The Steam Deck and Switch 2 represent different philosophies in handheld gaming. One brings PC gaming to your palm, while the other offers a hybrid experience bridging handheld and big-screen play. In raw numbers, there is not much separating their GPU and CPU performance in handheld mode.

However, Nintendo's system pulls ahead significantly when docked. Docking dramatically ups the GPU clocks available to the Switch 2, allowing best-in-class games to be played in 4K on modern TVs. In most instances, the Switch 2 is more powerful than the Steam Deck.

In handheld mode, there is not a huge difference in polygon-pushing grunt between the two. Yet once connected to its dock, the power gap increases substantially. When comparing internal components, the difference is surprisingly small.

On the GPU front, the Switch 2 has a slight edge, capable of delivering 4K/60 fps gameplay thanks to Nvidia DLSS. The Deck's AMD GPU is capable of handling titles like Elden Ring at 720p/30 fps. The Switch 2 can really pull away in power when docked, topping out at around 3.7 TFLOPS compared to the Steam Deck's static 1.6 TFLOPS.

Regarding CPUs, the Steam Deck has the advantage with a clock speed that can be cranked up to 3.5GHz, substantially faster than the Switch 2's normal 1.1GHz. However, the Switch 2's ARM-based processor is more modern. Where the Steam Deck pulls ahead is on the memory front, featuring 16GB of unified memory compared to the Switch 2's 12GB.

Generally speaking, Switch 2 games are better optimized. That is largely because the system is a fixed platform; developers know exactly what hardware they are tailoring games for. The real optimization ace up the Switch 2's sleeve is DLSS, which allows developers to choose a low internal resolution before AI supersampling bumps up image quality.

That is how Cyberpunk 2077 can hit 1080p when docked. The fact that Nintendo's console also has over 1,500 CUDA cores means it can handle ray-tracing in games like Star Wars Outlaws.