QuerulousPanda t1_j5h7r3x wrote on January 22, 2023 at 11:58 PM

Reply to comment by GatoradeNipples in Radxa Rock5 Model A is a credit card-sized single-board PC with RK3588S and up to 16GB RAM (starting at $99) by giuliomagnifico

All those little handheld emulators look sweet as hell these days, but I don't understand why, despite technology improving steadily and cpus getting better and more efficient all the time, they're always underpowered.

talkstoaliens t1_j5i4p1l wrote on January 23, 2023 at 3:53 AM

Why do you say they are underpowered? I’ve got several anbernic handhelds and I’m always impressed by what they can emulate. Some systems actually require a legit gaming computer to emulate the games, but that’s not a hit against the handhelds. Steam Deck is an emulation powerhouse for the price though.

QuerulousPanda t1_j5i98ea wrote on January 23, 2023 at 4:32 AM

I've been getting ads for ambernic and powkiddy handhelds and they look pretty great, with some great features, etc. I can absolutely see the appeal but they're also a bit too expensive to be worth taking the risk on.

By underpowered though I mean even going back to the dingoo a320, they've always underdelivered. You can't be sure sound will work, the emulators cant hit framerates, they offer support for many consoles but a bunch are "just barely", and even though performance and capacity has increased vastly, whenever I check out video reviews, I see games struggling to run properly.

It's just weird, it feels like they're always using bottom of the barrel components that appear to have decent specs, but just aren't up to the right level.

AkechiFangirl t1_j5inslo wrote on January 23, 2023 at 7:06 AM

A lot of the issues you're describing can probably be attributed to the stock firmware. For whatever reason the manufacturers of these devices ship them with firmware on it that functions and manages to do little else.

There are a lot of community options (depending on the device of course) that make them far easier to use and in some cases more performant too.

Yes, they can be a little pricey but for less than 100 bucks you can probably fit it in your budget. If you can't, well, the device you're using reddit on can probably also emulate games, so, you can get your fix that way.