I have both and I prefer the steam deck. The Ally runs games better when they run, but the trip there always sucks, to the point that you never want to pick it up.

The Ally is actually much more of a “linux-like” experience because you can get more out of it, but you have to put a lot more work into it to get there. The steam deck is like a console.

Thanks

This one rated A2 should be better, but both say not for handheld gaming. Reviews seem good though.

https://a.co/d/cAl93sw

Where did you get 1tb SD cards for 50 bucks?

Back in the day I had a laptop with an Nvidia 7800GTX Mobile graphics card that I had over clocked to match the specs of a desktop 7800GTX. It ran at 117 Celsius under load and never had an issue. The system would shut down if I pushed the clocks and got to 120C, but 117 was fine. That system ran great for many years, and I’m guessing still works today.

These chips are designed to run at high temps. I never understood people trying to keep their GPUs at 45C with insane cooling when you could comfortably run at 90.

To be clear, not every chip is designed to handle temps above 70C, but TSMC manufactured ones generally do.

The other complication is the turbo/boost modes, which often are temperature based and throttle back after around 70C or so. Not sure to what extent that applies to steam deck, but Linus Tech Tips didn’t see a performance benefit of having a beefier cooler in the deck, just less temps and noise.

I never used the trackpad in NMS on the steam deck. Never even thought about it. I’ve generally found the SD trackpad too fiddly for mouse games and I usually get tired of playing them pretty quickly.

The trackpad are much more useful in desktop mode on the Steam Deck, and that’s where I really feel them missing on the Ally. It’s actually really tough, because the Ally is an amazing PC. Just as a straight up windows PC, it is incredibly fast, quiet, and has 4k120 output. It is better than any laptop I’ve ever owned. It runs Cinebench multicore at nearly 6x the speed as my Surface Book 2. Single core performance is comparable to my desktop with a 5900X. If it had a damn trackpad I would make it my only computer. As it is I’ll probably return it because the steam deck is more pleasant to use as a handheld gaming machine.

Totally worth it IMO.

I have a ROG Ally as well and it isn’t really “better” than the steam deck, because it uses a LOT more power to get better performance. That is to say, there is no chip out there that’s better for handheld gaming than the one already in the steam deck, so there’s nothing for Valve to upgrade to. I think they will want a custom chip for steam deck 2, but if they’re going custom that means they are looking at ~4+ year lifespans for each generation.

If you’re comfortable opening it up, the base model at $360 is the best deal, and you can add a 512 or 1tb drive.