Clearly, some of the simplest changes you can make to your Steam Deck include changing your SSD or joystick. However, one user has gone much further by increasing the machine’s RAM capacity. Of course, you’ll need a minimum of soldering skills.
Steam Deck: modding with 32GB of RAM!
Via Twitter, @Balika011 modified his console by soldering in more RAM. He decided to double the RAM from 16GB to 32GB. Of course, soldering skills are required for this type of modification… Not to mention the appropriate hardware. However, the user says that the operation is not complicated, provided you have BGA soldering skills.
Finally, is doubling the RAM really worth it? It all depends on the games you play. Yes, the console has a custom SOC from AMD, so the processor and graphics part use the same memory. We’re guessing that if 16GB was the limit, going up to 32GB is bound to help. However, no performance data is provided.
What’s more, this change will inevitably require a bios patch so that the machine can recognize and exploit the extra 16GB.
In short, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen devices modified to accommodate more RAM/VRAM. Last time, NVIDIA’s RTX 3070 was upgraded from 8GB to 16GB, which really helped with Resident Evil 4 Remake!
