i never got the switch because as soon as i heard the hardware specs and performance for "Exclusive" games i was unimpressed. xeno crhonicles running at 30fps is shameful... how is it that exclusive games run like shit??? I finally got a switch until the oled version came out and i was semi happy because the battery life was slightly extended, it wasn't as hot, and perfromance was meh improved which makes no sense... ive played a few exclusive games but honestly i simply just don't care for em.
I started my retro handheld journey after seeing your retroid pocket 2s review. I got one and absolutely loved it. I just got a steam deck oled 1tb and iam blown away by the things it can do. Currently playing super mario wonder and the experience is amazing!
Don't forget that the Steam Deck also has acces to the Steam library, the biggest games library of all time. It even has pracitcally all new Xbox exclusives and a nice selection of PS4/PS5 games
You can play Super Mario Wonder on the Deck without stutters on Deck by using a Yuzu mod. The issue with the game was that, due to the vsync implementation, it would constantly stutter trying to go between 30 and 60 fps. A Yuzu mod fixes that (to the point where you can play in Docked fps a full speed).
If you look for a project named " switch-ptchtxt-mods", you can find the fps mod for the game named "Stabilize FPS". The mod only supports version 1.0.0 of the game however, so fair warning there.
Me too.. And I can't wait for the Deck 2 in a couple of years. Imagine a 100% performance increase, that would be amazing and allow for true PS3/Switch performance in emulation to be hit.
It's also fantastic on the LCD model, my friend, thanks for the EmuStation guide!!! I thought I was done for once talk of BIOSies entered the conversation, but it all turned out to be relatively straight forward.
I'd like to see a video featuring Retrodeck and various graphical tweaks that Russ prefers to get the most out of emulation on the Deck. In a previous video, he mentioned that he uses 4x resolution and geometry correction for PSX emulation. The problem is that you have to sift through his videos to find the one that mentions it. Or how he is able to get good 3Ds and Switch performance. I feel this is a blind spot in his Steam Deck videos.
@@ghostsauce3109 I've looked and didn't find much. I could create my own guide or video but I don't have the reach that Russ has. His retroarch video is essential btw.
The Deck OLED is nearly my dream emulation device at this point. I feel like the only thing missing is black frame insertion to make those fast side-scrolling games less blurry, but even with that caveat it's such a beautiful experience. I'd definitely raise the colour temperature in display settings though, as the default setting adds a heavy yellow tint to whites.
@@NoSmoke1 - I've switched to 7500k. I based this on the PS1 startup logo, as it's the lowest value where the logo turns its proper white. Overall it seems to be the most colour accurate setting for the OLED, but there's also always personal preference and some people will prefer a warmer display regardless.
emulation is what makes these handhelds viable for... well, forever. when the steam deck is wheezing its way through modern games in a year or 2 it will always keep the last 40 years of gaming alive. Now i just need to figure out how to do it, im quite lazy and like the idea of buying a device and everything is just on there ready to go so i purchased a miyoo mini for that reason but yeh, i really gotta get it all going on the deck, its obviously just a different experience entirely.
i'd say you still made the better choice for old school gaming. the miyoo is actually compact so it can easily be taken to anywhere. plus for a lower power device another thing that keeps me going back are the excellent custom retroarch shaders
@@_Majoras yeh the miyoo is fantastic, i just like the allure of playing on the deck Oled screen and the comfort aswell. i know there are preloaded SD cards with batocera installed but im just not sure what happens when i plug it into the deck so im cautious about buying one, i really should look at the guide he has already done but it just seems a bit above me.
@@jinx20001 If your lazy save your money. Getting 3DS emu fully working took me about 3 days and should take a month transferring everything over. I'm hesitant to try the Vita based on this video review.
@@BadAssBlackOverlord thats a fair comment. maybe my better bet would be to purchase a bigger handheld pre loaded and ready to go, no shortage of options is there lets be honest.
@@jinx20001 For sure but the thing is if you are a super die hard fan of Nintendo systems it would be hard to resist. Playing the 3DS and Switch games flawlessly gave me motivation to go through the motions and I'm lazy about setting up these things too.
idk why other than the new screen the performance will be 1:1 the same nothing else got changed the only maybe for performance is a super tiny slim chance that the cooling means it thermal throttles a teensy bit less but that was never a issue in the first place
@@SergeantGadriel battery on the Ally sucks big time, it's not OLED and the screen is small. And it costs more. I would add also that having the OS just made for the device gives a much better user experience
@@SergeantGadriel terrible battery life terrible low wattage performance no real manufacturer support terrible parts availability over priced horrible controlls id rather buy the legion go than a ally especially given the shite reputation of asus and the numbers speak to this valve moved 850k units month 1 rog moved 500 1 year later valve offered a refurb program 1 year later rog slashed the price hard to try and compete
Thanks, I'm also a fan of Steam deck emulation! There are many emulation possibilities including the addition of HD textures, decompilations, hacks, mods and cheats. Enough to spend a lot of time there and fully enjoy retrogaming! Small note regarding Xenia and the Xbox 360, I tried Xenia Canary with success on some big games like Forza Horizon, Project Gotham Racing 4, Fable 2. Also, there are many XBLA games that run very well and can be launched from EmulationStation like GoldenEye remaster, Banjo Kazooie remaster or Rez HD.
Thanks for continuing to be thorough with questions like these, I hope to pick up something like this for emulating old systems and playing my PC games at some point but there's now so many options. I'm still not 100% sure what I'll buy, but the Steam Deck does seem like a top contender, particularly the Oled version.
@@eternalfaeri1415 i think the deck will be more consistant and get the most support plus you have a huge library from steam. the other systems are good for everything else. if you already actively use steam its a no brainer but if not you might want to try the others
Really great video Russ. Especially that little bit about multiplayer at the end because that's something that can be touch and go depending on which emulator you're using. Keep up the great work, love the content!
The Xenia build that EmuDeck sets up is incorrectly configured and broken. It's recommended to use the latest Xenia Canary build, and run this through Proton. You also need to edit the config file to change line 209 from "any" to "vulkan". With this, I've been playing through *Red Dead Redemption 1* without issue.
