If you happen to’re one of many fortunate players to personal a Steam Deck (opens in new tab), you may wish to heed this warning from Valve. The corporate has closely implied customers ought not use the hand-held gaming PC in temperatures exceeding 35°C, as that will see the machine hit its thermal limits and decelerate or just shut off.
For our buddies within the midst of a heatwave, a fast word about Steam Deck in excessive temperatures. Steam Deck performs at its finest in ambient temperatures between 0° and 35° C. If the temperature will get larger than this, Steam Deck could begin to throttle efficiency to guard itself.July 19, 2022
The customized AMD APU throughout the Steam Deck is designed to run as much as 100°C, no questions requested. That appears excessive sufficient to climate any outside situation, nevertheless it’s all about ambient air temperature. In our testing the Deck’s silicon reached round 60–70°C whereas gaming, although has been identified to rise up to round 80°C with much less aggressive fan profiles in place. Meaning any main fluctuations in outside temperatures might trigger complications.
After 100°C, the Steam Deck will start to crank down efficiency and energy to assist preserve that temperature from exceeding its most, which is a sweltering 105°C. At that temp, the system will shut itself right down to keep away from any harm being finished to the APU.
It isn’t essentially a harmful factor to occur, as the entire level of your CPU having a safeguard towards excessive temperatures is in order that it does not hit a temperature that will probably be an issue for the silicon inside.
However when you are avoiding harm when hitting that temperature restrict, it is nonetheless not advisable to take action usually.
Exceeding your CPU’s TJ Max temperature—the purpose the place a CPU will start to drive temperatures down by any means mandatory—is not a brand new one to PC players. I am positive any overclocker has hit that time earlier than or simply anybody who was unfortunate sufficient to have bolted on their CPU cooler slightly wonky.
However the Steam Deck is not your common gaming PC, and it does not have a number of room inside to vent out extraordinarily sizzling air. The truth is, in case your CPU is overheating, due to the all-in-one nature of the Steam Deck’s AMD processor, that additionally means your GPU is getting awfully toasty. And your RAM. And your SSD. It is a compact machine and there are numerous thermally delicate components inside it that want as a lot recent, cool air as doable to perform at their finest.
The warmth will have an effect on efficiency of the Deck at some extent, and that is one thing the Steam Deck, with its low-power however well-optimised APU, cannot afford to lose a lot of.
So in the event you’re nonetheless combating the warmth outdoor, maybe it is best to go away your Steam Deck inside the home this summer season. Or a minimum of preserve it safely saved till you are in a shady spot or someplace with AC.
The identical is true on your telephone, laptop computer, and all method of electronics. Most chips have a tendency swap themselves off across the identical kind of temperature, so all of it comes right down to their cooling resolution as to how properly they fare. Direct daylight will in all probability be a killer for many, in any case, as cooling followers and heatsinks can not cool parts decrease than ambient temperature, and sub-ambient cooling is hardly moveable.
The unhappy reality is that we’ll should be extra thoughtful of how we use our electronics outdoor in coming years and a long time, as temperatures are set to proceed to rise globally on account of human-caused local weather change (opens in new tab) and heatwaves turn out to be extra frequent.
