t’s certainly been a journey for Valve. A week prior to the Steam Frame’s launch, we spoke with two engineers at Valve about the project: Joy Lyons, hardware engineer, and Jeremy Selan, software engineer. The memory crisis and the price were a big part of that conversation. From that chat, we can confirm that Valve had aimed for a lower price point than the one it’s launching the Frame for today.
Here’s Lyons on the memory crisis:
“We set out to design this hardware with one particular price in mind, but we’ve made choices to make sure that we’re making a product that is choiceful, that people can purchase, they can upgrade with different features later. But we wanted to make sure we had a base product with really great performance. Then that price target shifted due to the ongoing RAM crisis around the world.”
Lyons also said that forecasting for the cost of certain components used in the Steam Frame is an ongoing challenge.
Not exactly boding well of the Steam Deck 2.
I have yet to be aware of any Intel Arc G3 handheld that manages to come down to the 540g in weight of a Switch 2 console. The Acer Atlas 7 has a smaller screen and yet weighs a bit under 700g, so 150g more while it has a smaller screen.
No but they’re also far more powerful than a Switch.
You claimed that the Intels are more EFFICIENT than ARM processors, so the devices need to be lighter and faster but so far I’m not aware of any x86 handheld that manages that.
I’d totally be in favor of that happening. Device Tree is a clusterfuck and as long as the cast majority of consumer ARM devices don’t support the SystemReady specification, x86 is more flexible but that’s not the point you were arguing.
Processor start-ups need to make their own x64 processors now that the patents are no longer valid.
That’s not correct. For one, I did not say they were more efficient. For another they can be similarly efficient and also larger and heavier, because they’re more powerful.
“Look at the new Intel handhelds, they just operate on a whole new level of efficiency.”
So the “whole new level of efficiency” isn’t better efficiency, it’s worse efficiency and the need for bigger batteries. Got it!
You are misunderstanding me because you’re not paying attention to your own words . “A new level of efficiency” is not the same as “more efficient than ARM processors”. It really just seems like you’re just more interested in “being right” and being a dick in general than any sort of good faith discussion so I’m gonna cut my losses and block you. Goodbye.