Addressing you both since the responses were similar. While it is true that Switch 2 has the benefit of closed platform optimizations, I am not convinced we can chalk it entirely up to this. The game runs very poor on Steam Deck even after you apply "low spec gamer" optimizations and essentially only runs well when you turn off RTGI. We have also seen Steam Deck specific optimizations in games like Elden Ring, so it isn't entirely unlikely that a developer could target Steam Deck.

I think much of the performance difference is because Ampere is just a better architecture when it comes to ray-tracing flop-to-flop than RDNA2. With similar raw performance levels between SW2 Handheld and Steam Deck, you're going to see SW2 outperform it in RT-centric titles. Furthermore, the RTGI implementation in Outlaws doesn't even fully utilize hardware acceleration as much as it could, and I would expect the difference to increase as the generation progresses. 

If the difference is due largely to a lower render  load on SW2, we'd expect resolution changes to scale better than it does in reality on Steam Deck. 

To be honest I agree with your point, I think Nvidia DLSS upscaling and some of the other features of the chipset are helping the Switch 2 punch above its weight but I feel there will be games that really need more CPU resources that will show Switch 2 to be very weak. I've seen people state the Switch 2 will be capable of pretty versions of older games rather than run the latest game engines well. I think we need a few more Switch 2 multi-platform conversions to get the full picture though. I totally accept Cyberpunk and Outlaws are delivering an experience which hasn't been scaled down that much and quite competitive with other platforms.

Looking at the Outlaws quality reductions for Switch 2, it looks to be general tweaks for weaker hardware but a couple of improvements over Xbox Series S. I'm not sure how the steamdeck compares with Outlaws.

– Ray tracing effects remain in tact
– Differences in lighting on Switch 2
– Switch 2 tends to be a bit coarser and sometimes overly dark or missing some lighting
– There are also cases where the lighting looks similar to Xbox Series S or even a few where Switch 2 is better
– Resolution of ray tracing likely takes a hit on Switch 2 with blurrier results on near smooth surfaces
– Shadows tend to be blurrier and blockier on Switch 2
– Distant shadows appear to be ray-traced like other consoles
– Volumetric fog cut back on Switch 2, but volumetric clouds are good
– Other various tweaks and cuts to assets
– Only 20GB, which is a third of other console versions
– Foliage and grass density scaled back on Switch 2
– The game uses DLSS with DRS
– Star Wars Outlaws has a typical resolution of 720p on Switch 2 with an output resolution of 1440p when docked
– 540p in handheld mode, but 1080p output with DLSS
– 30 frames per second target for Star Wars Outlaws on Switch 2
– Performance is pretty stable, no frame pacing problems
– Some menus run at 60 FPS
– Some cutscenes have slight drops
– Draw distance scaled back in handheld mode

At this point seems the Switch 2 hardware itself offers pretty good value in itself. Seems many AAA games will run better on Switch 2 than they do on pricier PC handhelds. Nintendo games are expensive but all third party games will get pretty steep price drops on the eshop the same way they get on other digital storefronts.

So the Switch 2 offers pretty good value all things considered.

All current evidence has shown us the opposite of "will be capable of pretty versions of older games rather than run the latest game engines well." 9th Generation feature heavy games have run much better on Switch 2 than Steam Deck and Rog Ally, while games with mostly 8th Generation features have Switch 2 versions running roughly comparable or slightly worse than what was observable on the mid-8th Generation refreshes. 

I don't think we need more conversions to get a full picture. We already have decent examples of what the Switch 2 is capable of achieving when a game is developed with its feature set in mind. Most 9th Gen only titles can run on the platform with mildly-compromised visuals at a locked 30fps. That is essentially the Switch 2 experience. What remains to be seen is how the Switch 2 deals with cross 9th-10th Generation titles when the PS6 releases in a few years. 

Star Wars Outlaws is essentially unplayable on the Steam Deck. Deck Wizard did a comparison a few weeks ago. I don't think Switch 2-esque optimization would get it in a playable state. 

Star Wars Outlaws was just such a kick in the balls to the "bu ... bu ... bu Switch 2 will be underpowered!!!! I promise!!!" crowd, lol. Basically ended any real debate for this thread. 

