Digital Foundry puts the steam deck through the docked experience test.

[Goukosan 2,258]

 

Overall summary - 

 

-system is XBO/PS4 level, but with PC flexibility

 

-Steam deck is much better as a handheld system than in docked mode. 

 

-Switch-like ease of use isn't here yet, but the OS is constantly updated

 

-older titles scale very well, newer titles need image scaling

 

-choose your USB C adapter carefully

specifically look for an HDMI 2.0 or 2.1

and HDMI 1.4 will always force 4k/30 regardless of settings

 

-tweaking settings in decktop mode can fix this

 

-rumble doesn't work on gamepads

 

-menu settings for some games don't work with controllers, requiring usage of the touchscreen which is blank

 

-docked mode keeps the screen on until you restart the unit in docked mode

 

-you have to manually set each title for your screen resolution

 

 

Edited July 15, 2022 by Goukosan

[Goukosan 2,258]

Game specific docked mode results

 

-Half Life 2 runs at 2160p/60

alpha effects drop frames for a bit

 

-Deus Ex - 1440p/60 at medium settings

4k/30 is an option

 

-Valkyria Chronicles and Dishonored 1440p/60 at default

   1080p for a more stable 60

 

-Mantis Burn Racing 1080p/60 with some drops

 

-Alan Wake original 900p/60 with dips at modest settings

   1440p/30 is doable

 

Mass Effect Enhanced 1080p/30

    1440p/30 is possible but with a lot more dips

   1080p FSR 1.0 + CAS is better than 1080    with bilinear filtering

 

-900p/30

Horizon Zero Dawn

Tales of Arise

Grid Legends

FF7R

 

 

-720p/30

Dirt 5

 

-fsr works good with taa games, but the limits are obvious

 

-the steam desks ability to load precompiled shaders help games like FF7

however stuttering still appears in some areas of FF7 like the town

 

-God of War's FSR 2.0 quality is mixed

    - static scenes is good

    - disocclusion is frequent

     -TAAU costs less than FSR2.0

     -quality between the two is very similar,        FSR is less stable

     -FSR2 balanced at 1080 gets you a near          locked 30fps

    -1440p/performance is sub 30fps, as FSR       costs too much avoid FSR, maybe

 

-Ghost Wire Tokyo uses Epic's temporal super resolution

    -900p/45 with TSR performance (800x450) 

   -low settings

   -better than GoW's FSR

   -doesn't have disocclusion artifacts

   -moving objects are raw as fuck

   -screen space effects really doesn't like         the low resolution

   -when tsr fails, it's not as bad as fsr,             motion blur helps

-TSR causes disocclusion in third party games, but less bad than FSR

 

-Deathloop fails on the steam deck regardless of version of proton

 

-choose your USB C adapter carefully

specifically look for an HDMI 2.0 or 2.1

and HDMI 1.4 will always force 4k/30 regardless of settings

 

-tweaking settings in decktop mode can fix

[Remij 4,688]

Yea the Docked experience still needs work.  You can tell they put most of the upfront effort into the handheld experience first and foremost.  Improvements are coming rapidly though, and certain proton versions improve performance a bit in some games I've tested, though not by much.

 

The FSR1.0 scaling built into the Deck degrades performance.  Sometimes up to 5+fps in my experience.  I almost never use it.  It's better to just use in-game solutions when they're available.  And yea, FSR2.0 in God of War is too fizzly.  There's just not enough input resolution there.  900p 30fps with TAA looks incredible though.

 

The fact that it can hang with PS4/XO on AAA last gen games is awesome though.

[Goukosan 2,258]

2 hours ago, Remij said:

Yea the Docked experience still needs work.  You can tell they put most of the upfront effort into the handheld experience first and foremost.  Improvements are coming rapidly though, and certain proton versions improve performance a bit in some games I've tested, though not by much.

