Valve’s Steam Deck technically allows you to swap out the SSD, targets 30fps gameplay

Some important details have emerged about Valve-meets-PC’s Steam Deck handheld console – particularly about its target performance level and whether you can actually install your own NVMe SSD to upgrade the storage.

In a video interview with IGN, Valve said that the Steam Deck’s 800p display, capable of up to 60Hz refresh rate, will target 30Hz for gameplay. In other words, Nintendo Switch comparisons could go a little deeper than the surface, as many games on this platform perform well below 60fps. However, given that most PC games offer a plethora of graphics settings for fine tuning, the Steam Deck should be able to achieve smoother gameplay at the expense of graphics quality if you’re willing to knock down a few settings, depending on the. game. of course.

Valve also shared that crucially the standard M.2 2230 size SSDs used in the Steam Deck are not soldered to the board. In the world of gaming laptops, this usually means that efforts have been made to ensure that M.2 SSDs are easy to replace with, say, a bigger one you might already have on hand, or a which may not cost as much. as much as Valve charges for storage upgrades. An article by IGN confirms that you can technically remove and upgrade the storage in a Steam Deck yourself, but the focus is on repairability, not increasing the tuning factor for the daily user. So, these SSD slots may not be as accessible as we hope, like the PS5 slot which is covered with an easy-to-remove plastic shield, but we don’t know for sure because Valve didn’t. not shown inside the steam bridge.

Image: Valve

Yazan Aldehayyat, valve material engineer, said IGN that “repairability is something we focused on and tried to make it as repairable as possible. But it’s really for people who know what they’re doing and have experience in it. If Valve isn’t exaggerating the difficulty, some people might be better off going for a larger microSD card to store more games – a much simpler operation.

The Steam Deck specs state that the M.2 SSD is “not intended to be replaced by the end user,” after all. This won’t stop some people – voiding a warranty could, however. IGN does not categorically confirm whether or not attempting to swap SSDs will void your warranty, although the post says it likely does. The edge has contacted Valve, and we will update this message if we receive confirmation of the impact of the storage upgrade attempt on warranty status.

The Steam Deck is available for reservation now, and those who were the first to reserve one will be the first to receive their orders from December 2021. Reserving one requires a $ 5 investment which will be used towards the purchase. final. However, unless you have already done so, the expected console order availability is currently set for Q2 2022.