Steam Deck OLED vs Nintendo Switch OLED - Borderlands 3

Описание

This video gives a comparison of Borderlands 3 running on both the Nintendo Switch OLED (Ultimate Edition) and Steam Deck OLED (Standard Edition) . The Switch version is running from the game cartridge (with additional data on the microSD); the Steam Deck version is running from the internal SSD. As with all of these videos, the purpose is above all else to compare the visuals and performance between the two devices for the game.

The Steam Deck version runs at consistent 60fps (with occasional dips and some stuttering in some heavier combat situations) and the Switch version has an uncapped frame rate that seems to vary anywhere from the 20s up to the rare 60fps mark (but primarily seems to stay around 30fps, also with some stutters in heavier combat). The recording is at 60fps. I set the Deck's fps cap / refresh rate to 60fps/60Hz as it was not possible, even on low settings, to get 90fps (or even close) consistently. The pre-rendered cutscenes are 30fps on both.

The Steam Deck graphical settings (other than those which cannot be changed) are as follows:
-Graphics API: DirectX12***
-Display Mode: Fullscreen
-Aspect Ratio: 16:10
-Resolution: 1280x800
-Vertical Sync: Off*
-Resolution Scale: 100%
-Limit Frame Rate: Capped 60FPS
-Field of View: 110
-Vehicle Field of View: 110
-Anti-Aliasing: None**
-Texture Streaming: Ultra
-Material Quality: Low
-Anisotropic Filtering: 16x
-Shadows: Medium
-Draw Distance: Low
-Clutter: Low
-Terrain Detail: High
-Foliage: Low
-Volumetric Fog: Off
-Screen Space Reflections: Medium
-Character Detail: Ultra
-Ambient Occlusion: Off
-Camera Motion Blur: Off
-Object Motion Blur: Off
-FidelityFX Sharpening: Off

*In hindsight, turning on VSync may have helped a bit to avoid stuttering.
**I turned this off to improve performance and make the image sharper.
***DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT switch to DirectX11 if you want your game to not crash when starting it up. I am not certain about whether it has that issue on PC in general, but on Deck, it would not launch after I changed it to DX11 and I ended up uninstalling and reinstalling to erase that setting.

Some notes:
1. I rotated the vids enough to make the placement of the handhelds both straight as they were about 2 degrees off what they needed to be. The Deck's footage is most clearly at the angle as a result of being on top.
Regarding battery usage: after 40 minutes of recording on Switch, the battery went from 100% to 86%. The Deck went from 100% to 74% after 39 minutes, but was also running at (mostly) double the frame rate with higher visual settings.
2. Both versions have gyro aiming enabled, though with Switch I opted to only have it active when aiming down sights. On the Steam Deck, I set it to be active anytime my thumb touches the right stick's touch sensor.
3. The timers are basically fixed for this video, but somehow are ahead by .03 seconds. There does not seem to be any real way to fix it as far as I can tell.
4. The long initial load time on both games happens every time you boot it up. This seems to be tied to shaders loading in, but I have found this to be the case in every single instance. The game seems to make up for it though in that there are essentially no load times otherwise (apart from area transitions).
5. Regarding the one area transition in this footage, I specifically waited until both Lilith and Claptrap's models were loaded in solid, so even though the Switch footage got in a second or so before the timer stopping, the timer was stopped at the same spot for both.
6. The auto-focus of my phone's camera messed up a few times while filming the Deck, so there are a couple of spots (mostly at the very beginning of actual gameplay) where it gets very blurry. But if you look around the screen, it should be obvious it is a camera issue and not a Deck issue.
7. I did the best I could to get all areas relatively in the same areas for a better, more direct comparison.
8. I added some graphics throughout to indicate when footage has been paused (when waiting for the other to load or get to the same spot in the game) and which game's audio is playing.