Steam Deck: Finally, a handheld PC you might actually buy

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Steam Deck: Finally, a handheld PC you might actually buy

Valve is a surprising new challenger entering the portable console gaming space with the announcement of the Steam Deck, a handheld gaming PC set to release in December. This SteamOS device isn't the first handheld gaming PC (remember the GDP Win Max, SMACH Z, or Nvidia Shield?), but it is the first one to find the balance between price and power that has often kept handheld gaming PCs from becoming mainstream. With this news, handheld gaming PCs went from being niche, expensive hardware to a device I can potentially recommend to my brother over a Nintendo Switch. pg slot

An AMD APU featuring a Zen 2 CPU and an RDNA 2 GPU with 8 compute units powers the Steam Deck, putting it in the same territory as a PS4 or Xbox One. Comparing GPUs, we think the budget AMD RX550, which came out in 2019 for around $145 and is a popular card for low-cost 1080p gaming PCs, is the best comparison.

“For the total APU combined power, it's about two teraflops,” Valve developer Pierre-Loup Griffais told IGN, “which should let people play the games that they have in their library without issues at 720p and provides lots of horsepower to that effect.”