Which Nvidia GPU is the Steam Deck equivalent?

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The Steam Deck is one of the most popular modern handheld gaming platforms on the market (the Nintendo Switch is the most popular), and it’s easy to see why. The Steam Deck is essentially a gaming PC that’s easier to take on long trips than a laptop. But all this portability comes at a cost.

While you can buy different models of Steam Deck, including several OLED models (not really worth buying if you already own an LCD Steam Deck), the internal processors mostly remain the same. All versions include a custom AMD GPU that uses eight RDNA 2 compute units (CUs), runs at 1.6 GHz, and provides 1.6 teraflops (1.6 trillion floating-point math calculations per second) of processing power. These specs make it difficult to compare with an equivalent Nvidia GPU, but it’s not impossible.

If you crunch the numbers, the Steam Deck’s custom hardware is about as powerful as an AMD RX 550 or RX 560. On paper, that puts the Steam Deck’s graphics capabilities somewhere between an Nvidia GTX 950 and a GTX 1050. However, finding analogous GPUs isn’t an exact science. When Digital Foundry reviewed the Steam Deck, the channel concluded that the device’s GPU is comparable to an Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti, albeit with 720p resolution instead of the more standard 1080p. Exact performance and GPU analogs generally vary depending on the game.

While GPUs do the lion’s share of computing in video games, their teraflops won’t get you far. Remember: there is a difference between what a GPU is designed to do and what it can actually achieve.

The biggest obstacle a Steam Deck must overcome is its power supply. Due to the way the device was designed, the Steam Deck’s GPU can only receive up to 15 watts of power. The device’s RDNA architecture makes up for this shortcoming and outperforms older graphics cards, but when paired with newer GPUs playing newer games, the Steam Deck’s low-power design isn’t as reliable.

Another problem that plagues the Steam Deck – and prevents finding a true analogue – is its operating system. The platform runs SteamOS, a heavily modified version of Linux. Since most PC games are programmed for Windows, the Steam Deck needs a compatibility layer (Proton) to run the games. If a title you want to play uses the Vulkan API, it can run as fast, if not faster, than on Windows, meaning an “equivalent Nvidia GPU” would be more powerful than a GTX 1050 Ti. Otherwise, performance will vary depending on how the game is optimized. This is a common theme with games on Steam Deck: even if a title might run better on the device, if it isn’t verified for the Steam Deck, it’s better off playing on a computer with an equivalent (or better) GPU.

While the Steam Deck is the theoretical equivalent of a GTX 1050 Ti, this GPU is almost ten years old. You can easily buy much superior graphics cards without breaking the bank. Additionally, newer models support technologies that are not available on GTX cards, such as ray tracing. You might even save money compared to purchasing a Steam Deck.

The HP Victus is a solid entry-level gaming laptop that outperforms the Steam Deck (and has better specs than the MacBook Neo). For $765 on Amazon, you get a laptop with a GeForce RTX 2050 laptop – a mobile GPU that outperforms the GTX 1050 TI in all benchmarks. Sure, the Victus only has 8GB, compared to the Steam Deck’s 16GB, as well as just 512GB of SSD space, but the laptop blows the Steam Deck out of the water in every other way. And it’s cheaper than the 512GB OLED model, priced at $789.

The power gap only increases the more you spend. For example, a high-end HP Victus, which costs just under $1,000 on the HP online store, includes a slightly faster processor (Intel Core 5 210H versus the cheaper model’s AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS). However, most of that price goes to the GeForce RTX 5050 laptop GPU, making the RTX 2050 laptop look like a GTX 1050 Ti. Granted, the higher price doesn’t include additional storage or RAM (unless you spend even more), but considering the other benefits, $999.99 seems like a bargain compared to the $949 price of the 1TB OLED Steam Deck.