The Steam Deck is one of the most popular devices in the world of PC gaming right now, and ever since its launch back in 2022. The idea that you can have a handheld device that can play most modern PC games with good enough performance seems like it wouldn’t have been feasible just a few short years ago, so it really feels like a revolution.
But really, when you look at it, the Steam Deck is no more than a small laptop. It’s one of the more custom gaming handhelds in terms of its processor design, yes, but it’s still running an AMD-based processor that can just as easily run a full Windows installation, and ultimately, it just shows that any relatively modern laptop can be a solid gaming machine these days.
The Steam Deck is just using laptop hardware
Somewhat modified, but still
The processor inside the Steam Deck is a custom AMD design featuring four Zen 2 CPU cores and 8 RDNA 2 compute units, combining specs from some of AMD’s slightly older Zen-based CPUs and a relatively modern (at the time) graphics architecture. Both of these are the same things AMD has been using in its laptop processors for years, even if they’re combined in a new way.
Other gaming handhelds are even less distinct. The AMD Ryzen Z1 and Z1 Extreme were essentially just rebranded versions of laptop processors with next to no differences outside of the name. We’re seeing some more customized designs now with the Z2 series, but they still don’t stray far from AMD’s laptop chips.
If you’re okay with the kind of visual experience the Steam Deck and other gaming handhelds can provide, there’s nothing to stop you from just running games with the same quality on any standard laptop. You don’t need a big and expensive gaming laptop for it, any basic ultrabook will have similar — and sometimes better — processors with similar capabilities.
Low-power processors are getting really good
AMD FSR and Intel XeSS go a long way
It’s true that a simple laptop processor is nowhere near as powerful as the Nvidia RTX 5090 in your desktop, but these processors are innovating a lot in terms of features that help make up the difference in performance. AMD has had FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) for some time, and Intel has also implemented its own upscaling technology with XeSS.
These technologies allow games to look and run much better on these small and lightweight devices while keeping power consumption low, which is why standard laptops are increasingly great machines for gaming.
Of course, these processors are also just getting more powerful in general, and considering the diminishing returns we’ve been seeing in high-end graphics, these improvements truly lessen the gap in terms of the overall experience.
It also helps that many of the most popular games are designed to easily scale to lower-end machines. You can downgrade titles like Fortnite to the point where they will look terrible, but they will run, and most likely run smoothly. This scalability makes it easier for more people to get in on the fun.
Lossless scaling is amazing
Frame generation for everyone
We’ve covered Lossless Scaling in the past, but it can’t be understated how much of a difference this app makes. It’s designed for Windows, but it recently got a semi-official port to Linux for the Steam Deck and other handhelds, and it’s the ultimate “elixir” to turn any PC into a far more capable gaming rig.
Lossless Scaling essentially enables frame generation — akin to Nvidia’s DLSS 4 — for a very wide range of games and supports the majority of modern laptop hardware. This means you can instantly increase your framerates on a wide range of games for a smooth experience, even if you don’t have the performance of a powerful gaming rig.
In fact, this app goes even further. It also provides resolution upscaling similar to the solutions I mentioned in the section above, so even if you have an older laptop processor that doesn’t support the modern upscaling features (specifically on the Intel side), you can still get some of those goodies and improve your experience that much more.
Lossless Scaling has truly changed what you can expect in terms of gaming performance from thin and light devices. It’s a whole new world now.
You can install SteamOS, too
Support may be hit or miss, but you should be fine
All of what I’ve just described applies to Windows as well as Linux, but the Steam Deck does have the extra benefit of running SteamOS, an Arch-based Linux distribution that can benefit from lower overhead. There’s just a lot less going on in the background in SteamOS, and thanks to that, gaming performance on the Steam Deck can often be better than on Windows for comparable hardware. Plus, there’s Steam Gaming Mode, which enables a more streamlined and optimized experience, reducing background tasks even further to deliver better performance.
But this doesn’t have to be a benefit exclusive to the Steam Deck, either. Recently, Valve started publishing SteamOS releases for anyone to download and install on their machines, though official support is still limited. You can also install Bazzite, another Linux distro that aims to replicate and even enhance the SteamOS experience for a wider range of PCs. Both will give you similar performance benefits.
And while Lossless Scaling is developed for Windows first, the community has taken care of porting it to Linux, which means you can use it even if you do install one of these distros. It’s a wonderful combination.
PC gaming is more accessible than ever
It’s easy to let yourself think that PC gaming is something reserved for those with dedicated hardware, whether it’s an expensive PC or a dedicated device you can hold in your hand. but if anything, these handheld devices have made it more obvious than ever that you can use any computer as your gaming rig. If you want to use your laptop for gaming, you most certainly can, and even an older machine you may have lying around still has potential to be serviceable. It’s worth giving it a shot to see how far we’ve come.