4 reasons a Steam Deck shouldn’t replace your dedicated gaming PC

When the Steam Deck was announced in 2021, it generated a lot of buzz as a more PC gamer-friendly follow-up to the handheld hit of the pandemic, the Nintendo Switch. The Steam Deck officially launched in 2022 and received a screen bump to OLED in 2023 with some minor internal improvements, though no performance upgrade to the CPU or GPU.

Since then, handhelds like the MSI Claw and the ASUS ROG have expanded the handheld PC market, and some gamers who otherwise didn’t own gaming PCs have begun to use external monitors and peripherals to turn these handhelds into gaming PC replacements. While we await the second generation of Valve’s gaming handheld, which may or may not come, we’re breaking down why the Steam Deck is not a good replacement for a dedicated gaming PC.

4

Display output limitations

Even a 1080p display would require sacrifices.

To begin with, since we’re already talking about external peripherals, it’s worth pointing out that the Steam Deck only has a single built-in USB-C port, so users wanting to connect a keyboard and mouse as well as an external display will need to use the Steam Deck dock, which is sold separately. The dock features DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.0 for monitors, Gigabit Ethernet, and three USB 3.1 ports. Once you have your bevy of docks and wires hooked up, you’ll be faced with limitations on performance and graphics when using an external display.

The native resolution on the Steam Deck OLED is 1200 × 800, and in our own benchmarks, we found the device was averaging 30 to 35 FPS across the games we tested. Any monitor you intend to use for a gaming setup is likely to have at least a 1080p resolution, and you’d need to significantly lower the graphics settings of any game to achieve even half-decent frame rates at 1080p.

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3

Upgradability and future-proofing

The Steam Deck comes out of the box with a limited lifespan.

The CPU, GPU, and RAM on the Steam Deck are fixed components integrated into the motherboard and irreplaceable by users. Unfortunately, we’ve gotten used to seeing this in gaming laptops, so it’s no surprise that an even smaller form factor would share similar drawbacks.

The core performance of your Steam Deck is locked from the moment it’s manufactured, and since the CPU and GPU power hasn’t changed since the original Steam Deck in 2022 — save for some thermal and battery life improvements thanks to a switch from 7nm to 6nm architecture — the Steam Deck is already on the back foot with AAA titles and graphically demanding game environments. Just about the only normal upgrade you can do easily is expand the storage within the Steam Deck, though it requires a smaller M.2 2230 NVMe SSD.

2

Immutable OS limits user control

3rd party tools, customization, and flexibility fall short

SteamOS is Valve’s own operating system for handheld devices, and it will soon be undertaking a general release to compete with Windows for the handheld OS market. Since SteamOS 3.0 was revamped and rebuilt with mobile gaming in mind, its immutable architecture and simplicity lend themselves to a smooth experience for the end consumer. Simple menus, almost zero user customization, and zero root access all but ensure that users can’t accidentally damage or brick their devices when trying to tinker under the hood. It’s built for stability, and it does its job well.

This becomes a potential hindrance when trying to run the Steam Deck as a full gaming PC. Since SteamOS is Linux-based, you’ll run into software compatibility issues, and some Windows-only programs won’t run natively. System files are all read-only, so modifying core functionality, such as third-party drivers, is impossible. While installing Windows on your Steam Deck is possible with some effort, it’s probably out of reach for most casual gamers.

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1

There are better handhelds for the job

More powerful, albeit pricier, handhelds are better suited for PC replacement.

I can understand the appeal of thinking a Steam Deck might make a good gaming PC replacement or even a spare gaming desktop in your home. Still, with more recent and powerful models available, the Steam Deck is best left to its primary purpose of handheld gaming. If you’re in the market for a handheld that can achieve a dual mandate of great mobile gaming and serve as your dedicated gaming PC, then you might consider the Asus ROG Ally X.

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The Asus is working with an AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme, built on Zen 4 architecture. It boasts eight cores to the Steam Deck’s four and boosts to 5.1GHz to the Steam Deck’s 3.5GHz. The Asus GPU features 12 cores to the Steam Deck’s eight and carries a whopping 8.6 TFLOPs of graphical computing power, blowing away the Steam Deck’s 1.6 TFLOPs.

All this for about $150 more when comparing 1TB models. It runs Windows natively, which, as we noted in our hands-on review, can be a detriment to handheld gaming but is, of course, more convenient if used as a desktop. The Asus also has a native resolution of 1080p and a 120Hz display, so it’s better prepared for a 1080p external monitor.

The Steam Deck does best staying in its lane as a handheld gaming machine.

Unless and until a true second generation of the Steam Deck is released with upgraded internals, the handheld gaming device is best left as exactly that. Between the limited performance of a full-size display, single USB-C port, immutable operating system, and robust competition on the market today, the Steam Deck is not a proper replacement for a dedicated gaming PC.