 

The FSR1.0 scaling built into the Deck degrades performance.  Sometimes up to 5+fps in my experience.  I almost never use it.  It's better to just use in-game solutions when they're available.  And yea, FSR2.0 in God of War is too fizzly.  There's just not enough input resolution there.  900p 30fps with TAA looks incredible though.

 

The fact that it can hang with PS4/XO on AAA last gen games is awesome though.

 

It's a handheld experience first and foremost and it excels at that. 

 

There's not really a docked mode with increased performance per se... Its akin to hooking up your PSP or Vita to a TV. Same handheld performance scaled to a TV. 

 

Overall power wise it's a base PS4 with a few extra bells and whistles. 

[Remij 4,688]

2 minutes ago, Goukosan said:

 

It's a handheld experience first and foremost and it excels at that. 

 

There's not really a docked mode with increased performance per se... Its akin to hooking up your PSP or Vita to a TV. Same handheld performance scaled to a TV. 

 

Overall power wise it's a base PS4 with a few extra bells and whistles. 

True.  It was never going to be a Switch level of simplicity... but it's still about as simplistic and console like as you can make a PC.  It's impressive how they've made a frontend which takes all the PC stuff like popup windows and installation boxes and stuff and puts them behind a nice logo animation.

 

I wish they would have designed it like the Switch so just dropping it in the dock would output video.  As it is, even on the official dock you'll have to connect the USB-C cable to the top of the device after placing in the dock.  Obviously not a big deal, but it's a QoL issue the device has compared to the competition.

 

As I've said before, UI performance and stability when outputting from USB-C takes a bit of a hit.  The menu isn't quite as smooth as it is when you're on the handheld itself.  It's MUCH smoother now than it was in the beginning though.  It just wasn't optimized yet for the 4K/1080p output yet.  They're actively continually improving it, but it needs a bit of work still.

[Goukosan 2,258]

1 hour ago, Remij said:

True.  It was never going to be a Switch level of simplicity... but it's still about as simplistic and console like as you can make a PC.  It's impressive how they've made a frontend which takes all the PC stuff like popup windows and installation boxes and stuff and puts them behind a nice logo animation.

 

I wish they would have designed it like the Switch so just dropping it in the dock would output video.  As it is, even on the official dock you'll have to connect the USB-C cable to the top of the device after placing in the dock.  Obviously not a big deal, but it's a QoL issue the device has compared to the competition.

 

As I've said before, UI performance and stability when outputting from USB-C takes a bit of a hit.  The menu isn't quite as smooth as it is when you're on the handheld itself.  It's MUCH smoother now than it was in the beginning though.  It just wasn't optimized yet for the 4K/1080p output yet.  They're actively continually improving it, but it needs a bit of work still.

 

The PC crowd is ok with tinkering with this, which is cool but no way would this fly in the console space. 

 

Essentially you guys are beta testers for deck 1.0.

[Remij 4,688]

19 minutes ago, Goukosan said:

 

The PC crowd is ok with tinkering with this, which is cool but no way would this fly in the console space. 

 

Essentially you guys are beta testers for deck 1.0.

Yep.  That kind of stuff just wasn't a priority with this revision of the Steam Deck.  This device is currently about getting hardware into people's hands and building up the library support and SteamOS functionality.

 

Once they get a lot of the kinks worked out, and broader library support, they'll be primed for a refresh... and if they do... that device could be truly special.

[Twinblade★ 3,936]

Damn this thing just came out and people are already eager for an upgraded version. What a flop

[lynux3 2,108]

The PC space is always beta testing. Never ending kinks. THHBR

[TLHBO 2,162]

That sounds pretty good, I keep looking for a negative because goukosan posted it. Such is the way of systemwars.

 

Of course the handheld experience is much better than docked. Why would you play a docked steamdeck when you could just play your regular PC? This is for a small subset of people that buy a Deck but have never played a PC before. It's not like Switch where it needs a docked mode because only 1 device exists.

