

There's no doubting that, right now, the Steam Deck is the world's most powerful handheld gaming console, beating off the likes of the Nintendo Switch comfortably.
And, while there are rumors of a Nintendo Switch Pro console incoming, right now the Steam Deck is completely unchecked as the king of the gaming handhelds in terms of pixel-pushing power.
Which is why it's hilarious that a talented modder has just gone and upgraded a Steam Deck so it's even more powerful, modding in a full-blown desktop GPU that means the handheld delivers up to 10 times better gaming performance.
10 times the gaming performance is truly mad, too, and especially when you consider the Steam Deck was already more powerful than Nintendo Switch with its stock Aerith APU.
As detailed by the ETA PRIME YouTube channel, the upgrade was achieved by using the Steam Deck's M.2 PCIe connector along with an adaptor to hook up a series of external GPUs, including a very powerful (and very expensive!) AMD RX 6900 XT.
You can watch the modded Steam Deck get made in the video below:
What's interesting about ETA Prime's findings is that while the Steam Deck can deliver up to 10 times better gaming performance over stock, it is still largely limited by the power of its CPU, which definitely is found to hold back the GPU in multiple games.
Sign up to the T3 newsletter for smarter living straight to your inbox
Get all the latest news, reviews, deals and buying guides on gorgeous tech, home and active products from the T3 experts
Regardless, though, the upgraded Steam Deck does still deliver massive performance improvements over stock, with the console's 3DMark Time Spy score leaping from 1,722 to 10,395 with the GPU upgrade. Games like The Witcher 3 are shown running at over 100 frames per second at 4K ultra settings.
Of course, the trade-off to all this extra power is the handheld nature of the Steam Deck console gets completely obliterated. But at the end of the day, as the modder himself says, this is just a fun experiment that he completed because he could.
And, well, it's still mouth-watering to see what could be possible in the future for handheld consoles. If Steam Deck is a big success, maybe we will see an upgraded Steam Deck 2 being offered, although we imagine if that ever happens it will be a ways off as Valve is still struggling just to make original Steam Decks, with many pre-orders still not delivered.
The far more likely next-gen handheld console we'll see is the Switch Pro, footage from which might already be out in the open according to experts.
Rob has been writing about computing, gaming, mobile, home entertainment technology, toys (specifically Lego and board games), smart home and more for over 15 years. As the editor of PC Gamer, and former Deputy Editor for T3.com, you can find Rob's work in magazines, bookazines and online, as well as on podcasts and videos, too. Outside of his work Rob is passionate about motorbikes, skiing/snowboarding and team sports, with football and cricket his two favourites.
-
Luxury e-bikes are getting smaller, sleeker and smarter, and this $13,000 model is leading the way
With the featherweight EIDOLON, Ponomarets taps into a growing demand for subtle, high-end eBikes
-
Ferrari revisits an iconic name with its latest hybrid
Lighter, sharper, faster: Ferrari 296 Speciale is an even quicker hybrid
-
I swapped my PS5 Pro for a top-end Nvidia RTX 5070 rig – and I'm not sure I can go back
PC gaming has its claws back in me
-
3 best Nintendo Switch games you've probably never heard of
Switch up your playtime with these underrated picks for Nintendo's superfine console
-
Nintendo Switch 2 US stock tracker LIVE: where to pre-order Nintendo's new console?
T3's official US Nintendo Switch 2 tracker is now live
-
The 5 luxury PS5 Pro accessories I can't live without – How to upgrade your PlayStation in style
If you want a better experience for your PS5 Pro, you need these luxury upgrades
-
This handheld Switch 2 alternative blew me away – MSI's Claw 8 AI+ is ace
The MSI Claw 8 AI+ is an 8-inch handheld gaming PC that's hard to argue with
-
I can't wait for the Switch 2, but this feature doesn't convince me
Mouse controls? I'm not sure...
-
I think this was the biggest surprise upgrade in the Nintendo Switch 2's reveal
That Switch 2 dock looks like a beast
-
Did Nintendo just give Rockstar permission to make GTA 6 cost $100?
Nintendo's pricing is a challenge