Anyone using a GPD Win?

Tech Talk
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If you’re not familiar, a GPD Win is a 5.5" Clamshell Windows PC like a 3DS. While not the most powerful computer for gaming, it’s surprisingly good for fighting games at its native resolution of 720p.

It was crowdfunded ( https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/gpd-win-intel-z8700-win-10-os-game-console-laptop#/ ) but it’s available at a lot of the most popular Chinese online stores now.

I just got mine yesterday, and I was pleasantly surprised that I can get 50+ FPS on USFIV, almost 60FPS on SFxTekken. KoFXIII appears to run at full speed, as does Battle Fantasia and SkullGirls Encore. I’m guessing most sprite-based 2D fighting games are full speed. I also got very playable speeds on Dead Or Alive 5 Last Round by disabling shadows.

It doesn’t run SFV very well, although it does Steam Streaming of SFV very well.

USFIV on my GPD Win makes my 3DS version look pretty bad. There are tons of gameplay videos on YouTube of the GPD Win now.

The one downside is that it’s first gen (meaning production hiccups and glitches), and not that cheap at $350USD. I paid around $500CAD thanks to the weak Canadian dollar. So far I’ve been pleasantly surprised. I thought I was going to have to play USFIV at 800x480 to get decent frame rates.

Photos of my benchmarks:

http://i.imgur.com/nN3yGGl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/LKZKgqn.jpg

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This is AWESOME. I have been interested on picking one of these. Migh wait a bit for a revision as I have read there are some overheating issues and etc.

BTW have you tried USF4 and SFXT in the MINIMAL settings? Less resolutions etc?

AFAIK emulation is also GREAT on these.

What I would be concerned is on the multiplayer side of things.

I know it can be hooked up to a bug TV (Nintendo Switch anyone?) and you CAN hook up different pads/sticks, BUT I have never read about it and setting up 2 pads/sticks or so.

As a portable gaming solution this may be one (if not) of the bests.

EDIT:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lmznQjjevY

60/60 with the settings in the video description (and a lot of other more games). This seems REALLY good for portable gaming.

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I have the latest revision (Jan 10 - minor tweaks to case, controls, different brand eMMC) that I picked up from Gearbest.

I ran SF and SFxTekken without any optimizations yet (i.e. haven’t touched bios settings, etc). The only thing I did was turn off Steam Broadcasting (which apparently gives you a few extra fps). The lower resolutions don’t fill the screen properly and don’t look too great. You can probably mess with the graphics settings to get an extra frame here and there. For me they felt fast enough (and as much as I love fighting games, I totally suck anyways, so the impact on me personally was very low). In any case, with tweaking you can probably get better results than I did.

It does get warm, but I haven’t overheated it yet. I tried TvC on Dolphin and Tekken6 on PPSSPP and they worked well. TvC hiccups but I think you have to play with every character to cache the graphics before it starts being smooth (regardless on what you run it on). I quickly tried Solo mode with Smash Bros Brawl too and the frame rate was near 60. It was late and I didn’t try any other modes. It’s also a game I’ve never really played before so I didn’t know what would be a good test for performance.

It is a normal PC, and there is a full sized USB port, so you should be able to use any of your PC compatible fight sticks or hitboxes. The behaviour should be exactly the same as though you had a laptop. It will work with hubs, etc.

My USB port is blocked because I have one of those “leave in” 128GB keys in there. USB3 port is way faster than the built in SD (capped at 40MB/s speed) so I have my biggest Steam games stored there. The USB-C port can be used for data, so if you have a dongle, you can connect ports that way too (I have a USB-C hub but haven’t tested it yet). I did read that the USB-C port won’t send video, but with the micro-HDMI that shouldn’t be an issue for most people.

I’ve only had it for two days, but I am absolutely loving it. I had low expectations (I read the same things you read about it) and they’ve all been exceeded. It’s what I’ve been wanting for years. Something that can play the games I like to play in a portable form factor. My 3DS came very close.

I haven’t put the battery to the test yet, but if you have a quick charge capable power bank, you can use that for extra juice. The one gotcha is that the bundled USB charger pumps out 2.5A. Use anything less than that, and it will drain faster than the charger can provide it juice when under heavy load (so I’ve read).

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@slantyyz you mentioned streaming steam,–I didn’t read the whole post-- have you tested PS4 Remote Play & I don’t own an XB1 but do they have a windows stream option as well?

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@StrtFghtrMstr I don’t have either XB1 or PS4 consoles - I’ve gone all in on Steam on PC for my gaming needs.

I would think that PS4 Remote Play or Xbox1 streaming to Windows would be as good as Steam Streaming since they’re basically doing the same thing? There is a r/gpdwin subreddit – there might be some info there.