Steam Deck OLED and a PlayStation 5. The best ‘low-cost’ all-purpose gaming solution?

I’ve been gaming on my Steam Deck OLED for a good while now. It’s an exceptional handheld, but I do understand it has its limits. I don’t own, want or have the space for a high-end PC to play or stream higher-end games from. Seriously, have you seen the price of the Nvidia 50 series graphics cards? In Australia the prices are astronomical for just a GPU. If you’ve got a Steam Deck but still want to indulge in some later release titles, pairing it with a PlayStation 5 is a surprisingly affordable option. A PlayStation 5 can be had for about $500-600 here and I recently grabbed one in the last few weeks to sit alongside my Steam Deck as a dedicated home console.

The biggest appeal of adding a PlayStation 5 is of course the expansion of my game library. My Steam library is readily available and it’s fairly easy add GOG, Epic Games and so on with third-party tools like Heroic Launcher, Junk Store and NonSteamLaunchers. They’re all very easy to use. Junk Store does require a one time, pretty low cost fee to allow you to access your GOG library via Decky Loader. But damn, if I can install my GOG games at the click of a button then I’m paying the fee. It’s also easy enough to install games not available from a digital store in desktop mode via Lutris or other WINE-based applications. Adding a PlayStation 5 to the mix not only adds the ability to install whatever games I wish to buy on the system, but anything available on PS Plus. Microsoft seem adamant to make their Xbox library cross-platform, with releases of exclusives such as Forza Horizon 5 on the PlayStation 5. Halo: Master Chief Collection and Gears of War are also reportedly headed to PlayStation in the near future. Xbox Game Pass can also be added to the Steam Deck, so you’ve essentially got access to every major ecosystem in one setup. If Xbox really does move its whole libary cross-platform, Game Pass may even become redundant.

In Australia, for the cost of an RTX 5070 you can buy both a 512GB Steam Deck OLED and PlayStation 5. Yeah, I know, the 5070 projects as a generally bad financial decision and you’re much better off going up to a 5080. But that’s kind of the point. For the price of a mid-tier graphics card, you can buy a capable handheld and a powerful enough home console. For me, that sounds like the smarter play. I’m not someone who obsesses over framerates or benchmark tinkering. I’d much rather just play the game than stare at an FPS counter. If the performance dips, I’m more than fine with knocking the settings down a touch. Like anyone, I enjoy a smooth gaming experience without a lot of hiccups. But I don’t know, pushing every piece of hardware I own to it’s absolute limit for the sake of a couple extra FPS always seemed kinda silly to me. I guess what I’m trying to say is that you are absolutely allowed to enjoy games even if they’re not running maxed out on Ultra in 4K. This setup will not produce the absolute top graphics settings on newer games. But you will have the ability to play games smoothly from a large variety of game catalogues and they definitely won’t look like they’re running on a potato. They’ll still look great and older games will look fantastic. But, definitely don’t go in expecting Ultra settings at 4K.

Best of all, the two systems integrate really well through streaming. You’ve got either the free option, Chiaki-ng. Or the paid option, PXPlay. Both have been pretty good, except Chiaki-ng at one point just stopped connecting to my console for some unexplained reason. PXPlay has been flawless. For both, setup is pretty straightforward: pair your PlayStation 5 by following the instructions in either app, add the app to Steam and then get playing. Once linked, you’ve got one of the best portable setups imaginable. You’re not locked to the couch or desk so you could take your PlayStation 5 library anywhere. Head to the park, a cafe, at work or a bar and just crush through your backlog with ease. Obviously, you’ll need WiFi or at the very least a mobile hotspot but otherwise it’s seamless. At around $1400-500 AUD for both systems combined, I honestly don’t see a better option available at the moment. Between Steam, GOG, Epic, PS Plus and even Game Pass, this setup taps into nearly every major game library available today. For the price of a single graphics card, you’re getting portability, versatility, power and best of all: choice. All without breaking the bank.

Please, tell me if there is a better alternative and I’ll write a post rescinding this one.