I’m curious about the emulation on Steam Deck. Which emulator run well enough to play daily? Can it run Switch emulator at 30fps, or specifically Mario Kart 8 Deluxe?
I use Yuzu through EmuDeck. Even with Nintendo having given the crunch on Yuzu it’s still my preferred emu and can run almost anything with little to ko flaws.
Mariokart 8 Deluxe runs great, flawlessly I’d almost say! Online multiplayer works really well too, if you have friends that are also playing through Yuzu. However… Local multiplayer is hit or miss; there is a prevalent issue starting up a splitscreen match with the controller activation pop-up, as it tends to soft-lock the game.
The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild runs great too, but with occasional framerate instability. However, I noticed framerate on the native Switch wasn’t perfectly stable either when I played my friend’s copy. You’ll certainly notice bad framerate when the game has to render rainy thunderstorms.
Raymen Legends The Complete Edition is completely flawless!
Mario Wonder struggles a lot with framedrops. Dunno what it is, but that game is seriously difficult to get a stable framerate on regardless of the Deck or a modestly powerful desktop, even after trying all sorts of settings.
Those are all the Switch games I’ve played, but I’m also playing, and have played other emulated games:
PCSX2 for PlayStation 2 I don’t think you’re going to have any problems with. I’ve played through some of Rayman 2 and Spyro The Eternal Night and have had no issues.
RPCS3 for Playstation 3 takes some finangling with the settings to get games to run decently, and you WILL still get imperfect framerates… Buuuuut… I’m currently playing the first Motorstorm and the Ratchet & Clank HD Trilogy and I really can’t complain. Despite the occasional slow-mo lag (especially in Ratchet & Clank for some reason) performance is great.
The two games I’m playing through RPCS3 work best by setting the resolution to 75% native and turning on 50% FSR in the emulator’s graphics settings. It looks better and runs better that way, as opposed to using the native resolution.
With the sale going on, the 512GB OLED is almost double the price of the 512GB LCD. Do you think it’s worth the money? Personally what would you recommend?
I bought a certified refurbished 512 GB LCD model. This was shortly before the OLED version came out. You can get a lot of games to run 4 hours on it, longer if the game hardly challenges the Deck.
Other games just juice the Deck like a lemon.
Games like Worms WMD last a very long time on the Deck.
No Man’s Sky lasts 4-ish hours, though perhaps a little under 4 hours.
Civ 6 sucks the battery dry in less than 2 hours, but with tweaking some settings now lasts 4 hours.
Phoenix Point runs well but drinks battery power like an alcoholic, lasting only an hour.
Switch games emulated through Yuzu can last a surprisingly long time. I’ve managed to play Breath of the Wild for nearly 4 hours.
All in all I would say the LCD model is not a bad choice at all. However, if you can afford the OLED model, I’d recommend getting that one; it’s exactly like my model in performance, except better in a few areas. The battery is bigger and lasts much longer. The screen looks gorgeous being an OLED. Valve has made opening the Deck easier, for maintenance and modification purposes.
I’m curious about the emulation on Steam Deck. Which emulator run well enough to play daily? Can it run Switch emulator at 30fps, or specifically Mario Kart 8 Deluxe?
I use Yuzu through EmuDeck. Even with Nintendo having given the crunch on Yuzu it’s still my preferred emu and can run almost anything with little to ko flaws.
Mariokart 8 Deluxe runs great, flawlessly I’d almost say! Online multiplayer works really well too, if you have friends that are also playing through Yuzu. However… Local multiplayer is hit or miss; there is a prevalent issue starting up a splitscreen match with the controller activation pop-up, as it tends to soft-lock the game.
The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild runs great too, but with occasional framerate instability. However, I noticed framerate on the native Switch wasn’t perfectly stable either when I played my friend’s copy. You’ll certainly notice bad framerate when the game has to render rainy thunderstorms.
Raymen Legends The Complete Edition is completely flawless!
Mario Wonder struggles a lot with framedrops. Dunno what it is, but that game is seriously difficult to get a stable framerate on regardless of the Deck or a modestly powerful desktop, even after trying all sorts of settings.
Those are all the Switch games I’ve played, but I’m also playing, and have played other emulated games:
PCSX2 for PlayStation 2 I don’t think you’re going to have any problems with. I’ve played through some of Rayman 2 and Spyro The Eternal Night and have had no issues.
RPCS3 for Playstation 3 takes some finangling with the settings to get games to run decently, and you WILL still get imperfect framerates… Buuuuut… I’m currently playing the first Motorstorm and the Ratchet & Clank HD Trilogy and I really can’t complain. Despite the occasional slow-mo lag (especially in Ratchet & Clank for some reason) performance is great.
The two games I’m playing through RPCS3 work best by setting the resolution to 75% native and turning on 50% FSR in the emulator’s graphics settings. It looks better and runs better that way, as opposed to using the native resolution.
Thank you so much.
With the sale going on, the 512GB OLED is almost double the price of the 512GB LCD. Do you think it’s worth the money? Personally what would you recommend?
I bought a certified refurbished 512 GB LCD model. This was shortly before the OLED version came out. You can get a lot of games to run 4 hours on it, longer if the game hardly challenges the Deck.
Other games just juice the Deck like a lemon.
Games like Worms WMD last a very long time on the Deck.
No Man’s Sky lasts 4-ish hours, though perhaps a little under 4 hours.
Civ 6 sucks the battery dry in less than 2 hours, but with tweaking some settings now lasts 4 hours.
Phoenix Point runs well but drinks battery power like an alcoholic, lasting only an hour.
Switch games emulated through Yuzu can last a surprisingly long time. I’ve managed to play Breath of the Wild for nearly 4 hours.
All in all I would say the LCD model is not a bad choice at all. However, if you can afford the OLED model, I’d recommend getting that one; it’s exactly like my model in performance, except better in a few areas. The battery is bigger and lasts much longer. The screen looks gorgeous being an OLED. Valve has made opening the Deck easier, for maintenance and modification purposes.