Switch 2 vs Steam Deck: the Cyberpunk 2077 face-off
Switch 2 vs Steam Deck: the Cyberpunk 2077 face-off
One of the most requested pieces of Digital Foundry content has been a comparison between Nintendo Switch 2 and Valve's…
I mean these comparisons are always a bit redundant to me. I get multiplatform games like that on steam, I use switch for Nintendo games and other casual stuff that I prefer to play handheld and are not super resource hogs.
The only people that this would affect are the extreme edge case where you have no PC or gaming laptop or Xbox/PS but have both a deck AND a switch 2 AND you don't care about the price difference and you really want the best handheld performance.
Isn't the Steam Deck already a few years old now? Is this even a fair comparison?
Of course it is. If you want to buy a handheld now you want to know which one has more power, no matter when it was released.
They're roughly the same price so it's a fair comparison
But the games aren't the same price. And the policies ran by the companies aren't the same. I don't think Valve has ever said they're going to break your steam deck if you use it in a way they haven't deemed fit. And I'd question if you can mod games on the switch, like even games that normally support it.
Until end of 2026 and the release of Deck 2, Switch 2 will be in a bit better position. Value remains on Steam Deck though.
Looks more like a DSSL testing (which had dedicated cores/hardware) rather the actual potential. Also, one single title, wake me when there's a test to match everything SteamDeck can emulate (Switch 1 too)
The Switch 1 and 2 are kind of unbeatable in power efficiency, and I'm not surprised a port of CP2077 is running better on the Switch 2 than on the Steam Deck. I wish they used a better screen and bigger battery out the gate with the Switch 2, but there will no doubt be a mid gen refresh with those things.
I think if you have a lot of money for buying games that are only going to work on one system, the Switch 2 is a better product for people that want a system that just works out the box. Steam Deck is for people with patience and an existing library.
The best part when I bought my steam deck is that I already had 850 games where a majority of them work on it and it didn't cost me anything extra.
And the steam deck 3 will support those games
The potential extra optimization on consoles lessens the blow of paying a bit more.
I'm not so sure about that. I feel if you already have a steam library, a pc handheld is kinda hard to beat. Depending on what you like, you might already own every game you'll want for the Steam Deck. Even if you gotta buy everything new, Steam does sales more often and more aggressively than Nintendo.
If you're not into paying for things, you can pirate on the Steam Deck. Who knows when the Switch 2 will be jailbroken.
For me, now that there are viable Linux Handhelds, I think I'd kind of struggle to justify one running a proprietary OS.