For starters, there’s more to gpu performance than memory speed and quantity.

believe that everybody should skip them

This strikes me as a bit weird. Everyone uses graphics cards for different things, everyone has different priorities, and most people who have a PC have different hardware.

I’ve got clients who edit video for work, and others who do it as a hobby. In the professional sphere, render times can have a pretty direct relationship with cashflow, so having the ‘best’ can mean the hardware pays for itself several times over.

I’ve got clients who only play one game and find it runs great on their current setup, others who are always playing the latest games and want them to perform well, and still others who play a game professionally/competitively and need every frame they can get. Some are happy at 1080p, others prefer 4k, and some may want to drive a high-end VR headset.

For some people, taking advantage of a new GPU might also require a new PSU of even a total platform upgrade.

To one person, a few hundred dollars is disposable income whereas to another it might represent their ability to eat that month.

These are all variables that will influence what is appropriate for one person or another.

If someone were to have ~$600 to spend, be in need of an upgrade to meet the requirements of an upcoming game they want to play at launch, and have a platform that will support it, I’m likely to recommend an RTX5070 to them.

If someone were to be happy enough with their current performance, I’m likely to recommend they wait and see what AMD puts out - or potentially even longer.

Personally, I’ve always waited until a game I’m excited for performs poorly before upgrading.

The OEM Steam Deck LCD screen is $65.

The OEM Steam Deck OLED Screen is $95, $145 for the version with the anti-glare etching.

$140 is totally reasonable for an aftermarket product like this.

It might not make sense for most to purchase and install as an upgrade on its own, but it’s the same workflow as a shell swap so the two upgrades can easily go hand in hand. For users with a broken screen, it also provides a repair option that is also an improvement.

Also, just want to point out that flashing a BIOS is a pretty trivial task, strikes me as a bit weird to list the mildest of inconveniences as a deterrent.

I don’t get the impression this is being presented to anyone as “a massive benefit over just buying an OLED model”, but it does cost ~$400 less and reduce waste.

I don’t know that it is. BigscreenVR is not an Apple product, so your comment doesn’t feel particularly relevant.

They probably chose iPhones because they’re the most common device that has the capacity to get a 3D scan of someone’s face. They’re probably able to get semi-consistent results with this approach, whereas opening things up to the wide variety of IR devices in laptops and Android phones would increase the number of variables and make OP’s frustrating experience even more common.

This article is just plain bad. The author’s own conclusion contradicts the headline.

The Steam Deck has finally been surpassed

I don’t think I would personally buy an Asus ROG Ally X over a Steam Deck, at least not now.

In the end, I don’t think I would ever consider a handheld gaming PC without trackpads.

That’s because this situation is only applicable to offline environments where updates would otherwise be deployed manually.

This issue does not affect systems that receive updates directly through Windows Update or the Microsoft Update Catalog.

So, the overwhelming majority of systems and especially all of those used by average consumers.

Go back and play Cyberpunk!

My experience with that glow-up is exactly why I’m going to be waiting to go deep on a Stalker 2 playthrough.

The rough state of Stalker 2 reminded me a lot of Cyberpunk’s launch, so I’ve gone back to the playthrough that I started back when 2.0 came out. Still haven’t experienced Phantom Liberty or gotten to Act 2, be replaying everything that was janky at launch and getting to re-experience it as it should have been has been wonderful :)

I like this game a lot. Played the Colin McRae and Sega Rally games as a kid, this game captures that feeling.

Normally play rally sims in my sim pit, it’s nice to have something very casual to play on Steam Deck

That, and there are still many parts of the US that are underserved in internet access. I have a friend who lives ~15 minutes outside of a major city and, until recently, the whole family shared a flaky ~2Mbps connection. They begrudgingly adopted Starlink because that was the only decent option.

From the article, the large size is specific to the Xbox version:

The large download size might be due to how Xbox releases its updates. Xbox updates are often bigger compared to those on PC and PlayStation 4/5.

At least the mod didn’t break as a result, had me worried for a second there.

I had dial-up through my Mom’s work’s VPN at the time and couldn’t even sign in to Steam with it, so I had to use an AOL 30-day trial just to be able to play the game.

When both the trial and Steam’s Offline mode timing ran out, I had sufficient motivation to learn how to crack WEP so I could borrow the neighbor’s WiFi

In terms of storyline, it doesn’t really matter too much.

I still think you should play through the first one. If you need something that feels less 1998, Black Mesa is a remake of the original Half Life and it is very fun.

