Well, that means the system RAM left for the CPU is 12 GB instead of 15, since the CPU and the GPU share the same 16 GB pool. So any system RAM heavy games would suffer.
Realistically, going down to 12GB System RAM from 15GB is not very noticeable compared to going from 1GB to 4GB VRAM and so I think it should be preferred.
If you ran into issues with a very RAM heavy game (unlikely), you could change it to 14GB + 2GB, or go all the way back to 15GB + 1GB.
If you are using the Steam Deck on an external display that is higher resolution than its native 1280x800 display, you should probably do 12GB + 4GB to make room for higher resolution textures.
Haven’t tested this, but if there were noticable differences, I would think these are the most likely scenarios for them to crop up.
Are there any drawbacks?
Well, that means the system RAM left for the CPU is 12 GB instead of 15, since the CPU and the GPU share the same 16 GB pool. So any system RAM heavy games would suffer.
Realistically, going down to 12GB System RAM from 15GB is not very noticeable compared to going from 1GB to 4GB VRAM and so I think it should be preferred. If you ran into issues with a very RAM heavy game (unlikely), you could change it to 14GB + 2GB, or go all the way back to 15GB + 1GB. If you are using the Steam Deck on an external display that is higher resolution than its native 1280x800 display, you should probably do 12GB + 4GB to make room for higher resolution textures. Haven’t tested this, but if there were noticable differences, I would think these are the most likely scenarios for them to crop up.