The Steam Deck is one of the most popular portable consoles in the world, and this has not failed to alert one of AMD’s competitors, Nvidia, which is already working on a potential competitor.
Since its launch, the Steam Deck has seen huge success, with millions of pre-orders and positive reviews. The device, which runs on an AMD APU processor, offers a portable and powerful gaming experience capable of running most PC games. However, Nvidia, the leading graphics card manufacturer, has been noticeably absent from the portable gaming PC market. This could soon change, because Rumors suggest that Nvidia is planning to launch its own wearable device.
According to a report from YouTuber Moore’s Law Is Dead (MLID)which claims to have spoken to Nvidia insiders, the company is “seriously considering making more portable gaming devices with their graphics intellectual property“. This would be the first Nvidia-powered handheld device since the Nintendo Switch, which also uses Nvidia’s Tegra chip.
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Nvidia wants its own Steam Deck competitor
However, Nvidia’s handheld device would not be limited to the console market, as MLID claims that Nvidia “is worried about missing a boat here and I was told directly that they are looking to working with someone on a high-end portable gaming device.” This device is expected to compete with the Steam Deck and other portable gaming PCs, such as the Ayaneo and the GPD Win 3.
It’s not yet clear who Nvidia’s partner is, but MLID speculates that it could be Asus, which already makes gaming laptops and smartphones with Nvidia’s GeForce GPUs. However, Nvidia faces a major obstacle to entering the portable gaming PC market: it does not have a license to manufacture x86 CPUswhich are the standard for PC gaming.
Unlike AMD and Intel, which can combine their CPUs and GPUs in a single chip, Nvidia would need a separate processor for its device. MLID claims to have heard that Nvidia “could even partner with Intel to make a high-end gaming handheld,” which would solve the x86 problem. However, this would also mean that the device would need more cooling and power, since the CPU and GPU would be separate components. This could make the device bulkier and less battery efficient than the Steam Deck.