**The Steam Deck: A Powerhouse Mini PC**

As we explore the capabilities of the Steam Deck, a deck that is using RD and A2 graphics, it's clear that this mini PC packs a punch. With DDR5 RAM and an integrated GPU, it's able to perform much better than what we have here when it comes to gaming. The GPU uses system RAM as VRAM, which means that the Steam Deck can handle demanding games with ease.

One of the features that sets the Steam Deck apart from other mini PCs is its ability to use Bluetooth controllers. While I personally prefer using a PS4 or Xbox One controller, the Steam Deck does support Bluetooth connectivity, making it easy to connect and play without having to deal with the hassle of cables. However, for those who want a more traditional gaming experience, there's also the option to plug in the controller through USB.

When testing the Steam Deck, I ran into some interesting results. In the Witcher 3, I found that the game was running smoothly at 720p with a mix of low and medium settings. The Steam Deck's performance was impressive, even when running the game at 40 FPS, which is a significant drop from the game's native 60 FPS. However, when I enabled global FS (Frame Synchronization), the frame rate dropped to around 47 FPS, which is still relatively smooth.

Moving on to Cyberpunk 2077, I found that the Steam Deck had a preset for this game, which helped to optimize performance. With the settings turned up to medium and global FS off, the game was running at 720p with an average frame rate of around 68 FPS. However, when I turned down the settings to low and locked the game at 60 FPS, the Steam Deck's performance dropped significantly, making it harder to hit a consistent frame rate.

Next up is Project Cars 2, which proved to be a bit more challenging for the Steam Deck. With medium settings and global FS off, the game was struggling to run smoothly, even with an average frame rate of around 47 FPS. However, when I turned down the settings to low, the Steam Deck's performance improved significantly, allowing it to run the game at 60 FPS.

Finally, we have Eldon Ring, which has been a notoriously difficult game to run on the Steam Deck. With medium settings and global FS off, the game was struggling to hit 60 FPS, even with an average frame rate of around 47 FPS. However, when I turned down the settings to low, the Steam Deck's performance improved significantly, allowing it to run the game at 60 FPS.

In conclusion, the Steam Deck is a powerhouse mini PC that can handle demanding games with ease. With its built-in GPU and DDR5 RAM, it's able to perform well even on lower-end hardware. While there are some limitations to be aware of, such as the need for global FS in some games, overall, the Steam Deck is an excellent option for those looking for a console-like experience without sacrificing performance.

**The Performance with Different Games**

One of the most interesting aspects of the Steam Deck's performance is how it compares to running Windows on lower-end hardware. In our tests, we found that the Steam Deck was able to run games at higher frame rates and resolutions than what we would expect from a similar configuration on Windows. This is especially notable when running demanding games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Project Cars 2.

However, it's worth noting that these results may not be entirely consistent across all games, and some titles may require more tweaking to get the best performance out of the Steam Deck. Additionally, as with any mini PC, there are limits to the hardware's capabilities, and running demanding games at high frame rates and resolutions can still push the system to its limits.

**Gaming on the Steam Deck**

When it comes to gaming on the Steam Deck, one of the standout features is its ability to use Bluetooth controllers. This makes it easy to connect and play without having to deal with cables, which can be a major annoyance when playing games for extended periods.

However, not everyone may prefer using a Bluetooth controller, and some users may find that they prefer to stick with their traditional gaming setup using a PS4 or Xbox One controller. In this case, the Steam Deck does support USB connectivity, making it easy to plug in a controller without having to deal with cables.

**The Verdict**

Overall, the Steam Deck is an excellent option for those looking for a console-like experience without sacrificing performance. With its powerful hardware and intuitive controls, it's perfect for gamers who want to play their favorite titles on the go. While there may be some limitations to be aware of, such as the need for global FS in some games, overall, the Steam Deck is an excellent choice for anyone looking to upgrade their gaming setup without breaking the bank.

**Conclusion**

In conclusion, our testing of the Steam Deck has shown that this mini PC is a powerhouse when it comes to gaming performance. With its integrated GPU and DDR5 RAM, it's able to handle demanding games with ease, even on lower-end hardware. While there are some limitations to be aware of, such as the need for global FS in some games, overall, the Steam Deck is an excellent option for anyone looking for a console-like experience without sacrificing performance.

