The exact quote:
It is important to us, and we’ve tried to be really clear, we are not doing the yearly cadence. We’re not going to do a bump every year. There’s no reason to do that. And, honestly, from our perspective, that’s kind of not really fair to your customers to come out with something so soon that’s only incrementally better. So we really do want to wait for a generational leap in compute without sacrificing battery life before we ship the real second generation of Steam Deck. But it is something that we’re excited about and we’re working on.
My biggest concern with SteamDeck was that it would become a 1-2 year upgrade cycle device. I don’t expect the hardware to last 7+ years like normal console lifecycles but I’m very glad to hear they’re being patient and aggressively supporting the software side.
Shoot. My back log on games is so big, I can be happy with this one for another 5 years before I’d need something with more power.
It’s kind of just becoming an indie or old game portable pc to me. Don’t personally have much interest in playing modern graphically demanding titles on it.
I’m the same. I play retro and indie titles on the Deck, and more modern and demanding games on the desktop.
Was it ever intended or fit for that? It’s 2.5 years old, where modern games 2.5 years ago that much less demanding than modern games today?
2.5 years ago there were a lot more games still targeting last gen consoles as their minimum baseline. Newer games that are current gen consoles only tend to fare a lot worse on steam deck.
I think the goal was to be able to physically run some version of modern AAA titles when it came out. Although generally, those titles would be downgraded graphically and run at a low frame rate, making it a less than ideal situation for those with alternative options.
I was really surprised how well Hellblade 2 ran on mine. And supposedly Until Dawn also runs well now. When you can live with 30fps I suspect that well crafted games will be playable for a few more years.
There are a ton of PC gamers who think the only way to play a video game is 1440p 60-144fps and anything below that is unplayable. The reality is the steam deck is a 720p 30fps handheld device that can occasionally make it to 60fps if pushed far enough.
IMHO a device that can run a game like God of war Ragnarok at 30fps in handheld mode and still play fine when docked is succeeding on the performance front in several aspects. In comparison, the switch version of Wolfenstein the new Colossus had to remove entire sets of geometry to even hit 30fps where the deck can hit that easily with the same settings without removing geometry and using AMD FSR. I think the deck has at least 3 more years in it before we even start to see any needed upgrades at that performance. Only time will tell.
Honestly can’t see that happening. I think valve will want each upgrade to be significant enough you can feel it
Good. Keeping it the same means that the original Steam Deck will remain a target device for game developers for longer.
The one “generational leap” I want, and have wanted for decades, is the ability to upgrade hardware, like modular laptops can. It’s great that they aren’t doing little incremental upgrades, but between generations, games come out that would work but need a little more RAM or something, and instead of having to wait another 2 years and spending $1000 on a new console when it comes out, you could just shove more RAM in it in the meantime.
Never in my life have I regretted putting more RAM into my computers. When faced with deciding between similarly priced graphics cards going with the higher RAM option was always the right choice in the long run. Because higher resolution textures always make an otherwise low game look great.
If I knew an adventurous spirit with great soldering skills and greater insurance I would go for the 32 GB upgrade on my Deck.
I bought the parts for that, install pending time off.
Godspeed. o7
Main downside is that having swappable components adds size and cost, which is why laptops are so much less modular than full size PCs. For something like the Deck, which is trying to be as small and cheap as possible, I doubt we’ll see anything modular for a long time.
Valve could possibly sell upgraded motherboards that you could use with your original screen/etc. However before ifixit sold deck parts, there was a leak of the upcoming parts and prices. At the time, replacement motherboards were planned to be sold, but they planned to sell the motherboard for $350 (when the cheapest deck was $400). Ultimately they ended up never selling the motherboard, which makes sense when considering how expensive it was compared to the overall price of the unit.
Regarding size, the steamdeck already has an M.2 for storage, and a CAMM2 module for ram would take about the same amount of space as a second M.2 drive. The only other major thing for repairability/upgradability would be less glue on the battery and threaded inserts, which doesn’t add size.
The only other major thing for repairability/upgradability would be less glue on the battery and threaded inserts, which doesn’t add size.
The glue was reduced on later versions and especially on the OLED version which also got threaded inserts. So those are already done and I doubt the next version would regress in that regard.
