Valve says your Steam Deck will run worse in this heat
The Steam Deck, like many modern devices, will throttle its performance when the temperate gets too high.
Seemingly everyone in the northern hemisphere is suffering from extreme heat at the moment. The UK just registered its hottest day in history, for instance.
When temperatures get this high, you can count on electronic manufacturers to issue warnings that such heat will interfere with the performance of their devices.
Like Nintendo before it, Valve also warned owners of the Steam Deck that the handheld will throttle its performance when it gets too hot. This is actually standard behaviour for the Deck and many other devices when their internal temperature reaches a certain point.
This will happen much faster when room temperature increases, of course, meaning your Deck is more likely to run worse than you want it because it keeps slowing itself down to control its internal temperature.
Valve's warnings were issued on Twitter, with the company reiterating that the Steam Deck's optimal temperature range is between 0° and 35° C. That said, Valve stressed that the AMD APU that powers the Steam Deck can itself run at temperatures up to 100° C, but that's obviously not the only thing inside of a Steam Deck.
Valve continues to ship Steam Deck pre-orders to customers. The company has ramped up production significantly, promising that shipments will more than double each week.