What is the Steam Deck GPU equivalent and what graphics card it has
A small but mighty handheld console, the find the Steam Deck GPU equivalent
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If you’re wondering what graphics card is in the deck, and what the Steam Deck GPU equivalent is, then we provide you with the answer. Of course, it is a bit tougher comparison with the handheld to PC discrete hardware but we can find a good equivalent A single AMD APU serves as the foundation for Valve’s portable gaming console, which combines both central processing and graphics processing. Now we can also compare the OLED Steam Deck vs the original as well.
Comparisons to conventional desktop graphics cards are, thus, at best, difficult. In order to give you a notion of what PC video cards deliver a comparable degree of performance, we may nonetheless estimate a Steam Deck GPU equivalent. Unfortunately, a comparison of that nature does not provide a whole picture. We must comprehend how the Steam Deck APU differs from the typical desktop PC hardware in order to grasp performance better. This is because an AMD APU, or accelerated processing unit, is the foundation upon which Valve built the Steam Deck. These are chips that combine the CPU and GPU. Therefore the GPU in the Steam Deck is a component of a larger chip rather than a separate GPU.
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ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 6500 XT OC
What GPU is equivalent to Steam Deck?
Although the Steam Deck’s GPU specifications may not seem impressive on paper, its quick memory will significantly boost the device’s overall performance. The most recent version of Low Power Double Data Rate memory, 16GB of four-channel LPDDR5 RAM, is part of the hardware. In addition to being designed for mobile technology, this memory’s four channels offer the APU a tremendous amount of bandwidth.
It is challenging to compare the Steam Deck’s hardware to PC video cards. With a throughput of approximately 1.6 teraflops, the GPU has roughly the same amount of power as an Nvidia GTX 1050 or GTX 950. You probably already have access to more graphical capability than the Steam Deck can offer if your PC has a graphics card from 2018 or later. Think about the likes of the much more recent RTX 3050 or RX 6500 XT. We reviewed both the 3050 and 6500 XT for a hands-on and found the two to be a great choice for entry-level performance and bring you into the gaming sphere.
Gigabyte Geforce GTX 1050 OC Low Profile 2GB
Clock Speed
1392MHz – 1506MHz
VRAM
2GB GDDR5
Memory Bus Width
128 bit
ZOTAC GAMING RTX 3050 Twin Edge OC
Core Clock Speed
1822 MHz OC boost, 1777 MHz boost,1552 Base clock
CUDA Cores
2560
Memory Size
8GB GDDR6
Dimensions
224.1 x 116.3 x 39.2 mm (dual slot)
PSU Required
450W
Gigabyte Radeon RX 6500 XT GAMING OC 4G
Core Clock Speed
2815MHz boost, 2610 MHz game clock
Stream Processors
1024
Memory Size
4GB GDDR6
Dimensions
282 x 114 x 40 mm
PSU Required
400W
What GPU does the Steam Deck have?
Now with the OLED and LCD models both available there isn’t actually any difference between the GPUs themselves. But we do see some differences in the efficiency between the two of them. But the differences are just in the process node utilized in the processor itself but otherwise, the specs are as follows.
- 6 nm AMD APU/7 nm AMD APU
- CPU: Zen 2 4c/8t, 2.4-3.5GHz (up to 448 GFLOPS FP32)
- GPU: 8 RDNA 2 CUs, 1.6GHz (1.6 TFLOPS FP32)
- APU power: 4-15W
That means the graphics on the Steam Deck feature RDNA 2 AMD graphics with 8 compute units on it. Clocked in at 1.6GHz which provides it with 1.6 TFlops FP32 performance. In comparison the lowest discrete GPU from RX 6000, the RX 6400 comes with 12 CUs with a 3.565 TFLOPS float performance. This does make it a lower graphical choice but with a much smaller resolution to have to run.
