tomkatt
@tomkatt@lemmy.world
- Comment on Steam Summer Sale 2026 Has Begun 2 weeks ago:
Sales are looking really mid again. I skipped the Winter and Spring sales entirely.
I picked up God Of War: Ragnarok and Spider-Man 2 because the current sales are the lowest I’ve seen them. More than I usually pay for games but I know I’ll enjoy them.
Besides that I picked up a few cheap DLCs for games I play or will play in the near future.
- Comment on What is your favourite gaming console you have played? 2 weeks ago:
I couldn’t possibly choose. To this day I still get a lot of mileage out of the SNES, Genesis, PS1, PS2, GBA, and Nintendo DS libraries.
- Comment on 2 weeks ago:
It’s funny you blame competitive gamers who don’t understand what they’re doing, yet don’t seem to know how any of this works.
Higher refresh rates reduce frame timing, reducing both visual and input latency. It’s why a game at 30 fps often “feels” laggy compared to one at 60 or 120 fps. Even if you can’t see the increased frame rate you can certainly feel input latency. It’s also why “fake frames” from things like optiscaler or FSR/DLSS don’t help when already at low frame rates, they actually increase latency, which is already bad when your frame times are higher.
I’m not into competitive gaming at all, btw, just sensitive to (and annoyed by) input lag.
- Comment on 2 weeks ago:
Yeah, wtf. I have a cheap (or was cheap at the time) LG 1440p ultrawide, nothing fancy, and it can do up to 165 Hz.
- Comment on 2 weeks ago:
Even a 6600XT is so overkill
I game on a 1440p ultrawide monitor at my desk, and a 4k TV (though I don’t actually game at 4k). I upgraded from a 6700XT to a RX 9070 after Expedition 33 ran like shit and couldn’t run constant 60 fps on high settings even when dropped to 1080p with FSR. A 6600XT is hardly overkill.
- Comment on Steam Machine pricing announced (from $1049-$1428 USD), reservation lists open 2 weeks ago:
Gotcha. The 4000D is easy to build in and very roomy. It’s also got great airflow on the mesh front variant.
I had it running a server for a while, it’s currently in my closet and planned as my case whenever I eventually upgrade. I currently use a HAF XB Evo it feels like I’ve outgrown, but unless I’m actually changing parts I don’t feel like messing with it.
- Comment on Steam Machine pricing announced (from $1049-$1428 USD), reservation lists open 2 weeks ago:
Why not? The 4000D is solid.
- Comment on Steam Machine pricing announced (from $1049-$1428 USD), reservation lists open 2 weeks ago:
Heh. I used to have a dedicated PC for couch gaming (separate from my desktop gaming rig, and separate from my desktop mini-PC). My desk is closer to the TV now and I consolidated down to one gaming PC. Maintaining two gaming systems (three counting my wife’s rig) was just really expensive. The desktop system used to get the couch machine’s hand-me-downs for GPU and stuff, but I’m happier just running one system now.
- Comment on Steam Machine pricing announced (from $1049-$1428 USD), reservation lists open 2 weeks ago:
Use a PSU calculator for the parts you’re selecting. Power supplies are rated to always provide consistent load of at least 80% of rated spec, so aim for a PSU with at least 20% overhead. So if the system uses 600w peak, you’ll want a 720w PSU or better.
In general, an 800w PSU is generally more than enough for most systems, unless you’re buying really power hungry parts (think Nvidia 5080 or 5090 and the highest end Intel chips or AMD threadrippers).
If in doubt, just buy a bigger PSU than you need, like 1000w. Always better to have more than you need, it only uses what the system requires, it’s not like it’s always actually going to draw that 1kw power.
- Comment on Steam Machine pricing announced (from $1049-$1428 USD), reservation lists open 2 weeks ago:
Yeah, I’m fully aware. Did I not say I built it out before the current silicon panic?
The build was rolling as I didn’t get all the parts at once. It was mostly from late 2022 and 2023, but I upgraded my RAM from 16 GB (2x8) to 32 GB (4x8) in 2024, and upgraded my GPU in 2025.
- Comment on Steam Machine pricing announced (from $1049-$1428 USD), reservation lists open 2 weeks ago:
Thermaltake makes good stuff.
- Comment on Steam Machine pricing announced (from $1049-$1428 USD), reservation lists open 2 weeks ago:
I literally spec’d out a much more powerful system in another comment here for around $950.
It’s only equivalent if you absolutely need a micro/mini PC.
- Comment on Steam Machine pricing announced (from $1049-$1428 USD), reservation lists open 2 weeks ago:
Maybe should, but it doesn’t. Current kernel is 6.16 as of the SteamOS update 3.8 last week. Endeavour is up to 7.0.12. SteamOS is always a few versions behind.
- Comment on Tru 2 weeks ago:
I just use all my credit cards for the points rewards and to track spending (I have different cards for different things, like one for gas and groceries, one for revolving subscriptions, one for general spending online).
I pay them off in full weekly, and the rewards are essentially free money. Plus, this protects my bank account (actual money) and helps easily spot if there’s any fraud.
- Comment on Steam Machine pricing announced (from $1049-$1428 USD), reservation lists open 2 weeks ago:
Good point. Though personally I prefer running EndeavourOS, I like having an up-to-date kernel and mesa improvements.
- Comment on Steam Machine pricing announced (from $1049-$1428 USD), reservation lists open 2 weeks ago:
I couldn’t squeeze in the 9060 XT (specifically the 16 GB variant) for under $1k, though if you went with the used parts I mentioned and the cheaper case it should fit the budget.