Thank you for making this video. I just received my steam deck OLED yesterday and was having some buyer's remorse after trying some PC games from my Steam library and getting underwhelming results. But this video really made me see the potential for emulation. I already have an anbernic RG405M that I love, but it doesn't have the horsepower to emulate all the systems that the steam deck can, so your vieeo really helps me figure out how and when I want to use this steam deck for my gaming. Great job on this channel!
This is exactly what I was looking for! I'm currently having a steam deck OLED 1 TB being shipped so I'm very excited to see how amazing the performance and the power draw is with emulation! This is literally the greatest handheld I've ever owned. With combination of my gaming PC, I can run most PC games and emulation on the steam deck and then whatever can't run well I can use my PC. So it's all very win win! Best investment of a life time. The steam deck may not be able to play everything, but it sure feels like it plays everything.
To get Forza Motorsport (shown at 15:23) working correctly in Xemu, you need to use a previous version. The latest release has a severe rendering regression which causes textures to not load as per this video 🙂
I'm getting a Steam Deck OLED for Christmas and can't wait! Haven't had a Steam Deck yet, and I really can't wait to get to the emulation side of it, and play some PC games as well on it.
For Xbox 360 I found much more success switching from Vulkan to D3D12, you need to edit a line in the config file. After that a lot of games booted, performance wasn’t great in the few games I tested but I could imagine more lightweight titles running well.
You also need to force Proton compatibility, which is why none of his games booted. A few games play surprisingly well, considering how little development that emulator has.
have any luck? I can never get Xenia to boot. forcing proton makes it crash faster lol. just wanna play ace combat 6. will try the latest canary build, I've seen people get it working and I've edited the vulkan line to no avail.
These are the reasons the ASUS ROG Ally is everso slightly inches out the Valve SteamDeck OLED in terms of value. You just get a smoother and consistent experience playing systems like Xbox, PS Vita, 360, PS3, WiiU, and even NSwitch. Not to mention the Indie and AAA-Titles from Windows PC Gaming. But we're in a good spot in the market right now. Compared to 2019 or earlier, when there were very few options outside of GPD.
Possible future video idea: a dedicated multi-player guide for the Steamdeck. Ideas that come to mind include what to do, what not to do, tweaks that can help with the experience, controller profiles in emulators, troubleshooting, recommended controllers and MOST importantly! That sweet list of multiple-player games you have! ❤️
When playing Mario Kart 8 on the TV, if you have trouble defaulting to an external controller instead of the Steam Deck built-in controller, make sure to set your external controller as "Controller 3", for some reason that is the primary one for MK8.
I can't imagine it would have good thermals/cooling or heat dissipation, no thanks! the oled does an amazing job of keeping itself cool compared to the lcd version 🎉
Great video! Watched it several times already! I didn’t know you could theme the emulation station Interface more than the options provided in Emudeck! Keep up the great content 👍🏾
In my case I use my PS Vita for retro, and the Steam Deck only for steam games and PS2. I think I'll be adding NDS games soon enough. Thank you for your helpful videos. I love them!
Regarding the screen filters, the resolution on the SD allows for nice integer scaling on most mainstream systems, with minimal or no screen area loss, compared to stretched. Shaders do a much better job than bilinear.
Basically the same as original Steamdeck but longer battery life and better screen, Steamdeck is the best handheld by price/performance and basically it can emulate everything perfectly from Atari 2600 towards PS2, GameCube era, it still capable to emulate most PS3, WiiU, Switch, and Xbox 360 games.
The Steam Deck is amazing. I am currently playing Legend of Zelda Wind Waker HD with the SD LCD version set at 5W TDP. It gives me around 6 hours and that is actually insane. Edit: it is actually 4 hours. Mistakes were made while writing this comment.
@@luigicaravelli3083 yes, really amazing. I keep the framerate display on at all times, but also there did not notice any visible changes. Really amazing.
@@luigicaravelli3083 for certain emulators like switch, wii u and ps3 the automatic power settings take way more power than needed, if you manualy set the tdp and gpu clocks you can save alot of power, for example you can save 3-6 watts on the tdp with the switch depending on what game you are running without losing peformance, you can get anywhere from 45 mins to over an hour extra battery life doing this. This even happens with certain pc games on the deck.
But yeah, Russ needs to learn to fiddle with TDP and GPU Clock pinning. Battery life is nowhere as bad as he claims. I’m getting a more than stable 40+ fps lock with Breath of the Wild running at 7 watts 1100Ghz. Gets me around 5 hours vs his 2 to 2.5.
I have the OG deck, 64GB. I tore out the 64GB drive, and replaced it with a 2TB NVME. It is, hands down, the best system that I have ever used for emulation. It's like owning every console that I ever owned growing up, including arcade machines, right up to and including the PS3, all in one system, right in the palm of my hands. Between the OG and the OLED, I don't think that it has been improved that much, to warrant another purchase of an entirely new machine. If you don't have a deck yet, by all means, go for it. If you have the old deck, I wouldn't bother again until the Deck 2 is released. I actually refer to the OLED, as the Deck 1.5.
I followed your previous video on how to set up emudeck on your deck and install the bios and roms on there. I have now lost over 400 hours of time to some of my favorite classic rpgs from the ps1 and ps2 era. Thank you so much man
It was around October of last year that I got the original steam deck and I loved it! I mainly used it for steam games and have yet to set it up for emulation. The two models don’t seem that different from each other as least as far as emulation performance is concerned, but ps3 and xbox and 360 games are probably better off on other devices with ps vita taking forever to make significant improvements. Still a great device for WiiU and even Switch games. It’s also good to know how to connect multiple controllers when I ever wanna play with the homies.
Thank you so much for your dedication to the community. Love your videos and know that you have helped 1000s of people! Big respect dude from the UK ☀️
Idk if it's like this for anyone else, but Yuzu and Ryujinx always run better in docked mode on Steam Deck in my performance tests. Handheld mode always makes async shader compilation take longer and causes slow down more often than docked on the Deck
A handheld that can emulate almost every game in existence is absolutely making my geek mind ORGASM. I know EMU's aren't perfect with certain hardware.. but my god this is exciting times for tech.. it's so cool. I cant afford one now but... this is just so cool man. Imagine playing Xenosaga in your bed. It's so crazy.
