this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2023
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Steam Deck

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A place to discuss and support all things Steam Deck.

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"There is not a native app on Steam deck today," said Andrew Fear, GFN boss, back in January. "Use a Chromium browser to make it work. I would say that both Nvidia and Valve, I think we're both interested in making [GeForce Now on Steam Deck] better. But we don't have any announcements on a native app coming to Steam."

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[–] [email protected] 94 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

No, it isn't.

EDIT: After reading other comments I realize I mistook GeForce Now for GeForce Experience. While I still disagree that SD/Linux is "crying out for it" I actually think bringing GeForce Now to Linux would be a good move.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I just play the games locally on the deck and that includes CP2077 which works good enough for me. I have the option to play off my desktop via the Steam remote play thing but I’ve never tried it. From what I understand, it should be the same (or similar experience) to playing via the Steam remote option? Is that right?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yup but it enables gamers with lesser hardware to play these games.

Not everyone is as lucky to have the hardware to run things locally or streamed from their beefy PC.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ahhhh. I get it now. So it runs on NVIDIA machines, not local machine so that is the difference. With the Steam Link (or whatever it’s called) you run the workload on your desktop and stream to like the Deck. With the NVIDIA solution, you stream the workload from the cloud. That makes sense to me now.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Yes, exacytly. It's like stadia, but in good.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

That's correct. I used to do most of my steam deck gaming by streaming games from my desktop. It's a seamless experience, as much as anything is on the Deck. I still prefer to stream games from the desktop that benefit from better hardware, like BG3.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 year ago

As Linux gains in popularity for gaming, there will be endless articles about corporate stuff from the Windows world that Linux users clearly cannot live without. But the fact is, Linux is gaining ground in part because it does not have them. The simplicity of it all, especially on AMD, is light years ahead of the kind of ecosystem Nvidia and others may want to continue to force down consumers' throats.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Comments here are fun, seem a 3 way split between people thinking it’s GeForce Experience, game stream, and finally the actual cloud streaming service running your own Steam games.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

Yeah it's crazy. I don't see what's negative in having a GeForce Now app on Steam Deck, it's always better to have choices.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Ah yeah, I also thought it was talking about that awful fucking thing I used to opt not to install alongside my geforce drivers.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Back when I had a 1060 3gb it was awesome! Always giving me nearly flawless settings for games, now with a 3060… we have very strong disagreements about the ideal settings.

That said yeah, a random software to install, that requires a new account and all for the privilege of installing the drivers? Hard sell.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago

Haha subscription? No thanks

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

Is it now? I don't hear anything. Gimme an official Xbox Game Pass app tho! Sure it's easy enough to work arround but official apps are guud!

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

It's a Steam Deck. Connected to Steam. I don't think many people are suffering from a shortage of Steam games to play.

"Yes, Andrew Fear (great name by the way), when I finish playing the 500 games already in my library, and start playing the 200 I already own but haven't started yet... which all work on it... I mean, yeah, I'll definitely look at whatever it is you're on about"

[Edit] I have misunderstood it as a game rental/streaming service, rather than a computer rental/streaming service

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It’s not a subscription plan with games, it’s a cloud service running the (supported, stuff about licensing) games you already own on Steam.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ah sorry, my misunderstanding. Though, isn't that just built into Steam anyway?

You know what, I'm going to read up on it myself, so as to be less wrong in future!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Steam allows you to stream from another computer you have, GeForce Now is cloud based and depending on the subscription it can have a 4080 equivalent gpu.

Cool stuff!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Even a chromium browser doesnt work well. It doesnt use hardware acceleration, so high bitrate and resolution are out of the question. When you DO force use hardware acceleration, the video you receive misses a part of the dark black colors, so the video is darker and games that are already dark, are completely unplayable. This has been an issue for years and i have worked on the issue myself but this is not fixable on the user side. And nvidia doesnt care.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Heads up for anyone still using steam streaming and an Nvidia card.

