Steam Deck OLED teardown reveals huge changes and better cooling

It’s no secret that the brand new Steam Deck OLED has extra modifications below its hood than only a new display. Nonetheless, the extent to which the gadget has been modified and the affect that might have on efficiency wasn’t essentially so clear. Nonetheless, a brand new Steam Deck OLED teardown has revealed all, together with main enhancements to cooling and a usually far cleaner design.

The brand new Steam Deck OLED teardown comes by way of tech YouTubers GamersNexus, who tore the gadget aside and made detailed comparisons between the brand new gadget and the unique Steam Deck. Whereas a few of the discoveries had been anticipated – such because the AMD chip on the coronary heart of the gadget being barely smaller on account of a transfer from a 7nm to a 6nm manufacturing course of – many others very a lot weren’t.

Among the many most evident and impactful modifications is that the reminiscence chips have been modified. Beforehand there have been 4 fairly giant reminiscence chips unfold across the circuitboard however now there are simply two a lot smaller chips. The orientation of the chips has modified too, in accordance with the primary AMD APU having additionally been rotated 90 levels.

In consequence, the Steam Deck OLED has a a lot clearer path for air to circulate by the gadget and preserve it cool. This impact has been enhanced by a few of the power-delivery elements additionally having been moved from a central place on the circuitboard to the sides, the place it’s faster and simpler for the cooling system to blow warmth from these elements straight from the system – quite than having it dissipate all through the gadget.

Many different smaller elements have additionally been eliminated due to Valve engaged on refining the general design, eradicating the necessity for therefore many gadgets for features resembling stabilizing energy supply. Not solely does this cut back manufacturing prices of the gadget – probably transferring Valve into profitability on manufacturing these items – nevertheless it additionally helps cut back warmth output.

Whereas many different modifications are famous in GamersNexus’ video, the ultimate most notable one is that the primary fan/cooler has modified too. The fan has truly been flipped round in order that it pulls extra air by from the entrance of the Deck, quite than from the motherboard aspect. The thickness of the stack of cooling fins has additionally elevated.

The mixed impact of all these modifications ought to be that the cooling system spends much less effort cooling the entire gadget however quite it may possibly focus on simply wicking away warmth from the AMD APU. This in flip might enable for barely greater clock speeds for any given state of affairs all whereas decreasing fan noise.

Our Steam Deck OLED has simply arrived prepared for our full evaluate the place we’ll be placing this concept to the check, so preserve your eyes peeled for that. In the intervening time, you possibly can take a look at our lists of the best Steam Deck games and best Steam Deck accessories for our present picks of the perfect methods to get essentially the most out of your Steam Deck.