Steam Deck 1 vs. Switch 2 - Which will be better?

[Jizz_Beard_thePirate]

Dulfite said:

Captain_Yuri said:

If the Switch 2 is based on Lovelace and Nintendo didn't make any dumb decisions to cut out potentially good features in favor gimmicks, the Switch 2 should absolutely beat the Steam Deck imo. The rumored performance jump between Ampere to Lovelace is supposed to be massive and that should trickle down to the lower end parts as well to a certain extent.

But if the first Steam Deck is successful, I am sure Valve will make a second iteration by the time Switch 2 comes out similar to how Valve has a successor to the Vive VR headset called the Valve Index.

Yeah I'm thinking Valve will release updated models way more frequently than a traditional console does, rather than new iterations that stick to the same capabilities. I'm thinking every 2 ish years we will get an updated Steam Deck? Just my prediction. Then again if they truly sell like crazy then Valve may stick to a traditional 6 year life and we may wait until 2027/2028 before we get Steam Deck 2, which means the Switch 2 will have been the best device on the market for a few years (if, when it launches, it is more powerful than Steam Deck 1).

Yea 2-3 years sounds about right. I think even if the Steam Deck sells crazy high, Valve will most likely release a new revision with every new GPU cycle which happens every 2 or so years. For better or for worse, Valve isn't limited in needing to sell a base version that developers can target their games around. That does mean the Switch 2 will age better than Steam Deck 1. But Steam Deck will still have the advantages of being a PC where you can tweak graphical settings and enabling mods to help it run games that say 3-5 years down the line, certain AAA games might be too much.

But since it's a first gen device, no one should be going into it expecting long term viability. That type of a person, if interested in a device like the Steam Deck, should wait for the second iteration if that ever happens as that will age far better.