wsjudd

@Frosh okay, I respect the mindset.

@Frosh ¿por qué no los dos?

@orionpsg1 Yeah, fair enough - I've definitely had that before with older Windows/Linux versions, but thankfully not in the past few years. Also, thanks for reminding me that we're well into the second half of the year 💀

@GCGorusu Nice! I've only used Bazzite on a handheld, but I was very impressed with it there too. Might need to do a proper Bazzite vs CachyOS vs SteamOS article at some stage!

@Claw Nice, have fun! The one thing I'd say in addition is that you may have to pay import duty on stuff, I believe on goods over £135, so worth keeping that in mind.

@Max_the_German I can only guess that the latest-gen manufacturing processes are being maximised by the AI industry, so older stuff like Zen 4 is easier to produce (at sane prices or at all) than Zen 5 or Zen 6. And, if you assume that a certain percentage of parts intended to be 7800X3D processors fall below AMD's standards, eventually you have enough CPUs to rebrand as a whole new SKU with lower specs. I assume that we haven't yet reached that stage with the newer 9800X3D!

@Claw Rich and I order stuff from there all the time! You still need to have an idea of what you're looking for and it is possible to get tricked into buying a knock-off, but ultimately it's just a Western front-end for Taobao which is like Chinese Ebay/Amazon. A lot of Western companies just buy stuff from Taobao or AliExpress and then resell it with English language packaging, so the prices do tend to be a lot better for stuff that is made in China... and amazingly, CPUs do tend to be legitimate if they're from highly-rated sellers like the one I linked.

@MartinAshford The next mouse I'm testing is the G305 X Superlight if you're interested

@Someguyperson It's Logitech's own tactile mechanical switches, though I can't find an actual name anywhere - not "Romer-G tactile" and not "GX Brown" as they're white coloured. They're not a million miles away from Browns, but with a higher actuation force (55g vs 45g).

@Pesky_wabbit Not all ultrawides have a curve - and not all 2D pixel art games are limited to 4:3 I agree that 16:9 is definitely easier for emulation, though the niche use-cases John shows in the video are pretty cool.

@Vyns Update from the OP on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/steammachine/comments/1ulzo6a/comment/ovcsfkc/

Reply from Valve on Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/steammachine/comments/1ulzo6a/comment/ovedotl/

Our updated article: please scroll up 😅

@StooMonster I did it!

@themightyant Probably makes a bit more sense for a living room PC than a handheld? But yeah, it's a good point!

@themightyant I very much doubt this is a deliberate "let's force people to use SteamOS" when "single boot is easier to get working" also explains the situation, Occam's Razor and all that

@themightyant Pretty much literally yeah: https://ibb.co/k6J6V9kN

@themightyant Not necessarily, given the gulf in power available to each system, and particularly given that it manages to have better image quality with a much lower internal res But yeah, obviously "better than PS4" is far from the highest quality bar!

@themightyant Have removed for now then I think the last few games I've bought on PS5 have all been £59.99 options, which is probably why I had that price in my head! Clearly too tired, thanks!

@Someguyperson @k1x- @MittenFacedLass Serves me right for doing this after being up for nearly 24 hours! Fixed now, I think.

@Tobility Good things come to those that wait..?

I was so hopeful for this one, but left feeling fairly disappointed!

@darthvirgin It's just a bit of fun, it's obviously not a proper trailer

@Max_the_German You're quite right, Max the German!

@themightyant I can only assume this is with a certain time period of expected price rises baked in...

@themightyant Fair. I should probably amend it, thanks!

@adorablebob I'd have a look at the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 3X Wireless for a similarly-priced Xbox-compatible option (or a 5X if your budget is slightly higher).

@TLS Haha thank you. I could easily write about F1 all day - but I think Rich would prefer I cover a slightly wider remit

@Vyns Yup, it's a very cool concept so I'm sure we haven't seen the last of it haha

@Vyns It's a surprisingly long story, but the short version is that there was a series of keyboards called the Optimus made by a Russian designer which were a) not widely available b) hugely expensive and c) not actually great to type on, because they were clunky big plastic keys with a rubber dome beneath: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=63203.0

Since then, we haven't seen a full keyboard with the same tech, though Corsair did make an Elgato Stream Deck keyboard that has these sorts of keys for the number pad only, which I reviewed for IGN: https://www.ign.com/articles/corsair-galleon-100-sd-stream-deck-keyboard-review

I'm not aware of any other stabs at the same concept

@EvilSpaceLasagna Wow, how did the name of the next Xbox handheld leak out?

@xPosed Haha maybe! What are you on at the moment? Shame there isn't frame generation to lighten the CPU burden...

@MattGPT I will certainly ask them politely! I haven't seen TDP modes given for any particular model, just for the chipset.

@Vyns Wicked, sounds like you're sorted then. And glad to hear it, every day is a school day!

