YouTuber checks SteamOS on an Intel-based MSI Claw 8 AI+ handheld, SteamOS now helps Intel handheld gaming PCs in new beta

Valve is lastly including SteamOS help for Intel-based handhelds, enabling Linux players to run Valve’s official Linux OS on numerous Intel-based handhelds with out resorting to third-party counterparts reminiscent of Bazzite. YouTuber ETA Prime examined SteamOS beta 3.8.7 on a Lunar Lake-based MSI Claw 8 AI+, exhibiting SteamOS functioning effectively on Intel {hardware}.

SteamOS beta 3.7 launched quite a lot of updates for non-Deck-specific {hardware}, together with improved compatibility with “recent Intel and AMD platforms”, preliminary firmware for upcoming Intel handhelds, and controller help for quite a lot of handheld gadgets together with the MSI Claw 8 AI+. This is an enormous deal, as Valve has historically centered on AMD help for SteamOS on handhelds, because of the Steam Deck working on customized AMD silicon.

Despite one quirk the place the menu on the hand held failed to come back up utilizing controller inputs, ETA Prime notes that the OS ran effectively on the Intel-based Claw 8 AI+ and achieved playable efficiency in a number of video games all the best way down to fifteen watts. The YouTuber examined Cyberpunk 2077, Spider-Man 2, Forza Horizon 6, Left 4 Dead 2, and The Witcher 3 and located that the Lunar Lake handheld was in a position to obtain efficiency higher than the Steam Deck. That mentioned, the one efficiency concern the YouTuber famous was in Cyberpunk 2077, the place the sport ran worse in comparison with the identical sport working on Windows.

Official SteamOS help for Intel-based handheld machines comes simply in time as handheld producers announce new gadgets that includes Intel’s model new G3 and G3 Extreme Panther Lake SoCs aimed particularly at handheld gaming PCs. MSI’s new Claw 8 EX AI+ handheld is one such machine, that includes an Arc G3 Extreme processor inside paired with an 8-inch 120 Hz VRR display. Expect producers to start saying SteamOS flavors of G3/G3 Extreme-powered handhelds over the approaching months.