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.
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
RavenWings Sep 8
I dont really expect Valve to bring a Deck 2 before 2026/27 and for the overall market I believe this to be a good thing. Maybe the following chip generation will be the one.
But DAMN, WOULD I BUY IT INSTANTLY!!! xD
I love my Deck to death and for me personally it feels like the right time for an upgrade now. Most of the competitors seem nice and they all have their allure, but the Deck is still by far the best package overall... so far I can´t see myself settling for anything else but a true Steam Deck 2.
Still, a second USB-C port would´ve been nice, Valve
Last edited by RavenWings on 8 September 2024 at 5:43 pm UTC
But DAMN, WOULD I BUY IT INSTANTLY!!! xD
I love my Deck to death and for me personally it feels like the right time for an upgrade now. Most of the competitors seem nice and they all have their allure, but the Deck is still by far the best package overall... so far I can´t see myself settling for anything else but a true Steam Deck 2.
Still, a second USB-C port would´ve been nice, Valve
Last edited by RavenWings on 8 September 2024 at 5:43 pm UTC
2 Likes, Who?
Caldathras Sep 8
Quoting: alexleducFor those of us that prefer to game on older, less powerful hardware, I have no problem with this. This may increase the likelihood that game developers will not leave support for older hardware behind, as they have done in the past.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.
1 Likes, Who?
Caldathras Sep 8
Quoting: ElectricPrism2019, 06.28 -- Valve Index was releasedWhat I'd love to see is a Steam laptop (the Steam Book?) using the same internal hardware as the SD but with a 15" WS display. I'm getting older. My eyes can't handle these tiny little screens.
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.
3 Likes, Who?
Quoting: CaldathrasI'm probably still OK with Steam Deck-sized screen, but I have never understood how the kids manage to watch movies on their dinky little phones. I think for it not to look tiny I'd have to hold it so close to my face I wouldn't be able to focus . . .Quoting: ElectricPrism2019, 06.28 -- Valve Index was releasedWhat I'd love to see is a Steam laptop (the Steam Book?) using the same internal hardware as the SD but with a 15" WS display. I'm getting older. My eyes can't handle these tiny little screens.
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.
4 Likes, Who?
TheRiddick Sep 9
I wonder which company will be brave enough to use a SteamOS variant (they can fork their own) or if they will all just install crappy windows11 on em all?!
0 Likes
So many people I work with avoid Linux like the plague. When you ask them why, they avoid the question and look to flee from the discussion.
Is there some kind of Taboo going on that we just have no clue about?
Is there some kind of Taboo going on that we just have no clue about?
2 Likes, Who?
Quoting: grigiSo many people I work with avoid Linux like the plague. When you ask them why, they avoid the question and look to flee from the discussion.
Is there some kind of Taboo going on that we just have no clue about?
I guess it's considered difficult (which is not completely wrong) and people don't want to admit that they want to avoid difficult stuff.
0 Likes
Quoting: EikeI guess it's considered difficult (which is not completely wrong) and people don't want to admit that they want to avoid difficult stuff.
But getting anything done on Windows is significantly harder as a software dev primarily developing code that runs on linux servers, using containers and kubernetes, etc...
They have to fight with vm's that perform terribly and randomly corrupts. Forced restarts for updates at inconvenient times. And most recently, ads in the start menu.
Honestly, any of those things would make me look for alternatives. But they don't want to try.
As I said, it's weird.
Excuse my tirade, I really don't get it.
1 Likes, Who?
Patreon
PayPal
See more from me