Upcoming APUs sporting Zen 4 cores and RDNA 3+ graphics are claimed to be much faster than existing chips, and look ideal for handhelds.

Honestly I think it’s probably too soon for the kind of significant performance increase Valve is wanting for the Steam Deck 2. Not to mention that the OLED deck just came out. That said, even if these chips don’t make it to a Deck 2 I’m sure we’ll see them in competing devices.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/19261005

  • warm@kbin.earth
    34·
    8 months ago

    It depends on efficiency, it’s all good and well having more performance, but if the battery life is only 2 hours it’s useless. I imagine Valve will wait a couple years yet.

    • lud@lemm.ee
      151·
      8 months ago

      More performance often means that you can throttle it to a greater degree and hopefully still get more performance at a similar or better efficiency.

      • warm@kbin.earth
        7·
        8 months ago

        Yeah you are not wrong, but why have a more expensive chip just to throttle it, better to keep the cost of the deck down so more people can afford it.

      • filister@lemmy.world
        6·
        8 months ago

        Isn’t it what Apple is doing? They downclock some of their components to extend battery life and make their machines run less noisy, which in my opinion is a clever move. As much as I hate Apple, I have to admit that their hardware is good.

        • saintshenanigans@programming.dev
          1·
          8 months ago

          Idk man, their laptops are pretty over engineered imo. Bad cooling just so they can get rid of vents, touchbar that holds important system commands that just crashes…

          But mostly they get better efficiency because there’s no hardware variation to account for. And even then, their mx processors were causing a shit ton of compatibility issues with some of the most popular mac software. I would assume a lot of those are ironed out by now though

  • cron@feddit.de
    27·
    8 months ago

    Just guessing, I really don’t expect a Steam Deck release this year. But 2025 seems quite likely to me.

    Edit: Maybe the next Steam Deck will be based on Zen 6? It is expected roughly two years after the Steam Deck OLED release.

    The Zen6 architecture might adopt an advanced manufacturing process, potentially combining 3nm and 2nm technologies, to further enhance performance and efficiency. The expected launch of the Zen6 “Medusa” CPUs is projected for the 2025-2026 period, showcasing AMD’s strategic planning for future developments. - Source

  • Midnitte@beehaw.orgEnglish
    19·
    8 months ago

    It’s too soon for Valve, but I’m sure AMD would love to sell chips to everyone, including those not Valve.

  • narc0tic_bird@lemm.ee
    8·
    8 months ago

    The relevant metric is how much faster it is at the same power draw. The Z1 Extreme/7840U/8840U are faster compared to the Deck’s APU, but at equal power limits there isn’t too much in it.

    • FubarberryOPMEnglish
      5·
      8 months ago

      Yeah, the Z1 chips mostly out perform the deck by throwing more power at the chip, which isn’t great for a handheld with limited battery capacity.

  • WereCat@lemmy.world
    6·
    8 months ago

    It all depends on how well the performance scales at very low power like 10W for example.

  • riodoro1@lemmy.world
    2·
    8 months ago

    IDK. Looks like it’d take up quite a lot of space in there. They still need a battery and all other crap.

  • merthyr1831@lemmy.world
    2·
    8 months ago

    I wonder if Valve will try and stick the same cadence of mainstream consoles to try and piggyback off that industry recognition

    • FubarberryOPMEnglish
      21·
      8 months ago

      I think with games getting more demanding, they will have to release a more powerful Deck in the next 2-4 years, probably closer to 2.

      • Woozythebear@lemmy.world
        22·
        8 months ago

        The deck is already too weak to play most modern games. You can’t play Madden 24 with a stable 30 FPS and sports games are perfect for handheld gaming devices.

        The ROG ALLY seems to want to release new models every year or so to keep up and if the steam deck doesn’t do the same I fear their sales will plummet until a new model comes out.

        • filister@lemmy.world
          31·
          8 months ago

          I don’t think that Rog Ally is very successful though. Do you have some sales numbers? And releasing a new model every year will add complexity as they will need to support different hardware platforms, etc.

          I also agree that it would have been great if the Deck had more oomph, but they do compensate with great software support and real dedication on their side.