GPD's GPU dock lets you stuff desktop-ish graphics into your Steam Deck through the internal PCIe slot
OK, look, you're not actually going to do this. But it's fun a fun idea, that's apparently real and something you can sign up for on Indiegogo, so who knows what might be more practically possible in the future. It's an external graphics dock from GPD that plugs into the Steam Deck. And other game handhelds, including the Asus RoG Ally and GPD's own Win 4.
We've seen this kind of thing before with M.2 adapters jury rigged to the Deck and a desktop GPU. But the GPD G1 is a bit more polished than that, albeit it's not expressly designed or optimised for the Steam Deck.
The problem with the Deck, of course, is that it doesn't have an external USB 4 / Thunderbolt interface, which is the most efficient way of connecting an external GPU. Instead, you have to go through the handheld's internal M.2 interface.
M.2, of course, is primarily designed for storage. But it does use an unmodified PCIe protocol and typically in a storage context offers four lanes of connectivity. That's enough bandwidth for a mid-range GPU for sure and is even tolerable for higher end graphics with an occasional performance hit.
Anyway, for the Deck, using the GPD G1 means cracking open the case, removing the M.2 SSD if present and inserting GPD's M.2 adapter, known as Oculink, to which you then connect the G1 external GPU.
The cable sticks out and right angles to the Deck's chassis and you essentially have to run with the back cover disconnected. The output is to an external display only. You can't run the external GPU on the Deck's built-in display. Oh, and not only do you have to run the OS on the microSD card since you've pulled the M.2 SSD, you also have to run Windows, as the whole shebang is not compatible with SteamOS.
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