Install Moonlight and run that instead. Way smoother experience overall.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Don't you need a PC for that?

GFN allows you to play on NVIDIA's servers.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Yes but others are talking about steam streaming, which is also my comment here.

It's tangential but worth calling out in this discussion, especially as you can do remote play with moonlight (haven't personally tried it though)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I do believe Moonlight is a bit better but Steam Streaming has been reliable and high enough quality for me not to care enough to use Moonlight most of the time.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

No, not really…

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I wouldn't be opposed to it existing but that's it. Never been a fan of game streaming myself.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Been using Xbox GamePass w/ GeForce Now for a while and can't see why anyone wouldn't like it. For $30/mo I can play on any device, anywhere with a decent internet connection. It uses almost no power, so my batteries last forever. I get the best gaming experience available on my gaming monitor without spending thousands on hardware that sits totally unused for 99% of the day. My room does not heat up to 100*F. I get access to a wide variety of top-tier games for a minimal fee. It's pretty great.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

can’t see why anyone wouldn’t like it.

Input latency and compression artifacts but hey, if it works good for you, I'm happy for you. I'm not here to stir drama about game streaming.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Haven't noticed any of either during my time. At least not with any degree of frequency. Probably not something you want to be playing competitively on, if that's what you're into.

Lots and lots of people have reviewed them at this point with similar results.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm surprised there isn't something already with how google has been marketing gaming on Chromebooks via streaming services.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

There is moonlight and sunshine and you can use xcloud via microsoft edge on the steam deck.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What does GeForce NOW offer that isn't already on Linux? My drivers are updated automatically, and streaming through Moonlight/Sunshine is incredibly easy to setup. Okay, GeForce NOW can customize the settings of all of my games, but I've literally never used that feature because the settings they suggest are awful anyway.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You're describing GeForce experience.

GeForce Now is the cloud gaming service.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Oh! I had never heard of that. My mistake. Is that different than Moonlight/Sunshine game steaming? Does it stream from the internet like (the now defunct) Stadia rather than a local machine?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

It's stadia but without the bullshit where you have to buy games just for their platform.

It also works better.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's like stadia but in good

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

As someone with "founder" status in both services, Stadia's user experience was far better. It also had the best latency with its direct connect controllers.

While GeForce Now made some steps towards mitigation and cooperation, with 2FA it's often still a mess of tediously logging into PC launchers before finally being able to play. And because the hardware changes every time, this repeats before every session.

GFN's library of compatible games is still stupidly limited, yet has all remaining competitors beat by a wide margin. And it has by far the most powerful hardware.

Both of those things probably make it the best streaming service right now, and outweigh the shortcomings. But "good" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Thanks for your perspective. I just know it through a friend who uses GeForce now frequently on his MacBook. He is happy with the service that's why I wrote this.

I think it was stupid you had to buy games twice for stadia. The caveat of GFN with 2FA being annoying is an acceptable compromise imo. I also looked at the compatibility list and didn't find it to be lacking many games tbh. But mb I have different needs and expectations here or mb they don't work as advertised?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Why would Nvidia support hardware that has fuck all to do with Nvidia?

https://www.steamdeck.com/en/tech

Processor

AMD APU CPU: Zen 2 4c/8t, 2.4-3.5GHz (up to 448 GFlops FP32) GPU: 8 RDNA 2 CUs, 1.0-1.6GHz (up to 1.6 TFlops FP32) APU power: 4-15W

RAM

16 GB LPDDR5 on-board RAM (5500 MT/s quad 32-bit channels)

Storage

64 GB eMMC (PCIe Gen 2 x1) 256 GB NVMe SSD (PCIe Gen 3 x4 or PCIe Gen 3 x2*) 512 GB high-speed NVMe SSD (PCIe Gen 3 x4 or PCIe Gen 3 x2*)

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

GeForce Now is Nvidia's game streaming service.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Because it makes them money? 🤷

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