Seeing the lack of a gaming handheld powerful enough to satisfy enthusiasts’ demands, a Chinese modder took it upon himself to build one using some of the best hardware available. He used a high-end laptop motherboard and components to power his build, fitting them nicely into a frame you would mistake for an official product.
The bilibili creator dismantled a gaming laptop featuring a 24-core Intel Core i9-14900HX plus an Nvidia RTX 4090 mobile, using its motherboard, CPU, GPU, and RAM as a base for his mode. The modern opted for a shell design reminiscent of the MSI Claw A8, but adequately large to fit the bigger board and cooling system.
Essentially, you can say this is a laptop-to-handheld conversion, with some tweaks. This simplifies the design while reducing the potential incompatibilities. It also allows the modder to focus on the controls and usability, which are important on such a large beast. Even the screen is a sizable one, measuring 12.5in.
The modder went with an appropriate IPS panel for the hardware on hand, boasting a 4K resolution. That said, he didn’t share the build steps that led to the finished product, mainly showcasing the performance. With 9,728 CUDA Cores under its belt, this DIY handheld didn’t have difficulties pushing high frame rates at 4K, delivering a nice experience even in demanding AAA titles.
To be specific, this handheld was able to reach above 100fps in God of War, about the same in Horizon Forbidden West, and around 60fps in Cyberpunk 2077. And that while maintaining a reasonable GPU temperature, below 72°C. Better yet, this performance was possible on the go thanks to the built-in 50Wh battery.
That said, don’t expect long play sessions with such power-hungry components. With about 174W power consumption, you only have minutes of playtime compared to hours on the efficient gaming handhelds we have today. Yes, the performance is in a whole different league where even the latest Z2 Extreme-based machines are no competition, but if you need to be hooked to the wall to enjoy it, is it really worth it?
Regardless, this handmade handheld shows that we are mostly limited by cooling and power constraints, meaning that as technology continues improving, we are bound to get RTX 4090-level performance in a small package.
For the time being, this mod brings the number of Nvidia-powered handhelds to four, including the Nintendo Switch 1, Switch 2, and the Nvidia Shield Portable. Five if you include the Shield tablet. Unsurprisingly, none of these come even close to the performance on offer by this mod. So, if you want a more powerful handheld than what is currently available, now you have an idea of how to do so.
