Valve Steam Deck should support Windows 11 as well
There is nothing that should prevent Steam Deck from supporting Windows 11, claims Steam Deck’s development team.
Steam Deck is the upcoming next-generation handheld console featuring AMD’s latest Zen2/RDNA2 APU codenamed Van Gogh. First consoles should start shipping to customers by the end of this year. Steam’s approach to open-source platforms means that the Deck will not only support its in-house SteamOS operating system which is based on Arch Linux but also Windows 10. With the recent announcement from Microsoft about its successor, Windows 11, gamers and the media are naturally curious if the Steam Deck will also support this operating system.
Microsoft’s push for a more secure platform means that only SecureBoot/TPM 2.0 supporting devices will be able to run Windows 11 without any tricks. This includes the AMD desktop Ryzen 3000 series, which are based on Zen2 microarchitecture, just as the Van Gogh APU in Steam Deck. However, the support for TPM also requires BIOS support, and that’s something that Valve and AMD are currently evaluating.
“There’s work looking at TPM just now. We’ve focused so much on Windows 10, so far, that we haven’t really gotten that far into it. Our expectation is that we can meet that.”
— Greg Coomer, Valve Steam Deck designer
Should Steam Deck officially support TPM, it would become a truly multi-OS console, possibly with multi-boot functionality. This, in addition to a broad range of game launchers and emulators available for each platform, may create one of the most interesting gaming handhelds for this year.
| Handheld Gaming Consoles | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VideoCardz | Steam Deck | One XPlayer | Aya Neo 2021 | Aya Neo 2021 Pro | Nintendo Switch | Nintendo Switch OLED |
| Picture |  |  |  | |  |  |
| Architecture | AMD Zen2 & RDNA2 | Intel Tiger Lake | AMD Zen2 (Renoir) | AMD Zen2 (Renoir) | ARM Cortex | ARM Cortex |
| SoC | AMD Van Gogh | Core i7-1185G7*** Core i7-1165G7** Core i7-1135G7* | Ryzen 5 4500U | Ryzen 7 4800U | NVIDIA Tegra X1 | NVIDIA Tegra X1 |
| SoC CPU | 4C/8T @ 3.5 GHz | 4C/8T * 4.2*, 4.7**, 4.8*** GHz | 6C/6T @ 4.0 GHz | 8C/16T @ 4.2 GHz | 4x A57 + 4x A53 | 4x A57 + 4x A53 |
| SoC GPU | AMD RDNA2 8 CUs @ 1.6 GHz | Xe-LP (Iris) 96 EUs @ 1.35 GHz | AMD Radeon Vega 6 @ 1.5 GHz | AMD Radeon Vega 8 @ 1.750 GHz | NVIDIA Maxwell 256 CUDA | NVIDIA Maxwell 256 CUDA |
| Memory | 16GB LPDDR5-5500 | 16GB LPDDR4X-4266 | 16GB LPDDR4X-4266 | 16GB LPDDR4X-4266 | 4GB LPDDR4-3200 | 4GB LPDDR4-3200 |
| Storage | 64GB eMMC (PCIe Gen2x1) 256GB/512GB NVMe (PCIe Gen3x4) | 512GB*, 1TB **, 2TB *** NVMe | 512 GB / 1TB NVMe | 1TB / 2TB NVMe SSD | 32GB | 64GB |
| Display | 7″ 1280×800 IPS | 8.4″ 2560×1600 IPS | 7″ 1280×800 IPS | 7″ 1280×800 IPS | 6.2″ 1280×720 5.5″ 1280×720* | 7″ 1280×720 OLED |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5 | Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5, USB 4.0 x2 | WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.0 | WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.0 | WiFi 5, Bluetooth 4.1 | WiFi 5, |
| Battery | 40 Whr | 15,300 mAh | 12,300 mAh | 12,300 mAh | 4310 mAh | |
| Weight | 669 g | 820 g | 650 g | 650 g | 400g / 277g* | 420g |
| Dimensions | 29.8 x 11.7 x 4.9 cm | 28.8 x 13.0 x 2.1 mm | 25.5 x 10.6 x 2.0 cm | 25.5 x 10.6 x 2.0 cm | 23.9 x 10.1 x 1.4 cm 20.8 x 9.1 x 1.4 cm* | 24.2 x 10.2 x 1.39 cm |
| OS | Steam OS 3.0 (Arch) | Windows 10 | Windows 10 | Windows 10 | Custom | Custom |
| Release Price | $399 (64GB) $529 (256GB) $649 (512GB) | $1,059 * $1,158 ** $1,599 *** | $925 (16G/512GB) $1,015 (16G/1TB) | $1,215 (16G/1TB) $? (16G/2TB) | $299 $199* | $349 |
| Release Date | Holiday 2021 | June/July 2021 | March 2021 | TBC | March 2017 Sep 2019* | Holiday 2021 |
| * Standard Edition ** Pro Edition *** Ultimate Edition | * Lite | |||||
Source: PC Gamer
