priority for some, as the Switch can’t even keep up with the Deck, but people play it on their TV all the time. Taking one’s entire PC library and turning it into a console experience isn’t bad either, it’s an instant game library for many.
I’ve essentially sworn off consoles, I’ll attach my Deck and other devices to a TV instead.
I’m waiting for a future where some sort of egpu support is possible before I can treat the Deck as a primary console as I like my eye candy but that is where I hope things will go.
A ROG Ally with an XG Mobile is a very expensive and somewhat compromised sneak peak at this concept but I hope it catches on and continues to be improved!
my steam deck has been turned into a skyrim machine haha, it’s great so far the only downside for me it’s shaders cache for a 64gb user
Actually I personally think a ps5 is a lot better than steam deck, in terms of graphic and performance, if your not going to play steam deck handheld mode as much, it a bad decesion to choose an docked steam deck as an main console rather than a ps5
Only if you had game in your steam account or game is cheaper on steam than I could see why is worth it to you, because most people got steam deck is for the portability to play not docked it, so in your situation I wouldn’t say it a nice choice, I personally don’t see the value in as being a TV console since it pretty much same price as a ps5 , but since you had ps4 it still can play some other game i guess
A mini PC with the latest AMD RDNA3 SoC at much higher TDP would give you an even better docked performance at an similar to lower cost.