It runs flawlessly, that's why I mentioned the super sampling. That feature that forcing the steam deck to output in a higher resolution than the screen supports at the cost of performance.
The very thing the Nintendo Switch 2 does to output in "4k" when docked.
If you want I could pull up videos comparing native in game performance between the steamdeck & the Switch 2.
Spoilers: It's going to end the way you're implying it would.
So you realise that console manufacturers don't overclock their hardware as doing so could damage the device... Yet you're arguing that if some one hacked the switch it would "release its full potential".
A "full potential" no game could ever use without breaking Nintendo's terms of service, losing their license to publish games on Nintendo devices, face a hefty lawsuit and then having the "hacked" console remotely bricked.
With the elephant being in the room that Valve does allow you up overclock & upgrade the steamdeck, that's the defining difference as to why its still considered PC adjacent, not a handheld console.
You can modify it without "hacking"
And games support the modifications.
Good thing this thread is about the newly announced Steam Machine, which is reportedly six times more powerful than the steam deck. Six>Two
In the meanwhile I'll be busy emulating Switch games using EmuDeck. It's great to play Breath of the Wild at double its framerate, triple if I mess around with the configs. But I'm a chill 60fps gamer, 90fps or 120fps is overkill for single player.
Now Mario-kart is a different story, especially on the online custom fan maps
No hardware hacks needed.
I never said overclock. I believe you know the difference between overclocking something and restoring back the native clocks of something underclocked, so I will skip the slip :)
So, yes, regarding the "Nintendo will chase you because you are not using Switch the way they intended you to do" I agree, that's a dealbreaker for many people, but we are talking about numbers, and as you said, you are already aware which one would win. Anyways, a moral attachment is always present, and the feeling that "hacking" a device to unleash its full potential is still a taboo for many, there is absolutely no harm on doing it, even if the company which created the device says you so. I understand, if you have the device under warranty, of course, don't do it, but if nobody is going to give a shit if the device gets broken because it is way older than any warranty can cover, then why not doing? why playing in a hardware that is restricted by software? as an owner of a PSTV and a Switch, I tell you that portable devices out of warranty NEED to be clock restored, or else you will have a bad experience with many games, that's been proven dozens of times. The culture just needs to be widespread among people, that's it.
But please, do not compare Switch 2 with a Steam Machine. They come from 2 different worlds, portable and desktop. Even a GPU 10 years old can be way faster than a Steam Deck.
They matter until stable prices around gpu and memory get annihilated by demand increases. They matter until you're buying and selling somebody's junk that could have been overclocked or cooked with crypto mining. It's not a scam people avoid, it's supply and demand with diminished returns at the higher end. You pay to play with the cutting edge stuff that will be useless or have bad performance by the time it's widespread and adopted by games. That is the PC building rat race.
Inflation and the AI boom have driven up prices on subsidized consoles that are already 5 years old, widely available, bought at scale; and you think PC components won't increase that much? The supply chain is getting squeezed right now across the board. Everything is going to cost more, demand on used shit is going to go up and cost more. It happened with crypto mining. It'll happen with AI datacenters eating up supply.
We haven't benchmarked the Machine yet, but it's expected to be double (200%, not 50%) the Series S, in and around PS5 or XSX in performance. It will likely smoke the xbox in cpu bound applications. Emulation on the gabecube will likely be running 360, PS3, Switch, and PS4 games like Bloodborne.
I don't even know what your point is. PS6 will show up, and prices will be higher, because costs will be higher. It's not that nobody asked for it. Clearly people always want a new and more powerful game console. Sony doesn't need to do any homework, they just need to show up and sell their toy to people, and by the time they do it'll probably be closer to 1000 than 500.
Prices go up. Money is worth less. Inflation and depreciation is real. You will be spending 5-10 bucks on a loaf of bread at a grocery store in the not too distant future, 100 bucks on big budget games will be normalized, and Sony will be right there with PS6 dangling it like a flashy cutting-edge carrot to impulse buyers who won't even play anything but 4K Fortnite on the thing.
Yeah, that's like selling at $960 today.
Selling a console or even a PC at 600 today is like asking 375-400 back then and yet we have people screaming that it's too much money.
They matter only when you expect people to buy another GPU every 2 years because yes. AI can't damage older GPU market just because those GPU's lack the capability to do the task, and as you know mining so well, you would already know that happened before. There were GPU's for mining that raised their price artificially (yes, artificially), and others that were not used for that crap that stayed or slightly got a price increase.
Regarding the Steam Machine performance, I also believe you know secondary school math, so I will also skip the slip. a 50% more powerful means the Steam Machine would be 150% as powerful of the total power of a Series S. You're saying 200% and 50%. If the 50% would mean the same as I said, then the 200% would mean the Steam Machine is 100+200% = 300% the power of a Series S, so you would be saying that the Steam Machine would be even slightly faster than a Series X, and it's been confirmed it won't, specially when it's not a device dedicated for gaming like a console. And no, it won't smoke the CPU of any of the consoles because simply put, you're saying that a CPU of 6c/12t would be way faster than a CPU two generations older having 8c/16t. Sure, it will be faster in single core operations, but not that much faster in multicore stuff. We are talking abour maybe 15-20% faster, nothing more.
Anyways, saying that it will emulate everything is nonsense, comparing a console to a PC for emulation is a win-win for a PC, there is not even competition on that. Like saying PS5 can play 99% of PS4 catalogue without issues and Steam Machine can not. What statement is that? simply out of place.
For emulation we have infinite devices, even those second hand PC's for less than 300€ that would run Bloodborne without a hiccup. You want to include everything in the Steam Machine because it is a PC? sure, you're totally right, but let's not see it as a Steam Machine, let's see it as a PC with a custom case.
And finally, my point is: what is your strategy on selling a product you know it will sell differently depending on your approach. You prefer to get more profit for unit, price it higher and think only in a smaller part of the population who think like sheeps and understand videogames as something that needs to have ultra detailed graphics, or you're going to get less per unit, do a machine for reaching a wider audience because you have a big demand on 1080p market where the user prioritises stability over detail? at the end, it is something Sony will create and has to be a different approach to what PS5 is, because we are not in 2020 anymore, and many people is moving to PC because they are tired of what consoles have become, plus they can play almost everything on it.
You or anyone can say whatever they want, but Xbox Series S was a brilliant idea coming from the wrong company.