Hey mate, there are a lot of great mods to get for almost every Switch game! Mario Wonder runs butter smooth at 60fps with the fps stabilazor . Zelda BotW and TotK both run smooth at 60fps (some tiny dips but overall great) Links awakening also 100% smooth. Beside perfomance mods there are also cheat mods to find. Thanks for your video, Steam Deck rules 👌💪
Valve and their logistics partners in Europe are really failing many customers with launch day orders either not arriving or heavily delayed. My own launch day order shipped on Nov 21st and has not been seen since, it hasn’t even left the Netherlands according to its tracking. Steam Support are totally mishandling the situation and have yet to acknowledge that there is an issue nearly three weeks on.
The new update 3.5.17 on Steam Deck finally adds the ability to dim the status LED. I think it’s a huge deal for those of us with a translucent shell. One thing to note; on my OLED LE, if I go below 10 notches on the dial, none on the LEDs work. If I keep it at 10, only white LED works. Anything higher & color LEDs activate as well (when they’re supposed to)
Thanks! That's the video I wanted. I can finally see how each system fill the screen of the steam deck and as a nice bonus the excellent commentary of what to expect with each of them. Being able to use anti-aliasing is really needed for certain Switch games. Fire Emblem three houses on my Switch looked so bad, I just gave up on it.
One of the annoying emulation issues I recently had was getting controllers to show up in Dolphin when I had the deck docked to my TV. I wanted to play SMB2 easily and I did get it working, but surely there's a quick config setup they can append somewhere.
I love how Valve makes high quality hardware so open, and they are so cool about it; they are doing more for game preservation than every other publisher combined
Thanks a bunch Rus! My Steam Deck Oled is on the way, it will be my first handheld ever! You are big reason for this, keep it going. Love your content!
A couple notes on Switch games: - The 2 emulators work better with different games, it's worth trying both. For example Ryujinx handles RDR1 better than Yuzu - Handheld mode doesn't really do much. Even playing some of the hardest games to emulate (XC2/3) handheld never helped the framerate. This is because you are CPU-bound and not GPU bound. You can actually play at a 1.5x resolution in docked mode before you start noticing drops. Since docked mode doesn't hurt performance, you might as well use it.
To see the emulation on Steam Deck is a testament to how well managed the limited power of the device is used 😁 Although I only have the LCD model, it's still fantastic and easily has enough battery life & power to handle the vast majority of the games I want to play! I cannot wait to see what Valve do with a true Steam Deck successor 😊
@RetroGameCorps Russ, great video as always. Ever thought of doing another Steam Deck Emulation video to showcase what changed within one year of Emulation on the Steam Deck OLED? At least, through your video, we could see the progress of Xenia(Canary Build) and Vita3K, two emulators in which you have problems in this video? Hope you consider this for any of your future videos. Keep up the good work!!
Good review! I already have the original Steam Deck, so I probably won't be upgrading to the OLED any time soon. I also play 99% of the time docked, so the nicer screen is kind of moot for me. I can only imagine what's next with Valve and the future Steam Deck models, though. This looks perfect for anyone who hasn't already jumped into the Steam Deck pool.
To anyone looking to play PCSX2 on the steam deck, I find that the version provided from emudeck is not up to par to the version found on the discovery store. I find the games stutter quite a bit regardless if I use vulkan or openGL. I was able to get around this problem with the version provided on the discovery store but unfortunately it's not as integrated as I would like. That being said, at least it works now!
i bought steam deck for myself but it turned out i didnt use it pretty much at all, it was just collecting dust ;p but it definitely is a kinda miracle that pushed gaming on linux to the mainstream and it is now quite viable.
Great video (as always) I am now having a hard time deciding what to buy. I dont know if i should get the oled deck or the odin 2. I can only buy 1. It would be a house or hotel use handheld because I already have a 405m for on the go.
I have the odin 2 and I'm same as you.. the odin 2 plays everything I want gamecube and ps2 Very lightweight and portable. But my 50 year old eyes are wishing for an oled screen and 1.5 extra inches.... I'm close to selling and swapping it... really stuck what to do. 😢
Well, it seems that if I want to play PS2 on a handheld I have to go for a Deck or a similar machine. Too bad I can't spend that much money right now 😅 Great video as always 👌
I love supporting the Steam deck , i had this and the ROG ally X, but always come back to steam because its so well polished, especially OLED HDR is just a killer
"For me, personally" "for me, personally" "for me, personally" please, not only is this redundant "for me" already means "personally" but if you repeat it 10 times per video holy shit.
Love emudeck. I set up a game of Dokkapon Kingdom with a friend recently on the wii emulator on my steam deck. The steam deck itself made hooking up to the TV (with a dock/hub) and getting two wireless controllers connected SUPER easy. The only difficult part was configuring dolphin itself to map the controllers since its interface doesn't really mesh with the controller first approach of the steam deck. Wireless keyboard with a touchpad fixed that problem. Got everything setup in about 10 minutes (with emudeck and the rom already installed and setup before we started trying to play)
I still can't get 3DS to run great. Even PS3 games run better oddly enough! Also can't wait for PS Vita emulation to get as polished as PS3! There's some great quality games on the Vita that would be so awesome on Steam Deck. I still have my PS Vita but I'd much rather play them on Steam Deck. Games like Soul Sacrifice and Gravity Rush would be awesome to see.
In BOTW, the day and night cycle code is tied to the number FPS and not the delta seconds, same for the physics, ennemies AI, some effects and animations, is better to avoid any 60fps hack because this may cause a lot of issues, keep the game at 30fps, same goes for RE4 2005, even the HD remaster have broken AI under 60 fps.
@@tittieslolo Please explain to me how "nothing" created everything is more logically reasonable than "something" created everything. Last I checked, "nothing" is nothing. I'll wait. "A fool says in his heart 'There is no God.'" - Psalm 14:1
Random open world game is one of the best. I hope the next random open world game adds even more unique functions and features. Maybe do random open world game with wind in it part two. Random open world game deserves all the awards.
It would be interesting to see how much of an impact Steam Deck's release had on the spread of Emulation in the mainstream. A big boost and a comfortable opportunity for many who didn't have it before? Or just fulfilling a need for those who were already emulating elsewhere...
I can only soak for myself, but I had little interest in emulation prior to the Steam Deck. It’s the portability and ease of use that make it so worth it to me. The platform is built for emulation. If Emudeck didn’t make it so easy, I would have given up on it.
