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Control

In Remedy's latest game, the Steam Deck achieves great performance. For those less demanding, it manages to stay above 30fps on the medium preset. However, for those looking for better performance, it is possible to lower the graphics settings to get very close to 60fps.

Devil May Cry 5

As you all know, Capcom has been bringing incredible optimization to its PC games and the Steam Deck is no different. On the medium preset with anti-aliasing enabled, the game never drops below 70fps.

GhostRunner

Ghostrunner also achieves excellent performance on the Steam Deck, having a great application of DirectX 12. With the Ray Tracing technology enabled, it also maintains a stable performance, always above 30fps.

Dead Cells

Despite the excellent performance in Dead Cells, the Steam Deck ends up being well below its competitors, as you can see below. According to Linus Tech, this would be happening due to the low power consumption of the game on Valve's handheld. This could be a matter of optimization or Valve blocking very high fps to save device power.

Forza Horizon 5

Forza Horizon 5, on the other hand, couldn't always stay above 30fps on the high preset, dropping to 24fps. Already in lower presets, Steam Deck managez to reach 61fps with drops to 31fps. Still, even at 60fps, Linus Tech claims that the experience is not the best, appearing to have a certain lag.

Battery Life

On Batter Life, the Steam Deck can disappoint some more avid players. Although in lighter games like Dead Cells it manages to maintain up to 6 hours of running time, the figure changes in heavier games. Devil May Cry 5 with the preset on high and Vsync off, the battery managed to last for only 1.5 hours.

Valve's Steam Deck comes equipped with a Zen 2 4c/8t CPU, 2.4-3.5GHz, a GPU 8 RDNA 2 CUs, 1.0-1.6GHz with 1.6 TFlops and 16GB of RAM, all with a 7-inch display with high resolution. from 1280 x 800px (16:10) at 60Hz.


Source 1
Source 2

 

[CrustyBritches]

Can't wait to get ahold of it! I got moved to Q2, but time is flying and it will be here soon. That's solid performance in Control and FH5, but I'm mostly using this for emu, indie, and old-school games. Should have pretty good battery life of 4-6hrs. for the purposes I'm using it for.

 

[Xdrive05]

Did I miss something, or does it not have an overclocked dock mode that outputs higher performance (resolution) than undocked mode, like how the Nintendo Switch functions?

Because the Steam Deck as a 1080p computer for your desk monitor or livingroom TV in this GPU market might be an important use case.

 

[lastmessiah]

The display has only a 60hz refresh rate, so anything above 60 fps is not much benefit either way.

 

[Kupfer]

I also just watched the videos of Phawx and Gamers Nexus and have to say that my expectations were exceeded. Okay, the playing time in battery mode is a bit of a downer, but you had to expect that (40wh battery with 4w - 15w apu and 7w system load). You don't have to do much math to know that this won't be a handheld for offgrid gaming weekends. For my purposes like classics, streaming and indiegames it's more than sufficient and I can't wait to play the thing at the beginning of next month.

Can't wait to get ahold of it! I got moved to Q2, but time is flying and it will be here soon. That's solid performance in Control and FH5, but I'm mostly using this for emu, indie, and old-school games. Should have pretty good battery life of 4-6hrs. for the purposes I'm using it for.

Cheer up, maybe enough pre-orderers will jump away from the actual purchase, then you will end up further ahead in the queue

Did I miss something, or does it not have an overclocked dock mode that outputs higher performance (resolution) than undocked mode, like how the Nintendo Switch functions?

You didn't miss anything. Valve has said from the beginning that the dock will not add performance - you will always have full power, even in handheld mode.

 

[Omnipunctual Godot]

Did I miss something, or does it not have an overclocked dock mode that outputs higher performance (resolution) than undocked mode, like how the Nintendo Switch functions?

Because the Steam Deck as a 1080p computer for your desk monitor or livingroom TV in this GPU market might be an important use case.

First I've heard of anything like that.

 

[GHG]

The real world performance has actually surpassed my expectations.

This will be brilliant for indie games and emulation.

 

[Twinblade]

Mine is coming q2... How I'm going to know when I can buy it?

 

[Kupfer]

Mine is coming q2... How I'm going to know when I can buy it?

here you can see how the payment process will be done

 

[DigitalScrap]

The real world performance has actually surpassed my expectations.

This will be brilliant for indie games and emulation.

Same. Eagerly awaiting mine (I got pushed to Q2). Very impressive performance, especially at the price!

 

[JimboJones]

Mine is coming q2... How I'm going to know when I can buy it?

I think you will get an email and then have 3 days to decide if you still want to buy it.

 

[Twinblade]

I think you will get an email and then have 3 days to decide if you still want to buy it.

Time to clean up my email. Lol

 

[Sean Mirrsen]

Did I miss something, or does it not have an overclocked dock mode that outputs higher performance (resolution) than undocked mode, like how the Nintendo Switch functions?

Because the Steam Deck as a 1080p computer for your desk monitor or livingroom TV in this GPU market might be an important use case.

The Switch doesn't get any extra performance in docked mode, it just loses some of the downclock. The Deck is made to operate at maximum possible performance at all times, hence no difference between docked and handheld.