No surprise Nvidia probably has better architecture, they are a way, way bigger company than AMD and as such likely draw in and retain the best talent and engineers with more money to offer. Nvidia is more than 15x the market cap of AMD, that's a monstrous difference. 

To give proper credit to Nvidia, when they made the decisions that have ballooned their size and relevancy (2013-2018) they were much closer to AMD (60% vs. 40% discrete GPU market-share.) They just outcompeted AMD by making smart business decisions when considering the fact that Moore's Law was slowing and that the GPU business could expand beyond gaming.

I remember taking a CS course in 2015 where I was doing a project for a scientific computing problem (N-Body problem with hundreds of thousands of bodies.) I had an R9 280 at the time, and was disappointed to find out I couldn't use CUDA with an AMD GPU. I used OpenCL for the project, but CUDA would've been a lot better. My next GPU was a GTX 1060, largely because of that experience. 

Posted in the other thread, but handheld footage from TGS suggests RE Requiem holds up really well:

Capcom have also said that it was easier than they expected to port the game to Switch 2:

“Although we have released ports of the games to Nintendo platforms over the years, as you said, this is a bit more all-in on being day one on Switch 2, and that’s simply because when we got the Switch 2 hardware, we were surprised in a good way about how smooth the process was for us to bring the existing development version of the game to that platform”

https://nintendoeverything.com/resident-evil-requiem-dev-surprised-how-smooth-nintendo-switch-2-porting-process-was/

Together with Outlaws, this bodes well for third party support going forwards.

That's the thing with custom ports for custom hardware - if you do some napkin math, RTX 3060 is to Switch 2 (both Ampere) what something like RX 6600XT is to Steam Deck (both RDNA2) - but that is only if you let GPU inside Steam Deck run at its boosted clock (1600MHz) - like CP2077 does. And if you look up Outlaws benchmarks for those two GPUs, 3060 is just slightly above 6600XT.

I don't know at what GPU frequency that guy is running Steam Deck at when testing Outlaws, not that it matters much. Outlaws on Switch 2 (just like in case of CP2077) has lot of custom tweaks and cutbacks that help it run the way it runs, and those tweaks are not available on PC, even with lowest settings, so direct comparison is not really possible.

I find Outlaws to be best showcase of what Switch 2 can do, so far. But I'm not convinced that custom port of Outlaws would not perform fairly well on Deck (though not look as good, due to lack of DLSS/FSR4), given how both architectures behave in it when compared in their beefier iterations, instead of that stuttery mess you have in that video (is that even running of NVMe?).

It looks incredibly good! The trailer on the Nintendo Direct announcement looked kinda rough, I am glad it improved

I am not sure if we could use the RTX 3060 : SW2 <-> RX 6600XT : Steam Deck relationship to understand much, given that RTGI could be a bottleneck at lower compute/render-load for RDNA2 in a way it isn't for Ampere, but not much of a bottleneck when running the game at 1080p Ultra on these beefier twins because other aspects of the game's render pipeline might predominate after getting past that initial "minimum requirement" for the most basic RTGI. 

The fact that the game doesn't scale much in terms of performance with different input resolution hints that the bottleneck for Steam Deck isn't necessarily pure general render-load and cutting out some geometry probably would only marginally improve performance on Steam Deck. Especially when many of these cutbacks seem to be to improve a CPU-bottleneck on SW2 more than a GPU-bottleneck (entire assets are removed, object culling is changed, lower NPC density, etc) and Steam Deck has a significantly more powerful CPU than SW2 that shouldn't be too much of a bottleneck in the first place. I'd suspect a "Steam Deck" optimized version would instead cut into the RT pretty heavily, given that - that is the only modification that seems to drastically improve performance (unless one considers adding FG to "improve performance.") Just porting a SW2-esque version that mostly is cutting to save CPU resources and scaling by resolution to Steam Deck probably won't make it playable in the same way reducing render resolution doesn't already. 

And of course adding new lighting solutions is more difficult than cutting assets, from a development perspective. I do agree though, that it is hard to compare like-to-like here. But that is true of every PC vs. Console comparison and really isn't that important when talking about the end results for a given price -- which are what actually matter. Every platform, including Switch 2 (as HW-accelerated RT wasn't fully taken advantage of, as an example) could benefit from more optimization and more development resources.