Following warnings from Valve (opens in new tab) concerning the utmost (and minimal) temperatures your Steam Deck (opens in new tab) is completely satisfied to function at, the little handheld gaming PC will now warn you when it is working exterior its secure working temperature vary.
As a part of a major update to the Steam Deck’s OS (opens in new tab), model 3.3, Valve has added a warning to inform customers when their machine is susceptible to working slowly, or not working in any respect from extreme warmth or chilly.
For the document, the Steam Deck’s secure working vary is between 0–35°C. In the event you exceed these temperatures, the system might throttle efficiency and even shutdown.
At excessive temperatures that is comprehensible, because the CPU and GPU, on this case an all-in-one AMD APU chip, will exceed temperatures its silicon is designed to run at. At 100°C, the Steam Deck chip will throttle. At 105°C, it’s going to swap off.
The ambient temperature will play an enormous function in reaching these types of temperatures, because the Steam Deck will run at 60–70°C whereas gaming in a room at round 20°C ambient temp.
However when you thought you would be wonderful gaming within the arctic, then suppose once more. While you get all the way down to sub-zero temperatures, it is a completely different ball sport totally. We requested Steam Deck designer, Lawrence Yang, about what the chance is of working the Steam Deck in these types of tremendous chilled environments, and he advised us it is largely all the way down to the battery.
“At very chilly temperatures the battery begins to have a tough time,” Yang says. “Identical to any battery powered machine, [the] Steam Deck’s battery cannot maintain peak energy draw at temperatures under 0°C (just like the way in which automobiles have a more durable time beginning in freezing climate). If temperatures do get this low, we’ll begin to throttle the system to keep up battery longevity.”
So, in principle, you will note that new warning from Valve in any temperature exceeding 35°C or under zero. We do not dare to check it with our solely Steam Deck unit, although.
