this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2024
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Steam Deck

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This would presumably let x86 windows games run on ARM hardware.

This is almost certainly meant for the next Valve VR headset, but ARM has so much better power efficiency than x86 that a future ARM based Deck would be a huge improvement to battery life.

Also see this tweet:

VR games that have already secretly pushed Android ARM builds onto the Steam Store are ran via Waydroid (androidARM to LinuxARM)

VR games that do not have an ARM build on Steam (windows x86) are being translated/emulated via ProtonARM and FEX

Edit: here's gamingonlinux coverage of this info, includes some more information

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[–] Vincente@lemmy.world 31 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (16 children)

Amazing! I hope I can buy a Linux on ARM Steam Deck someday. It should be more efficient, lighter, and smaller.

[–] Lemzlez@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago (11 children)

And perform terribly because it’d have to emulate x86 because there’s no native ARM games (for Windows).

There’s no way there’ll be an ARM steam deck, unless valve wants to build an android gaming handheld for some reason.

[–] Vincente@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Which you said is a backward compatibility issue. Some games that are developed only for x86 or the DirectX API have performance issues, but other games that support cross-platform or cross-platform APIs like Vulkan do not have this problem.

An obvious example is the Nintendo Switch, which goes against your argument.

Because of backward compatibility, x86's efficiency still can't match ARM's. That's why I said games run on ARM would be more efficient, lighter, and smaller (when they natively support ARM).

If you have any doubts, just look at the Nintendo Switch.

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