Things are about to get even more interesting for people interested in handheld gaming PCs like the Steam Deck, ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go as there's a new AMD chip coming.
After being announced in April 2023, the Z1 Extreme chip from AMD was tailor-made specially for handheld PC gaming. A pretty impressive bit of tech that launched initially in May 2023 with the ROG Ally and later the Lenovo Legion Go. Seems it was important and successful enough to get a next-generation upgrade.
According to Digital Trends who attended a Q&A session between AMD and Microsoft, AMD revealed there's going to be a Z2 Extreme chip due out sometime in "early 2025".
Better performance and battery life will hopefully be the focus, with Digital Trends noting "AMD’s Jack Huynh highlighted wanting to play Black Myth: Wukong for three hours on a handheld, not the 45 minutes or so you can get on current handhelds".
With this coming next year, it might prove to be a good starting off point for the next-generation Steam Deck 2. We know that Valve will have been waiting on there being a good enough performance bump for a proper second system after the Steam Deck OLED, so perhaps this could be the one? Or, perhaps Valve will once again have something a little more custom, with the Z2 Extreme features forming the base of it.
I really can't wait to see more info on this. Really exciting to see the handheld PC gaming space keep improving.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Last edited by ToddL on 6 September 2024 at 4:51 pm UTC
The difference is that Point has 16 RDNA 3.5 units, and Halo has 40 RDNA 4.0.
A 20 RDNA4 CU cut down version of Strix Halo should be notably more energy efficient for the same performance than a 16 RDNA3.5 CU full-fat version of Strix Point.
It also looks like the Zen5c cores are noticeably smaller (cheaper) and use less power at lower clocks, but can't go to the 5+Ghz range. Would be a decent option for a handheld. You're more interested in performance that matches the GPU, and it should be lower power.
Regarding the Deck 2, I think they might wait at least one more year. The fact that Wukong runs at all makes me believe that the Deck can keep up with new releases just a bit longer.
Vortex_Acherontic Sep 6
Quoting: Vortex_AcheronticIf they make a Steam Deck 2 I am really keen to see how they will adapt the Steam Deck verified system. Because there are games not supported on Deck simply because they do not perform so well but might do so on a SD2.It's a bit of a pickle, but I think it could be done with just one extra icon.
Most of the criteria - text size, controller layouts, and so on - are going to be exactly the same whichever generation it is. So just keep testing with the Deck 1, and if it hits the 720p/30fps target there no worries, give it the green tick. But if it can't run on the Deck 1 and can run on the Deck 2 then they're going to need another rating. Possibly a yellow "2" icon or something like that, so it's a warning that you need the Deck 2 for it.
Viesta2015 Sep 6
ElectricPrism Sep 6
2022, 02.25 -- Steam Deck was released
2023, 11.16 -- Steam Deck OLED was released
So we are about 2.5 years since Steam Deck's initial release.
Considering the R&D & time to market, I wouldn't really be surprised to see Steam Deck 2 in the next 12-18 months which would make the upgrade cycle interval about ~4 years.
I presume the Steam Deck hardware team (which previously achieved the Index, Steam Controller, and Steam Link) got pulled over to Deckard which would delay a Steam Deck 2 until after what I would imagine is either Valve Index 2 or Deckard Standalone VR. (Obviously the wuflu pandemic years messed up the timeline for R&D.)
I expect Steam Deck 2 to have a resolution of 16:10 1920x1200 (likely under this AMD Z2 chip), OLED, and largely be the same with better Wifi, Bluetooth, Increased Storage, Perhaps a 10-15% reduction in size or if they're feeling ballsie we'll see a flip up Nintendo DS style option (maybe from another manufacturer), but I largely expect it to look nearly exactly the same and function the same with better specs -- they may steal a page from Apple's book selling colored rectangles and make the personalization as simple as having different colored shells (Orange OLED shell is pretty sick, I'm looking at it right now) Translucent FTW.
Quoting: Viesta2015the moment a steam deck 2 comes out im jumping onto the chance to get it no matter whatThe moment a Steam Deck 2 comes out . . . I might finally get a Steam Deck 1 on discount.
It's not like I play highpowered games anyway.
Quoting: CatKillerI don't think this'll be in the Deck 2. The Deck is still ramping up as a platform - Valve want to wait as long as possible before they disrupt that. This chip will be useful for the annual-release also-rans, though.
I agree. The longer Valve waits, the more established the Deck 1 user base becomes, and is an increasingly appealing platform for devs to make sure their game works great on it. Some games now have a Steam Deck preset when you tweak their performance (Like Cyberpunk 2077). You wouldn't have that kind of recognition if they changed the device performance often. The Nintendo Switch is ancient hardware, but there are so many in circulation that it's still getting games. I'm not suggesting Valve should wait as long as Nintendo did, just that there is value in sticking with aging hardware for a while.
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