Steam Deck vs. Laptop, Tested: How Does Graphics Performance Compare?

pcmag.com:

The first shipping samples of the much-anticipated Steam Deck have finally arrived, and we’ve already brought you our initial impressions. Now, alongside our full review that's in the works, we’re taking a dive into the hard performance numbers, to see how this device stacks up against existing alternatives. (Also check out our Steam Deck 101 primer.)

Plenty of benchmark results out there show the general capability of the Steam Deck. But where does it fall on the gaming-capability spectrum compared with a general-use laptop twice its price, or a with budget-priced gaming laptop? Is the Steam Deck a solid alternative to spending more than $1,000 for playable PC-gaming performance?

To answer these questions, we’ve run a series of in-game benchmark tests using a host of real-world titles, and pitted those results against our existing testing data from our many laptop benchmarks. Below is a rundown of how we structured the tests, within the confines of obstacles unique to the Steam Deck. This background is worth reading, as you'll learn a bunch about how the Steam Deck handles games you're used to playing on PCs. (Spoiler: not all the same!)

Testing the Steam Deck is certainly more complicated than running simple game benchmarks on a run-of-the-mill laptop. The device, in theory, can play games from your Steam Library, but not all titles are equally compatible with the Deck. Valve has employed a rating system, replete with tiers and badges, to indicate how well suited games are to play on the device.

A handful of games are currently rated as “Verified” to function fully on Valve’s device, with another batch falling into a tier dubbed “Playable.” The latter will play but may experience some minor input or graphics issues,