- Comment on Steam Machine pricing announced (from $1049-$1428 USD), reservation lists open 2 weeks ago:
For $1k you could do quite better than the Steam Machine. Just spec’d out a build on Amazon with AM4 and you’ve got options:
- $55 - 700w PSU
- $90 - Corsair 4000D case (I have one of these, good airflow and easy build space
- $130 - Cheap 1 TB SSD (went with Timetec, apparently Fikwot is okay too, seems to be a SSD parts manufacturer that started selling direct)
- $85 - B550 ATX mobo
- $130 - G.Skill 16 GB DDR4 3200
- $175 - Ryzen 5 5600 XT OR Ryzen 7 5700 (5600 is faster but 6c/12t, 5700 lower core speed, but 8c/16t. I have a 5600x, no complaints)
- $279 or $290 - RX 7600 GPU, or RTX 5050 (up to preference. The 7600 is generally comparable or slightly better overall, but you will see much better with it on Linux. On Windows the 5050 might be the better choice)
Total cost: About $950, which leaves a bit of overhead to get a cheap cooler for the CPU (optional since it comes with one), and/or additional case fan(s).
- Comment on Steam Machine pricing announced (from $1049-$1428 USD), reservation lists open 2 weeks ago:
I got lucky I think. Bought two Sapphire Pulse RX 9070s last year for myself and my wife’s rig, close to or below MSRP. Mine was $600, wife’s was $540. We had 6700XTs previously, only reason we upgraded was because I was having issues with performance on E33. We plan to pick up Solasta II when it drops which is also UE5, and had some existing games with a bit of performance drop (like 40k: Rogue Trader) so decided the upgrade was warranted.
We’re both gaming on Linux, so the performance and stability with AMD was preferred, no question.
- Comment on Steam Machine pricing announced (from $1049-$1428 USD), reservation lists open 2 weeks ago:
I mean, it’s still a problem, just less of one. Still gonna be an issue with high texture games that cache to VRAM. But this looks to be a 1080p machine, so I suppose that wouldn’t be too big a deal here, unless the textures aren’t scaled for the resolution (some games do that these days, but I don’t know if it’s common).
- Comment on Steam Machine pricing announced (from $1049-$1428 USD), reservation lists open 2 weeks ago:
I’m still on 32 GB DDR4 as well, running a Ryzen 5600x and RX 9070 GPU. I was planning to potentially upgrade to a new mobo/CPU/RAM this year or next year, but I just have no reason to upgrade now, between the prices and the fact that I’ve had no issues even with recent UE5 games like Expedition 33 at 1440p/UW and in some cases up to 4k resolutions for slightly older stuff. It runs everything just fine for my purposes, and the whole system is really power efficient for the performance, I don’t think I’ve ever seen it hit above 350w total power.
Gamersnexus shows a comparison with the Steam Machine getting 93 fps on Resident Evil 4 remake at 1080p with “priorize graphics” setting, while my GPU (Sapphire Pulse 9070) hits 275 fps on the same settings. Can’t complain.
- Comment on Steam Machine pricing announced (from $1049-$1428 USD), reservation lists open 2 weeks ago:
Rough timing. My entire gaming PC cost less than this and is much more powerful, judging by the specs. But I built it out with 32 GB RAM and a few terrabytes of SSDs and NVMe before the current silicon panic, and just upgraded the GPU last year before the prices increased.
I don’t see how there was any way of winning for Valve on this with the current market. It’s not worth the cost, but there’s also likely no way they could make it cheaper.
- Comment on 3 weeks ago:
Remember Me was interesting as a concept, but the gameplay was very “we have Arkham City at home.”
- Comment on Steam accounted for over 20% of Capcom's total revenue, nearly double PlayStation's share in the past fiscal year 3 weeks ago:
Beans. Mountains and mountains of beans.
- Comment on Steam accounted for over 20% of Capcom's total revenue, nearly double PlayStation's share in the past fiscal year 3 weeks ago:
Real estate?
- Comment on 3 weeks ago:
Those of us not in the industry refer to that as “lying.”
- Comment on Valve raises Steam Deck prices by more than $200 1 month ago:
Given the hardware’s capabilities, 1 TB is honestly overkill unless you just spend a lot of time offline or want a ton of games installed.
I have around 150 games installed currently and still have around 150 GB free on main storage.
- Comment on Valve raises Steam Deck prices by more than $200 1 month ago:
It’s a matter of preference. The etched glass screen is slightly hazier and seems to have slightly less color saturation, but is better if you’re playing in an environment without controlled lighting.
I bought the 512 GB glossy and the screen is fantastic IMO. I ended up upgrading to 1 TB essentially by accident, as a mini-PC I purchased for server use came with a 1 TB 2230 NVMe but I was swapping the storage from a server that had a hardware failure, so basically free upgrade.
- Comment on Nintendo is raising the price of the Switch 2, blaming 'market conditions' 1 month ago:
The big 5 in DRAM chips manufacturers literally got fined by the FTC for price fixing in 2002. They admitted to price fixing from 1998-2002.
Don’t forget they essentially did the same from 2016-2018, though that case was dismissed and they got away with it, even though there was seemingly obvious collusion. Weird how even though the case was dismissed, RAM prices utterly tanked for a while after.
- Comment on Is there a split ergonomic keyboard that has dedicated arrow keys and a full row of function keys? 2 months ago:
I dunno if you’d consider it ergonomic but I use a Mistel MD770 and it meets your requirements. It’s essentially like a Keychron K2 cut in half.
- Comment on Intellectual Debate 2 months ago:
