Valve’s bid on the handheld console Steam Deck will be pegged to be released in February 2022(the earlier launch was in December 2020).
As the release gets closer, Valve is spilling the beans for the pre-order customers and fans who are placing their hopes on this next-generation console.
The company has cleared the over speculations of having console-specific games like its competitors. According to the gaming company giant, having SteamDeck exclusive games didn’t make sense.
Since the PC console can run virtually all the games available on the Steam store, there is no need to produce exclusive games.
Powered by the mighty Zen 2(Same as AMD Ryzen 3000 series), along with NVMe SSD(256 GB and above models), there wouldn’t be a bottleneck for the games.
Valve issued the official Steam Deck FAQ about clearing the air on several points. In the section, Valve talked about Steam OS going stand-alone, becoming a full-fledged operating system.
- How Much VRAM does Steam Deck have?
Steam Deck has 16 gigabyte of unified memory. One gigabyte that’s dedicated for the GPU, but depending on workload the GPU can access up to 8 GB.
- Does Deck support installing software from outside of Steam and can you use it with Proton?
Yes. You can install and add any game like you would on the Steam desktop. Just install the application and then add it to Steam from desktop mode and it’ll show
up just like it would on any PC.
- Does the Steam Deck support Local Multiplayer/Couch Co-op?
Definitely – you can play local co-op on the Steam Deck in a few different ways. You can hook controllers in via Bluetooth, or directly via USB. You can also play with Remote Play Together, where other players are on other Decks or PCs.
- How many sound channels does Steam Deck support?
We support two when using the onboard speakers, but we support multi-channel when using HDMI or Bluetooth.
- Does Steam Deck support multithreading?
Yes, up to 8 threads.
- How Much VRAM does Steam Deck have?
Steam Deck has 16 gigabyte of unified memory. One gigabyte that’s dedicated for the GPU, but depending on workload the GPU can access up to 8 GB.
- Will Steam Deck performance be any different, depending on if it’s plugged in or if it’s running on battery?
We are focused on providing you the full performance available from the APU both on battery and when you’re plugged in. Our expectation is that performance is the same across the board in either configuration.
- Does Deck only support full screen mode?
The Steam Deck will automatically run games in full-screen by default. However, if you drop to desktop, you can run games in windowed mode
- Will Steam Deck support VR?
Technically it’s possible. We’ve seen people jury rig it, but we didn’t design and optimize Steam Deck for VR.
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Steam Deck Specifications at a Glance
| CPU |
AMD Zen 2 |
| Core count |
4-core/8-thread |
| CPU clock speed |
2.4–3.5GHz |
| GPU |
AMD RDNA 2 |
| GPU Compute Units |
8 |
| GPU clock speed |
1–1.6GHz |
| RAM |
16GB LPDDR5 @ 5,500MT/s 32-bit quad-channel |
| Storage |
64GB eMMC / 256GB NVMe SSD / 512GB NVMe SSD |
The Steam Deck is the most anticipated handheld console of recent times. It has surpassed even the Switch in that metric.
Watch out for this space as more steams surrounding the Valve console surfaces anywhere