Whereas the Change 2 vs Steam Deck meme conflict performs out on social media, I am within the enviable place of proudly owning each handhelds in the mean time, and I really like them each for various causes. There’s loads of speak about GPU energy, although, and never a lot in the best way to again it up. In any case, you’ll be able to’t simply benchmark the Change 2. You’ll be able to, nonetheless, take a great have a look at the 2 gadgets’ GPUs and make a good prediction, which is what I am doing right here.
I am not going to inform you which is the very best gaming handheld of the 2, as that is largely all the way down to the video games you need to play and the consumer expertise you like, however I can pull aside the interior workings of the AMD GPU contained in the Steam Deck GPU, in addition to the brand new Nvidia GPU contained in the Change 2, and offer you an concept of how they carry out.
Let’s begin with the hand-held everybody’s discussing proper now, which is the Change 2. Neither Nintendo nor Nvidia has formally revealed the core specs of this GPU, however Digital Foundry’s latest wonderful evaluation has, for all intents and functions, confirmed that each one the rumors about it had been true. It is primarily based on Nvidia’s Ampere structure, and comprises 1,536 Nvidia CUDA cores – these are the tiny, primary processors that work collectively to render the graphics in your video games – the extra you will have, the sooner your body charges.
From that data, and from what we already know in regards to the construction of the Ampere structure, we are able to infer that it very most likely additionally comprises 12 RT cores for ray tracing, and 48 Tensor cores for AI work, comparable to DLSS.
Comparatively, the GPU within the Steam Deck is predicated on the AMD RDNA 2 structure, which comes from the identical technology because the Ampere structure used within the Change 2 GPU, so its structure is of an analogous age, regardless of the Change 2 solely popping out this yr. The specs of this GPU are effectively documented, and it comprises 512 stream processors. That does not imply it solely has a 3rd of the facility of the Change 2’s 1,536 CUDA cores, although, because the numbers aren’t analogous.
It additionally has eight RT cores for ray tracing, and no AI {hardware}, though it may assist AMD’s FSR tech to enhance body charges additional, however keep in mind that this does not embody FSR 4, and that the variations of FSR supported by the Steam Deck have poorer picture high quality than DLSS. Each GPUs additionally make use of a 128-bit reminiscence interface and share LPDDR5 RAM with their CPU.
How briskly is the Change 2 GPU?
However which one is quicker? From my crude calculations, the Change 2 GPU is round 53% sooner than the Steam Deck GPU on the subject of primary rendering energy. Earlier than I provide the full rundown, although, I will preface these numbers with a disclaimer, which is that these outcomes are primarily based on figures from a Home windows check rig, with an AMD Ryzen 9 5900X CPU, utilizing GPUs with devoted VRAM – they don’t seem to be supposed to inform you the precise body price you’ll be able to anticipate from the Steam Deck and Change 2 GPUs, however they can provide you a sign of the relative rendering energy. It is extra of a back-of-a-napkin calculation than a foolproof equation.
Anyway, I’ve run a number of check video games at most settings at 1,920 x 1,080, with out ray tracing or FSR/DLSS, on an AMD Radeon RX 6600 (RDNA 2) and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 (Ampere) – the check video games embody Murderer’s Creed Valhalla, Cyberpunk 2077, and Metro Exodus.
Each these GPUs have a 128-bit reminiscence interface and use 8GB of 14Gbps GDDR6 VRAM, so the outcomes are roughly comparable past the variations between the GPUs. The Radeon RX 6600 was dearer than the RTX 3050 when it got here out, and is quicker throughout the board, however we are able to account for that by factoring the variety of stream processors into our calculation.
The imply common body price for the Radeon RX 6600 in these checks is 66fps, whereas the outcome for the RTX 3050 is 48fps. Keep in mind that these outcomes do not embody ray tracing, although, the place the Ampere structure is considerably faster than RDNA 2 – I am simply offering an concept of relative rendering energy, particularly as ray tracing might be a tricky ask on a handheld GPU.
Anyway, from these figures, you’ll be able to then work out roughly what number of CUDA cores or stream processors are required to generate a mean of 1fps in these video games – that is 27 stream processors per 1fps for the RDNA 2 GPU, and 53 CUDA cores per 1fps for the Ampere GPU. We are able to then predict the body price for the 2 GPUs if they’d 512 stream processors and 1,536 CUDA cores respectively.
Once more, keep in mind that it is a crude calculation, as neither the Change 2 nor the Steam Deck runs on Home windows, they share system reminiscence, they usually additionally use completely different very CPUs, whereas Change 2 video games could have settings which can be closely optimized for the {hardware}. As such, the outcomes from an precise Steam Deck or Change 2 are more likely to be completely different – these calculations are solely designed to indicate the distinction between the 2 GPUs at a theoretical degree.
The prediction from these calculations is that, all different components being equal, the Change 2 GPU ought to common round 29fps in these video games at these settings, if it used Home windows, our identical CPU, and had 8GB of devoted GDDR6 VRAM. In the meantime, the Steam Deck GPU ought to common round 19fps beneath the identical circumstances. Mainly, though they’re primarily based on architectures from the identical technology, the Change 2 has significantly extra rendering horsepower than the Steam Deck GPU.
In fact, the GPU is not the one defining function of a handheld, with the display, battery life, storage, CPU, and sport catalog all being components to contemplate too. On this metric alone, although, the Change 2 wins. This victory could be short-lived, although, with AMD’s new Ryzen AI Z2 Excessive handheld CPU providing 16 RDNA 3.5 compute items, for instance, which equates to 1,024 stream processors.
When it comes to rendering energy, that is twice as highly effective because the Steam Deck GPU earlier than you even issue within the improved efficiency from the soar to a brand new GPU structure. The Steam Deck 2 GPU might effectively find yourself leapfrogging the Change 2 once more, and the top-end new Asus Xbox handheld may even use this new chip.
I will be having a look at extra of the variations between the Change 2 and the Steam Deck over the subsequent few weeks, however in case you personal a deck already, try our information to the very best Steam Deck video games, all of which have been examined by us on the hand-held to make sure they work correctly.
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