More casual games like Slay the Spire work great in this handheld format, although they might make more sense on a smartphone or Nintendo Switch. Marvel's Midnight Suns ran great on both systems at medium detail settings, and even though it's a very PC-centric game, it already has great gamepad support built in. Besides the higher resolution, keep in mind the Ally is also running Windows 11, not the relatively lightweight SteamOS.

However, the Steam Deck performed better in combat, mainly staying smooth, while the Ally stuttered when too much was happening on-screen. Using AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution options, built right into the game's menu, I could run the game at each device's native resolution and keep the frame rate in the 30s or 40s or even 50s most of the time. The game was playable on both the Steam Deck and Ally, and because of the small screen, it looked good even at low detail settings. Hogwarts Legacy is a game with decently hefty PC spec requirements. Hard West 2 is an example, which worked fine on the Steam Deck but was harder to play on the Ally. In both cases, I did a lot more on-screen tapping to hit buttons or make selections. The same issue occurs when navigating the Windows 11 desktop with the right stick cursor. On the Steam Deck, the tiny touchpads help with this on the Ally, using the right thumb stick to move the mouse cursor is tricky and hard to do with precision.

One exception is games that don't offer gamepad support, which is increasingly rare but still exists.

Steamdeck msrp