@Vyns CL is a latency figure, so smaller numbers mean that you're waiting less time to get a response back from the RAM. It can improve game frame-rates, but it's generally a) only when you're CPU-limited rather than GPU-limited and b) quite small.

For example, we tested the 9800X3D processor in Cyberpunk 2077 with DDR5-4800 CL40 and DDR5-6000 CL30, and saw an 11% frame-rate improvement from using the faster RAM. It was a 12% improvement running the same test on the 9700X. In other games, like Far Cry 6, it was a much smaller gap - 1% for the 9800X3D and 3% for the 9700X.

https://www.digitalfoundry.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2024-amd-ryzen-7-9800x3d-review?page=7

It's worth bearing in mind that all of the tests on that page were ones we are intentionally running with CPU-limited settings, and in games and scenes that care more about CPU performance. So think of this as a worst-case scenario for slow RAM, rather than what you'd expect in every game.

@MartinAshford Wow, that's pretty good going! I just hope you don't need that 32GB any time soon

@Vyns Pro tip: overclocking your RAM shouldn't increase its heat output to any noticeable degree and you may as well get the extra performance <3

DDR5 produces a tiny amount of heat versus other PC components. Like, 5W for base-spec DDR5 to 10W for extremely high-end DDR5, versus 65W to 170W for a current-gen Ryzen processor, or 145W to 600W for a current-gen Nvidia RTX graphics card.

RAM "overclocking" is very different from CPU or GPU overclocking, and you shouldn't be worried about setting your RAM to its rated XMP or EXPO profile in the BIOS.

@Mycrosys Yeah, fair. It's tricky to get everything you want, perhaps some compromise is inevitable! You could consider side-lit keycaps as they should work well with south-facing LEDs, e.g. something like this https://amzn.to/4vglzyp

@themightyant I actually have a Razer Ergo keyboard in at the moment to test (https://www.razer.com/gb-en/gaming-keyboards/razer-pro-type-ergo/RZ03-05440100-R3M1), so I'll let you know how that goes. Otherwise, I've had good experiences with the Ergodox, which is very adjustable but also hard to get to grips with. There are some other ergonomic write-ups of mine on Eurogamer too (https://www.google.com/search?q=ergonomic+keyboard+site%3Aeurogamer.net).

@themightyant Apart from it being touchscreen, you can get a display in a keyboard for like £23 which is mad! https://gamakay.com/en-gb/collections/mechanical-keyboard/products/gamakay-x-freewolf-m96-wireless-mechanical-feeling-gaming-keyboard-with-display-screen

@Max_the_German A wise take, I think. Thanks!

@MattGPT I love hearing from people that have mechanical keyboards still going well after a decade plus! HE and TMR are definitely there in terms of typing feel, to me they now feel just as good as standard mechanical, and the gaming benefits are really nice. Maybe 2026 will be your year!

@Vyns Yeah, it's next-level! £150 for a Vanguard and a Scimitar is great going though.

@MartinAshford Yeah, absolutely. The 8BitDo is such a good value, I've had two and liked both!

@Mycrosys I'm here! Great to see a fellow Majestouch-2 enjoyer, and it sounds like you've solved its biggest issue with the Corsair PBT keycap upgrades, nice. The biggest thing you should notice with new keyboards is a) sound-dampening to make keys sound deeper and more pleasant and b) new switches as you alluded, which tend to be a bit smoother.

Finding backlit PBT keycaps, an ISO (ideally German) layout and a full-size format isn't easy, as the current trends are for smaller keyboard layouts and coloured non-backlit keycaps.

The one keyboard that comes to mind is the Ducky One 3 Classic? Alternatively, the Keychron K10 Pro or K10 Max are great, but the default keycaps are either PBT or backlit ABS, so you'd need to get a PBT backlit keycap set (or transfer your existing one over).

@Gaboou (• - •)ゝ

@VictorHogemann Yeah, good question! I think SteamOS is technically compatible with Arc but last time I looked at it, it wasn't a great experience.

@Pesky_wabbit Yeah, that's a real ball-ache isn't it? Steam Deck and those early Windows handhelds continue to be the GOAT in value terms, though they're all OOS now!

@matmartin Buyers aren't all necessarily logical - and there are good reasons not to prefer Intel even if one chip outperforms another. For example, having the option to upgrade down the line rather than investing into a dead platform is probably worth something, and my sense is that people are now going with Ryzen as the default option.

@Max_the_German It's purely about price. If AMD has built up a stock of CPUs with silicon that weren't quite good enough to become 7800X3Ds, then releasing them as a new, cheaper product fills a gap in the market and makes it easier to get people to move onto the modern AM5 platform instead of sticking to AM4. This isn't really for people with 7600X already, it's more about making new X3D AM5 builds more affordable.

@matmartin I think it'll make more sense when the 7800X3D doesn't exist...

@stoper bork bork bork