We are in full hello heat, with very high temperatures, not only in Spain, but in practically all of Europe. That said, high temperatures are not only dangerous and even deadly for us, but also for any electronic device. So a week ago nintendo already warned that his nintendo switch could die out due to rising temperatures, and now it’s the turn of its main rival. It’s the steam bridge of Valvewho also It will go out if it reaches very high temperatures.
Valve already warns, similarly to Nintendo, to avoid playing with our Steam Decks in sweltering heat. And it is that consoles, mobiles and other devices always they work better and faster when the temperature is optimal. Indeed, once a certain threshold is reached, the console will reduce your performancein order to consume less, and, hopefully, does not reach the limit temperature. However, there are cases when this is not possible and when the maximum allowable temperature is reached, it turns off.
If the APU of the Steam Deck exceeds 105°C, it will shut down to protect itself
A little more detail on this – the Steam Deck APU performs well in temperatures up to 100°C. At 100°C it will begin to limit performance and at 105°C it will stop. Again, this is to protect itself (and you) from harm.
– Steam Deck (@OnDeck) July 19, 2022
This is the case of the Steam Deck, where Valve recommends us to play with it at an ambient temperature between 0° and 35°C, which is really difficult when most of Spain reaches or exceeds this temperature. At least in the street in full sun, midday and afternoon; not a very good time and place to start playing with the Steam Deck. That said, Valve adds that if the ambient temperature exceeds 35°C, the Steam Deck could suffer. thermal throttling (thermal throttling), so playability may be affected.
With throttling, the Steam Deck will decrease its frequencies, that is to say its performance, to avoid increasing its temperature even more. Thus, one can continue to play with it, without worrying beyond lose some FPS in our games. It is something universal in the world of processors, chart, SSD and other components, and when it is not possible to refrigerate them adequately, it is necessary to warn them before their condition is endangered.
In addition, Valve provides another piece of information regarding the temperatures that the valve can reach. COULD from the Steam Deck. According to them, it will last until 100°C sin sufrir thermal throttling, and, therefore, not losing performance. Howeverfrom 100°C it will have a bottleneck to avoid increasing the temperature further, because if the COULD reaches the 105°Cthe Steam Deck will shut down to protect you. We recommend this way, that if you don’t want to be afraid, monitor the temperature internal Steam Deck with the tools offered by the console.
Nintendo has already warned us not to use the Switch at an ambient temperature above 35°C
Valve isn’t the first to make an announcement of this nature, as Nintendo was ahead of high temperature warnings that could affect its nintendo switch. Thus, he set a limit similar to that of Deck, advising us to use it only between 5 and 35 degrees centigrade, still a bit complicated with the heat wave. Additionally, Nintendo shared some other tips for the Switch, like avoiding freezing vents while we play, go 10cm space take the air and clean them if they are dirty.
The last of his recommendations was to warn that playing in Modo docking station, notably raised the temperatures and therefore insisted that it be used like that in a cool place. So we can avoid any type of overheated and not be afraid. Although good, in case of reaching a very high temperature (they do not specify which one), the Nintendo Switch boots standby automatically.
So here we already have two consoles that are receiving warnings about being used at high temperatures and even the Nintendo Switch, which consumes much less power than the Steam Deck, suffers the same fate. And it is that, both have a refrigeration system adequate under optimum temperature conditions, but limit when these are high. Also keep in mind that the Steam Deck has recently adjusted the fan curve, getting a less noise in exchange for a few higher temperaturesso be careful that the summer is long enough.