low spec gaming looking pretty sunny right now gang
low spec gaming looking pretty sunny right now gang
Considering the Switch 2 (with those pretty joystick well covers to protect from drift, omg) and the Ryzen Z2 Go announcements, the low cost and availability of Steam Deck & parity level APU machines for purchase now, and the giant 1080p gaming install base represented by current gen consoles, it sure seems like low spec & 1080p gaming is going to have a pretty sunny future. I am hoping this gives small and medium sized development teams a chance to show up what is left of AAA gaming.
What are your favorite low spec gaming setups right now? I'm enjoying a 5700g APU system the most these days. Mainstream wise, I've been playing Elden Ring and Injustice 2 and Vampire Survivors. The last Indie I played is this beat-em-up / horde survival game An American Werewolf in LA which was pretty cool.
baldurs gate 3, cyberpunk 2077, and elden ring. I mean I play them on the steam deck so they count yeah?
Has BG3's performance on the Deck improved? I've heard of issues people had in later chapters.
I never got past chapter one I think or two maybe. I did not jump the gap or whatever. just the druids grove and areas around it.
Yeah that counts exactly
The Anbernic rg35xx h has served me well. Likewise the Nintendo 2DS XL.
Ali-gang unite!
I have ps1 emulator in my phone and been playing it the past week or so, did not realise that's the thing i need in my life. I love my N3ds but it's so bulky and the button placement is so weird it hurt even my small hand. Might get a steam deck as a gaming device next instead of a new pc.
Don't get a Steam Deck. It's far too convenient. Everything just works the way it's supposed to. You tell it to install a game, it does that. You tell it to run a game, it does that. You need a break, you just tap the power button and it goes to sleep. You want to play again, you just tap the power button and it resumes the game you left running like nothing happened. You want to install a bigger hard drive so you can have more games, you can do that. You want to replace the sticks because you've worn them out, you can do that. You want to plug it into a TV and use it to watch Netflix, you can do that. You want to plug it into a monitor, mouse and keyboard and use it as desktop, you can do that.
You'll sit on the couch and play games, you'll sit on the shitter and play games, you'll sit in bed and play games. You'll take it on the bus, the train, the airplane, no problem.
Don't buy a Steam Deck, you won't get anything else done.
Oh, but you might finally play some of those untouched games in your library, so there's that.
I should warn you, the Steam Deck is incredibly bulky and heavy compared to the tiny 3DS - and even in my large hands, it never feels particularly comfortable, despite the good shape of the grips and with a thin rubber case I added to it. Definitely not the right system for you if you have weak wrists, simply due to its substantial mass. Using it for longer periods of time without resting it my your lap is not very pleasant, but resting it in your lap means I have to look down, which can result in neck strain. Lying down meanwhile, it's a bit too heavy for the weight to rest on the elbows as well. Placing it on a pillow or bag (while making sure that none of the vents are obstructed) helps though, to the point that you can get fully immersed in playing, not thinking about the device at all, even on a busy train.
For an hour to an hour and a half, none of this is problematic, of course. There are also workarounds: Connecting it to an external display that has the right height can circumvent the issue, including those USB C display glasses that create a large virtual screen in front of you (haven't tried those, but heard good things in combination with this device).
There are also much smaller, thinner and lighter alternatives to the Deck, but none of them have the advantage of being a fully integrated design like the Deck, where every aspect of the hard- and software was developed together and tuned to compliment each other and none of them have the complete backing of the largest game distribution network behind it. Most of them are running Windows, which, while having superior games compatibility, is not suited for a portable gaming device at all, lacking for example the ability to reliably suspend and resume games. With the Lenovo Legion Go S as the first, expect there to be more and more devices running Steam OS, but those are unlikely to have the same level of compatibility as the device this version of the OS was created for.
If emulation is what you're looking for, the Deck is a powerhouse (up to and including Nintendo Switch is no problem), but not the only game in town. Older console games in particular run well even on very basic devices. Maybe all you need is a controller cradle for your phone, if you don't already have one, or a cheap and cheerful emulation console like one those tiny things Anbernic is having a great deal of success with lately.
Dude high five. I have big hands, but even the regular switch feels uncomfortable after an hour or so. I have no idea how people are managing with the steam deck.
I was sad to see the new switch is larger lol. I'll never use it handheld. It really makes me wish they just made a lighter NEW 3dsXL with better hand grips. They could call it the NEW NEW 3DSXL.
Don't forget Intel's latest GPU launches either! For custom PCs, there are some really affordable and relatively powerful GPUs available now (for the price). Despite their performance otherwise, Intel is killing it in the GPU space now.
For a lower spec build, you could definitely put together something with a 12100F (or other cheap CPU) and a battlemage GPU. Depending on where you get all the parts, you might be able to hit sub-$500 and get great 1080p performance, or for sure sub-$1k 1080p and likely 1440p performance.
Handhelds also have a lot of good options available too. To save some cash, you can get low end Steam Deck and swap the hard drive yourself. Got myself the cheapest LCD variant and swapped the tiny drive in it with a 2TB drive off Amazon.
I would recommend against pairing Battlemage with a low-spec CPU. As shown by Hardware Canucks, Hardware Unboxed, and others, Intel's Arc graphics driver overhead is currently much higher than competitors, which means they're disproportionately affected by having a weaker CPU. This causes the B580 to lose significantly more performance when paired with low-end CPUs than a roughly equivalent Nvidia or AMD card. At the very low end, the difference is especially stark. In some games, the B580 goes from neck-and-neck with a 4060 on a high-end CPU to losing half its performance with a low-end older CPU, while the 4060 only loses about 25%.
If you're really stuck with a lower-end CPU, it would be far better to get a used midrange AMD or Nvidia GPU from an older product generation for the same price and use that.
Intel is not a good idea if you want to play older games or emulators though, due to poor driver support for both.
Honestly my Anbernic rg40xxv (yes all their devices have convoluted names lol) just arrived and I couldn't be happier. Really into retro games right now so I don't need more than the power of this lil guy.
For sure. There's also an amazing amount of backlog these days so you'll do really fine with an older system, especially if you count emulators as well. I for one don't require photorealism in every game
Seldom do “photo realistic” graphics add to a game, at least for me. All it takes is a close up of one person talking to break it.
The uncanny valley remains, but as a palette cleanser, I do enjoy looking at expensive games every once in a while. It's like walking through a film set that clearly took months and lots of blood, sweat and tears by the artists who created it. For as much as I have always loved scrappy Indie games, this kind of splendor is one thing they can rarely provide.