For the Legend of Zelda you should download and install a 60-FPS mod patch. As you may know, most game companies lock certain games at a certain frame rate to improve the performance on an older console, and Nintendo did that with Legend of Zelda by capping it at 30 FPS.
Hey Rus! I am NOT joking when I tell you, you have no idea how helpful the exact advice you gave would have been yesterday, with Dolphin. I couldn't get my DK bongos to appear. :/ Also, ON THE OLED! That was where I was trying to make multiplayer work.
A quick question for you folks. Im stuck decinding between the Rog ally, or the steam deck oled. I have a PS5 for AAA games. Im more into the emulation side. Which of these two would be best for that? As in performance up to switch? I have a switch also, so not really too bothered about that. Im just really stuck deciding which one would be better
Rog Allay has more power for emulation, but has quite a few known issues regarding the hardware. Steam Deck is pretty decent for higher end emulation, but absolutely covers all of the older systems. If you are just looking for emulation up to Switch, Steam Deck and EmuDeck would have you covered.
I'm so torn here... got the odin 2 max ready to set up and seen this... very tempted to sell it and buy this instead - emudeck looks so professional and a great emulation system. Bigger screen And now the battey life increased... really on the fence what to do 😮
Playing the PS3 versoon of Oblivion on PS3 at internal resolution of 900p and frame rate unlocked to 60 fps. It runs smooth and the PS3 version happens to be the best "vanilla" Oblivion experience of its era with faster load times and better textures, normal maps, and LODs than both vanilla PC and Vanilla xbox 360. Any RPCS3 game that doesnt heavily utilize the cells SPUs will run with minimal to no issues on the deck.
Interesting… Might be a good option considering the native controller support. I do remember the PS3 version being tweaked differently from the 360 one, but I didn’t know it was more custom/better even compared to the PC version…
@MerryBlind Since the PS3 released a little later, 4J Studios had time to refine and tweak the rendering pipe line and visuals which resulted in much better load times, mostly positive changes to lighting, shader optimization, texture surfaces and normal maps, and LODs which where the biggest needed improvement IMHO. I've played Oblivion on 360, PC, PS3, and Series S with optimization improvements. Until RPCS3, Oblivion on Series S/X was the best vanilla experience due to improvements in resolution, frame rate, and texture filtering but the underlying guts is still very much the PC/360 surfaces. It's a shame the PC game never got a proper patch to fix the vanilla bugs, crashes, LODs and most importantly, proper controller support. I might be in the minority with this but I prefer the most refined "vanilla" experience in my games.
I like how you put the cases of the Switch games in shot. Don’t blame you! Notoriously litigious!
yeah that was a great touch
i never got the switch because as soon as i heard the hardware specs and performance for "Exclusive" games i was unimpressed.
xeno crhonicles running at 30fps is shameful... how is it that exclusive games run like shit???
I finally got a switch until the oled version came out and i was semi happy because the battery life was slightly extended, it wasn't as hot, and perfromance was meh improved which makes no sense...
ive played a few exclusive games but honestly i simply just don't care for em.
I started my retro handheld journey after seeing your retroid pocket 2s review. I got one and absolutely loved it. I just got a steam deck oled 1tb and iam blown away by the things it can do.
Currently playing super mario wonder and the experience is amazing!
Don't forget that the Steam Deck also has acces to the Steam library, the biggest games library of all time. It even has pracitcally all new Xbox exclusives and a nice selection of PS4/PS5 games
With chaki4deck you have access to every single ps4 and ps5 game ever made with 10 hour battery life
@@aaaaaaxaaaaaaAnd now it suports HDR
How do you have access to the new xbox and PlayStation games?
@@Urbansquealer Xbox games release on Steam at the same day they release on xbox. Sony games usually a year later, nowadays a bit shorter I believe.
You should be a Valve representative, because you fully sold me on this device.
Did u buy it? i want to buy it and I'm thinking about this
If i had the money I would, oled, cool and comfortable? Godlike device @@joelgrebinsilvestri
Yeah I think this sent me over the edge too. Bigger thing, I’ve got more ammo to get my wife on board with emulation and multiplayer
@@joelgrebinsilvestri Wait for the 2nd generation.
@@PiterburgCowboy Steam deck 2 is not coming out for awhile
You can play Super Mario Wonder on the Deck without stutters on Deck by using a Yuzu mod. The issue with the game was that, due to the vsync implementation, it would constantly stutter trying to go between 30 and 60 fps. A Yuzu mod fixes that (to the point where you can play in Docked fps a full speed).
I need to do this because playing it standard on yuzu, stutters and all, is fantastic. Playing it smoothly would just be 😍
If you look for a project named "
switch-ptchtxt-mods", you can find the fps mod for the game named "Stabilize FPS". The mod only supports version 1.0.0 of the game however, so fair warning there.
Where can I find this mod?
Thanks for this. Just applied the mod and it works great!
@@BeHempywhich is it
I appreciate you showcasing the “vanilla” experience. I’m def a plug-n-play kinda gamer. 😊
Ive been loving my OLED deck. I just used the Emudeck transfer tool and it was fairly simple but I wish I had waited for your video!
Me too.. And I can't wait for the Deck 2 in a couple of years. Imagine a 100% performance increase, that would be amazing and allow for true PS3/Switch performance in emulation to be hit.
GB Advance truly is king on any device it’s played on.
Love playing gba on my steam deck. Looks nice on the larger screen. I'm sure it'll look a lot nicer on the OLED when I pick that up
@@christianr.5868every game looks much better, playing something like Metroid or super Metroid with the blacks is drastically better IMO
@@trueroman6775 I can't wait man. Pokemon rom hacks are gonna look so good!
😂😂😂😂😂no
It's also fantastic on the LCD model, my friend, thanks for the EmuStation guide!!! I thought I was done for once talk of BIOSies entered the conversation, but it all turned out to be relatively straight forward.
I'd like to see a video featuring Retrodeck and various graphical tweaks that Russ prefers to get the most out of emulation on the Deck. In a previous video, he mentioned that he uses 4x resolution and geometry correction for PSX emulation. The problem is that you have to sift through his videos to find the one that mentions it.
Or how he is able to get good 3Ds and Switch performance. I feel this is a blind spot in his Steam Deck videos.
