Breaking the Silicon Barrier: SteamOS Officially Conquers Intel Hardware

The two horse race to the handheld PC market has been like everyone riding the same horse. Asus, Lenovo and Ayaneo have been among the first to come out and compete with the Steam Deck but it was the same blueprint: AMD Ryzen processor with a regular Windows 11.

A manufacturer with the intent of differentiating itself by using Intel silicon was subsequently given a double whammy. They also had to battle with early drivers instability as well as being permanently ensnared in Microsoft's desktop OS, which often seems like controlling a PC with the fingers of your thumbs.

It's finally been surpassed.

The Breakthrough: Valve's Stealth Update

SteamOS 3.8.6 beta quietly overthrows the handheld world. Insider the update was official controller mapping and core architecture support that is specific to MSI's hardware. In hours, developers and enthusiasts were able to successfully boot SteamOS directly on the original MSI Claw A1M and the brand new, flagship MSI Claw 8 AI+!

This is an amazing technological feat. The Claw 8 AI+ is not only using a different chipset, it's powered by Intel's latest Lunar Lake Core Ultra 7 258V architecture with 140V graphics. In the past, SteamOS and the entire Linux gaming industry has been heavily geared towards AMD graphics. It's a highly customized, bleeding edge Intel architecture that handles low power sleeping states, background thread scheduling, and graphics translation all on its own, in a way that makes it evident that Valve is taking this stuff seriously to make SteamOS a universal gaming OS.

Performance vs. Efficiency: The Early Benchmarks

Initial beta test results show a compelling power vs. efficiency showdown. For high end, triple A games, the graphics driver optimization of Windows 11 gives it a slight advantage over Intel hardware, though, again, it's just a matter of maturity. Translated to the Nvidia 780 Ti, Cyberpunk 2077 can be run at roughly 40 frames per second with normal medium graphics settings at 720p under SteamOS at 17W.Under SteamOS running with a 17W power cap, Cyberpunk 2077 achieves about 40fps at normal medium graphics settings at 720p on the Nvidia 780 Ti. Smooth and very stable, but some frames behind native Windows.

SteamOS is where it totally knocks the socks out of Windows when it comes to system efficiency and overhead. Testers are seeing much lower RAM and VRAM usage during idle. More significantly, low TDP (Thermal Design Power) efficiency is a night and a day difference.

Under SteamOS, playing a light, frame rate capped game such as Hollow Knight: Silksong at 60 frames per second consumes a fraction of the power needed to power the Claw 8 AI+ and extends its battery life to an astounding seven continuous hours of gameplay on the device. That's hard to get in Windows 11 with all the background apps running.

The Beta Growing Pains

This is an early beta release and early adopters will need to make compromises. MSI's proprietary control software, RGB lighting options, and macro switches are hardware specific for which there is no native Linux support. Community made third party plugins need to be installed to fine tune the processor's power limits on the fly.

In addition, the good old Linux "no games with hardcore anti cheat software" rule still exists: those who like competitive multiplayer games that have hardcoded anti cheat software will still be playing with the Windows version.

The Long Game: A Platform Agnostic Future

Though there's some getting used to to take place at the beginning, the switch of direction here is huge! Intel is investing huge resources into Arc graphics to challenge AMD's monopoly on these processors for handheld devices while big hardware companies are looking to expand their portfolios. Valve is making it possible for SteamOS to seamlessly switch between AMD and Intel silicon, regardless of who wins the silicon war, while ensuring it is ahead of the game.

We are fast moving to a retail environment where the consumer will select a handheld device solely on the basis of the price, ergonomics, screen quality and industrial design—assured knowledge that they can easily remove the clunky desktop OS that it shipped with, and within ten minutes install a flawless console like interface. The software for the boom is essentially what was always going to be the winner, but the first half of the handheld boom was won quite simply because “it was the default.The software for the boom, of course, was the one that was always going to be the winner, and the first half of the handheld boom was won simply because “it was the default.”