Nvidia may be working on a PC handheld to rival Steam Deck – I just hope it’s not another Nvidia Shield
The success of Valve’s Steam Deck has spawned a wave of like-minded portable PC gaming devices, including the Lenovo Legion Go and Asus ROG Ally. And it looks like Nvidia wants a piece of the proverbial pie, if this latest rumor is to be trusted.
Nvidia is reportedly working on its own PC gaming handheld YouTuber Moore’s Law is dead, claiming that “Nvidia is serious about making more portable gaming devices with their graphics IP (intellectual property) in them.” Not only does it make sense overall, as this market is a growing one that Nvidia would like to invest in early on, but there’s another major reason for the tech giant’s alleged investment.
Each of these gaming handhelds has one thing in common: they use AMD APUs to power them, and later in 2024 only Intel alternatives will hit the market. This means there is a huge shortage in the market for handhelds with Nvidia-based components; a shortage that Nvidia can take advantage of if it develops its own true Steam Deck competitor.
Moore’s Law is Dead claims that while Nintendo will use Nvidia silicon to power the Nintendo Switch 2, Nvidia is looking to expand beyond the console market with a PC-oriented portable system. The YouTuber also claimed, “I heard (Nvidia) might even team up with Intel to make a premium gaming handheld.” While this would bypass the x86 roadblock, it would also require a good heatsink since the CPU and GPU would be separate.
This isn’t Nvidia’s first rodeo
It’s quite exciting to see Nvidia’s interest in making its own PC gaming handheld, as having more competition in this growing market is always a positive. However, this isn’t exactly Nvidia’s first foray into the gaming handheld market either.
The Nvidia Shield was both a portable gaming device and a streaming device. Or at least it was the former when it first launched. But over time, it failed to break into the portable gaming market due to strong competition from Nintendo’s own systems, and because it didn’t really capture the PC gaming market either.
Ultimately, it became a 4K HDR streaming device that, while powerful in its own right with excellent upscaling tools and more, is also several times more expensive than its competitors like the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K or Roku Streaming Stick+. And for the average user, price is often much more important than functionality.
This time, Nvidia hopefully has a much better understanding of the market it’s entering and can better use its technology to create a much more compelling, longer-term device that can compete with the Steam Deck.