He typically has a guide for setup on his website anything that is missed" is typically covered there
@@ghostsauce3109 I've looked and didn't find much. I could create my own guide or video but I don't have the reach that Russ has. His retroarch video is essential btw.
The Deck OLED is nearly my dream emulation device at this point. I feel like the only thing missing is black frame insertion to make those fast side-scrolling games less blurry, but even with that caveat it's such a beautiful experience. I'd definitely raise the colour temperature in display settings though, as the default setting adds a heavy yellow tint to whites.
What value do you recommend?
@@NoSmoke1 - I've switched to 7500k. I based this on the PS1 startup logo, as it's the lowest value where the logo turns its proper white.
Overall it seems to be the most colour accurate setting for the OLED, but there's also always personal preference and some people will prefer a warmer display regardless.
Oled is as close as we can get to matching a CRT. All these years later and CRT is still goated. Only disappeared because it was so damn heavy
Man, I can tell you it's 100% MY dream, which is why I got one haha
emulation is what makes these handhelds viable for... well, forever. when the steam deck is wheezing its way through modern games in a year or 2 it will always keep the last 40 years of gaming alive. Now i just need to figure out how to do it, im quite lazy and like the idea of buying a device and everything is just on there ready to go so i purchased a miyoo mini for that reason but yeh, i really gotta get it all going on the deck, its obviously just a different experience entirely.
i'd say you still made the better choice for old school gaming. the miyoo is actually compact so it can easily be taken to anywhere. plus for a lower power device another thing that keeps me going back are the excellent custom retroarch shaders
@@_Majoras yeh the miyoo is fantastic, i just like the allure of playing on the deck Oled screen and the comfort aswell. i know there are preloaded SD cards with batocera installed but im just not sure what happens when i plug it into the deck so im cautious about buying one, i really should look at the guide he has already done but it just seems a bit above me.
@@jinx20001 If your lazy save your money. Getting 3DS emu fully working took me about 3 days and should take a month transferring everything over. I'm hesitant to try the Vita based on this video review.
@@BadAssBlackOverlord thats a fair comment. maybe my better bet would be to purchase a bigger handheld pre loaded and ready to go, no shortage of options is there lets be honest.
@@jinx20001 For sure but the thing is if you are a super die hard fan of Nintendo systems it would be hard to resist. Playing the 3DS and Switch games flawlessly gave me motivation to go through the motions and I'm lazy about setting up these things too.
Thank you for updating this for the OLED model. Definitely considering upgrading my Deck
idk why other than the new screen the performance will be 1:1 the same nothing else got changed
the only maybe for performance is a super tiny slim chance that the cooling means it thermal throttles a teensy bit less but that was never a issue in the first place
ROG ally is better
@@SergeantGadriel battery on the Ally sucks big time, it's not OLED and the screen is small. And it costs more. I would add also that having the OS just made for the device gives a much better user experience
@@SergeantGadriel
terrible battery life
terrible low wattage performance
no real manufacturer support
terrible parts availability
over priced
horrible controlls
id rather buy the legion go than a ally especially given the shite reputation of asus
and the numbers speak to this
valve moved 850k units month 1
rog moved 500
1 year later valve offered a refurb program
1 year later rog slashed the price hard to try and compete
In Canada the rog ally is the same price as the 512gb oled steam deck.
Thanks, I'm also a fan of Steam deck emulation!
There are many emulation possibilities including the addition of HD textures, decompilations, hacks, mods and cheats. Enough to spend a lot of time there and fully enjoy retrogaming!
Small note regarding Xenia and the Xbox 360,
I tried Xenia Canary with success on some big games like Forza Horizon, Project Gotham Racing 4, Fable 2. Also, there are many XBLA games that run very well and can be launched from EmulationStation like GoldenEye remaster, Banjo Kazooie remaster or Rez HD.
Thanks for continuing to be thorough with questions like these, I hope to pick up something like this for emulating old systems and playing my PC games at some point but there's now so many options. I'm still not 100% sure what I'll buy, but the Steam Deck does seem like a top contender, particularly the Oled version.
So what did you end up getting, if anything? I’m really torn between the Deck and the Legion Go right now myself.
@@eternalfaeri1415 i think the deck will be more consistant and get the most support plus you have a huge library from steam. the other systems are good for everything else. if you already actively use steam its a no brainer but if not you might want to try the others
Really great video Russ. Especially that little bit about multiplayer at the end because that's something that can be touch and go depending on which emulator you're using. Keep up the great work, love the content!
Between this, the Odin 2, and the Ayaneo Geek 1S, I think I am set for a few of years. Hear for all your vids though. Keep up the great vids
The Xenia build that EmuDeck sets up is incorrectly configured and broken. It's recommended to use the latest Xenia Canary build, and run this through Proton. You also need to edit the config file to change line 209 from "any" to "vulkan". With this, I've been playing through *Red Dead Redemption 1* without issue.
Thank you for making this video. I just received my steam deck OLED yesterday and was having some buyer's remorse after trying some PC games from my Steam library and getting underwhelming results. But this video really made me see the potential for emulation. I already have an anbernic RG405M that I love, but it doesn't have the horsepower to emulate all the systems that the steam deck can, so your vieeo really helps me figure out how and when I want to use this steam deck for my gaming. Great job on this channel!
What games were giving you issues? I've been running the SD for a couple months now without too many issues.
which games gave u issues bro?
how did u find steam deck oled? i wanna buy one and where did u buy it? cheers
Russ I’m so grateful for you, thank you for all these videos. I wish you success and good health!
This is exactly what I was looking for! I'm currently having a steam deck OLED 1 TB being shipped so I'm very excited to see how amazing the performance and the power draw is with emulation! This is literally the greatest handheld I've ever owned. With combination of my gaming PC, I can run most PC games and emulation on the steam deck and then whatever can't run well I can use my PC. So it's all very win win! Best investment of a life time. The steam deck may not be able to play everything, but it sure feels like it plays everything.
To get Forza Motorsport (shown at 15:23) working correctly in Xemu, you need to use a previous version. The latest release has a severe rendering regression which causes textures to not load as per this video 🙂
I'm getting a Steam Deck OLED for Christmas and can't wait! Haven't had a Steam Deck yet, and I really can't wait to get to the emulation side of it, and play some PC games as well on it.
