Whether we like it or not, the low-power-draw of ARM mean it’s probably the future of personal computing, very likely to supplant X64 systems in all but the server space. If ARM continues on this path of growth to create even faster, more agile processors, it could also eventually take over the server space well.
Honestly, it’s time for a shakeup to Intel’s dominance and the stagnating status of X86/X64 chips.
EDIT: Come to think of it, in the future an ARM-powered Steamdeck might not need to be as bulky at all for the same output. Ideal for the form-factor.
Once a truly reliable x86 translation layer is figured out Intel’s days are numbered, my mate just got a Surface pro ARM and the PRISM emulator mostly works, but it has all sorts of trouble with anything that hooks deep into Windows like VPNs and Anticheat software. The battery literally lasts all day though, sometimes more even with heavy usage which is kind of amazing.
Going by Apple’s transition from Intel to ARM, an ARM-based Steam Deck would be a no-brainer. They could make it a lot less bulky, ditch the cooling fans and still bump up performance.
It’s not a no brainer. If they want to run x68-64 games on it, they need good tools like Apple’s Rosetta. It would definitely decrease performance and lower the number of compatible games.
I like the sound of this for a device, but couldn’t it be more for these new ARM laptops?
Risc-v steamdeck makes me salivate…
Where are you getting RISC from?
In my opinion this would be a bad move, the steam deck has an iffy enough game library and emulation is notoriously more difficult on architectures they weren’t designed for, considering the steam deck has too emulate %99.999… of its library that would be bad.
An iffy game library? It runs almost everything that isn’t an online game with certain anti cheats. It’s pretty not iffy at all.
My Steam Deck plays a lot of games, more than I even expected it to. Honestly I’m not sure where this “iffy library” crap comes from.
Since they seem so interested in Linux, open source, and boosting currently niche technologies to mainstream, maybe they should make the Steam Deck RISC-V?
Valve is interested in controlling the software they use on their hardware and not being dependent on Microsoft or license costs. They are a for profit business. More games running on their machines help their sales.
RISC-V would be a terrible architecture for them at the moment. There are zero chips available with somewhat competitive performance. The number of commercial games that natively run on it is also small if not zero.