 

SteamOS is essentially still in beta mode that's whu it's not even released yet. What's important to notw is that 2 other handheld PC manufacturers have come out and said they're planning to use SteamOS in the future, and Ayaneo is loooing at developing their own Linux OS for their devices which will no doubt use a lot of the same software as Valve's device. This in turn is going to be great for steamdeck owners, as more devices and players using Linux will lead to more support from developers and more people creating open source software for it.

 

[Remij 4,688]

7 hours ago, Twinblade said:

Damn this thing just came out and people are already eager for an upgraded version. What a flop

 

[sugarhigh 519]

DF is tweaking to get the best possible presentation on a 4k TV. Have you seen Switch on a 4k TV? Deck's FSR upscaling from 800p is still way better, and not complicated at all.

 

Deck is "better" as a handheld because it can always use 100% of its power whether handheld or plugged in.  Valve doesn't throttle the handheld mode like Nintendo does.

[Goukosan 2,258]

5 hours ago, sugarhigh said:

DF is tweaking to get the best possible presentation on a 4k TV. Have you seen Switch on a 4k TV? Deck's FSR upscaling from 800p is still way better, and not complicated at all.

 

Deck is "better" as a handheld because it can always use 100% of its power whether handheld or plugged in.  Valve doesn't throttle the handheld mode like Nintendo does.

 

You have it backwards.  Steam deck currently only has a handheld profile. 

 

There is no docked profile at this point with the deck. 

 

That was a design choice. 

 

And no don't be silly... Deck doesn't run at 100% power off a battery. 

 

If down the line valve decides to add a docked profile the performance would be greater than the current handheld profile. 

 

Directly from Valve themselves - 

 

When asked whether Valve considered a higher power mode when docked, Steam Deck designer, Greg Coomer, told PC Gamer's own Wes Fenlon:  "Yes, but we didn't choose to make it a really high priority design target... we felt that it was actually better all things considered to not modify based on docked status or mobile status."

 

"We really wanted to prioritize for using it in what we thought would be the highest use case, which is actually mobile," Coomer explains. "And so since we were focusing on that, and we chose like a threshold where the machine will run well, and with a good frame rate with AAA games in that scenario. We didn't really feel like we should target also going after the dock scenario at higher resolutions. We wanted a simpler design target and to prioritize that."

 

 

 

 

[sugarhigh 519]

17 minutes ago, Goukosan said:

 

You have it backwards.  Steam deck currently only has a handheld profile. 

 

There is no docked profile at this point with the deck. 

 

That was a design choice. 

 

And no don't be silly... Deck doesn't run at 100% power off a battery. 

 

If down the line valve decides to add a docked profile the performance would be greater than the current handheld profile. 

 

Directly from Valve themselves - 

 

When asked whether Valve considered a higher power mode when docked, Steam Deck designer, Greg Coomer, told PC Gamer's own Wes Fenlon:  "Yes, but we didn't choose to make it a really high priority design target... we felt that it was actually better all things considered to not modify based on docked status or mobile status."

 

"We really wanted to prioritize for using it in what we thought would be the highest use case, which is actually mobile," Coomer explains. "And so since we were focusing on that, and we chose like a threshold where the machine will run well, and with a good frame rate with AAA games in that scenario. We didn't really feel like we should target also going after the dock scenario at higher resolutions. We wanted a simpler design target and to prioritize that."

 

 

 

 

 

There is no forwards or backwards. There's just the hardware spec. You can run it at 100% and blow through the battery in 90 minutes, which is the same performance you'll get if you plug it into a TV and a power source.

 

The quotes you highlighted are just saying to make a device good enough for a > 1080p display would compromise the mobile experience too much, which is obviously true. It's not like the Switch is more capable than the Deck at any resolution.

[Remij 4,688]

Just now, sugarhigh said:

 

There is no forwards or backwards. There's just the hardware spec. You can run it at 100% and blow through the battery in 90 minutes, which is the same performance you'll get if you plug it into a TV and a power source.