You’re in for a treat dude. This thing is wicked 😳 and so easy to get going
For Xbox 360 I found much more success switching from Vulkan to D3D12, you need to edit a line in the config file. After that a lot of games booted, performance wasn’t great in the few games I tested but I could imagine more lightweight titles running well.
You also need to force Proton compatibility, which is why none of his games booted. A few games play surprisingly well, considering how little development that emulator has.
Thanks for the tips, i'll try this!
Vulkan is fixed in the latest Xenia canary build actually. Now both Vulkan and d3d12 work great.
have any luck? I can never get Xenia to boot. forcing proton makes it crash faster lol. just wanna play ace combat 6. will try the latest canary build, I've seen people get it working and I've edited the vulkan line to no avail.
These are the reasons the ASUS ROG Ally is everso slightly inches out the Valve SteamDeck OLED in terms of value.
You just get a smoother and consistent experience playing systems like Xbox, PS Vita, 360, PS3, WiiU, and even NSwitch. Not to mention the Indie and AAA-Titles from Windows PC Gaming.
But we're in a good spot in the market right now. Compared to 2019 or earlier, when there were very few options outside of GPD.
Waiting for mine to come! This looks awesome! Definitely going to give this video a revisit
Possible future video idea: a dedicated multi-player guide for the Steamdeck. Ideas that come to mind include what to do, what not to do, tweaks that can help with the experience, controller profiles in emulators, troubleshooting, recommended controllers and MOST importantly! That sweet list of multiple-player games you have! ❤️
Magequit is epic, and so is James bond night fire on the ps2!
When playing Mario Kart 8 on the TV, if you have trouble defaulting to an external controller instead of the Steam Deck built-in controller, make sure to set your external controller as "Controller 3", for some reason that is the primary one for MK8.
If they made a steam deck mini I would get it
Call it a Steamy Mini 😂
If they made the steam deck less ugly I would get it.
I can't imagine it would have good thermals/cooling or heat dissipation, no thanks! the oled does an amazing job of keeping itself cool compared to the lcd version 🎉
@@PJP-DJPit’s beautiful.
@@PJP-DJPthat's a subjective kind of thing
Merry Christmas, RUSS!!! You're the best in the biz!! Me and the boyz are gonna have the best time!
Great video! Watched it several times already! I didn’t know you could theme the emulation station Interface more than the options provided in Emudeck! Keep up the great content 👍🏾
In my case I use my PS Vita for retro, and the Steam Deck only for steam games and PS2. I think I'll be adding NDS games soon enough. Thank you for your helpful videos. I love them!
Regarding the screen filters, the resolution on the SD allows for nice integer scaling on most mainstream systems, with minimal or no screen area loss, compared to stretched. Shaders do a much better job than bilinear.
Basically the same as original Steamdeck but longer battery life and better screen, Steamdeck is the best handheld by price/performance and basically it can emulate everything perfectly from Atari 2600 towards PS2, GameCube era, it still capable to emulate most PS3, WiiU, Switch, and Xbox 360 games.
This is a great video, i would love a big list of your fav steam deck emulator games
Excellent video bro!
The Steam Deck is amazing. I am currently playing Legend of Zelda Wind Waker HD with the SD LCD version set at 5W TDP. It gives me around 6 hours and that is actually insane.
Edit: it is actually 4 hours. Mistakes were made while writing this comment.
Is it the wiiU version? Does it play 30fps locked even with 5 watt tdp cap?
@@luigicaravelli3083 yes, really amazing. I keep the framerate display on at all times, but also there did not notice any visible changes. Really amazing.
@@luigicaravelli3083 for certain emulators like switch, wii u and ps3 the automatic power settings take way more power than needed, if you manualy set the tdp and gpu clocks you can save alot of power, for example you can save 3-6 watts on the tdp with the switch depending on what game you are running without losing peformance, you can get anywhere from 45 mins to over an hour extra battery life doing this.
This even happens with certain pc games on the deck.
@@RetroMannGaming Huh. I have the OLED and I only get 6 hours with the same TDP lock. You sure it’s the LCD xD maybe we have different settings.
But yeah, Russ needs to learn to fiddle with TDP and GPU Clock pinning. Battery life is nowhere as bad as he claims. I’m getting a more than stable 40+ fps lock with Breath of the Wild running at 7 watts 1100Ghz. Gets me around 5 hours vs his 2 to 2.5.
Awesome video! You should have included footage of Red Dead Redemption 1 on Switch with Reality Redemption mod, looks amazing!
“Ah yes, the video I’ve been waiting for!” - me (who already has an OLED deck loaded with emulators)
Same. I know this thing like the back of my hand at this point. I still love these videos for some reason lol
@@chiarosuburekeni9325these videos feel really good, even if we already know what he's going to cover I dunno 😂
I have the OG deck, 64GB. I tore out the 64GB drive, and replaced it with a 2TB NVME. It is, hands down, the best system that I have ever used for emulation. It's like owning every console that I ever owned growing up, including arcade machines, right up to and including the PS3, all in one system, right in the palm of my hands. Between the OG and the OLED, I don't think that it has been improved that much, to warrant another purchase of an entirely new machine. If you don't have a deck yet, by all means, go for it. If you have the old deck, I wouldn't bother again until the Deck 2 is released. I actually refer to the OLED, as the Deck 1.5.
Would imaging the old drive, cloning it onto the new one and then reinstalling it work? What method did you use?
Was waiting for your version of this! Thanks. Can't wait for the deck to arrive :D
I followed your previous video on how to set up emudeck on your deck and install the bios and roms on there. I have now lost over 400 hours of time to some of my favorite classic rpgs from the ps1 and ps2 era. Thank you so much man
so cool that all these channels making steam deck content get to redo all the content they made last year because of this refresh.
It was around October of last year that I got the original steam deck and I loved it! I mainly used it for steam games and have yet to set it up for emulation. The two models don’t seem that different from each other as least as far as emulation performance is concerned, but ps3 and xbox and 360 games are probably better off on other devices with ps vita taking forever to make significant improvements. Still a great device for WiiU and even Switch games. It’s also good to know how to connect multiple controllers when I ever wanna play with the homies.
Thank you so much for your dedication to the community. Love your videos and know that you have helped 1000s of people! Big respect dude from the UK ☀️
Always love your videos. Super relaxing to watch and very informative. Thank you.
