WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.360 While no one is seriously calling the Steam Deck a perfect console, 00:00:03.360 --> 00:00:07.680 you can't deny that it's been a pretty big hit since it released in early 2022. 00:00:07.680 --> 00:00:13.120 But here's the elephant in the room. The Steam Deck is, really, a miniature PC. 00:00:13.120 --> 00:00:17.840 It's just crammed into a chassis with joysticks and runs SteamOS instead of Windows. 00:00:17.840 --> 00:00:22.960 And it's no secret that PC hardware ages in the minds of gamers much more quickly than consoles do. 00:00:22.960 --> 00:00:27.200 The typical console has a lifespan of around five years, give or take a year or so, 00:00:27.760 --> 00:00:33.360 but PC gamers tend to upgrade their hardware every two years, or at least this was the case 00:00:33.360 --> 00:00:38.160 before the pandemic. So despite the current excitement around the Steam Deck, does the fact 00:00:38.160 --> 00:00:45.200 that it's really a PC doom it to a disappointingly short lifespan? It's like this. When you go and 00:00:45.200 --> 00:00:50.640 buy a console game, you know that the game should run properly in that console unless the developer 00:00:50.640 --> 00:00:55.440 royally screwed up somewhere. Even if the console isn't as powerful as a current gen PC and the 00:00:55.440 --> 00:01:00.320 graphics look a bit dated after a few years, you can still be confident that any title worth 00:01:00.320 --> 00:01:07.600 its salt is still going to run as intended, or mostly free at bugs, because these games are 00:01:07.600 --> 00:01:13.200 supposed to be written specifically for that console, or at least get ported over and tested 00:01:13.200 --> 00:01:20.000 before release. But the Steam Deck is primarily built to run PC games off of the Steam Store. 00:01:20.560 --> 00:01:25.920 And due to the virtually infinite hardware and software combinations that can exist on any given 00:01:25.920 --> 00:01:32.880 PC, there is much more variation in how well a given PC game will run, meaning there's no guarantee 00:01:32.880 --> 00:01:37.600 that the Steam Deck will be able to smoothly run new titles a few years down the road. However, 00:01:37.600 --> 00:01:41.840 the Steam Deck does have a few tricks up its sleeve to give it more longevity than you might 00:01:41.840 --> 00:01:46.480 have thought. Since the Steam Deck is designed primarily to be an on-the-go system instead of 00:01:46.480 --> 00:01:51.360 a true hybrid console like the Switch, it can get away with having a screen with a resolution of 00:01:51.360 --> 00:01:59.920 only 1280x800. The display is only 7 inches diagonally, so while it's not quite a retina display, 00:01:59.920 --> 00:02:05.120 if you hold it like a foot away from your eyes, it's still pretty close. And why am I talking 00:02:05.120 --> 00:02:10.800 about this? The relatively low resolution means that the GPU doesn't have to push too many pixels. 00:02:10.960 --> 00:02:16.560 Good thing, as the AMD GPU inside only has about 1.6 teraflops of raw power. 00:02:16.560 --> 00:02:21.600 Might sound like a lot, but it's roughly the same as the GTX 950. Right now, some notably 00:02:21.600 --> 00:02:26.720 demanding AAA titles run on the Steam Deck at around 40 frames per second at medium-ish settings 00:02:26.720 --> 00:02:31.840 at 800p. But that doesn't mean you should just dismiss the Steam Deck as an already outdated piece 00:02:31.840 --> 00:02:37.200 of hardware that's only as powerful as a 7-year-old graphics card. The GPU inside the Steam Deck uses 00:02:37.200 --> 00:02:42.800 AMD's RDNA2 architecture, which supports modern features like FidelityFX Super Resolution, allowing 00:02:42.800 --> 00:02:47.200 smart upscaling that increases the framerate and battery life. It can even do ray tracing, and 00:02:47.200 --> 00:02:51.600 although it most of the time only works when you dual boot with Windows, there's a good chance that 00:02:51.600 --> 00:02:56.800 ray tracing will get more official support, making the Steam Deck even more compelling. Additionally, 00:02:56.800 --> 00:03:01.840 expandable NVMe storage is available, and the Steam Deck itself comes with 16 gigs of RAM built 00:03:01.840 --> 00:03:06.400 in. Enough for virtually any game out there right now, especially if you're running them at lower, 00:03:06.400 --> 00:03:13.520 Steam Deck-friendly settings. Now, with all that being said, it still lacks the power of most gaming 00:03:13.520 --> 00:03:18.320 laptops, but it's not trying to be a gaming laptop. Although it's targeting a slightly different 00:03:18.320 --> 00:03:23.920 crowd than Nintendo's Switch, there's a lesson to be learned from the Switch. That console has been 00:03:23.920 --> 00:03:32.480 going strong for nearly six years, with much less powerful hardware and older too, because it was 00:03:32.480 --> 00:03:37.600 built to provide a specific kind of experience that wasn't centered around having the very best 00:03:37.600 --> 00:03:42.160 graphics available. Similarly with the Steam Deck, Valve understood that while people would 00:03:42.160 --> 00:03:47.600 certainly want to play the latest and greatest titles on it, there is also a massive library 00:03:47.600 --> 00:03:52.240 of games on Steam that are still very popular despite being significantly less demanding. 00:03:52.240 --> 00:03:56.400 And being able to play that huge library on the go is why the Steam Deck exists, 00:03:57.040 --> 00:04:01.760 not to give you the same experience as your desktop battle station 6900 that you have at home. 00:04:01.760 --> 00:04:07.360 Of course, the current iteration of the Steam Deck will be outdated one day. We're just saying that 00:04:07.360 --> 00:04:12.960 it most likely isn't going to just die a premature death, especially as Valve continues to work on 00:04:12.960 --> 00:04:18.400 its proton compatibility layer in order to make more of Steam games play nicely with the Steam Deck. 00:04:18.400 --> 00:04:23.760 Remember that the Steam OS that it runs on is Linux-based. Valve has also all but confirmed that 00:04:23.760 --> 00:04:27.600 there will be new versions of the Steam Deck in the future for when the current hardware just gets 00:04:27.600 --> 00:04:32.480 long in the tooth. It's just worth remembering that not every gamer is chasing the most realistic 00:04:32.480 --> 00:04:37.280 hair physics possible, pleasing as they may be. Thanks for watching guys, like, 00:04:37.280 --> 00:04:40.960 dislike, check out some of our other videos, comment with video suggestions down below, 00:04:40.960 --> 00:04:42.800 and don't forget to subscribe and follow.