Valve warns of Steam Deck throttling when used in extremely hot environments

pcgamer.com:

If you're one of the lucky gamers to own a Steam Deck(opens in new tab), you might want to heed this warning from Valve. The company has heavily implied users ought not use the handheld gaming PC in temperatures exceeding 35°C, as that may see the device hit its thermal limits and slow down or simply shut off.

For our friends in the midst of a heatwave, a quick note about Steam Deck in high temperatures. Steam Deck performs at its best in ambient temperatures between 0° and 35° C. If the temperature gets higher than this, Steam Deck may start to throttle performance to protect itself.July 19, 2022

The custom AMD APU within the Steam Deck is designed to run up to 100°C, no questions asked. That seems high enough to weather any outdoor condition, but it's all about ambient air temperature. In our testing the Deck's silicon reached around 60–70°C while gaming, though has been known to get up to around 80°C with less aggressive fan profiles in place. That means any major fluctuations in outdoor temperatures could cause headaches.

After 100°C, the Steam Deck will begin to crank down performance and power to help keep that temperature from exceeding its maximum, which is a sweltering 105°C. At that temp, the system will shut itself down to avoid any damage being done to the APU.

It's not necessarily a dangerous thing to happen, as the whole point of your CPU having a safeguard against high temperatures is so that it doesn't hit a temperature that will be a problem for the silicon inside.

But while you are avoiding damage when hitting that temperature limit, it's still not advisable to do so often.

Exceeding your CPU's TJ Max temperature—the point where a CPU will begin to force temperatures down by any means necessary—isn't a