One of the most requested pieces of Digital Foundry content has been a comparison between Nintendo Switch 2 and Valve’s Steam Deck, using Cyberpunk 2077 as the focal point for the face-off. On a surface level, it makes sense, right? Two handhelds with very different levels of specification battling it out, with the added spice of CD Projekt RED declaring that the Switch 2 port is the best handheld experience available. Our verdict? Steam Deck isn’t really built for “docked play”, where Switch 2 is far, far ahead. However, there’s a split decision when it comes to gaming on the go where both machines have strengths and weaknesses.
However, any comparison comes with a gigantic array of caveats to consider. Steam Deck runs the PC version of the game through the Proton compatibility layer. The Switch 2 port is built for Switch 2, using a direct-to-the-metal graphics API. Secondly, the Switch 2 version has an array of custom modifications meaning that while the games may look basically the same to the untrained eye, they most certainly are not. Thirdly, Switch 2 has a 1080p screen, while the Deck is at 800p – 720p if you stick to a 16:9 aspect ratio. And finally, the Nintendo machine has a custom form of DLSS which gives it a huge advantage over Steam Deck’s FSR and XeSS alternatives.
Then there’s the nature of the handheld experience itself. Steam Deck OLED may well have a lower display resolution, but let’s be brutally frank here. Its OLED display delivers brilliant HDR whereas we’d argue that Switch 2 doesn’t even have a proper HDR display.
Before we crack on with the head-to-head, well, to help our understanding of the Cyberpunk port and any potential comparisons with Steam Deck and by extension the PC version, we needed to compare the two directly to get some kind of ballpark settings lock – not easy when the game has custom adjustments made for the Nintendo console. Watch the video above and you’ll see that thanks to DF contributor Mohammed Rayan, we analysed every single PC settings preset, comparing similar resolution captures to Switch 2 equivalents.