At the end of 2021, Valve’s new handheld console, the Steam Deck, will be launched. But how much power is in the device? MeinMMO has taken a look at the specs of the console.
What is the Steam Deck? With the Steam Deck, Valve introduced a handheld console that aims to transport all the features of a gaming PC to handheld form. Many fans celebrated the reveal of the Steam Deck as the “Switch Pro.”
But what specifications (specs) does the Steam Deck actually offer? MeinMMO explains the specs of the Steam Deck in detail and discusses how much power the console can theoretically provide. By now, there are also first benchmarks. In addition, we compare the Steam Deck to the PS5 and the Xbox Series X.
Valve has also shown how the inside of the Steam Deck looks. Theoretically, you can disassemble the device yourself, but you should not do this:
The Processor
What kind of hardware is in the Steam Deck? Valve uses a custom-made APU (accelerated processing unit) from AMD in the Steam Deck. This is a processor that also includes a graphics chip. APU is a proprietary term from AMD; Intel does not have this designation.
The Steam Deck employs a processor with the latest architecture that AMD currently has on the market, which is Zen 2. The CPU is a 4-core processor with 8 threads, and the processor clocks between 2.4 to 3.5 GHz.
What do the PS5 and Xbox offer? Both the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S utilize the same Zen 2 architecture as the Steam Deck. In contrast to the Steam Deck, the next-gen consoles use 8-core processors with 16 threads. The PS5 clocks up to 3.5 GHz, while the Xbox Series X clocks up to 3.8 GHz.
In direct comparison on paper, the Steam Deck delivers less performance with the same system architecture. However, this is not surprising, as the performance of the Steam Deck will be thermally and battery-constrained. The PS5 and Xbox Series X do not have these issues, but they are also not as easily portable without effort.
The Graphics Card (GPU)
What kind of hardware is in the Steam Deck? The GPU of the Steam Deck is also based on AMD’s latest RDNA 2 architecture and features a total of 8 compute units (CUs) that operate at a variable clock rate of 1 – 1.6 GHz. Valve states the performance of the GPUs at about 1.6 teraflops. Teraflops describes the theoretical maximum performance on paper.
The performance is comparable to the PlayStation 4, which officially achieves 1.84 teraflops. However, you should note that the PS4 does not encounter the specific thermal and battery-related limitations compared to the Steam Deck.
What do the PS5 and Xbox offer? Both the PS5 and Xbox Series X use an APU from AMD like the Steam Deck, but with the RDNA-2 graphics chip, they employ the more modern and faster architecture: While the Steam Deck has only 8 compute units, the PS5 and Xbox Series X each offer 36 compute units, delivering overall more power than the chip in the Steam Deck.
The GPU of the PS5 promises a theoretical performance of 10.28 TFLOPS, which is about six times faster than the Steam Deck. The Xbox Series X offers even more power, with 12.14 TFLOP.
Consequently, while the graphics chip clearly lags behind the next-gen consoles, it still provides more power than the Nintendo Switch, with which the Steam Deck is often compared. You can read about the biggest differences between the Steam Deck and Nintendo Switch here:
However, it should be clear that the graphics chip of the PS5 and Xbox must handle different tasks than that of the Steam Deck. The graphics chip of the Steam Deck does not need to render in Full HD or 4K resolution like the PS5 or Xbox Series X. Instead, the resolution in handheld mode is limited to HD (720p). Therefore, the graphics chip of the Steam Deck does not, and cannot, need to be as powerful as those in the next-gen consoles.
RAM
What kind of hardware is in the Steam Deck? The Steam Deck uses a total of 16 GB LPDDR5 memory with a frequency of 5500 MHz.
LPDDR5 is referred to as “Low Power DDR.” It offers the same performance as traditional memory but uses significantly less power. Thus, it is much better suited for mobile devices like smartphones or the Steam Deck. Both the processor and the graphics card must use the RAM of the Steam Deck, as the graphics chip of the Steam Deck does not have its own dedicated graphics memory like a normal graphics card.
What do the PS5 and Xbox offer? Both PS5 and Xbox Series X also utilize 16 GB of RAM but opt for the faster GDDR6 version. This provides significantly higher memory bandwidths and better performance than the memory used in the Steam Deck.
Steam Deck: Performance and Benchmarks
The hardware of the Steam Deck is oriented towards the HD resolution (720p). While the hardware installed is weaker on paper compared to next-gen consoles or many modern gaming PCs, the Steam Deck must calculate at a significantly lower resolution. Valve has also reiterated that all your games should run on the Steam Deck.
How fast is the Steam Deck? There are already first unofficial benchmarks for the Steam Deck. You should approach this performance with a healthy dose of skepticism.
| Game | Settings | Framerate (FPS) |
|---|---|---|
| Shadow of The Tomb Raider | High | 30+ FPS |
| Shadow of The Tomb Raider | Custom | 60+ FPS |
| Doom Eternal | Low | 60 FPS |
| Doom Eternal | Custom | 46 FPS |
| DOTA 2 | High | 47 FPS |
| DOTA 2 | Low Settings | 80 FPS |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | High Settings | 20 – 30 FPS |
Apart from these benchmarks, there is currently no comparable AMD hardware that can be compared to the Steam Deck. The combination of Zen-2 CPU and RDNA-2 GPU has not yet been seen in this form, as AMD’s desktop APUs utilize a combination of Zen-2 CPU and Vega graphics, which are based on older technology.
What we do know for sure is that the theoretical total performance of the Steam Deck is 2 teraflops. The CPU with 448 GFlops and the graphics unit with 1.6 teraflops together yield the mentioned number.
We will have to wait a few more weeks for further benchmarks and data about the handheld. Currently (as of October 19, 2021), there are still many questions unanswered.
If you are looking for a handheld console but the Steam Deck has not convinced you so far, MeinMMO presents you with four promising alternatives that can also handle gaming:
Steam Deck: These are the 4 most exciting alternatives in 2021
