When Valve claimed that their Linux-powered Steam Deck device would be able to run any game from the Steam library most of us assumed this was simply a statement on the power of the device. We assumed that the Linux OS wouldn't be compatible with certain games such as those using Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) or BattlEye however Valve confirmed that they would work with the companies to add support. This has culminated in Epic Games recently introducing Linux & Mac support for their EAC software noting the Steam Deck in their announcement.

The addition of Linux support has been specifically designed to work with the Wine and Proton compatibility layers to ensure that all games using the software should run correctly. This will mean that titles such as Apex Legends, Dead by Daylight, War Thunder, 7 Days to Die, Fall Guys, Black Desert, Hunt: Showdown, Paladins, and Halo: The Master Chief Collection can now be easily updated to include Linux support. The rival BattlEye software isn't currently available for Linux but the CEO has confirmed that support will be added with the first game featuring it coming soon. These moves will drastically improve the Linux gaming landscape and will hopefully encourage more developers to natively support the platform.

Valve today put out frequently asked questions (FAQs) that shed light on many aspects of Steam Deck, the elusive new portable game console. Steam Deck is one of the first mass-market handheld consoles based on the PC architecture (if you don't count the various smartphones based on Intel Atom chips), or x86-based tablets. It turns out that Valve engaged in some segmentation between the storage-based variants. All three capacity variants feature optically-bonded glass IPS LCD touchscreens with 10-point multi-touch, but the 512 GB variant has an additional anti-glare treatment.

Steam Deck combines Linux-based custom operating system, along with the Steam UI and DRM platform, although it is possible to play non-Steam games through the Proton translation layer software. You can add games to your library just like on Steam on desktop. The Steam software itself has a custom UI optimized for the console, which replaces the Big Picture mode of conventional Steam desktop. Just like on regular Steam, the Steam Deck console lets you launch and play a game without an Internet connection, unless the game requires it.

Valve has previously announced that the Steam Deck will ship with their custom Steam OS 3.0 based on Arch Linux but that the user would be able to install alternative operating systems such as Windows 10. When Microsoft recently announced Windows 11 they also increased the system requirements with the most contentious decision being the requirement of a Trusted Compatibility Module (TPM). The Zen 2 Van Gogh APU found in the Steam Deck features a firmware-integrated TPM which needs to be supported within the device BIOS to enabled compatibility with Windows 11. Valve has confirmed that they are working with AMD to support the requirement and are hopeful that they will be able to achieve this.

Greg Coomer - Valve Steam Deck designerThere's work looking at TPM just now. We've focused so much on Windows 10, so far, that we haven't really gotten that far into it. Our expectation is that we can meet that.

To state that the Steam Deck made a splash when it was announced is an understatement - interest in the portable handheld console with its tight Steam integration is still going strong even after initial orders and the now ubiquitous scalping shenanigans, with eBay sellers looking for some $5,000 just for the end user to take their Steam Deck from their reservation queue place. Interest in the Steam handheld has been so immense, in fact, that it seems that shipping of all versions - even the entry-level one with 64 GB of eMMC storage - has slipped to Q2 2022.

When the handheld was first announced back on the 16th of July, initial shipments were expected to be sent out by the end of this year. However, Valve has now updated its estimated availability, bringing about a few more months of waiting for anyone just entering the queue - and possible 2023 slippings for further reservations. The "after 2Q 2022" is as vague as it comes as well - these units could be shipped in the first day of the quarter or face a delay until the release of the Steam Deck 4 (since Valve will skip the number 3, of course). We'll have to see whether there are any delays for already-confirmed pre-orders, but for now, it seems that if you've locked in an earlier delivery date, your order hasn't been affected.

AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) today announced revenue for the second quarter of 2021 of $3.85 billion, operating income of $831 million, net income of $710 million and diluted earnings per share of $0.58. On a non-GAAP basis, operating income was $924 million, net income was $778 million and diluted earnings per share was $0.63.

"Our business performed exceptionally well in the second quarter as revenue and operating margin doubled and profitability more than tripled year-over-year," said AMD president and CEO Lisa Su. "We are growing significantly faster than the market with strong demand across all of our businesses. We now expect our 2021 annual revenue to grow by approximately 60 percent year-over-year driven by strong execution and increased customer preference for our leadership products."

