Though you can dock the Steam Deck and connect it to a monitor or TV, it won’t get a boost in power, according to PC Gamer. How it performs on-the-go is exactly what you can expect when the machine is docked.
In a hands-on with the Steam Deck, PC Gamer had the chance to ask Valve some questions during the brief play session. When asked if the company thought about boosting the device’s performance when docked, designer Greg Coomer said dock status wasn’t a high priority design target.
“Yes, but we didn’t choose to make it a really high priority design target,” Coomer said. “We felt that it was actually better all things considered to not modify based on docked status or mobile status.”
Though portable, the Steam Deck seems to be an impressive piece of hardware especially for its price point. Valve said the machine can run Steam’s entire game library “without problems,” but that remains to be seen. In any case, the Steam Deck is capable of outputting 1080p at 30fps (if you’re savvy enough in adjusting various in-game settings) or the possible 800p at 60fps.
However, 800p at 30fps (targeted) is what you’re looking at in most situations, whether docked or undocked. While the Steam Deck draws comparisons to the Nintendo Switch, this is where they differ. The Switch gets a minimal boost when docked because power consumption isn’t a concern. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, for example, gets a modest resolution bump. This doesn’t seem likely for the Steam Deck as the dock itself dove provide any additional horsepower.
Coomer’s statement echoes what our friends at Giant Bomb heard when they also visited Valve’s headquarters to check out the Steam Deck. According to Jan Ochoa and Matt Rorie, Valve reiterated that there isn’t supposed to be a difference between playing the machine docked or undocked.
It’s hard to gauge what the Steam Deck is capable of since what press has tried up to this point has been nothing more than “final” prototypes. The Steam Deck launches this December, with order availability expected to open after Q2 2022. Valve said the device could come in multiple colors.
Source: Gamespot
