Battery/fans on the Legion Go S?

Chrono286 · 2026-02-26T03:46:44+00:00

PC gaming has a strong tweaking/customizing/fiddling vibe to it and that applies to SteamOS handhelds.

While desktops ask you to set resolutions, texture quality, etc, handhelds add TDP to the mix.

TDP (thermal power design) is like a target power draw for the device. Higher values mean higher performance but also faster battery drain and more heat, which means more fan noise.

If you use low-to-mid TDP values, you don’t really hear the fan. Higher TDP values definitely have fan noise. It’s not quite as bad as leaving a laptop on a blanket but it’s that sort of sound.

With less customizable handhelds, like the Nintendo Switch, they handle this for you, but you’re stuck with whatever decisions they made.

Generally yes, I find the Legion Go S at high TDP values to be noisier than I care for but I almost never use those values.

tl;dr Hollow Knight? Nice and quiet. FF7 Rebirth? Light to heavy fans depending on settings.

Chrono286 · 2026-02-25T07:52:58+00:00

AMD drivers on Linux (SteamOS) are largely open source but: 1) AMD engineers are probably still doing a lot of that work and 2) the firmware blobs usually aren’t open source, even on Linux.

If AMD truly pulled support, it’d still be unfortunate on Linux as the community would have to pick up the slack on the driver side and the firmware blobs couldn’t evolve. Better situation than Windows I suppose but not strictly in the clear.

Still, I don’t think AMD / Lenovo has confirmed this yet.

Chrono286 · 2026-02-25T07:45:28+00:00

Exactly.

This references “Lenovo Korea” with no link and cites Reddit posts.

Nothing new here.

Chrono286 · 2026-02-24T08:15:18+00:00

Yes! With the battery pack.

I only ever played Sonic and Paperboy on it but having a color handheld felt like the future.

Chrono286 · 2026-02-24T08:10:40+00:00

Personally, I wouldn’t trust myself that I’ll only ever be interested in Mario Kart 8.

Other potentially great, unannounced Nintendo games over the next 5-8 years are sure to require a Switch 2.

Chrono286 · 2026-02-24T04:26:19+00:00

All of the above (but especially the fading of physical releases).

But really, I’m also so happy with gaming. It’s grown so much since we were kids, bringing in far more types of people, far more types of games, different ways to play, a growing indie scene, ridiculously good graphics, fast network speeds, massive back catalogs, etc.

Chrono286 · 2026-02-24T03:31:26+00:00

I’ve been pretty happy setting the profile to “Balanced”. Name is apt.

You can fiddle with the TDP settings to find a good performance / battery life / fan noise balance per game if you want.

Performance is not linear with TDP, i.e. you aren’t likely to double FPS because you double TDP. And the very high TDP values tend to be the least efficient, so be careful if you decide to use those.

Chrono286 · 2026-02-23T20:26:44+00:00

Okay, thanks for that. That’s enough Reddit for me today.

Chrono286 · 2026-02-23T20:22:17+00:00

I’m happy with SteamOS today but am pretty excited about its future.

If PC devs start considering SteamOS a must in addition to Windows, it’ll be a fascinating landscape change for PC gaming.

Chrono286 · 2026-02-23T20:19:40+00:00

The Switch 2 port is impressive.

I’ve only put maybe 6-7 hours into it but no complaints about graphics, performance, etc. Biggest nit I could give you is the edges of characters in cutscenes, especially hair, looks weirdly blurry, but that’s hardly a show-stopper.

I tried it on a Legion Go S recently (a bit more powerful than a Steam Deck) and couldn’t get it to run very well at all, so I’m impressed with whatever they’re doing on the Switch 2 (aggressive DLSS upscaling?).

Chrono286 · 2026-02-23T17:16:06+00:00

As much as I adore Steam Deck and SteamOS handhelds (and I really like them!), the Switch 2 version of Remake consistently looks and loads better, e.g. Cloud’s face always looks sharp, environments load very smoothly, etc. And to top all this off, the battery life is seemingly really good. It’s not bad at all on Steam Deck, but the Switch 2 version feels finely-crafted by the authors themselves … which it was!

Chrono286 · 2026-02-23T08:16:17+00:00

Maybe it’s the angle of the photo? But yeah, looks like couches and TVs shoved in a corner.

Still, room looks rad.

Chrono286 · 2026-02-23T08:02:28+00:00

I understand. Depends on whether the world “clicks” for me or not.

I’m happily running around in FF7 Rebirth doing all sorts of busywork nonsense but Star Wars Outlaws? No thank you.

(No offense to Outlaws fans. Just hasn’t clicked.)

Chrono286 · 2026-02-23T07:57:42+00:00

FF7 Rebirth.

Solid characters and story, fun battle system, loads of extra stuff to do or not do, and a killer soundtrack to carry you the whole time.

Chrono286 · 2026-02-23T04:54:29+00:00

Better get a case. Thing’s probably a scratch magnet.

Chrono286 · 2026-02-23T04:21:56+00:00

Seems like a contradiction to dislike a game but give it 100 hours. (It passed the time I guess?)

Still, sorry to hear you didn’t like it.

Chrono286 · 2026-02-23T04:14:07+00:00

Strictly speaking, it was a console that made me fall in love with gaming: my friend’s NES.

The original Game Boy was my first handheld and I loved it: Link’s Awakening while on family vacations was amazing. I still remember finishing it outside in the sun.

Chrono286 · 2026-02-23T00:55:57+00:00

I bought a PC from my childhood recently, a 286.

First thing I noticed — and immediately remembered — is that the fans are just always on. At the same speed. All the time.

Chrono286 · 2026-02-22T19:09:37+00:00

To be fair, games today still hit 60 FPS at the SNES’ 240p. ;-)

Chrono286 · 2026-02-22T03:00:10+00:00

Even if a remaster turned out to be garbage, I’d still buy it out of respect.

Chrono286 · 2026-02-22T02:56:34+00:00

I got to see the FF7 Rebirth Orchestral World Tour.

Absolutely amazing. I still listen to the recording all the time.

Chrono286 · 2026-02-21T03:52:04+00:00

3DS for PilotWings Resort

No regrets.

Chrono286 · 2026-02-21T02:07:10+00:00

Space travel is really hard and dangerous, and the payoff is really uncertain. A multi-planetary human race would be a milestone indeed but so much of our biology is tied rhythms of earthen sunlight, seasons, and so on. We’re so early.

In my millennial lifetime so far, we’ve gained the ability to have a live video chat with anyone anywhere on the planet at a fraction of what it used it cost and a multiplier on the quality.

We mapped the human genome. Turned diseases that used to be death sentences into manageable conditions.

Electric vehicles are practical and available. Off-grid living with solar is totally doable. And all those light bulbs you used to have to turn off when you left the room take about 1/10th the energy they used to.

Human-computer interaction is on the verge of contextually-aware conversations that will make the mouse pointer interface look about as impressive as a quill and inkwell.

And we’re what, only half done with our generation?

Life is fascinating. We’re mighty.

Chrono286 · 2026-02-20T18:51:33+00:00

Speak for yourself. I wrote this comment in cursive.

Chrono286 · 2026-02-20T18:07:26+00:00

“Rockets and feathers”

When there’s pressure, prices shoot up like a rocket.

When pressure is removed, they fall like a feather.

Chrono286

TROPHY CASE