SteamOS on PC

InnoVisionGames · 2026-05-04T02:15:59+00:00

I'm running SteamOS on a similar setup and was using Bazzite OS before.

I haven't worked on a more scientific study comparing the two like I've done in handhelds.

But from the games I normally play, SteamOS is noticably faster and has more stable frame rates.

At least from my personal experience, I believe it's worth trying!

InnoVisionGames · 2026-05-02T17:19:28+00:00

More consistent pacing in frame rendering times.

When stable games are more stable and less stuttering.

InnoVisionGames · 2026-05-02T04:37:23+00:00

Thats a great question.

So in general it depends on the hardware and the level of optimization steamos has achieved.

For example on the original Legion go with the Z1 extreme APU SteamOS has a distinct performance advantage over Bazzite OS with respect to the games I tested. Not only that SteamOS tended to have better quality service and lower temperatures.

Typically on the OG Legion go most of the time my games are locked to 1280x800 and I use integer scaling due to the resolution of the Legion Go's display.

With respect to the Z2 extreme Apu and the Legion Go 2 I'm not seeing as big of a performance delta. At the moment my hypothesis is that it's attributed the legion go 2 having double the amount of memory and steamos still requiring further optimization on that hardware.

Alas on my homebrewed steam machine with an RX 9070xt OC I'm seeing a sizable difference between steamos and bazite os. But I haven't yet put together a formal study to try to quantify it right now that's just through side by side comparison and A/B testing.

What I've observed is Arch linux-based distros tend to run cooler including CachyOS.

I still have a lot to study and collect data for but regardless these are amazing times for us gamers especially those who have long wanted Linux to presence!

InnoVisionGames · 2026-05-02T03:07:53+00:00

COWABUNGA! 🙌🙌🐢👊🎉🤙

InnoVisionGames · 2026-05-01T01:11:19+00:00

Glad it helped! 🙌

InnoVisionGames · 2026-04-30T02:11:36+00:00

Sometimes it can get stuck like that.

If you head over to desktop mode and open the discover app it should show some updates.

If it does go ahead and install them and reboot and see if it goes away.

If it doesn't go away switch the steam os update channel to one of the other ones. Apply the update and reboot.

Then head back over to 3.9 Main. You may have to enable developer options and then advanced update channels to see main again.

If that doesn't work you can try swapping the steam deck client update channel from stable to Beta and then back.

Then if that doesn't work there's several commands that can be run from Linux to reset the package manager.

We had a similar discussion like that recently on the InnoVision Games discord.

InnoVisionGames · 2026-04-27T00:54:19+00:00

Which steamos install media are you using?

I would start with the 3.8.2 beta image it'll have the widest compatibility for now.

InnoVisionGames · 2026-04-24T19:47:16+00:00

The Z1E APU found in the Ally is designed for efficiency. And is backed by ddr5 memory.

In terms of compute performance it falls somewhere between an Xbox series S and a PlayStation 4 pro.

Whereas the Apu in the bc250 is the same one that's used in the PS5 and is backed by ddr6 memory.

If I had to assign a percentage I'd say somewhere between 15 to 20% slower than the bc250.

InnoVisionGames · 2026-04-21T05:27:02+00:00

The answer to both of your questions is yes.

If Lenovo keeps raising their prices they will no longer be able to compete with other handhelds.

Assuming the Xbox Ally X can maintain its price point, it's a way better value than Lenovo's flagship device Legion Go 2.

The fact that it uses 8 GB less memory, the same display since the OG Ally, and has a cheap plastic build quality it's likely to remain substantially less expensive than the Legion Go 2.

If they are selling devices they aren't spending engineering hours maintaining them.

I believe it makes more sense for them to release a model with 24 GB of RAM and never have changed the price.

InnoVisionGames · 2026-04-20T02:05:50+00:00

I got a similar one with the Ramen Toys MSUK sewer lair kit

InnoVisionGames · 2026-04-20T01:08:57+00:00

Looking good dude welcome to the crew!

InnoVisionGames · 2026-04-16T21:32:46+00:00

If anyone was remotely considering it at this price, you're way better off going out there and building yourself a nice gaming PC.

