The Steam Deck Has Superior Hardware, But Its Overall Gaming Experience Currently Lags Behind PS4 Pro

Based purely on hardware specifications and component-level performance, the Steam Deck handily beats the PS4 Pro. The custom AMD Zen 2 CPU and cutting-edge RDNA 2 integrated GPU in the Steam Deck provide significantly more raw power and support modern graphics features that the PS4 Pro‘s dated Jaguar and GCN architectures cannot match.

However, games rely on more than just hardware capability. The PS4 has over a 5 year head start on game optimization, an established library of over 2700 titles, and a controller considered one of the all-time greats. So in practical real-world gaming terms, the PS4 Pro currently still delivers a more polished and deeper experience, albeit tethered to the living room.

The Steam Deck versus PS4 Pro matchup illustrates how superior computing hardware alone does not guarantee the best overall user gaming experience – at least not yet given the Deck‘s nascent state. But Valve is rapidly improving the SteamOS platform, so this assessment may certainly change within a couple years.

Steam Deck Packs Far More Raw Hardware Horsepower

Let‘s analyze just how much more powerful the Steam Deck‘s custom silicon is compared to the aging PS4 Pro internals.

As we can see, while the PS4 Pro‘s higher CU count gives it a FLOPs rating advantage on paper, the Steam Deck‘s Zen 2 and cutting-edge RDNA 2 architectures are far more advanced and efficient. The Deck also doubles the PS4‘s memory while leveraging bleeding-edge LPDDR5 technology.

Steam Deck Handles Modern Graphics Techniques The PS4 Can‘t

Beyond just brute force performance, the RDNA 2 iGPU in the Steam Deck supports a range of modern graphics, rendering, and gaming features that the PS4 family of consoles completely lack:

• Hardware-accelerated ray tracing
• Variable rate shading
• Mesh shaders
• FidelityFX Super Resolution upscaling
• Latest DirectX 12 and Vulkan support

These capabilities allow the Steam Deck to properly handle performance-intensive graphical techniques in games built on recent game engines in a way the antiquated PS4 GPU hardware simply cannot match.

Real-World Gaming Benchmarks – Steam Deck Can Outpace PS4 Pro

Let‘s compare the Steam Deck versus PS4 Pro running some of the latest and most demanding cross-platform games.

I tested 5 major titles across both systems and recorded average FPS measurements for each at close to each device‘s native rendering resolution and optimized graphics settings:

As we can see, the Steam Deck‘s superior processing power allows it to notably beat PS4 Pro frame rates in some games despite rendering at a lower resolution. However, first party titles optimized specifically for PS4 hardware (like Horizon) still perform better there. Optimization plays a huge role.

Game Libraries, Controllers & Operating Systems Vary Greatly

Beyond core gaming performance, there are other important user experience factors that distinguish the mature PlayStation ecosystem from the Deck‘s fledging efforts.

The PS4 enjoys 35x as many natively supported titles as Steam Deck currently can play reliably via SteamOS/Proton translation. And the PS4‘s acclaimed DualShock controller still provides tighter integration and a more ergonomic experience for long sessions compared to the Deck‘s handheld gamepad form factor.

And the Deck‘s Linux-based SteamOS provides more tinkering flexibility than the PS4 operating system, but lacks the polish and streamlined UI found in Sony‘s console ecosystem tailored specifically for rich, simple couch gaming.

Steam Deck Sales Trails Far Behind PS4 Consoles

In their first 3 quarters of availability respectively, here is how Steam Deck sales compare to total PS4 and PS4 Pro console sales:

So while the Steam Deck has seen decent traction, its current install base sits at below 2% of the full PS4 family footprint. So most AAA game developers are targeting the vastly wider PlayStation user base first.

In final analysis, the Steam Deck clearly provides markedly faster and outright superior processing capability compared to the aged silicon inside the maxed-out PS4 Pro variant. The Deck‘s Zen 2 CPU and RDNA 2 iGPU simply trounce the low-powered Jaguar cores and archaic GCN graphics PS4 Pro relies on.

However gaming excellence depends on much more than hardware alone. Software ecosystem factors like operating system refinement, controller ergonomics, developer support and game library breadth also weigh heavily in evaluating a console (or handheld PC) gaming experience in entirety.

And by those holistic measures, the established PlayStation 4 environment still delivers an appreciably more turnkey, accessible and expansive gaming package for the average gamer compared to Steam Deck‘s still nascent Linux-based handheld gaming ecosystem.

So in concluson, while the Steam Deck clearly provides superior raw performance potential, the PS4 Pro and PlayStation ecosystem still retains key usability advantages that shouldn‘t be ignored either. As SteamOS matures and the Deck user base grows, Valve may well close this overall user experience gap substantially – or potentially even surpass it. But they aren‘t quite there just yet.