Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Steam Deck, laptop, or tower?

I'd like to ask what people's opinions are of what my S.O. and I should purchase for BG3 and other games in the future.

We use Stadia so we can play together either local co-op or online when local isn't an option, and are now looking into alternative gaming solutions. I'm not keen on the Shadow option. Paying $30+ / month seems really steep to me without any tangible goods to show for it.

We have 2 TVs on the wall of our living/entertainment room. Definitely prefer console like gaming. Controller over M + K for sure.

We will almost always be connecting via HDMI to the TV(s), have no interest in sitting at a desk or using a regular monitor.

So we've been contemplating either getting Steam Decks, (even though we'll probably never use them as a mobile system)
Getting decent gaming laptops to use for gaming and regular computer activities as needed.
Or buying/building tower gaming rigs to permanently install in the living room to connect to the TVs, no monitors.

Whatever route we would plan to use controllers any chance we could. It seems that since Steam Decks utilize controller UI that this would be a no brainer that any games that could use controller UI, would be able to with Steam Decks. Plus this seems like the least expensive option. But...how long would it be before they were obsolete? I'm assuming there would be no way to upgrade.

Laptops seem like probably the most expensive option, but would also have other uses. I'm not sure though if we could update the GPU etc, later if necessary.

Towers would certainly take up the most room and I'm thinking be the biggest pain to pick out or put together, but maybe the best route overall in the end?

Budget wise I think we'll want to spend AT MOST $1500 ea, and that would be for the laptop route because we could convince ourselves that it's not JUST for gaming ;-)

I'd love to hear everyone's advice on this.

Thanks!!!!

Well, I use an Acer gaming laptop as it gives me the flexibility to play at my desk, on the settee, or in bed as I feel like, plus as you say it’s usable for other things. I’m in the UK, but I think the price was the equivalent of around your max spend if you’re talking USD, as I got an “off the shelf” configuration in a sale. But I think sales tax here is higher too.

I’ve never tried to update the graphics card, but I guess it would be feasible. I did add more RAM, which was cheaper to buy separately than pay more for a custom build laptop.

I’ve had my current gaming laptop for a couple of years, and my previous (Samsung) one lasted me nearly seven before it became incapable of running games I wanted to play, by which time other components were end of life anyway (again, I added RAM to that and also upgraded the hard drive to SSD, but it was actually the keyboard breaking with replacements no longer available that was its final death knell!). So while I probably don’t play the most resource intensive games, I don’t think hardware gets outpaced nearly as quickly as it used to, and the investment in gaming laptops can therefore pay off.

But that’s just what suits me!

(I do have a wireless games controller that I can use with my laptop, by the way, but I tend to use mouse and keyboard for most games.)

Great info, thank you!

the main issue with laptops is heat and no you can't upgrade the Gpu so don't buy an intergrated graphics

for $1500 i'd look at a refurbished Asus laptop with 2harddrives around 16G Ram and nvidia Gpu chip on Windows 10 or some other brand offering their version of that ... in Australia thats around $800-$1200 depending on model and sales

From your original post, I think you pretty much understand the trade offs:
-Steam Deck is cheaper but with limited flexibility and future-proofing.
-Laptops are more flexible, capable, and future-proof, but miniaturization can have implications for cost, thermals and noise.
-Desktops are the ultimate in flexibility, capability, future proofing and cost effectiveness, so long as you have the space needed and patience to research and design your ideal platform.

Personally, I prefer desktops, but then I don't use a TV/Couch/Controller. My current PC is 10 years old, with one mid-life GPU upgrade and a switch from HDD to SSD. Total cost over those 10 years would be sub-2000$, and it still plays most games well. This year I intend to move the SSDs and GPU over to a new motherboard/CPU/memory, once I have decided what best fits my needs. Unfortunately, I don't expect this to be as cheap as 2012, but we'll see how the current market slowdown affects pricing.

