It turns out that it is possible to upgrade a Steam Deck by connecting an external graphics card dock to Valve’s handheld gaming computer. However, it is through a rather tricky process.
Steam Deck is not directly made to be turbocharged with an external graphics card. The device does not come with a Thunderbolt port and the operating system that comes installed from the factory also does not support this type of upgrade. However, this does not mean that it is impossible to get such a solution to work with the console.
The Youtube channel ETA Prime felt like connecting a Radeon RX 6900 XT to the console. This was then nothing that was done but some finesse due to the previously mentioned reasons. First, Windows needed to be used as the operating system on the device. Something that had to happen via a microSD card when the M.2 slot for the SSD device had to change task. This connection was used to house an M.2 to PCI Express adapter. It is then to this adapter that the external graphics solution was connected.
Definitely an inflexible upgrade of Steam Deck. However, the results were that games such as God of War, Cyberpunk 2077 and Elden Ring could be played with maximized graphics settings and a capable number of frames per second. ETA Prime also managed to increase the unit’s final score in 3D Mark Time Spy by almost 8,000 points.
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