The touchpads, virtual menus, layers / action sets, and overall control customizability really make the Steam Deck shine. PC Games with complicated keyboard-centric control schemes can be adapted to the Steam Deck so easily.

A handheld without that is going to be a hard sell for me no matter how well it performs. As a secondary device to a Gaming PC with a strong internet connection, cloud gaming makes my Deck handle whatever I can throw at it.

It never seems to be the people who have actually used the mouse complaining about the port location.

A brief 1-2 minute charge nets you hours of use, it’s really not a big deal.

With Windows 10 support ending in a matter of days, that leaves the latest Microsoft OS as the only real option for gamers right now

Windows 10 support ends in 2025. Linux is a very real option for the majority of games.

Given the idiocy in this article, I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t occur to them to delete Windows.old from an external software environment. Ultimately, that’s something you want to keep around for a while because it’s what lets you roll back the upgrade if there turns out to out to be problems.

Might be cozy because of the nostalgia more than anything else, but I’ve been cruising through the Turok remasters

Just got admitted to the closed beta a few weeks back and have been absolutely loving it :]

This is everything I want from a gamified step counter with none of the things I don’t want!

Looking forward to push notifications to help me remember to queue up the next activity when the last one is complete

Thank you so much for making this!

The last two generations of Playstation and Xbox controllers have all used the same Alps joystick modules.

Elite Series 2 is the only exception I know of, I haven’t taken apart the Dualsense Edge so that one could be different too.

The concern is that really running too much current / many amps through too thin of a cable risks melting the cable, which can in turn cause a short and fry things.

For a cable meeting the minimum specification, for one 8-Pin PCI connector it would be rated to handle about 12A / 150W. L

Your card can draw up to 300W. If your second PCI power connector is a “pigtail” off of the first, then the first run of cable is taking about 25A at full load.

If the cables are thick and overbuilt, that’s bot really an issue. If the cables are thinner and have a lower current rating, they could melt.

Best practice is to split the connections across the power supply’s available ports.

This isn’t news, this has already been the case since Windows 10 1803 back in 2018.

It’s not, but it is one of the best single player campaigns I have ever played.

My partner and I often play through single player games together in tandem, waiting for one another at each checkpoint.

There is a co-op PvE mode if that’s your speed.

I just use the Steam Chat mobile app

Got one for my partner during the last refurb restock. It was perfect for Stardew and other small indies, which is all they cared to play.

Not long after, I upgraded my deck to 2TB, they inherited the 512GB SSD, everybody won.

Right now, you can get a 64GB deck and 1TB M.2 2230 SSD for $15 more than the 512GB LCD is on sale for.

Not to mention data recovery

Interesting timing, these practices are about to be super illegal under Oregon’s SB1596 right to repair bill that just passed

it requires not only for you to have an EA account, it requires to have *the Origin client always running in the background*. For no good reason.

The Origin client only needs to be running in the background while you’re playing the game. This is how EA, Ubisoft, Rockstar, and a few others handle DRM - I’ll take it over shit like Denuvo any day.

If you’re at that point of not trusting a company, the best practice would be to avoid using their devices or connecting them to your network.

There are plenty of other ways to track and identify users, a company could conceivably bake whatever the hell they want into the operating system and doesn’t need to rely on you creating an account with them to achieve that objective.

I used the term “unhealthy paranoia” due to the logical fallacy that is at play.

Then don’t?

If you still want to use Windows and use their encryption solution, manually enable Bitlocker and store the recovery key yourself.

There are also third party encryption options.

There are dozens of more probable scenarios that could have the same outcome. Mitigation is as simple as keeping at least one backup, a recommendation as old as home computing.

Ironically, the problem you describe most commonly applies to systems with Intel Optane storage technology, so it’s hardly even a Microsoft Issue.

Hi, repair shop owner here.

Automatic Bitlocker encryption has been a thing since TPM 2.0 devices hit the market in 2018.

If a device is UEFI, Secure Boot is enabled, TPM 2.0 is present, and the user signs in with a Microsoft Account , then the disk is encrypted and the recovery key is saved to that Microsoft Account.

If those conditions aren’t met, automatic encryption doesn’t happen.

As long as they know their Microsoft Account Identifier, users can easily get to that key through the first search engine result for “bitlocker recovery key”: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/finding-your-bitlocker-recovery-key-in-windows-6b71ad27-0b89-ea08-f143-056f5ab347d6

We don’t really have a hard time with it - if a user provides their login PIN, a short terminal command will let us grab a copy of their key before BIOS updates or battery disconnects.

