The new handheld PC “Steam Deck” issued by Valve is expected to officially begin shipping at the end of this month. Wave test, even the cheapest version seems to be able to deliver unexpected performance in some aspects, because when the Micro SD memory card is installed on this Valve handheld, it can be used in various Steam games. Bring the read speed that is not lost to the SSD hard drive of the handheld itself. Therefore, even if players buy the $399 64 GB version, they don’t need to worry about storage space or reading speed as long as they purchase an additional SD memory card.
Linus Tech Tips and Phawx, two tech YouTubers, have recently launched a series of tests on the reading speed of the Steam Deck handheld, and finally found that after installing a Micro SD memory card, this handheld is in “Control”. , “Dead Cells” and “Fighting Whirlwind 5” and other games have obtained read speeds like SSD hard drives. In some cases, the reading speed of SD memory card is only about two seconds slower than SDD, but in most cases it is almost the same, with amazing reading speed.
However, there are still some counter-examples in many games, such as “Portal 2” and “Ghostrunner” (Ghostrunner) in the environment of SD memory card is about 10 to 17 seconds slower than SSD hard disk, so , the read speed of the final product may still vary from game to game. It is worth noting that Valve is currently only opening a small number of games to the players who got the handheld first. After all, the software and optimization system related to Steam Deck have not been officially completed. Even so, for a handheld with only 512GB of built-in storage, it’s still quite an astonishing result, but considering that almost all modern games have fairly large installed capacity requirements, when Steam Deck officially launched , Micro SD memory card is bound to become the standard for players.
In addition, the Steam Deck itself is equipped with an NVMe SSD hard drive, allowing players to get a good read speed without using an SD memory card. It is worth noting that in an official teardown video, Valve emphasized that they do not recommend that players replace the built-in NVMe SSD hard drive in the Steam Deck by themselves, even if it is indeed feasible. According to Valve, the SSD of this handheld is mounted very close to the wireless module, and the SSD itself has undergone many tests and designs to avoid affecting the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections of the handheld. Replacing the hard drive may have an impact.
Therefore, Valve strongly recommends that players who want to increase the capacity of the Steam Deck can purchase additional SD memory cards of good quality, and after this wave of tests, it has also proved that this is indeed a very efficient and low-risk option.