 

[Xdrive05]

The Switch doesn't get any extra performance in docked mode, it just loses some of the downclock. The Deck is made to operate at maximum possible performance at all times, hence no difference between docked and handheld.

Thanks. That's the solution I would want for this TBH.

Hoping this is a fantastic success going forward and PC developers will either design around minimum requirements that the Deck handles nicely, or a Deck-specific preset.

 

[Dr.Morris79]

And theres me just wanting to play Painkiller

 

[RoadHazard]

So on low settings you can maybe get close to 60fps in last-gen games, hm...

This is a a huge leap over the Switch obviously, but it already seems very underpowered. I guess if you're ok with 720p30 it should do fine until the actual next-gen games start coming.

 

[Sean Mirrsen]

So on low settings you can maybe get close to 60fps in last-gen games, hm...

This is a a huge leap over the Switch obviously, but it already seems very underpowered. I guess if you're ok with 720p30 it should do fine until the actual next-gen games start coming.

Keep in mind this is before final software, and without using things like FSR to prop up performance.

 

[Fake]

The emulation potential is huge.

 

[octiny]

So native res, high settings on current gen games @ 30+ & 60+ fps on last gen games @ only 15w. Huge performance.

Going by Phawks video, Looks to be about 50%+ faster than my 1195G7 (XE 96 EU) Win 3, which is (was) currently the top of the line.

Can't wait to see the RDNA 2 OC'ing results via Windows from ETAPrime once the full embargo is lifted. As of now, completely exceeds my expectations performance wise.

 

[nani17]

PC pirate's knowing they can pirate pc games modern emulators switch ps3 and the A-Z of retro emulators

 

[Ozzie666]

We really need advances in battery tech to keep up with mobile tech.

 

[Belthazar]

That performance is quite impressive... But the battery life is a bit disappointing.

 

[Guilty_AI]

PC pirate's knowing they can pirate pc games modern emulators switch ps3 and the A-Z of retro emulators

you don't need a steam deck to pirate stuff tho

 

[nani17]

you don't need a steam deck to pirate stuff tho

Put its portable

 

[EverydayBeast]

20 years ago this would have targeted the gameboy advance.

 

[lefty1117]

Mines says "After Q2 2022" so what does that mean, like April?

 

[octiny]

Mines says "After Q2 2022" so what does that mean, like April?

If you preorder now, they all still say "After Q2". So that could even mean 2023 at this point for people ordering now since there's so many pre-orders. It was saying "After Q2" essentially 1 hour after preorders went live. All comes down to how many they can churn out at this point.

 

[Guilty_AI]

Put its portable

but what being portable has to do with piracy tho

 

[rofif]

So many people got over their heads by ordering this. This is a low spec pc for those who know that you will need to play 720 30.
But should be great for indie and old games. It’s actually ok price nowadays

 

[lastmessiah]

Is 60 FPS at Low settings for Control really that impressive for this device? Low settings usually looks pretty bad.

 

[mejin]

Too expensive imho.

 

[Guilty_AI]

So many people got over their heads by ordering this. This is a low spec pc for those who know that you will need to play 720 30.
But should be great for indie and old games. It’s actually ok price nowadays

People aren't dumb mate, everyone knew full well this was a low spec PC. If anything performance is actually superior than what most were expecting.

 

[octiny]

Is 60 FPS at Low settings for Control really that impressive for this device? Low settings usually looks pretty bad.

Extremely impressive at native res @ only 15w. Control is one of the most unoptimized low fps PC games out there which is probably why Valve wanted to include it.

Edit: For example, I get about 35 fps in spots on my 1195G7 (XE 96 EU) Win 3 while the Deck is reaching over 60 FPS (via Phawks video). The minimums alone are a huge increase from the current top GPU in a handheld out there.

 

[Sean Mirrsen]

but what being portable has to do with piracy tho

Have you tried keeping a desktop PC in the crowded, humid, and unstable environment of the average pirate ship? It's quite inconvenient.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

I'm much more excited about this after the videos.

 

[Guilty_AI]

Have you tried keeping a desktop PC in the crowded, humid, and unstable environment of the average pirate ship? It's quite inconvenient.

 

[lastmessiah]

Extremely impressive at native res @ only 15w. Control is one of the most unoptimized low fps PC games out there which is probably why Valve wanted to include it.

Edit: For example, I get about 35 fps in spots on my 1195G7 (XE 96 EU) Win 3 while the Deck is reaching over 60 FPS (via Phawks video). The minimums alone are a huge increase from the current top GPU in a handheld out there.

Ok I get it. I thought I might be able to play stuff like Elden Ring on this, but I just can’t do 30 fps. Should be great for smaller scale games though.

 

[Deerock71]

Battery Life

On Batter Life, the Steam Deck can disappoint some more avid players. Although in lighter games like Dead Cells it manages to maintain up to 6 hours of running time, the figure changes in heavier games. Devil May Cry 5 with the preset on high and Vsync off, the battery managed to last for only 1.5 hours.