Valve has recently stated in a recent interview with IGN that they haven't encountered a single Steam game that could not run on the Steam Deck at their performance target. The performance target set by Valve is 30 FPS at the device's native resolution of 1,280 x 800 and according to Valve developers, this was achieved with new and old titles. The Steam Deck is powered by a custom AMD quad-core Zen2 SoC with RDNA2 graphics which is paired with 16 GB of LPDDR5 memory.

ValveAll the games we wanted to be playable, it's really the whole Steam library there. We haven't really found something that this device couldn't handle yet,

Valve's Steam Deck announcement took the gaming world by storm last week, as the announcement of a Valve-designed portable gaming console packing an AMD Zen 2 CPU with RDNA2 cores set collective imaginations on fire. However, as is the case for any recent gaming hardware launches, expect the Steam Deck to be hard to come by - demand for a mainstream portable, Switch-like console that promises to enable AAA-gaming on the go is apparently sky-high, despite the fact that some portable devices exploring the same concept have been available for a while now, such as the AYA Neo (which even packs two extra Zen 2 cores) and the Intel-based One XPlayer.

As is the case for any recent hardware launch that garners enough mainstream attention (looking at you, current-gen GPUs and consoles), a lopsided demand-supply ratio is a playground for unscrupulous types looking to make a profit at the expense of other people's impatience. And it sure is happening already - eBay listings for "pre-order confirmed" Steam Deck variants are already being set at €4,324 (roughly $4,989) - though we'd say they're tentatively set at that ludicrous pricing. It seems that the current median asking price sits around the $900 mark for the 512 GB SSD-equipped variant. Tentative or not, this just goes to show that the new normal is for launched products to be actively gauged for scalping practices - more now than ever before.

The upcoming Steam Deck device has recently been confirmed to feature a M.2 NVMe 2230 slot on all three models. This confirmation comes after Valve CEO Gabe Newell confirmed in various emails the presence of the slot and this information has since been updated on the Steam Deck website. The official device specifications now list all models as featuring socketed 2230 M.2 modules with a notice that they are not intended for end-user replacement. The base Steam Deck model features just 64 GB of eMMC flash so the availability of this upgrade option will be appealing to many users. The M.2 2230 form-factor is the smallest currently available measuring just 22 mm x 30 mm which does come with the disadvantage of less available products and higher prices compared to full size M.2 drives.

Valve today announced its first big splash into the console market with Steam Deck, a device out to eat the Nintendo Switch's lunch. The announcement comes as yet another feather in AMD's cap for its semi-custom SoC business, benefiting from being the only company with an x86-64 CPU license and having a cutting-edge graphics hardware IP. Built on the 7 nm node at TSMC, the semi-custom chip at the heart of the Steam Deck is designed for extended gameplay on battery, and is a monolithic silicon that combines CPU, GPU, and core-logic.

The yet-unnamed semi-custom chip features a 4-core/8-thread CPU based on the "Zen 2" microarchitecture, with a nominal clock speed of 2.40 GHz, and up to 3.50 GHz boost. The CPU component offers an FP32 throughput of 448 GFLOP/s. The GPU is based on AMD's latest RDNA2 graphics architecture—the same one powering the Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5, and Radeon RX 6900 XT—and is comprised of 8 RDNA2 compute units (512 stream processors). The GPU operates at an engine clock speed of 1.10 GHz to 1.60 GHz, with peak compute power of 1.6 TFLOP/s. The silicon uses a unified memory interface, and a cutting-edge LPDDR5 memory controller.

Valve announces Steam Deck, the first in a new category of handheld PC gaming devices starting at $399. Steam Deck is a powerful all-in-one portable PC. With a custom processor developed in cooperation with AMD, Steam Deck is comparable to a gaming laptop with the ability to run the latest AAA games. Your Steam library will be on Deck to play games wherever and whenever you want. Steam Deck is also an open PC, adding the ability to install any software or connect with any hardware.

"We think Steam Deck gives people another way to play the games they love on a high-performance device at a great price," says Valve founder Gabe Newell. "As a gamer, this is a product I've always wanted. And as a game developer, it's the mobile device I've always wanted for our partners." Steam Deck starts at $399, with increased storage options available for $529 and $649. Reservations open July 16th at 10 AM PDT; shipping is slated to start in December 2021.