This summer might not be the best time to play your Stean Deck outside, following a record-breaking heatwave which saw temperatures surpassing 4o°C – Valve has warned owners of its February 2022 released hardware that the device may begin throttling performances to protect itself in high temperatures.
“A quick note about Steam Deck in high temperatures. Steam Deck performs at its best in ambient temperatures between 0° and 35° C. If the temperature gets higher than this, Steam Deck may start to throttle performance to protect itself. Steam Deck’s APU runs well at temperatures up to 100°C. At 100°C, it will start to throttle performance, and at 105°C it will shut down. Again, this is to protect itself (and you) from damage,” Steam Deck’s Twitter account said in a series of tweets.
Valve isn’t alone with the heatwave warning, Nintendo released a similar statement last week warning to Nintendo Switch users using the device outside that “the temperature of the main unit may become high [and to] please use it in a place of 5 to 35C.” For both portable PC and Switch users, this is just overall really good advice so might be best to play in our natural habitat of inside while waiting for this hellscape of summer temperature to pass.