Idk if it's like this for anyone else, but Yuzu and Ryujinx always run better in docked mode on Steam Deck in my performance tests.
Handheld mode always makes async shader compilation take longer and causes slow down more often than docked on the Deck
A handheld that can emulate almost every game in existence is absolutely making my geek mind ORGASM. I know EMU's aren't perfect with certain hardware.. but my god this is exciting times for tech.. it's so cool. I cant afford one now but... this is just so cool man. Imagine playing Xenosaga in your bed. It's so crazy.
Hey mate, there are a lot of great mods to get for almost every Switch game! Mario Wonder runs butter smooth at 60fps with the fps stabilazor . Zelda BotW and TotK both run smooth at 60fps (some tiny dips but overall great) Links awakening also 100% smooth. Beside perfomance mods there are also cheat mods to find.
Thanks for your video, Steam Deck rules 👌💪
Hey there! You’re running Totk at 60? Would you mind providing the mod(s)? Thanks!
links awakening doesn't run smooth on switch so it actually works just like the switch.
@@leamccoy8602he's mistaken. TotK can't be run at 60. You'll be having dips to 25fps often too
Just set this up today with my steam deck OLED thanks to you!
Valve and their logistics partners in Europe are really failing many customers with launch day orders either not arriving or heavily delayed. My own launch day order shipped on Nov 21st and has not been seen since, it hasn’t even left the Netherlands according to its tracking. Steam Support are totally mishandling the situation and have yet to acknowledge that there is an issue nearly three weeks on.
Hope you get it soon. Even waiting just one week for mine to arrive felt like forever lol
The new update 3.5.17 on Steam Deck finally adds the ability to dim the status LED. I think it’s a huge deal for those of us with a translucent shell. One thing to note; on my OLED LE, if I go below 10 notches on the dial, none on the LEDs work. If I keep it at 10, only white LED works. Anything higher & color LEDs activate as well (when they’re supposed to)
Thanks! That's the video I wanted. I can finally see how each system fill the screen of the steam deck and as a nice bonus the excellent commentary of what to expect with each of them. Being able to use anti-aliasing is really needed for certain Switch games. Fire Emblem three houses on my Switch looked so bad, I just gave up on it.
Nice that you covered multiplayer, because this is something that I struggled a lot to make it work sometimes.
One of the annoying emulation issues I recently had was getting controllers to show up in Dolphin when I had the deck docked to my TV. I wanted to play SMB2 easily and I did get it working, but surely there's a quick config setup they can append somewhere.
I love how Valve makes high quality hardware so open, and they are so cool about it; they are doing more for game preservation than every other publisher combined
Thanks a bunch Rus! My Steam Deck Oled is on the way, it will be my first handheld ever! You are big reason for this, keep it going. Love your content!
How did u fidn it? -i wanna buy one! let me know please
@@joelgrebinsilvestri the Steam website has them, some used on slight discount.
A couple notes on Switch games:
- The 2 emulators work better with different games, it's worth trying both. For example Ryujinx handles RDR1 better than Yuzu
- Handheld mode doesn't really do much. Even playing some of the hardest games to emulate (XC2/3) handheld never helped the framerate. This is because you are CPU-bound and not GPU bound. You can actually play at a 1.5x resolution in docked mode before you start noticing drops. Since docked mode doesn't hurt performance, you might as well use it.
To see the emulation on Steam Deck is a testament to how well managed the limited power of the device is used 😁
Although I only have the LCD model, it's still fantastic and easily has enough battery life & power to handle the vast majority of the games I want to play!
I cannot wait to see what Valve do with a true Steam Deck successor 😊
Just bought a steam deck. Very excited to put on some old games I haven’t played in years!
if the steam deck is this awesome, I can only imagine how incredible a steam deck 2 will be. and they better keep the oled hdr screen.
Great video. I hope it stays on the internet forever
Russ you should make a video comparing emulation on windows/X86 devices vs arm devices.
@RetroGameCorps Russ, great video as always. Ever thought of doing another Steam Deck Emulation video to showcase what changed within one year of Emulation on the Steam Deck OLED? At least, through your video, we could see the progress of Xenia(Canary Build) and Vita3K, two emulators in which you have problems in this video? Hope you consider this for any of your future videos. Keep up the good work!!
Good review! I already have the original Steam Deck, so I probably won't be upgrading to the OLED any time soon. I also play 99% of the time docked, so the nicer screen is kind of moot for me. I can only imagine what's next with Valve and the future Steam Deck models, though. This looks perfect for anyone who hasn't already jumped into the Steam Deck pool.
Are the emulations exclusive to oled steam deck?
No, not at all. All of these are available on the original non-OLED Deck.
The "Random Open World Game" looked good.
To anyone looking to play PCSX2 on the steam deck, I find that the version provided from emudeck is not up to par to the version found on the discovery store. I find the games stutter quite a bit regardless if I use vulkan or openGL. I was able to get around this problem with the version provided on the discovery store but unfortunately it's not as integrated as I would like. That being said, at least it works now!
“Random open world game” LMAO I love it
The best part is the black bars in games with locked 16:9, emulation ratios will be true blacks so it will look better
i bought steam deck for myself but it turned out i didnt use it pretty much at all, it was just collecting dust ;p but it definitely is a kinda miracle that pushed gaming on linux to the mainstream and it is now quite viable.
Recently I've gotten into emulation on SD and it's amazing, been playing PS2 and some Switch games.
Great video (as always) I am now having a hard time deciding what to buy. I dont know if i should get the oled deck or the odin 2. I can only buy 1. It would be a house or hotel use handheld because I already have a 405m for on the go.
I have the odin 2 and I'm same as you.. the odin 2 plays everything I want gamecube and ps2 Very lightweight and portable. But my 50 year old eyes are wishing for an oled screen and 1.5 extra inches.... I'm close to selling and swapping it... really stuck what to do. 😢
Love how the family got together to show off multiplayer ❤
Well, it seems that if I want to play PS2 on a handheld I have to go for a Deck or a similar machine. Too bad I can't spend that much money right now 😅
Great video as always 👌
"Ayn Odin 2" runs PS2 and more flawlessly.
I love supporting the Steam deck , i had this and the ROG ally X, but always come back to steam because its so well polished, especially OLED HDR is just a killer
"For me, personally" "for me, personally" "for me, personally" please, not only is this redundant "for me" already means "personally" but if you repeat it 10 times per video holy shit.
