cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/18054199

Considering the Switch 2 (with those pretty joystick well covers to protect from drift, omg) and the Ryzen Z2 Go announcements, the low cost and availability of Steam Deck & parity level APU machines for purchase now, and the giant 1080p gaming install base represented by current gen consoles, it sure seems like low spec & 1080p gaming is going to have a pretty sunny future. I am hoping this gives small and medium sized development teams a chance to show up what is left of AAA gaming.

What are your favorite low spec gaming setups right now? I’m enjoying a 5700g APU system the most these days. Mainstream wise, I’ve been playing Elden Ring and Injustice 2 and Vampire Survivors. The last Indie I played is this beat-em-up / horde survival game An American Werewolf in LA which was pretty cool.

  • LongboardingLad@lemmy.world
    1·
    37 minutes ago

    It isn’t necessarily in the same vein, but I bought myself an Analogue Pocket and Pokemon Emerald for Christmas. No Battle pass. No 10 year olds telling me they slept with my mother. No slurs getting hurled my way. It’s a simple setup, but I’m loving every second of it. Plus, playing old arcade games is a trip I’ve got my laptop for Guild Wars 2, Elden Ring, and DRG when the mood strikes me. It’s a simple gaming life these days and I’m loving it :)

  • B0NK3RS@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    9 hours ago

    I was recently thinking of changing to a 5600G or something to replace my 3600X + R9 390 combo. The GPU is so power hungry, runs very hot and is noisy that an AGPU would be an interesting upgrade.

    • Cort@lemmy.world
      1·
      4 hours ago

      Or get a 7600xt or 4060 and reduce the gpu power draw from 275w to 165w~115w while doubling the graphics capabilities

      The GPU in the 5600g is half as performant 1050ti, which is already like half of a 390

      • B0NK3RS@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 hour ago

        It’s not all about performance and the price of what you suggest is triple that of a 5600G.

        I probably shouldn’t have used the word “upgrade”.

  • youngalfred@lemm.ee
    12·
    16 hours ago

    I just bought a steam deck, and bought hogwarts legacy when it was on sale a while back on a friend’s recommendation.

    Decided to give it a try - such a great game! I tend to compare opens world’s to Skyrim, and the detail in the quests is so much better. It’s not just ‘clear this dungeon’. Plus they’ve really thought about what sucks about those other games and really tried to avoid them. Plays great on the steam deck too, I’ve got it capped at 45fps and it never skips a beat.

    I don’t think I’ve had this much enjoyment from a gaming device ever. I’ve done the console and game pass on the phone mounted controller, and that was not very consistent. The instant pause/resume button is a game changer with young kids waking up in the night.

    Not at all bothered by performance - in fact I’ve seeing articles about how ‘this windows handheld beats the steam deck in tflops’ but an constantly thinking - 'yes, but it’s a handheld. Is it good at that? Battery life, pick up and go etc are super relevant, not just performance.

    Bit of a tangent there, but I am having a great gaming time.

      • otp@sh.itjust.works
        2·
        4 hours ago

        Downvoted for announcing a downvote and also for downvoting based on something only tangentially related to the comment.

        Downvoting is for unhelpful comments that don’t contribute to discussion.

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
      2·
      9 hours ago

      I’ve been playing it as well, and it really is quite good. It’s not very challenging though, which is a bummer, but they’ve done a great job on the world.

      Some nitpicks:

      • lots of collectibles
      • broom isn’t very fast, and upgrades are lame
      • no quidditch, and fast travel makes the broom kinda pointless
      • way too much pointless loot (lots of trips to sell stuff), and the whole gear system is dumb

      But those are pretty petty things. Quest design is pretty good, casting spells is fun, and side content is largely worth doing. I think it’ll age pretty well.

      • youngalfred@lemm.ee
        1·
        7 hours ago

        I do like that you can keep the stats of gear you’re wearing but change the appearance of it to anything you’ve collected before. Nice to actually be able to look good and have good gear.

        One thing I’ve done is turn off the Minimap. It’s made it more interesting - I actually pay attention to the landscape details and the golden path thing is actually useful. Just wish you could keep a compass visible.

        • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
          1·
          6 hours ago

          change the appearance of it to anything you’ve collected before

          I like that too. I don’t like the limited inventory space for gear though, which means I keep having to go sell stuff if I don’t want to destroy things. I should be able to just sell it any time with an owl or something, doing a bunch of collectibles to get more space doesn’t feel great.

          That’s a pretty small nitpick because money is rarely an issue. It just feels bad to destroy stuff to open a chest.

    • st3ph3n@midwest.socialEnglish
      11·
      16 hours ago

      The Windows ones need the extra horsepower to actually run windows and the games at the same time!

  • supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz
    5·
    16 hours ago

    My favorite low spec gaming setup is to load Xonotic on the shittiest computer I can find just to see if I can actually find a computer low spec enough that it actually starts struggling with framerate.

    I am not sure it is possible without resorting to some old ass computers or a raspberry pi (which still might run it ok lol idk).

    edit yes the pi 5 can apparently run Xonotic fine, I honestly find that hilarious for how insanely good of a fast paced pvp shooter Xonotic is, it doesn’t seem probable or even possible and there may be good reason to think humans could have never developed such sophisticated but minimal technology, perhaps suggesting not only Alien Arena was developed by ancient aliens but also Xonotic

    https://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/comments/19aqrj4/so_i_finally_started_playing_around_with_box64/

    Also during the periods I haven’t had access to a computer that I could play actual games on I end up playing a lot of Cataclysm Dark Days Ahead because it is one of the most amazing games ever and it will run on any computer period. Like… CDDA is so damn good utterly and encompassing as an RPG I end up enjoying those periods of gaming just as much.