**Recommendation**

Based on our testing, we highly recommend the Steam Deck to anyone looking for a powerful mini PC that can handle demanding games with ease. With its intuitive controls and portability, it's perfect for gamers who want to play their favorite titles on the go. Whether you're a hardcore gamer or just looking for a new way to experience your favorite games, the Steam Deck is definitely worth considering.

**Final Thoughts**

As we continue to explore the capabilities of the Steam Deck, one thing becomes clear: this mini PC is a powerhouse when it comes to gaming performance. With its powerful hardware and intuitive controls, it's perfect for gamers who want to play their favorite titles on the go. While there may be some limitations to be aware of, such as the need for global FS in some games, overall, the Steam Deck is an excellent option for anyone looking to upgrade their gaming setup without breaking the bank.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey what's going on everybody it's eta prime back here again in this video we're gonna see if it will be worth turning one of these ryzen powered mini pcs into a steam machine in 2022 if you're familiar with the steam deck you might notice that we've got the same operating system going here this is steamos 3. it's actually hollow iso i've done a full tutorial video on installing it on different hardware if you're interested in checking that out i'll leave a link in the description but personally i've only been running this on ryzen-powered laptops and i had a few viewers ask me to install this on a mini pc so here's that video now i will say that this could be a very viable option for somebody with one of these tiny ryzen powered pcs if they're looking for a console experience this boots right up into the steam deck os as you can see you can use a controller to navigate the full operating system and if you did need a desktop interface it's built in here so we can always move over to the desktop you'll have a fully functional linux powered desktop pc holo iso isn't officially from valve this is from a third-party developer that's taken the steam dex recovery image and packaged in a way that we can install it on different pcs it does have support for nvidia gpus and intel igpus but i've personally had much better luck on amd via integrated graphics or radeon dedicated gpus so right now i'm just booting up the witcher 3 and everything that works on the steam deck does work on this operating system at least with ryzen this does have system-wide fsr and when it comes to these integrated graphics especially the vega graphics that's something you definitely might want to turn on but the whole experience here has been really console like on these tiny pcs we can navigate this full operating system here minus the desktop portion if you ever want to get in there with the controller you can connect basically any bluetooth controller and we can bring up the menu here to exit the game we never have to pick up a mouse and keyboard and we can access the overlay right here so we can get all of our performance stats while we're running this game here you can also set this up with a limited frame rate you can turn fsr on or off and you can limit the wattage on the cpu and gpu so before we jump into game testing i did want to give you a quick look at this pc this is the more fine s500 plus i did a review on it but we were running windows as you can see we've got usb type c and usb 3.2 up front here not much going on around the sides here we do have some ventilation because this is a pretty high powered mobile cpu we have here and just taking a look at the rear here we've got our power input four more usb ports full size hdmi full size display port and dual ethernet one of these is one gig the other is 2.5 plus it's got a 3.5 millimeter audio jack now this operating system will work on basically any 3000 series up to the 6000 series ryzen apus and with this mini pc here we've got the ryzen 9 5900a checks eight cores 16 threads base clock of 3.3 with a boost up to 4.6 we've also got built-in radeon vega 8 graphics at 2100 megahertz 16 gigabytes of ddr4 at 3200 megahertz and a one terabyte m.2 ssd if we were to compare the cpu performance with the steam deck and this little mini pc here this is miles ahead on the cpu side of things but when it comes to the gpu we're still working with those vega graphics remember the steam deck is using rd and a2 graphics and it's got ddr5 ram and since the igpu uses system ram as vram it's just gonna make that gpu perform much better than what we have here when it comes to controllers i've tested a few i do have the steam controller i'm not a huge fan of it personally i would rather just connect a ps4 or an xbox one controller and they do work over bluetooth but if you ever wanted to just plug it in through usb you could also do that so jumping back over to the witcher 3 here we've got a low medium mix and we're at 720p with it so we get really close to running this game at 60fps and for some reason when i run it over steamos 3 i don't get frame tearing like i do with windows when we're running under 60. i mean i haven't seen any with this game here and i know we're not at a constant 60 but it still feels really smooth and remember we can also enable the variable refresh rate here so we can actually take this down to let's say 40 fps it's going to lock the game at 40 and we could take the settings up from here a little more we could probably go up to high running this at 40 fps it's still a really enjoyable experience and don't get me wrong if i had more power with this mini pc if it had a beefier gpu then i would highly recommend running something like windows on this but we're already working with low spec graphics here and every little feature that we can enable does help out next up we've got cyberpunk 2077 and we do have a steam deck preset so that's what i enabled here it does turn some of the settings up to medium and i don't have global fsr on but we are set to performance from the settings in the game itself so fsr is at performance 720p and if i was to take all of the settings down below and lock it at 60 it'll run like that we can actually get an average of around 68 fps with all of the settings at low and fsr at performance here's project cars 2 medium settings 720p and global fsr is turned off i thought we'd get a little more out of this i mean it's definitely playable and if you wanted to lock it at 60 you can play it just fine but i thought we'd be in the 90s with this game given you know the age of it next up we've got eldon ring we're at low settings 720p and we just can't hit 60 with this even in windows we can't hit 60 with this setup here i've tested it in the past this is just a harder one to run on these igpus but with the way it's set up right now we can get an average of around 47 fps and this is basically the same average we get with the steam deck hardware definitely had to throw an older one in here and for some reason even if i turned vsync off i can't get over 60 with it but we are maxed out from the settings and the final one here is beam ng drive i've been playing this a lot lately we're at medium settings and that cpu really does help out with the performance on the steam deck i can get 60 at low settings but with this we can get an average of around 83 medium settings so obviously just like any operating system running this on higher end hardware is definitely going to help out with the gaming performance but if you're working with one of these tiny ryzen powered pcs with low end graphics built in then this is something i could recommend trying out i mean it's great to have kind of a console experience with these tiny pcs this is something that could sit right underneath your tv and all of the tweaks we have built in here for these ryzen eye gpus does help out i mean there's a lot of stuff that we can do with this and you can easily access everything you need from the controller while you're playing a game so if you're interested in trying this out i will leave a link to the github page where you can download holo iso i'll also leave a link to the video i created on the full install tutorial so i do have a couple more videos coming up i've been working on a super small form factor mini pc with a dedicated radeon gpu to install this right on so we could run it at higher resolutions and higher frame rates so if that's the kind of stuff you're interested in seeing make sure you hit that subscribe button and maybe turn notifications on and if you have any questions let me know in the comments below but that's gonna wrap it up for this one and like always thanks for watchinghey what's going on everybody it's eta prime back here again in this video we're gonna see if it will be worth turning one of these ryzen powered mini pcs into a steam machine in 2022 if you're familiar with the steam deck you might notice that we've got the same operating system going here this is steamos 3. it's actually hollow iso i've done a full tutorial video on installing it on different hardware if you're interested in checking that out i'll leave a link in the description but personally i've only been running this on ryzen-powered laptops and i had a few viewers ask me to install this on a mini pc so here's that video now i will say that this could be a very viable option for somebody with one of these tiny ryzen powered pcs if they're looking for a console experience this boots right up into the steam deck os as you can see you can use a controller to navigate the full operating system and if you did need a desktop interface it's built in here so we can always move over to the desktop you'll have a fully functional linux powered desktop pc holo iso isn't officially from valve this is from a third-party developer that's taken the steam dex recovery image and packaged in a way that we can install it on different pcs it does have support for nvidia gpus and intel igpus but i've personally had much better luck on amd via integrated graphics or radeon dedicated gpus so right now i'm just booting up the witcher 3 and everything that works on the steam deck does work on this operating system at least with ryzen this does have system-wide fsr and when it comes to these integrated graphics especially the vega graphics that's something you definitely might want to turn on but the whole experience here has been really console like on these tiny pcs we can navigate this full operating system here minus the desktop portion if you ever want to get in there with the controller you can connect basically any bluetooth controller and we can bring up the menu here to exit the game we never have to pick up a mouse and keyboard and we can access the overlay right here so we can get all of our performance stats while we're running this game here you can also set this up with a limited frame rate you can turn fsr on or off and you can limit the wattage on the cpu and gpu so before we jump into game testing i did want to give you a quick look at this pc this is the more fine s500 plus i did a review on it but we were running windows as you can see we've got usb type c and usb 3.2 up front here not much going on around the sides here we do have some ventilation because this is a pretty high powered mobile cpu we have here and just taking a look at the rear here we've got our power input four more usb ports full size hdmi full size display port and dual ethernet one of these is one gig the other is 2.5 plus it's got a 3.5 millimeter audio jack now this operating system will work on basically any 3000 series up to the 6000 series ryzen apus and with this mini pc here we've got the ryzen 9 5900a checks eight cores 16 threads base clock of 3.3 with a boost up to 4.6 we've also got built-in radeon vega 8 graphics at 2100 megahertz 16 gigabytes of ddr4 at 3200 megahertz and a one terabyte m.2 ssd if we were to compare the cpu performance with the steam deck and this little mini pc here this is miles ahead on the cpu side of things but when it comes to the gpu we're still working with those vega graphics remember the steam deck is using rd and a2 graphics and it's got ddr5 ram and since the igpu uses system ram as vram it's just gonna make that gpu perform much better than what we have here when it comes to controllers i've tested a few i do have the steam controller i'm not a huge fan of it personally i would rather just connect a ps4 or an xbox one controller and they do work over bluetooth but if you ever wanted to just plug it in through usb you could also do that so jumping back over to the witcher 3 here we've got a low medium mix and we're at 720p with it so we get really close to running this game at 60fps and for some reason when i run it over steamos 3 i don't get frame tearing like i do with windows when we're running under 60. i mean i haven't seen any with this game here and i know we're not at a constant 60 but it still feels really smooth and remember we can also enable the variable refresh rate here so we can actually take this down to let's say 40 fps it's going to lock the game at 40 and we could take the settings up from here a little more we could probably go up to high running this at 40 fps it's still a really enjoyable experience and don't get me wrong if i had more power with this mini pc if it had a beefier gpu then i would highly recommend running something like windows on this but we're already working with low spec graphics here and every little feature that we can enable does help out next up we've got cyberpunk 2077 and we do have a steam deck preset so that's what i enabled here it does turn some of the settings up to medium and i don't have global fsr on but we are set to performance from the settings in the game itself so fsr is at performance 720p and if i was to take all of the settings down below and lock it at 60 it'll run like that we can actually get an average of around 68 fps with all of the settings at low and fsr at performance here's project cars 2 medium settings 720p and global fsr is turned off i thought we'd get a little more out of this i mean it's definitely playable and if you wanted to lock it at 60 you can play it just fine but i thought we'd be in the 90s with this game given you know the age of it next up we've got eldon ring we're at low settings 720p and we just can't hit 60 with this even in windows we can't hit 60 with this setup here i've tested it in the past this is just a harder one to run on these igpus but with the way it's set up right now we can get an average of around 47 fps and this is basically the same average we get with the steam deck hardware definitely had to throw an older one in here and for some reason even if i turned vsync off i can't get over 60 with it but we are maxed out from the settings and the final one here is beam ng drive i've been playing this a lot lately we're at medium settings and that cpu really does help out with the performance on the steam deck i can get 60 at low settings but with this we can get an average of around 83 medium settings so obviously just like any operating system running this on higher end hardware is definitely going to help out with the gaming performance but if you're working with one of these tiny ryzen powered pcs with low end graphics built in then this is something i could recommend trying out i mean it's great to have kind of a console experience with these tiny pcs this is something that could sit right underneath your tv and all of the tweaks we have built in here for these ryzen eye gpus does help out i mean there's a lot of stuff that we can do with this and you can easily access everything you need from the controller while you're playing a game so if you're interested in trying this out i will leave a link to the github page where you can download holo iso i'll also leave a link to the video i created on the full install tutorial so i do have a couple more videos coming up i've been working on a super small form factor mini pc with a dedicated radeon gpu to install this right on so we could run it at higher resolutions and higher frame rates so if that's the kind of stuff you're interested in seeing make sure you hit that subscribe button and maybe turn notifications on and if you have any questions let me know in the comments below but that's gonna wrap it up for this one and like always thanks for watching\n"