Love emudeck. I set up a game of Dokkapon Kingdom with a friend recently on the wii emulator on my steam deck. The steam deck itself made hooking up to the TV (with a dock/hub) and getting two wireless controllers connected SUPER easy. The only difficult part was configuring dolphin itself to map the controllers since its interface doesn't really mesh with the controller first approach of the steam deck. Wireless keyboard with a touchpad fixed that problem. Got everything setup in about 10 minutes (with emudeck and the rom already installed and setup before we started trying to play)
Could you please make a video about RetroDeck?
I'm pretty interested how it is compared to EmuDeck.
Agreed! I love Retrodeck
Best purchase in awhile.
Great work, as usual.
I still can't get 3DS to run great. Even PS3 games run better oddly enough!
Also can't wait for PS Vita emulation to get as polished as PS3! There's some great quality games on the Vita that would be so awesome on Steam Deck. I still have my PS Vita but I'd much rather play them on Steam Deck. Games like Soul Sacrifice and Gravity Rush would be awesome to see.
They have to build a shader cache. Citra does that pretty poorly and doesn't have an option to precompile shaders like dolphin
In BOTW, the day and night cycle code is tied to the number FPS and not the delta seconds, same for the physics, ennemies AI, some effects and animations, is better to avoid any 60fps hack because this may cause a lot of issues, keep the game at 30fps, same goes for RE4 2005, even the HD remaster have broken AI under 60 fps.
AWW, previous to see the little ones playing with Dad! God bless you, Russ, and your family!
God doesn't exist.
@@tittieslolo Please explain to me how "nothing" created everything is more logically reasonable than "something" created everything. Last I checked, "nothing" is nothing. I'll wait.
"A fool says in his heart 'There is no God.'" - Psalm 14:1
For xbox 360 on steam deck I have Star Trek Legacy, Gears of War 1(also 2/3 but haven't tested), Skate 3, and Too Human all running fine
welp I just spent 500 bucks
700 here… still waiting on shipping lol
280. Bought a used LCD Steam Deck, money is a bit tight, but the games want to be played and who am I to deny them their basic rights?
Random open world game is one of the best. I hope the next random open world game adds even more unique functions and features. Maybe do random open world game with wind in it part two. Random open world game deserves all the awards.
As someone who's playing god of war 2 for the first time on the steam deck oled (never had a ps2) I totally agree with the title
Your video always makes me wanna go ahead with the Dbrand Killswitch case and its skin, pondering about it more and more 😂
You use "and" so much it impedes your clarity. I appreciate the video, thank you!
For Breath of the Wild in WiiU: setting GPU frequency in PowerTools to 1400MHz improves FPS a lot
The only channel on TH-cam with in depth guide.
Can you get precompiled shader cache for Switch games?
Really like your Videos. They are very helpful and you make it easy even for Noobs like me. Thank you!
It would be interesting to see how much of an impact Steam Deck's release had on the spread of Emulation in the mainstream.
A big boost and a comfortable opportunity for many who didn't have it before? Or just fulfilling a need for those who were already emulating elsewhere...
I can only soak for myself, but I had little interest in emulation prior to the Steam Deck. It’s the portability and ease of use that make it so worth it to me. The platform is built for emulation. If Emudeck didn’t make it so easy, I would have given up on it.
Folks behind EmuDeck (DragoonDorise and Livedeht I think) are providing an invaluable service to the community, for sure
@@Greatscott24
For the Legend of Zelda you should download and install a 60-FPS mod patch. As you may know, most game companies lock certain games at a certain frame rate to improve the performance on an older console, and Nintendo did that with Legend of Zelda by capping it at 30 FPS.
Hey Rus! I am NOT joking when I tell you, you have no idea how helpful the exact advice you gave would have been yesterday, with Dolphin. I couldn't get my DK bongos to appear. :/
Also, ON THE OLED! That was where I was trying to make multiplayer work.
Started putting some dough on the side for one of these bad boys 😊
Thanks for persuading me to get one
A quick question for you folks. Im stuck decinding between the Rog ally, or the steam deck oled. I have a PS5 for AAA games. Im more into the emulation side. Which of these two would be best for that? As in performance up to switch? I have a switch also, so not really too bothered about that. Im just really stuck deciding which one would be better
Rog Allay has more power for emulation, but has quite a few known issues regarding the hardware. Steam Deck is pretty decent for higher end emulation, but absolutely covers all of the older systems. If you are just looking for emulation up to Switch, Steam Deck and EmuDeck would have you covered.
I'm so torn here... got the odin 2 max ready to set up and seen this... very tempted to sell it and buy this instead - emudeck looks so professional and a great emulation system. Bigger screen And now the battey life increased... really on the fence what to do 😮
Steam Deck is the best device for emulation and indie games
agreed typing this on my deck currently@@MrQuay03
Playing the PS3 versoon of Oblivion on PS3 at internal resolution of 900p and frame rate unlocked to 60 fps. It runs smooth and the PS3 version happens to be the best "vanilla" Oblivion experience of its era with faster load times and better textures, normal maps, and LODs than both vanilla PC and Vanilla xbox 360.
Any RPCS3 game that doesnt heavily utilize the cells SPUs will run with minimal to no issues on the deck.
Interesting… Might be a good option considering the native controller support.
I do remember the PS3 version being tweaked differently from the 360 one, but I didn’t know it was more custom/better even compared to the PC version…
@MerryBlind Since the PS3 released a little later, 4J Studios had time to refine and tweak the rendering pipe line and visuals which resulted in much better load times, mostly positive changes to lighting, shader optimization, texture surfaces and normal maps, and LODs which where the biggest needed improvement IMHO.
I've played Oblivion on 360, PC, PS3, and Series S with optimization improvements. Until RPCS3, Oblivion on Series S/X was the best vanilla experience due to improvements in resolution, frame rate, and texture filtering but the underlying guts is still very much the PC/360 surfaces.
It's a shame the PC game never got a proper patch to fix the vanilla bugs, crashes, LODs and most importantly, proper controller support.
I might be in the minority with this but I prefer the most refined "vanilla" experience in my games.
Amazing, blow my mind that multiplayer option !
what an awsome video. you really went the extra mile.