After the launch of Steam’s own handheld Steam Deck, it brought PC players a more convenient way to play. However, a player in the overseas community did the opposite and installed an external graphics card for the Steam Deck to use as a general PC, causing inconvenience. Fewer topics and discussions.
Valve has told everyone in the past that Steam Deck cannot use external graphics cards, but this YouTuber named ETA Prime successfully solved this problem, allowing Steam Deck to connect to other graphics cards for a smoother gaming experience.
First of all, ETA Prime intends to use the built-in M.2 PCIe 4.0 slot of the Steam Deck as the location for setting the graphics card, so it finds an M.2 adapter part so that the graphics card can be connected to the Steam Deck.
Since the native Steam Deck OS cannot support external graphics cards, ETA Prime installed Windows 11 on a micro SD card, and used the built-in USB Type-C transmission interface of Steam Deck to use with a keyboard and mouse, successfully transforming Steam Deck into a micro SD card. A small PC.
Next, ETA Prime tested many graphics cards in a series, including: Nvidia GTX 1060, GTX 1650, RTX 3060, Radeon RX 590, RX 480 and RX 6900XT, all of which NVIDIA graphics cards failed to perform smoothly, only the graphics cards from the AMD camp can work.
Using Steam Deck with AMD RX 6900XT to execute multiple AAA games shows that The Witcher 3 can run more than 100 FPS, while Ayrden’s Ring and Cyberpunk 2077 are almost in the 40-50 FPS range. It’s quite emotional.
Performing the Fire Strike and Time Spy tests of 3D Mark, the running scores using the internal display and the external graphics card have improved by leaps and bounds. For example, the running scores of the Fire Strike internal display and the external graphics card are 4,340 and 16,357 respectively, which is fully using the internal display. 3.7 times the running score, which is quite amazing.
Judging from the above results, although it is a pity that Steam Deck is not compatible with the graphics cards of the NVIDIA camp, from the running score results of the graphics cards of the AMD camp, Steam Deck still has great development in expanding the specifications, and I also look forward to Valve’s future development. Taking the option of external graphics card into consideration, more players have the opportunity to experience the feeling of full performance through the handheld (?).
However, for us who are far away in Taiwan, even if Steam Deck can run the game smoothly with an external graphics card, it is still quite indifferent. First of all, where on earth can I buy this cool thing?