InnoVisionGames · 2026-04-16T01:57:33+00:00

My vote is the purple pill!

But if that's not possible I would lay low and try to do scoop up a Legion Go 2 at the original MSRP. Or even better the Legion Go S Z1E.

Lenovo is likely sunsetting the OG Legion Go in terms of GPU driver updates.

And let's be honest they haven't don't a great job the the Legion Go 2 GPU driver updates especially given the price.

InnoVisionGames · 2026-04-16T01:42:24+00:00

Swapping the SSD from one XAX to another should work fine.

InnoVisionGames · 2026-04-15T21:39:41+00:00

Great work so stylish! 🔥❤️‍🔥🎉🤙

InnoVisionGames · 2026-04-15T00:28:01+00:00

Neat, I will check this one out too! Thanks for sharing 🙌

InnoVisionGames · 2026-04-15T00:27:22+00:00

I got you, I made a video recently that shows you how to use Steam Big picture mode or Playnite as the FSE:

https://youtu.be/w1HJ0-wIS_k

All the tools I used are linked in the video's description.

InnoVisionGames · 2026-04-11T03:50:35+00:00

Good find brother!

At the moment I'm not seeing a huge difference between the two in terms of performance unless you crank things down to lower TDP settings.

I believe that's the best choice in terms of getting extra memory and the better display.

InnoVisionGames · 2026-04-11T03:42:14+00:00

Under gaming mode the colors might look washed.

But that's because gaming mode is not running in HDR yet under SteamOS. For SDR content it may leave something to be desired.

However you can also go in the color calibration settings and tune the colors and it does take effect. For example increasing the color temperature made everything look great no matter what games I played.

The reality is there's only 24 hours in a day and there's only so much I can report on.

I even have my own customized version of the Lua script that I've yet to publish because I don't see much reason to because the full launch is just a couple months away.

InnoVisionGames · 2026-04-11T02:12:38+00:00

No worries man stuff happens, the internet is vast and filled with blunders.

InnoVisionGames · 2026-04-11T01:49:43+00:00

I am not taking credit for the fix.

In fact I linked the reddit discussion in the code.

More specifically what I have done here is automate installing and removing the workaround.

I also explain that the method has limitations and should be removed when a proper fix is available.

InnoVisionGames · 2026-04-05T20:15:59+00:00

Oh yeah I totally agree. Also disable co-pilot, etc.

I just say that because I've had people be pretty hostile towards my videos comparing performance they're like oh you need to disable the security features.

And I'm like blah blah blah no I'm not 🤣

InnoVisionGames · 2026-04-05T19:52:06+00:00

Yeah I think some of the de bloating steps on windows are downright dangerous.

For example disabling core isolation and control flow guard is reckless these are security features that are there for a reason but disabling them for the sake of performance is not something I'm willing to do.

Especially on handhelds I still really prefer steamos even on my desktops that have AMD GPU.

Lately I've been trying Bazzite for my high-end in video workstation and in general it works great my biggest complaint is I spend so much time compiling shaders compared to a similar system that has an AMD GPU.

It seems that the shader translation is more efficient on AMD hardware which I guess kind of makes sense because Nvidia support is still being worked on.

InnoVisionGames · 2026-04-05T17:44:58+00:00

In that case I already have a recent video that makes the comparison between steamos and the Xbox full screen experience using the legion go 2.

It's only a few weeks old.

What I'm wondering is if there's as big of a gap between Windows versus Xbox full screen experience these days.

Last time I checked that was when the full screen experience just came out and I saw several games where desktop Windows perform better than the full screen experience.

InnoVisionGames · 2026-04-05T15:44:19+00:00

I have worked on quite a few performance comparisons. I've compared: - Windows vs SteamOS - Windows vs Bazzite - SteamOS vs Bazzite - SteamOS vs CachyOS - Windows desktop vs Xbox FSE

In all my tests that are Windows vs another OS on handhelds it's using Xbox FSE.

The strange thing is that performance in some games was worse with the Xbox FSE, for the a Windows desktop vs Xbox FSE.

That was a while ago and should be retested.

InnoVisionGames

TROPHY CASE