T
he Steam Deck is one
of the most versatile,
most intriguing
gaming PCs I’ve ever
played with. It’s a
handheld device that will draw
immediate, probably unfair
comparisons with Nintendo’s
Switch, but is 100% PC in both the
best and worst ways.It’s important to note I’m writing this
before launch, with a 512GB version of
the Steam Deck that still has to be
considered unfinished. But that’s only in
relation to the software side of the
equation and, while that is absolutely
vital to the smooth running of the
device, the hardware itself is final. And
really impressive.
Core to the whole thing, and the
piece of the puzzle most responsible for
the Deck actually being a genuine
gaming PC, is the AMD silicon sizzling
away at its heart. The custom-designedAMD Aerith APU (heavily based on the
long-rumoured AMD Van Gogh design)
is using the same GPU cores as those in
the outstanding RX 6000-series
graphics cards. Yes, the ones you’re still
struggling to buy.
One of the keys tenets of the chip is
its sustained performance. There’s no
throttling here. Whether you’re getting
your juice from the mains or roaming
free, sucking on the 40Whr battery
inside the Deck, you will get the same
performance no matter watt. And that
sustained performance is great, too.STACKED DECK
At the reveal event I listened with some
scepticism as Valve devs claimed the
Deck would be able to run your entire
Steam library and they had yet to find a
game the hardware couldn’t handle.
But, while we’ve found some Windows
games in our libraries that won’t run on
Valve’s custom SteamOS Linux distro,
the majority do, and run well.Steamed RAM
How does the hardware perform? By Dave James
THINGXXX straplinexxxxxxxxxxxx
OUT OF THE BOX, THE
GAME WAS LOOKING GREAT
AND RUNNING AT
AN UNBELIEVABLY
SMOOTH 81FPS