I have had very few cases where folks suffered data loss because of Bitlocker. Most of them were HP Laptops that used Intel Optane accelerated SSDs - encrypting what is effectively a software RAID0 is a recipe for disaster.

The other few had an unhealthy paranoia where they were reluctant to share anything about themselves with Microsoft, yet still decided to use a Microsoft operating system. While setting up the computer, they created a new Outlook.com email (instead of using their primary email), made up a random birthday, and did not fill in any recovery options like a phone number or secondary email. With the password (and sometimes even email) forgotten, they created a situation where they could not prove the online account was theirs and therefore could not get to the recovery key that had been backed up.

I do think that Microsoft should have this as an opt-in feature during the out of box experience, which is how Apple has it set up for Filevault and how most Linux distributions are set up. Ultimately, most users will still mash “next’ through the process and later blame the computer.

I have had quite a few clients have their laptops stolen after car breakins. Their biggest stressor was the possibility of thieves having access to the data on those machines, and the fact that we knew their systems were encrypted with Bitlocker brought them a lot of relief.

The automatic encryption and subsequent backup both took place because you were using a Microsoft Account

I wonder of “conservative hardware evolution” in this context just means that it’ll still be a switch, just with upgraded internals.

The fact that the built-in screen might be 1080p implies a decent leap in performance. That’s twice as many pixels as a 720p/800p screen.

The bugs are quite literally a feature.

There’d be half a game if they took out the Terminids.

Cut it down to a few hours with Wabbajack :]

When you set up a new PC, OneDrive automatically starts syncing files based on the Microsoft account you sign in with.

I wish that Microsoft’s cloud storage service was opt-in instead of opt-out.

I set up dozens of Windows machines for users every month. There is literally a page during the out of box experience that prompts the user as to whether or not they want their Desktop, Documents, and Pictures mapped to OneDrive.

The person writing the article and anyone else complaining about this are mashing “next” without paying attention and then complaining it wasn’t set up the way they want.

I actually do use OneDrive for those locations, even going so far as to symlink AppData game save locations over to OneDrive so that everything is the same between my laptop and desktop.

I haven’t had the issue the author describes with AC Valhalla or with Rockstar Games Launcher.

After you set up a new device, OneDrive doesn’t automatically download the entirety of its contents. Files are downloaded “on demand” when the system tries to access them, and I bet that’s what caused the stall the author described.

The only inconvenience I’ve ever suffered from having game saves in OneDrive was with Call Of Duty’s Modern Warfare reboot. The settings config file lives in the Documents folder, so each time I launched the game on my Desktop or Laptop I would have to edit the settings to suit that device.

Firestorm, Battlefield V’s Battle Royale, released in 2019. The news here is not that the feature will exist, it’s that it will be Free To Play.

Firestorm actually introduced the armor system that the much more successful COD Warzone went on to use.

As someone who repairs consumer electronics for a living I’m inclined to disagree.

People are routinely installing batteries of dubious quality because the original device manufacturer will not sell them one, but the part is available within their authorized repair network.

I have clients come to me after a manufacturer quotes more than a device’s original purchase cost for a replacement screen. I’ve also had circumstances where that part is unavailable because the device is too new and the aftermarket through third-party vendors hasn’t had a chance to mature.

Schematics are only made available through leaks.

The current state of the OEM PC landscape is the main driving force behind Right To Repair legislation. Valve entered the market already compliant.

I’ll add that one of my clients got a $150 quote from Valve for an out-of-warranty repair/replacement of the mainboard, which is pretty incredible considering that’s the most expensive part in the device.

From a hardware/repair standpoint, the OEM PC and Steam Deck ecosystems are far apart from one another.

While technically true at a literal level, “proprietary PC” gives the impression of closed systems like OEM laptops. “Just” has a bit of a diminutive tone to it.

While Steam itself is proprietary / closed source, the Deck’s Linux OS foundation is open source. Despite being developed by Valve, Proton is also open source and is a massive boon for the viability of Linux gaming.

OEM parts are directly available from an official supplier along with detailed repair documentation - things stop short of schematics, which I look forward to seeing change. Third party parts (screens, face button tactile upgrades, etc) are available and able to function uninhibited. The device is clearly designed with user customization and reparability in mind.

With that said, the deck feels so much less proprietary than the PC ecosystem.

Not saying that you are wrong or that people are right to be downvoting you, I just think your phrasing comes off a bit harsh which led to negative impulse reactions. I know that my initial response was negative until I sat and thought about what you actually meant for a minute.

why the hell am I getting downvoted?

It’s just a PC, it’s as proprietary as a PC.

Its own trailer makes it look rough