![]() ![]() Here are some of those tests: Steam Deck benchmarks Some games with built-in benchmarks also worked under SteamOS, which gives us another window into performance. According to Valve, VSync (aligning the GPU output with the screen's refresh rate, at the possible expense of performance) is set to on by default and overrides any in-game preferences. Turn it on, and games are locked to 30fps. The actual interface for this keeps changing, but currently there's an FPS toggle under that power menu. When turned on, it obscures a good portion of the screen, but it's got several levels of detail to choose from, and lets you track real-time performance as you adjust game settings to your taste. Under the power submenu, called up by the right-side menu button (not the left-side menu button!), there is an on-screen overlay that can be turned on to display frame rate, GPU and CPU performance, power usage and other stats. You can turn on the performance overlay (top left) in any game. Games that are not specifically verified by Valve will often run fine, but you may have to adjust graphics options to get decent performance. Games that Valve has verified as highly compatible, such as Horizon: Zero Dawn, Hitman (2016) or Portal 2 will launch with appropriate graphics settings. With gaming PCs and game consoles aiming for full 4K, there's a lot of wiggle room to get decent frame rates at that lower resolution. But the Steam Deck has a secret weapon – it plays games at a relatively low 1,280x800-pixel resolution. This is a handheld gaming device that's around $500, so you're not going to get the same raw performance as a $1,000-or-more gaming PC. GPU: eight RDNA 2 compute units, 1.0-1.6GHz.CPU: Zen 2 four-core/eight-thread, 2.4-3.5GHz.It's not dissimilar to what the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X use, and AMD makes the chips for those living-room consoles as well. It's been alternatively called the Van Gogh or Aerith chip. Yes, that's a lot of three-letter abbreviations. The Steam Deck is powered by a custom AMD APU, which is a system on a chip, or SoC, that combines CPU and GPU functions. There's a real challenge in taking something as compact as the Steam Deck and outfitting it to compete with full-size gaming laptops or even living room consoles. That's an area where traditional gaming PCs, which can easily add multiple terabytes of extra storage, have a clear advantage. It's not an issue unique to the Steam Deck, and every game console from the PS5 to the Switch really needs add-on storage these days. However, that card also got filled up quickly, so I ended up swapping games in and out frequently. There is a microSD card slot built in, again much like on the Nintendo Switch, and I added a 256GB card with no problem. It doesn't help that so many games that I was interested in trying – Baldur's Gate 3, GTA 5, Doom Eternal – are north of 70GB and sometimes over 100GB in size. I've been testing the 256GB version (as opposed to the 64GB and 512GB versions), and trust me, that storage fills up fast. ![]() Storage space in the Steam Deck fills up quickly. Those are usually console-esque games with gamepad controller support, such as God of War. Other games, especially those listed as "Verified" by Valve, work right out of the box. For some games, you'll be digging into the options and settings and actively troubleshooting so they play well – or play at all. That actually makes PC gaming devotees an ideal audience – we're already used to tweaking and troubleshooting, installing mods and drivers, and swapping out or overclocking hardware components. ![]() Like those first-gen VR headsets, the Steam Deck requires an adventurous spirit and a love for fiddly workarounds. Yes, they were available for consumers to buy, but to be an early adopter, you need to have a certain comfort level with trial and error, and figuring things out for yourself. It runs Valve's Linux-based SteamOS, paired with software called Proton that helps many Windows games run, somewhat like Apple's Rosetta does for non-M1-native Mac apps.Īfter spending about two weeks with the device, it reminds me of the first wave of modern VR headsets, like the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. While we're talking about playing Windows games from the extensive Steam library, note that this is not a Windows device. ![]()
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