Valve’s Steam Deck fixes the major issue that impacts all of AMD’s integrated graphics chips
Valve’s Steam Deck fixes the major issue that impacts all of AMD’s integrated graphics chips
Valve has updated the specifications page of its Steam Deck website to confirm that the handheld will feature 16GB of LPDDR5 memory that operates in a quad-channel configuration at 5500MT/s. That’s four 32-bit LPDDR5 memory channels, a factor that gives Valve’s Steam Deck more memory bandwidth than any of AMD’s older integrated graphics solutions.
Valve’s Steam Deck system should avoid being bandwidth starved thanks to this memory setup, given the system’s relatively low 1280 x 800 resolution. Valve’s Steam Deck specifications also give their handheld console more bandwidth per GPU TFLOP than all of the latest consoles, which is good news for PC gamers.
If there is one thing that we can say about Valve’s Steam Deck, it’s that they did not skip on the unit’s memory configuration. 16GB of LPDDR5 in a quad-channel configuration will deliver more than enough bandwidth for modern PC titles, though only time will tell how this setup will stand the test of time.
While the memory bandwidth of Valve’s Steam Deck will need to play double duty as both CPU and GPU memory, the same can be said for all modern gaming consoles. In terms of hardware specifications, Valve’s Steam Deck stands head and shoulders above Nintendo’s Switch, offering gamers much newer hardware and support for the latest GPU features like hardware-accelerated ray tracing, mesh shaders and more.
With Valve’s updated Steam Deck specifications in mind, we are confident to call the system a well-balanced system hardware-wise, at least on paper. Bandwidth starvation is a major concern for gamers who rely on integrated graphics, and we are looking forward to seeing what the Steam Deck is capable of when it launched later this year.
You can join the discussion on Valve’s Steam Deck memory specifications on the OC3D Forums.
