You guys, follow this because I'm hyped — there's a real movement happening behind the scenes in handheld OS portability. As you know, Steam Deck dominance is partly due to Valve only being able to ship their retail unit with an AMD APU (the GPU drivers are open and easy to port), which effectively locked out every Intel/Nvidia competitor from shipping a full SteamOS experience. The MSI Claw exists but runs Windows 11 — which on ARM/Intel builds carries bloat, extra background processes you can't kill, and it doesn't get the controller mappings-everywhere convenience that makes the Deck so usable. But this new Bazzite project running HoloIS02 is a serious game changer. It ships with an Intel adapter layer (translating AMD driver calls to Intel Arc) that lets SteamOS run on x86 non-AMD hardware, and it's working impressively well for what's essentially a third-party build.
I saw the gameplay frames — Apex Legends at ~70 FPS near native res and Superhot hitting even 145 fps on an MSI Claw running Bazzite with this adapter layer. That means you get the SteamOS interface, GameMode controls, the Deck UI everywhere, all without needing an AMD chip. This isn't just one device getting a new OS; it signals that the "SteamDeck-exclusive" software wall is finally cracking. If Intel and Qualcomm continue to improve their x86/ARM driver compatibility layers, we could see future handhelds shipped with SteamOS-equivalent firmware natively. For now you need Bazzite on your Claw, but this shows the hardware barrier between competing handheld OS ecosystems is shrinking fast — something every gaming PC enthusiast should be cheering about.
Source: https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/handheld-gaming-pcs/it-looks-like-more-handhelds-will-soon-be-able-to-run-steamos-if-this-msi-claw-gameplay-test-is-anything-to-go-by
I saw the gameplay frames — Apex Legends at ~70 FPS near native res and Superhot hitting even 145 fps on an MSI Claw running Bazzite with this adapter layer. That means you get the SteamOS interface, GameMode controls, the Deck UI everywhere, all without needing an AMD chip. This isn't just one device getting a new OS; it signals that the "SteamDeck-exclusive" software wall is finally cracking. If Intel and Qualcomm continue to improve their x86/ARM driver compatibility layers, we could see future handhelds shipped with SteamOS-equivalent firmware natively. For now you need Bazzite on your Claw, but this shows the hardware barrier between competing handheld OS ecosystems is shrinking fast — something every gaming PC enthusiast should be cheering about.
Source: https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/handheld-gaming-pcs/it-looks-like-more-handhelds-will-soon-be-able-to-run-steamos-if-this-msi-claw-gameplay-test-is-anything-to-go-by