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The Steam Deck is one of the most talked about gadgets in the PC gaming community. It is a handheld device capable of playing desktop video games such as Doom Eternal and Cyberpunk 2077. However, the device's specs have not been fully disclosed by its developers, and desktop gamers may be looking for more information before they consider buying it.
The Steam Deck utilizes a system-on-a-chip (SoC) design based on AMD's Zen 2 and RDNA 2 architectures. This design combines the CPU and GPU on the same chip, making it difficult to compare its computing power to that of a traditional desktop graphics card.
The Steam Deck does not pack a lot of computing power
Valve's gaming console is not a particularly powerful device. The graphics processor is superior to that of a regular smartphone, but it falls short of desktop GPUs. This is understandable since the Steam Deck is a handheld device.
Official specs of the device
In terms of on-paper specs, the Steam Deck features a quad-core AMD Zen 2 processor with a base clock of 2.4 GHz and a maximum clock of 3.5 GHz. The graphics processing is handled by an RDNA 2 chip with 8 CUs and a base clock of 1.0 GHz that can scale up to 1.6 GHz.
Additionally, it has 16 GB of LPDDR5 memory rated at 5,500 MT/s and based on a 32-bit bus.
Close desktop GPU equivalents
The Steam Deck's graphics processor isn't able to compete with modern GPUs. Its closest equivalent is the GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost from Nvidia, which was released over a decade ago and is now discontinued.
Other Team Green GPUs that can be considered equivalent to the handheld console's graphics processor are the GeForce GTX 295 and the GTX 480, both of which have also been discontinued. It is hard to get these cards in the used market as well.
The GTX 650 Ti Boost is a very weak GPU. The card was launched in 2013 as part of the Kepler lineup and packs just 768 CUDA cores and 2 GB of GDDR5 memory. According to TechPowerUp's GPU computing power aggregates, the 650 Ti Boost is about 480% slower than the RTX 3060, a modern GPU built for 1080p gaming.
Conclusion
The Deck does not pack competitive hardware when pitched against modern standards. However, it is worth noting that the console runs games at a low resolution.
While the bare minimum for PC gaming is 1080p, the Steam Deck runs games at a resolution of 1200x800, and the developers can individually optimize titles for the device. This ensures smooth performance without lag, and although the console is only as powerful as a GTX 650 Ti, it can easily offer a better experience than a gaming PC based on the same GPU.
