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Nintendo's Tegra X1-based handheld has been out for five years and has garnered a pretty sizable install base. The Switch has slowly but surely emerged as a must-have console for gamers this gen with many exclusive game releases.
After a series of flops, Valve finally hit the jackpot with their recently released Steam Deck. The portable PC might appeal to a more niche userbase but has shown itself to be the next big thing to look out for.
They might not be direct competitors, but comparisons aren't far off given their similar nature. While it is pretty apparent that the Deck is a newer technology, fans might be wondering how big of a gap there is between the two. Here's the rundown.
Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck compared
1) A look at Nintendo's Tegra portable
First, let’s start with the Big N hybrid. The latest OLED model with the revised Tegra X1+ chipset will be used for comparison.
In a nutshell, it's an off-the-shelf Tegra X1+ (X1+ is the name for the power-efficient model of the Tegra X1 released in 2019). However, it is downclocked severely from stock speeds to conserve battery life and thermals.
For comparison, the standard Tegra X1+, as used in the Nvidia Shield TV (2019), runs the CPU at 1.7 GHz while the GPU is 921 MHz.
As seen with countless games on the platform, it should be evident that the Nintendo Switch is in the ballpark between PS3 and PS4. Many last-gen ports such as Diablo 3 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim see big performance and visual gains over the seventh-gen consoles.
Additionally, many developers have brought over impressive renditions of games made for far more advanced specifications, such as DOOM Eternal, which would not be possible on a PS3.
2) Moving on to the Steam Deck
Here's a look at the highest-end 512 GB model:
A glance suggests the Deck to be leagues ahead of the Switch. It is a cut-down version of the Xbox Series S, which also employs a custom Zen 2 CPU and RDNA 2 GPU. Compared to the "PS3.5" that's the Switch, this is almost a two-generational leap.
Plenty of Nintendo Switch games that resort to Cloud versions can be played natively on Deck: Control, Hitman 3, Kingdom Hearts 3. No surprises. This is, after all, a modern PC crammed into a handheld shell.
RDNA 2 supports modern rendering techniques like hardware-accelerated ray-tracing. The latest significant graphics feature in the industry has been shown to be doable on the Deck, albeit understandably at sub-720p resolutions like 540p.
However, it is essential to note that features like RT do NOT run on Steam Deck officially. As shown in the video above by Digital Foundry, players will need to use Windows 10 to access these features, which comes with their own set of caveats.
Coming to a conclusion
The underclocked tech in the Nintendo Switch certainly hurts third-party titles and even its own games at times. However, it is an understandable concession that is much needed to facilitate as much battery life as possible. It's a can of worms best discussed on a separate topic.
Steam Deck, meanwhile, definitely needs that extra power to run some of the most demanding games out right now. These include From Software's Elden Ring and Control.
As such, players shouldn't expect more than a couple of hours for games like these - even less so when running at 60 FPS or higher visual settings/resolution.
Thermals can also go beyond the caps on Deck, reaching up to 70 degrees celsius on demanding current-gen games at higher presets and frame rates.
Valve understands this, so these have made some smart additions. These include overlay toggles that allow tweaking performance for optimal battery life and extra quality of bells and whistles for a more efficient and seamless gameplay and UX experience.
While the Steam Deck is undeniably the superior handheld, at the end of the day, both are exciting pieces of tech in their own ways. The Steam Deck can be seen as a portable extension of gamers' desktop libraries.
Admittedly, the Deck makes third-party Nintendo Switch games redundant for buyers of both systems. Nintendo's portable still has its own perks to fall back on that the Deck can't emulate, like a local split controller co-op.
Both cater to wildly different audiences, are home to different experiences, and aim to deliver similar yet very different modes of interactive entertainment.
