![The Steam Deck's Specs Have Changed, And Nobody Noticed Until Now [Update]](https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/c_fill,f_auto,fl_progressive,g_center,h_675,pg_1,q_80,w_1200/a7fa2dffecc4585e5548a7323ba9bfc9.png "The Steam Deck's Specs Have Changed, And Nobody Noticed Until Now [Update]")
The Steam Deck’s Specs Have Changed, And Nobody Noticed Until Now [Update]
Image: Valve
Anyone who purchased certainly one of Valve’s Steam Decks at launch received a really specific mannequin of stable state drive put in of their machine. Anyone shopping for yet one more not too long ago has obtained a distinct drive, one which’s probably slower.
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As Hardwareluxx experiences (by way of PC Gamer), all Steam Decks that initially shipped with both a 256 or 512GB SSD would have had them related by way of 4 “lanes.” Now, some items are delivery with drives that join by way of simply two “lanes,” a change that would in concept end in slower efficiency because you’re basically halving the drive’s bandwidth.
This swap wasn’t publicly introduced by way of a press launch or assertion, and Steam Decks delivery with these newer drives haven’t been differentiated by a brand new mannequin quantity. Indeed the one public point out of the change in any respect got here when Valve quietly edited the hand held’s specs web page again on the finish of May.
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As a consequence, the one manner you will discover out whether or not you will have the unique SSD put in in your Steam Deck or not is to verify its specs within the system’s menu. Under “Hard Disk Drive,” as PC Gamer advises, it is advisable to search for:
In the suitable panel it’ll have a code. Our 512GB evaluation mannequin has a Phison ESMP512GKB4C3-E13TS drive. That appears to be a customized 2230 SSD utilizing Phison’s Gen3 x4 E13 controller. So, you need to verify whether or not your code ends with -E13T, too, or one thing else totally. If it features a code like -E08 (Phison’s Gen3 x2 controller) then your Deck is a kind of with a drive working on a Gen3 x2 interface.
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I’ve been cautious with my language about efficiency above as a result of we haven’t seen any assessments that might show there’s a transparent distinction in stuff like load instances or FPS between the 2 totally different builds, no less than on video games presently accessible and totally supported on the platform. Which is comprehensible, given the information has solely simply been reported, and that with items nonetheless onerous to pay money for, few if any folks could have two Steam Decks they will straight examine.
It also needs to be famous that there are all types of how a recreation’s efficiency could be bottlenecked exterior of an SSD’s personal efficiency, and that Valve would have examined these parts internally earlier than launch. You would anticipate that had there been any noticeable hits on how a recreation ran, the change would have been extra publicly introduced. We’ve contacted the corporate for remark although and can replace if we hear again.
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UPDATE July 1, 6:30pm: Valve tells Kotaku:
For improved redundancy and manufacturing capability, many parts of Steam Deck come from a number of suppliers. One of our SSD suppliers offers PCle Gen 3 x4 NVMe SSDs, whereas one other offers a x2 (2 lane) SSD.
Our workforce has examined each parts extensively, and decided there is no such thing as a end-user affect to efficiency between the 2 fashions.
SSD efficiency is presently gated by components unrelated to PCIe bandwidth. In extraordinarily unusual circumstances, variations in learn/write velocity caps might minimally affect file switch speeds, however OS efficiency, loading instances, recreation efficiency, and recreation responsiveness are an identical between the x2 and x4 drives.