correct me if im wrong but you don’t have to use this feature if doesn’t suit you
Yeah, it’s got 256GB or 1TB of internal storage, so you can just use the microSD card to move the game from i.e. the deck to the frame.
It’s also easily user replaceable, it comes with the same smaller size m.2 as the steam deck, but will work with full size m.2 cards as well.
Does that go for the Frame as well? I’ve only seen this confirmed for the Steam Machine. But I could’ve just missed it.
Going by the store page, the frame is using UFS, aka a hardwired SSD.
Sorry, I don’t actually know about the frame. I should have clarified I was talking primarily about the Machine.
Yeah you can use the internal storage and if you still wanted to copy the games across you can always do it over the internet (or LAN). I think Steam does have a built in way to do this now as well or you can just send it yourself as a file with rsync or what ever tool you feel like copy/pasting with.
You could also store your games on a NAS if you hate yourself (read/write performance will be pretty bad and result in a poor experience for most games)
Is there a Steam Frame community on the fediverse?
The biggest problem with microsd cards is they’re stuck in 2013, yeah microsd express technically exists but nobody produces cards so no OEMs are willing to support it (except Nintendo)
This is peak but at the same time i hate SD cards. Idk how to feel about it 🥀
It’s an option that you do not have to use.
Yeah and? I am not making a critique about using it, i am making a critique to SD cards themselves because they are not very reliable and slow
That’s fair but honestly for most games they’re just fine. Also this will work with more than just as cards, any usb drive should act the same, SD cards are just a bit more conventional.
I mean, I’ve been running Linux off it on a Pi for years without issue.
A single year, at long it may have problems
My experience with playing games off an SD card in Steam Deck was… lackluster, shall we say (performance-wise).
I share your feelings about SD cards.
I’ve had issues with installing games being slow, but I don’t think I’ve ever noticed any difference in performance during actual gameplay.
I hope someone make something tiny but as good as a SSD in future, SD cards are absolute shit. For me it doesn’t even have to be as tiny as SD card, even a credit card sized memory is good
Uh that already exists, MicroSD Express. It’s essentially a PCIe Gen 3 x1 NVMe SSD under the hood
Are they as reliable as an SSD? If not then the problem is still there
I remember people saying that about SSDs vs HDDs, SSDs were the unreliable newfangled junk. Am I old?
SSDs are less reliable than an HDD if we speak about lifespan (which is still pretty high) but it’s not really a problem for the avarage joe plus they got better in the years and can’t be recovered if they break. SD cards are waay less reliable than a SSD and it’s a concern for me
I’ve had several die on me in Raspberri pi’s after prolonged use.
Oh yeah I just found it amusing that the old “unreliable” thing is now being used as a gauge for “reliable enough”
I luckily have no experience with either breaking for me over 15ish years of active computer usage, so I have no fears or trust issues there yet. I also use cloud saves on steam for everything and I’m lucky enough to live in an area with good internet, so worst case I play a different game while my big game is downloading again after I broke something.
Depends on what metric you look at.
- Lifetime when stored on a shelf: HDD wins
- Lifetime while powered: SSD wins
- Lifetime while constantly writing: HDD wins
- Lifetime when used in a mobile device that gets thrown around: SSD wins
There’s already small NVMe drives the size of, say, four SD cards with up to 1-2 TB capacity. So it shouldn’t be long I reckon.
Crazy, i hope that companies start to adopt them instead of SD cards soon
Xbox series s/x has ssds like this but they’re pretty expensive. Not sure if the price is high because of the tech, the specs or the licensing
My deck got a new hard drive and ate my SD. Which is my fault, but I just never bothered to get a new one. SD card load times were insane
It depends on the game. I typically don’t do AAA games on my Steam Deck. So, most of my games go on an SD Card. The games that need lots of HD assets, I put on my SSD.
Wait, what do you mean ate it?
Left it in when taking off the shell to replace the SSD.
Oh, so it destroyed it, damn.
Not cloud. I love it.
on a deck for me a microsd is for old emulated games. Everything else I’m fine deleting and restoring over the local network from my desktop or from a NAS especially when I plug the thing straight into the router
