External hard drive performance

[Thomastronaut]

Do games perform the same, when installed on an external storage device, as they do when installed internally?

I'm thinking of buying and external drive. That's why I'm asking.

[Jaunitta 🌸]

I have Elements 6TB and the transfer speeds are very good.
I found its the most reliable and is also repairable if dropped etc for recovery.
https://www.businessdirect.bt.com/products/wd-6tb-elements-desktop-hard-drive-black-wdbwlg0060hbk-eesn-DL0X.html

Seagate for me is a no go as I lost everything 3 years into my 5 years warranty and then found out its non recoverablke and parts cannot be swapped.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1373584-REG/wd_wdbwlg0060hbk_nesn_wd_elements_desktop_6000.html
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2919348665

[thetargos]

I have several external drives, ranging from HDDs to one S-ATA SSD (in an M.2 enclosure); while I do not have a Steam Deck, I do have many games on several locations. You will be limited to the bandwidth of the USB bus, and usually of all the games I have installed, they do perform up to spec. I am unsure if the USB-C on the Deck is 10G or 5G, though, but you should be able to at the very least get 200 to 300 MiB transfers off an SSD drive (which is why for my laptop I did not go with an nVME, would be wasted bandwidth-wise in the hub I have installed the S-ATA M.2 drive)

[invision2212]

External drives will be faster than the SD card, but slower than the internal drive.
It will come down to how you set it up. If you connect it directly to the steam deck you will get full transfer speed. However if you use a USB 3.0 interface like a hub you will cut that speed in half. Steam deck uses USB 3.2 which is 10gb bandwidth

I use an external SSD myself and while slower than the internal drive works just fine otherwise.

[Thomastronaut]

Thanks for the advice! I really just wanted to know if it was viable or not, which it sounds like it is.