Subj : Valve could come to the rescue of Copilot+ PCs for running games,
To   : All
From : TechnologyDaily
Date : Tue Sep 24 2024 12:30:05

Valve could come to the rescue of Copilot+ PCs for running games, as test 
version of Proton for Arm CPUs is spotted

Date:
Tue, 24 Sep 2024 11:19:44 +0000

Description:
Some folks have raised the possibility of a more affordable Arm-powered Steam 
Deck, but we dont think thats likely.

FULL STORY
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Valve appears to be testing a version of its Proton translation layer  which 
facilitates playing Windows games on Linux  built for Arm processors (as 
opposed to x86 CPUs). 

 Toms Hardware spotted that in Valves recent round of testing a large number 
of PC games with Proton, there seems to be an Arm64 version of the tool 
(called proton-arm64ec-4) which is also being tried out with a whole bunch of 
titles. 

Toms notes that this includes the likes of Left 4 Dead 2 and Shadows of 
Mordor, to pick a couple of more high-profile examples. 

For some, this hints at the possibility Valve could be considering releasing 
a version of SteamOS for Arm64, meaning a potential Steam Deck running with 
an Arm chip as its engine  like the silicon that powers Copilot+ PCs , the 
new Snapdragon X processors  as opposed to an x86 AMD (custom Zen 2) CPU, 
which powers the Deck currently. (Image credit: Shutterstock/Mojahid 
Mottakin) Analysis: Eyeing the potentially explosive growth in Copilot+ PCs? 

What would the point be of such an Arm-toting Steam Deck? Well, we could be 
looking at a more wallet-friendly Deck with better battery life, in theory. 
Although that said, x86 is making big strides in terms of improving battery 
life as it is (just look at Intels new Lunar Lake mobile chips ). Also, as 
Toms points out, the entry-level Steam Deck is already pretty affordable as 
it is  particularly when its on sale. 

Rather than this being part of the future plans for Valves gaming handheld, 
whats probably more likely is that Valve is simply looking more broadly to 
make a version of Steam for Arm-based Windows 11 laptops like the 
aforementioned Copilot+ PCs. 

After all, weve been hearing quite a lot about how the sales spike in these 
Copilot+ PCs will be huge in 2025 , if analysts are to be believed (add 
seasoning, naturally). So, perhaps Valve is eyeing that potential casual 
gaming market. 

Of course, Arm-based Snapdragon X-powered Copilot+ laptops already do 
emulation of x86 PC games, using Microsofts Prism technology  but while this 
works well enough for a good number of titles, there have been a surprisingly 
large amount of games left out in the cold . Gamers feel that Microsoft hasnt 
fully delivered on its big gaming promises with Snapdragon chips. 

At any rate, whats happened here only represents an early hint that Valve is 
working on developing Proton for Arm chips, and nothing may come of it. In 
short, we need to watch this space, but theres bound to be plenty of 
speculation about where Valves going with this  if anywhere. You might also 
like... Affordable Copilot+ PCs might be coming  but leak shows their 8-core 
Snapdragon CPU wont cope with gaming Windows 11 remains an unloved OS  but 
why won't people upgrade? I've been using a work laptop with a dedicated 
Microsoft Copilot key for months now, and it's made me realize one thing



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Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/computing/windows/valve-could-come-to-the-rescue-of-
copilot-pcs-for-running-games-as-test-version-of-proton-for-arm-cpus-is-spotte
d


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