Steam Deck gaming benchmarks just leaked — and it's a handheld powerhouse

Steam Deck gaming benchmarks scarcely leaked — and it's a handheld ball of fire

The Valve Steam Deck on a blue background.

(Image credit: Valve)

Update: Valve has dropped a load of new information about the Steam Deck that sheds much light along the handheld PC's capabilities.

When Valve disclosed the Steam Adorn, the company claimed that the system of rules offered "more than enough performance to melt the latest Abdominal aortic aneurysm games in a very effectual major power gasbag."

Lengthways is non the same thing as "running well," just we can remain a bit easier thereon battlefront now, equally a Chinese exploiter has released benchmarks taken from a Steamer Deck ontogeny kit. Given this isn't the all over product, you probably can't undergo these figures American Samoa identical to what the first retail units wish offer, simply it's unlikely performance will get worsened erstwhile things receive been fuly optimized.

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Without the power to extend to actual benchmarking software package easily on Steam Deck, the exploiter turned to a identification number of games to test real-public performance. And the results are extremely promising, with only one — Cyberpunk 2077, predictably — giving the Steam Knock down a hard time.

Opening with Shadow of the Tomb Spoiler, the game delivered a solid 30fps plus along the Highest and Last presets, with performance easily upped to 60fps by lowering things a bit further. End of the world was equally capable of hitting the legerdemain 60fps frame in rate on the Intermediate preset, dropping to a very playable 46fps with the quality bumped up a notch.

Every bit you might expect for a game that's now 8 years old, DOTA 2 ran same comfortably on the Steam Deck, hitting dormy to 47fps along the highest setting, and 80fps on the last (yield to an external monitor, given the Steam Deck's screen is a 60Hz number).

Cyberpunk 2077, however, well-tried more problematic. Not only did it surrender the Steam Decorate's one doss during testing, but performance was stuck some the 20 to 30fps level n 'High' with close to freeze.

Maddeningly, the leaker didn't reveal how it performed when lower graphics settings were applied. But information technology is worth noting that the Steam Deck's troubles hither don't look to be anything to do with the halting's good word of an SSD for best performance, as the leaker mentions that the hardware has 512GB of space at one stage (only the entry-level 64GB mock up uses slower eMMC storage).

After 3 hours of apply, the Steam Deck had apparently dropped from 100% battery to 46%, which ISN't bad in the least, and pretty close to Valve's own estimate of 2 to eight hours. But altogether this AAA gaming in such a small package does lead to a device that'll sure get toasty: measuring the temperature mid session revealed a high of 42.6 degrees Celsius (108 degrees F) on the rearward, though this was low-spirited to a Sir Thomas More usable 29 degrees C (84 F) on the grips.

Early adopters will get their Steam clean Decks in December, simply if you missed that boat you've got a longer wait ahead of you, with Valve quoting a shipping date of "after Q2 2022".

More: Valve Steamer Deck looks awesome, but I'm ready until Razer makes one

Freelance contributor Alan has been writing about tech for over a decade, covering phones, drones and everything in between. Previously Deputy Editor of tech site Alphr, his language are institute all over the web and in the occasional magazine too. When not weighing up the pros and cons of the modish smartwatch, you'll probably ascertain him tackling his ever-growing games backlog. Or, more likely, playing Spelunky for the millionth time.