There should be a warning since SteamOS v3.3: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1675200/view/3401924854795478414
General -Added notification when Steam Deck temperature goes outside the safe operating range
TIL - thank you for sharing this!
Yup, I got to see it once running Horizon Zero Dawn. It looks a bit like the "low battery" warning but in more scary colors if I remember correctly.
Unless you are blocking the vents on the back or top of the device, it's very unlikely that you will drive your Steam Deck "too hard". If you do somehow manage to drive it "too hard", I don't think it will warn you (someone correct me if I'm wrong on this) but what it should do instead is something called thermal throttling whereby the device will scale back it's performance to stay within a certain thermal threshold.
Unless you overclocked you deck the SoC will automaticly slow down if the temps get high preventing damage.
I believe it will throttle the speed to reduce temps and it will do like a normal PC would and shut down in case it goes too high.
I think it will continue to throttle itself so the temps stay in spec. I would just make sure that you don't have any obstructions on the intake and the output.
As others have said, it'll throttle when it gets too hot to cool down. There is also a condition past the GPU emergency threshold to instantly shut down the machine (true on Linux desktop as well), but hypothetically it should never hit it because of the throttling.
I've had mine suddenly shut off a few times with Cyberpunk around launch. With new firmware and a probably unnecessary repaste this no longer happens. Give your deck room to breathe and you'll be fine.
I am surprised nobody came up with a mod for watercooling the deck just for the fun of it, 'cause I'd imagine that would cancel the portability.
I honestly though Linus did a water cooled steam deck but when I went to look there wan't one. Quite surprised actually considering all the other random cooling things I've botched.
That might have been a driver issue with Cyberpunk. I hear it was pretty unstable at launch. As mentioned above, there actually IS a warning message that displays, when the deck gets to hot.
No warning. It will throttle or just shut down. May happen in warmer climates.
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