 

The quotes you highlighted are just saying to make a device good enough for a > 1080p display would compromise the mobile experience too much, which is obviously true. It's not like the Switch is more capable than the Deck at any resolution.

 

 

They can push the silicon harder than what they are... There's hard limits in the software which prevent pushing it further.  They've limited it because of battery and thermal issues.  So essentially the profile for the device is optimized and prioritized for handheld use.

 

They're probably at the sweet spot where there's diminishing returns pushing clocks higher, and the power and thermal requirements aren't worth it.

[sugarhigh 519]

2 hours ago, Remij said:

 

 

They can push the silicon harder than what they are... There's hard limits in the software which prevent pushing it further.  They've limited it because of battery and thermal issues.  So essentially the profile for the device is optimized and prioritized for handheld use.

 

They're probably at the sweet spot where there's diminishing returns pushing clocks higher, and the power and thermal requirements aren't worth it.

 

Yeah I think they're giving us basically the full potential of the chips without risking the longevity of the system. Maybe if the dock had enhanced ventilation, there could be an overclocked profile.  But I don't think that would make crisp 4k viable in Forza 5. There's probably more potential in upscaling. No tweaks are going to put the Deck on par with a PS5.

Edited July 17, 2022 by sugarhigh

[Goukosan 2,258]

51 minutes ago, sugarhigh said:

 

Yeah I think they're giving us basically the full potential of the chips without risking the longevity of the system. Maybe if the dock had enhanced ventilation, there could be an overclocked profile.  But I don't think that would make crisp 4k viable in Forza 5. There's probably more potential in upscaling. No tweaks are going to put the Deck on par with a PS5.

 

No one is saying had they added a docked profile you would get PS5 performance at 4K..again don't be silly.   

 

All I said was that I you would get BETTER PERFORMANCE with a docked profile compared to the current handheld only profile that you get now when you connect it to a TV. 

 

And no they can't give you the full potential of the chip with it running off a battery and also having to contend with thermal issues. 

Edited July 17, 2022 by Goukosan

[sugarhigh 519]

10 minutes ago, Goukosan said:

 

No one is saying had they added a docked profile you would get PS5 performance at 4K..again don't be silly.   

 

All I said was that I you would get BETTER PERFORMANCE with a docked profile compared to the current handheld only profile that you get now when you connect it to a TV. 

 

And no they can't give you the full potential of the chip with it running off a battery and also having to contend with thermal issues. 

 

Thermal issues are the same whether on battery or not. That's the point.  Nothing about the presence of a "dock" changes the capabilities of the chipset and cooling system. We may as well just talk about a "charging" profile at this point. It's not that Nintendo Switch is overclocking when you dock it, it's underclocking when you don't.  Deck doesn't do that.  Unless the game is extremely demanding, you probably should set your own cap so you don't murder your battery.

[Goukosan 2,258]

4 hours ago, sugarhigh said:

 

Thermal issues are the same whether on battery or not. That's the point.  Nothing about the presence of a "dock" changes the capabilities of the chipset and cooling system. We may as well just talk about a "charging" profile at this point. It's not that Nintendo Switch is overclocking when you dock it, it's underclocking when you don't.  Deck doesn't do that.  Unless the game is extremely demanding, you probably should set your own cap so you don't murder your battery.

 

The dock doesn't change the capabilities of the deck, but they would be able to push the deck harder docked than they can in handheld. 

 

Valve already stated they focused on a handheld profile and there is currently no docked profile that pushes the deck further...again a design choice by valve. 

 

If you want to deny that and believe that they're pushing the deck 100% in handheld mode then by all means.. Stay delusional.. Lol

Edited July 17, 2022 by Goukosan

[Cooke 2,031]

When mine, if ever. Arrives I plan on using it mostly docked on work trips. It's definitely more powerful than my laptop and I have a USB powered 17" 1080p with HDR monitor. I'd rather use a mouse and keyboard for PC games