Steam on ARM: Gaming on the Go
The line between PC and mobile devices is getting blurrier all the time. Apple’s MacBook Neo uses an Arm-based processor made for iPhones… and still manages to outperform many mid-range Windows laptops with Intel or AMD processors. Qualcomm is making some of the fastest laptop chips available for Windows PCs today. And emulation software allows you to run some x86 apps and games on Arm-based processors, as well as play some Windows games on Linux systems.
All of which is to say, it probably shouldn’t be surprising that you can now install Steam and play PC games on a number of relatively inexpensive handheld game consoles with Qualcomm chips designed for smartphones. But it’s still pretty cool to see that it’s now possible, even if the software that makes this possible is still in its early phases.
Valve has been developing Proton software that allows you to play Windows games on Linux since before the company launched the Steam Deck. And the company has also been funding development of FEX, which allows you to run some x86 games on systems with Arm-based chips.
Last week Valve released Proton 11 beta 1, which brings Proton and FEX together, allowing you to run Windows games designed for x86 architecture on devices with Arm processors that are running Linux. This will eventually make it possible to use Steam on Valve’s upcoming Steam Frame VR headset with a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. But you don’t have to wait until then to try it out.
That’s because Linux-based gaming operating system ROCKNIX has already added support for Steam to its software for handheld game consoles. Once installed on a supported handheld, Steam will show up as just another option in the EmulationStation menu, allowing you to play PC games the same way you can play classic console games.
Keep in mind that not all PC games will work. The ROCKNIX Wiki notes that games that require NVIDIA RTX graphics “may not work,” and some games that use DirectX 12 may not boot, although there are some tweaks you can try that may help. The software may also not be compatible with all Arm-based Android handhelds, and obviously you’re going to get best performance when using a relatively powerful model with a higher-performance processor.
One nice thing about ROCKNIX though, is that it allows you to use the Linux-based operating system on Android handhelds without overwriting the original operating system, because you can install ROCKNIX to an SD card and boot from that. Performance will likely be better if you do overwrite your device’s internal storage, but that also carries more risk… so I’m not sure it’s something I’d recommend doing with beta software.
