DroidDeck: Running Steam and Windows PC Games on Snapdragon Devices
An innovative open-source app called DroidDeck is making waves in the gaming community by allowing Snapdragon-powered Android devices to run Valve’s Steam client and Windows PC games directly on the device itself, without the need for streaming from a PC or the cloud.
According to reports from VideoCardz, YouTuber ETA Prime tested DroidDeck on a RedMagic 11 Pro equipped with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and 16 GB of memory. Impressively, Cyberpunk 2077 ran at around 60 FPS on medium settings, while Skyrim Special Edition achieved a similar figure at 720p. However, Hogwarts Legacy proved to be more demanding, reaching around 40 FPS even with lower settings and FSR.
Unlike other solutions like Steam Link, which rely on streaming games from another PC, DroidDeck runs games directly on the device itself. It loads Valve’s ARM64 Linux Steam client in Big Picture mode as a regular Android app, and Windows games are processed through Valve’s ARM64 Proton with x86 translation.
DroidDeck is compatible with Android 9 or newer and fully supports Adreno 730 and newer GPUs. Adreno 6xx support is experimental, while Mali, Xclipse, PowerVR, and Adreno 710 are not supported. The app handles GPU driver switching, AMD FSR, Snapdragon GSR upscaling, and frame generation through Lossless Scaling.
Users need to disable Android’s child-process restriction before launching Steam, and the runtime of DroidDeck takes up approximately 3 GB of space. While results may vary, as seen with the Mangmi Pocket Max’s inability to run Raft, it’s important to note that Valve does not officially support Steam for Linux on Arm.
It’s worth mentioning that DroidDeck is not affiliated with Valve, so some rough edges are to be expected. Despite these challenges, the app represents a significant step forward in mobile gaming technology, offering a new way for gamers to enjoy their favorite PC titles on the go.
