Since the Steam Deck was introduced, there has been a lot of talk about its similarities to the Nintendo Switch, but unlike Nintendo’s hybrid console, Valve’s portable PC will not improve its performance when connected to the dock; This does not mean that you will not take advantage of the higher resolution of a monitor or television.
In that case, yes, Steam Deck will display its contents at a higher resolution. However, the performance of the machine will be exactly the same, so it is possible that the game will not go as smoothly as it would at the native resolution of Steam Deck.Valve studied the possibility of improving the performance of the Steam Deck when connected to the dock, PC Gamer has learned.
“But we chose not to make [the dock] a priority design element. We thought it was actually better not to modify the system based on whether or not it was docked,” says one of the Steam Deck designers, Greg Coomer. The reason is that Valve has chosen to “prioritize” the portable mode, considering it will be “the main use” of Steam Deck.”
From that perspective, we chose the performance spectrum where the machine would perform well, with a good frame rate in triple A games. We didn’t really feel like we had to chase the dock scenario with higher resolutions as well. We wanted to maintain a simple design and prioritize that very thing.
Days ago Valve itself spoke about the performance of the machine stating that 30fps are the minimum goal, not the top of the console.On the similarities with Nintendo Switch, Valve engineers also noted that Steam Deck targets a different audience.
