A YouTuber installed Steam on a Raspberry Pi 5 to try to run some games on it. While it is obvious that it is not a gaming PC, the device is surprisingly capable of running certain titles in good conditions.
The Raspberry Pi 5 is not really known for offering generous graphics capabilities, even if its integration of a PCIe port is a game-changer for anyone wishing to connect a dedicated GPU.
That being said, all alone and without a dedicated graphics card, the small single-board computer of the Raspberry Pi Foundation is less helpless than one might think in gaming. This is what the videographer “leepspvideo” highlights on YouTube. In a video published a few days ago, the person installs Steam on a Raspberry Pi 5 powered by Ubuntu. The opportunity to see that the device is relatively agile on 2D titles and that it even allows you to have fun with certain 3D games… provided you make big concessions on the rendering quality.
Limits reached very quickly, but an interesting margin of maneuver on the graphic level
It is therefore useless to hope to launch Baldur’s Gate 3 Or Cyberpunk 2077 on a Raspberry Pi 5: the machine develops infinitely less graphics performance than a Steam Deck or an ASUS ROG Ally. On the other hand, 2D games like Brotato are managed without problem and some old generation games, in 3D, like Portal, can be launched as best they can. To obtain decent fluidity, leepspvideo had to reduce the definition to only 720 by 576 pixels, and lower the graphics settings to their minimum level.
Surprisingly, some 2D games like Terraria are, however, unplayable. The limits of the Raspberry Pi 5 in play are therefore very quickly reached, as one might expect.
It now remains to be seen whether, despite these modest capabilities, some users will have the idea (and the motivation) to create a portable console from a Raspberry Pi 5, to launch 2D games and indulge in retrogaming. in a minimalist setting. Given the thriving community surrounding the product, we have no doubt that a few will give it a try…and they’ll be right.