Steam Deck 2 Needs Vast Improvements If It Wants To Succeed
2022 saw the launch of Valve'smuch-anticipated Steam Deck, a powerful handheld device capable of running your entire Steam library and more any time, anywhere. But this isn't the company's first rodeo: over the years, Valve has developed several gaming devices in the PC space, such as the Steam Controller or Steam Link, in hopes of making PC gaming more portable. We even have the ill-fated Steam Machines, and the less said about those the better.
With the Steam Deck, it finally hit a home run, inching a step closer to making PC gaming approachable to anyone. Yet the Steam Deck is far from perfect, and the company knows it. Still, its success is everything Valve needs to kickstart a multi generational product line that can rival the biggest consoles on the market.
Related: Steam Deck Review: Impressive Hardware But An Unapproachable Experience
One of the major nuisances with the Steam Deck right now is that it simply isn't powerful enough. Despite having way more horsepower than the Nintendo Switch, the Steam Deck still feels underpowered and just enough to run games at decent frame rates, but nothing more. While the Deck can run most modern games, it struggles to maintain a stable 60 FPS when all the settings are cranked up in a lot of even slightly older games.
The Deck touts itself as a PC on the go, but it fails to come close to the performance that most modern gaming laptops can deliver. Valvehas done a great job optimising games for its handheld device, but the current hardware already feels a bit outdated and barely enough to run modern titles. Its successor could solve this problem by swapping out the current AMD APU for a more powerful one.
Console generations are usually five years long (give or take), and
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