Is it safe to buy a Steam Deck right now?

With the new Z1 APUs from AMD and a parade of handhelds equipped with the Z1 Extreme SKU that’s sure to follow the ASUS ROG Ally, it may seem unwise to buy a Steam Deck today. After all, the hardware is obsolete, right? Well, in this video, I’ll answer that question. Hopefully, by the end of this video, you’ll be able to decide for yourself if it makes sense to buy a Steam Deck.

Resources in this video:
Are We Anticheat Yet: https://areweanticheatyet.com/
Heroic Games Launcher: https://heroicgameslauncher.com/
Lutris: https://lutris.net/
RetroDECK: https://retrodeck.net/
EmuDeck: https://www.emudeck.com/

Links and references:
Bungie’s open hostility towards Steam Deck: https://www.theverge.com/22957294/bungie-destiny-2-steam-deck-game-ban
Gabe Newell’s “Several games in the works at Valve” quote: https://www.dualshockers.com/valve-new-games-currently-in-development-gabe-newell/
Valve’s Neon Prime trademark filing: https://uspto.report/TM/97625453
Steam Deck’s change log: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1675200
“Steam Deck is a multi-generational device”: https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/use-cnet-shopping-to-seek-out-the-best-deals/
“Steam Deck 2 is still years out”: https://www.tomshardware.com/news/valve-designer-says-more-powerful-steam-deck-years-away

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*What are your PC specs?*
My Office Rig:
❯ AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
❯ ASRock B550 TAICHI RAZER Edition
❯ MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB
❯ G.SKILL DDR4 32GB x4 (128GB)
❯ HYTE Y60 Case

Emily’s Rig:
❯ AMD Ryzen 7 1800x
❯ MSI Pro Series X370 SLI PLUS
❯ NVIDIA GTX Titan X (Pascal) 12 GB
❯ GSkill Ripjaw V DDR4 8GB x4 (32 GB)
❯ Fractal Design Define R9 Case
❯ Manjaro GNOME

Living Room Gaming Rig:
❯ ASUS X99-E-10G WS
❯ Intel Core i7-6900K @ 3.2GHz
❯ NVidia Titan X (Pascal)
❯ DDR4 Corsair Vengeance RGB 8GB x8 (64GB)

Backup Rig
❯ System76 Thelio Minor
❯ AMD Ryzen 5 3400G
❯ DDR4 16GB RAM
❯ Zotac Nvidia GTX 970 4GB

Home Server:
❯ ASUS M5A78L-M/USB3
❯ AMD FX 6300 at 3.5 GHz
❯ Nvidia GTX 750 1GB
❯ DDR3 20 GB RAM

00:00 – Is it safe to buy a Steam Deck right now?
00:28 – Biggest question: what do you want to play?
00:47 – Online multiplayer
01:09 – Indies
01:38 – AAA games
02:35 – A note on compatibility
03:06 – Software outside of Steam
04:03 – Emulation
04:35 – The right choice of platform
07:23 – Xbox v. Windows: A Case Study
08:21 – Steam Deck OS is not SteamOS 3
11:15 – Why Hardware Specs don’t matter

#steamdeck #pcgaming #rogally