Valve's new Proton 11 ARM beta gets Hollow Knight: Silksong running past 100 FPS on the Ayn Odin 2 Portal
Valve has pushed Proton 11.0-Beta1 to GitHub, and the update includes a small but notable addition in the release notes: “Added FEX-2604 for ARM64EC builds.” FEX is an open-source x86-to-ARM user-space translation layer that Valve has supported for several years, and its inclusion suggests that Proton now carries the components required to run Windows PC games on ARM-based Linux systems.
Valve has not formally announced an ARM64 version of Proton. However, the move is widely seen as preparatory work for upcoming ARM-based hardware, potentially including the rumored Steam Frame VR headset, which is expected to be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.
The community, meanwhile, did not wait for a formal rollout. The Rocknix project, a Linux distribution originally built for retro gaming handhelds, introduced official Steam support last week across a range of Qualcomm-powered devices. These include the Ayn Odin 2, Retroid Pocket 6, Ayaneo Pocket S2, and the Konkr Pocket Fit.
The YouTuber ETA Prime recently tested the stack on three devices: the Ayn Odin 2 Portal, powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and currently priced at around $433 on Amazon; the Ayaneo Pocket S2, equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon G3 Gen 3; and the Konkr Pocket Fit, also based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon G3 Gen 3.
Flashing Rocknix to the Ayn Odin 2 Portal’s internal storage delivered a noticeably snappy experience, with the Steam client running as a native ARM Linux binary. While games still rely on the Proton + FEX translation layer, lighter titles performed well. Hollow Knight: Silksong consistently ran above 100 FPS on the device’s 120 Hz panel with the frame cap disabled. Cuphead hovered between 60–70 FPS, while Half-Life 2 comfortably exceeded 120 FPS.
The Ayaneo Pocket S2 and Konkr Pocket Fit, meanwhile, had to run Rocknix from a microSD card, as internal storage installation paths are not yet fully supported. This resulted in significantly slower game downloads and installation times.
According to ETA Prime, there are still some rough edges. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt refused to relaunch on the Ayn Odin 2 Portal after the first session, while Half-Life 2 required a USB keyboard and mouse, as the built-in controller would not bind in-game. Random black screens and crashes were also observed during testing.
Kernel-level anti-cheat on ARM also remains an open question, as translation layers have not yet fully addressed it. For now, the stack remains enthusiast territory rather than a true replacement for the Steam Deck, but the foundation for an entire category of ARM-based Steam handhelds has clearly been laid.
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