Valve's Steam Deck comes equipped with a Zen 2 4c/8t CPU, 2.4-3.5GHz, a GPU 8 RDNA 2 CUs, 1.0-1.6GHz with 1.6 TFlops and 16GB of RAM, all with a 7-inch display with high resolution. from 1280 x 800px (16:10) at 60Hz.


Source 1
Source 2

What's funny is everybody that pressed 'x' on the 2 hours of battery life knew that saying anything less than 2 would be a deal-breaker for some. I was an 'x' presser, myself; welcome to Sega Gamegear.

 

[octiny]

Ok I get it. I thought I might be able to play stuff like Elden Ring on this, but I just can’t do 30 fps. Should be great for smaller scale games though.

I would be surprised if you can't hit 60 fps in that to be honest w/ tweaking. These tests are only done at 15w (I play my Win 3 @ 28W). ETA Prime will no doubt OC the GPU, up the wattage, down clock CPU etc via Windows in APU tuning utility once full embargo lifts.

Those who take full advantage of all the TDP/OC customizations you can do in a handheld gaming PC will no doubt be the happiest vs those who are looking for a simple out of the box experience.

Edit: Honestly can't wait to install Windows on it, going to make a great handheld Gamepass machine

 

[Elysion]

I would be interested to know how the games that were tested compare to their (last-gen) console counterparts. If we take Control as an example, is the (base) PS4 version comparable to medium settings on PC? Low? High? Does this mean the Deck version (at 30fps) is superior to the PS4 version according to these benchmarks, or does it fall short?

As someone who doesn’t really play on PC, but would be interested in the Deck, these kinds of benchmarks don‘t really tell me much.

 

[Astral Dog]

1.5 hour battery

 

[Romulus]

I would be interested to know how the games that were tested compare to their (last-gen) console counterparts. If we take Control as an example, is the (base) PS4 version comparable to medium settings on PC? Low? High? Does this mean the Deck version (at 30fps) is superior to the PS4 version according to these benchmarks, or does it fall short?

As someone who doesn’t really play on PC, but would be interested in the Deck, these kinds of benchmarks don‘t really tell me much.

One thing to consider is console versions are heavily optimized to said hardware. Steam Deck is just literally playing it like you would any other steam device. That's a massive advantage for the ps4 in this example, yet the ps4 version doesn't seem that much better if at all.

 

[octiny]

I would be interested to know how the games that were tested compare to their (last-gen) console counterparts. If we take Control as an example, is the (base) PS4 version comparable to medium settings on PC? Low? High? Does this mean the Deck version (at 30fps) is superior to the PS4 version according to these benchmarks, or does it fall short?

As someone who doesn’t really play on PC, but would be interested in the Deck, these kinds of benchmarks don‘t really tell me much.

PS4 base is a mix of mostly low w/ some medium (in terms of PC settings) @ 900P (so below native on a 1080P TV). At worst, Deck is performing better out of the box in terms of Control at higher settings w/ better PPI (sharpness) than PS4 base.

I would wait until the full embargo lifts for more detail & look for ETA Prime & The Phawks videos to release come then. Linus/Gamer Nexus etc aren't really suited for reviewing the intricacies of handheld PC devices, yet.

 

[lastmessiah]

This seems like a better source than the ones that have been shared thus far:

 

[Midn1ght]

This is really impressive, congratulation Valve!
I really hope it's a big success so Valve keeps working on it and come up with an even better version 3 or 4 years from now.

I'll get one if I could but with Nvidia 4000 series just around the corner, I'm holding on for a big CPU/GPU upgrade next year.

 

[01011001]

Is 60 FPS at Low settings for Control really that impressive for this device? Low settings usually looks pretty bad.

PS5 runs the game at low settings at 1440p... just as a comparison point

1440p Low 60fps
VS
720p Low 60fps

seems reasonable for a portable PC

 

[grfunkulus]

So many people got over their heads by ordering this. This is a low spec pc for those who know that you will need to play 720 30.
But should be great for indie and old games. It’s actually ok price nowadays

It's already proven it can play more than just old games pretty well. It's massively impressive for $400. Sure, the boutique companies making the competition aren't exactly good deals regardless but still. The base model with expandable SD card storage is the best deal in gaming right now if you value what the portability brings. I have a hard time understanding why people think electronics wouldn't get more expensive even without the supply change issues. $400 is the new $250. People just need to get that and move on.

 

[Ribi]

but what being portable has to do with piracy tho

You think pirates stay in one place? The entire concept was built around boat which traveled the 7 seas escaping capture and hunting booty.

 

[01011001]

You think pirates stay in one place? The entire concept was built around boat which traveled the 7 seas escaping capture and hunting booty.

YAAAHHHRRRRR!!! pass the Deck mate! YAAAHHHRRR!!!



if you imagine them singing about the Steam Deck this song gets a brand new meaning of the "fiddler" that won't let anyone else play with the Steam Deck lol and will kill you if you try to xD

 

[Dr.Morris79]

PC pirate's knowing they can pirate pc games modern emulators switch ps3 and the A-Z of retro emulators

Uh huh. Tell us more on piracy.