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- The Steam Deck is no longer able to keep up with recent AAA titles.
- Testing shows that it struggling in games like Final Fantasy 16, Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2, and Silent Hill 2 Remake.
- Valve is in no rush to make a successor to the handheld.
The Steam Deck is an impressive handheld from Valve that often punches above its weight class. This handheld can run many AAA games on the market, albeit with dialed-back settings.
The likes of Red Dead Redemption 2, Spider-Man, and many other last-gen titles run shockingly well, but testing has shown that cross-gen releases are more challenging. As such, fully next-gen titles are even more troublesome for the Steam Deck, and a new analysis determines that it is now incapable of running the most recent AAA releases.
Why it matters: The Steam Deck successor has been a big talking point in recent months, but Valve is adamant about waiting for a bigger hardware jump before committing to a proper successor.
The latest analysis from Digital Foundry discusses titles that are overly ambitious for Valve’s portable gaming system.
While recent titles like Lego Horizon Adventure, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and more are still playable, they require major visual sacrifices. However, many AAA games prove too much for the Steam Deck, even with various visual compromises.
These include titles like Final Fantasy 16, Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2, and Silent Hill 2 Remake. In Space Marine 2’s case, the game’s CPU-bound nature stresses the Steam Deck’s 4-core Zen 2 CPU a bit too much, leading to various drops below 30FPS during the most action-packed moments.
Similarly, Final Fantasy 16’s frame rate drops into the low 20s, even with the lowest possible graphical settings. The same can be said of Unreal Engine 5 titles like Stalker 2 and Silent Hill 2 Remake, which barely reach the 30FPS target, even when rendering at 25% of 720p with low settings.
Digital Foundry’s testing shows that other titles like Star Wars Outlaws and Indiana Jones outright fail to launch on the handheld, making the situation grim for those looking to enjoy AAA experiences on the go.
Fortunately, the Steam Deck has a lot more to offer than just AAA experiences. With nearly 10,000 playable games, there is hardly a shortage of choice on Valve’s portable gaming machine.
What are your thoughts on the testing? Do you enjoy playing AAA releases on the Steam Deck? Let us know in the comments, and visit the Tech4Gamers Forums for more discussions.
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[Senior News Reporter]
Avinash is currently pursuing a Business degree in Australia. For more than 5 years, he has been working as a gaming journalist, utilizing his writing skills and love for gaming to report on the latest updates in the industry. Avinash loves to play action games like Devil May Cry and has also been mentioned on highly regarded websites, such as IGN, GamesRadar, GameRant, Dualshockers, CBR, and Gamespot.
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