I’ve been using my Steam Deck for a while now, and I keep hitting walls that make me question if it’s really the “PC in your hands” that Valve claims. My use case is a bit different; I want to turn the Deck into a portable gaming server and stream games to another PC over LAN. But it feels like there are artificial restrictions outside of its intended use. For instance, the resolution is locked at 1280×800 even in Windows, which limits streaming options. Driver support is subpar, especially for AMD hardware encoding, which is frustrating. Plus, SteamOS makes customization tough, and whenever I try to use it like a traditional PC, things seem to break. I know a lot of people love this device, but does anyone else feel like Valve is unnecessarily limiting its capabilities? Why market it as a PC if they don’t want users to use it as one?
1 Answer
Honestly, some of your issues might just stem from your specific expectations. The Steam Deck was designed primarily as a handheld gaming device with Steam integration, not necessarily as a full Linux PC. If you want more flexibility, you could try installing a different OS like Nobara, which gives you a better chance at customization. Just be aware that you’ll still face challenges, especially with AMD drivers on Linux.
Thanks for the suggestion! I’ve heard getting the AMD drivers to work right can be tricky on Linux. I definitely want to explore custom OS options for better performance. Appreciate the tip!