A couple of thoughts

Laptop
- Assume laptops are not upgradable
- heat generated by a dedicated GPU on a laptop is significant
- laptops are portable yes, but most people game in the same location
- many people overestimate just how much they'll be taking their laptop outside of the home
- modern laptops are moving towards more limited peripheral support (only one usb, no headphone jack, etc)

Tower
- tower is always upgradable (to an extent)
- heat isn't as much of an issue
- performance is almost always better per dollar spent
- takes up more space

in the current market the Gpu is the hard part of desktop build... post minning Gpu cards are anything from mild dust to total burn out so the used market for them is very dangerous to new time builders

Keen to try the experience on a steam deck when mine arrives shortly….

Steamdeck I am pretty sure uses steam, so the same level of support should be achievable through steam’s in-build controller support. (BTW I don’t think BG3 is playable with controller right now. Not the PC version. At least I didn’t manage to get it to work).

Probably, the most cost effective option would be a console, but who knows how long it will take for BG3 to come out there. If space or mobility isn’t a concern I thing you will get best performance-dollar exchange with a tower - steamdeck or Laptop will always have to sacrifice performance for size and heat reasons.

Yeah - I’d say ps5 version a couple of years away yet.
I’ve been playing on my pc and loving it but the chance came up to get a steam deck so jumped on that - I’m hoping it runs well on the deck ..at least with that size screen you can go medium settings & still get a decent looking game …I will find out end of next week with any luck.

For as long as you are intending to stay on Full-HD, it isn't as severe on the desktop.

-Cheap AM4 board plus a Ryzen 5600ish (no upgrade lanes to later CPUs, but the right board pick will still support the 5800x3D, which is still a high end gaming CPU due to its masses of cache).
-Cheap 2x8GB of DDR4
-SSD (Prices are falling here)
-The GPU market is completely broken and exploited by both duopolists, but the RX 6600 is still some value on the lower end for Full-HD (prior to Christmas, I saw one for 240 Euros). (Intel has the RTX 3050 and RTX 3060 8GB (be aware it's much slower than the RTX 3060 12GB), but they're not good enough for ray-tracing anyway, despite the neat marketing tag...


I'm still on my 1050ti, which 2 years ago played the EA of BG3 still reasonably well (not sure what's changed since). If it won't do anymore, I'm planning to upgrade to a RX 6600 (and undervolt it, as I don't like even entry level cards these days maxing out at 130Watts, even though they offer far more fps per Watt than my old 1050ti for sure).

I have a steam deck. I am REALLY impressed with it. Eventually, I am sure Larian will optimize it for steam deck use. It is a little clunky currently. I have spent ZERO time customizing the controller screen and its playable. My only issue is reading some of the dialogs/tips on the small screen, but if you hooked it to a TV... even that is a non-issue.

Its fantastic for other games and useable as a Linux PC with BT mouse and KB. Absolutely love it.

That being said... I prefer my I9/3070 tower for most gaming, but I travel and visit inlaws, etc enough to be in love w/ the steam deck. It has completely replaced my gaming laptop that has a 1660 in it.

If you have any friends w/ a steam deck, it would be worth a try in your scenario.

So much great info, thank you all!

This was exactly the info I was hoping to get.

I think we may ending up getting the S.O. a laptop as she'll use it more for work, etc. and gaming as a bonus. I think that will work best for her rather than buying 2 separate devices as she'll need to upgrade her laptop anyway at some point.

I'll probably build a desktop. I guess I could start buying components one at a time as I find good deals. Doesn't have to be all at once I suppose.

Ideally we would just play split screen on console. But we're not waiting another 2 years + for that to happen!

Thanks all!

Thanks Rum runner - that’s music to my ears. My steam deck is on its way to me today so I’ll have a play around & see how good I can get it going …

Looking forward to your feedback about the Steam Deck as well. Certainly seems like the most affordable route for now, until I build a tower.
Let me know how you like it please! Thanks

Played it for a while on the steam deck now - using a community layout for the controls - great feature that any steam deck owner can adjust the set out to suit their play style & upload so that any deck owner can use it - valve nailed that.
The deck runs the game really well - be nice if the UI could be increased in size - for me it’s the lack of controller support when it comes to the camera - I’m having to fiddle with the camera every few seconds it feels like & that annoys the heck out of me. BG3 camera never the best anyway but it’s still early access & BG3 isn’t verified yet - I think at full release and with controller support steam deck will be very much a cheap option & players will still have a great exp erience.