Valve is bringing much more than an “incrementally better” update to the Steam Deck - here’s what we know about the handheld’s huge tech upgrade

Valve is aiming for massive tech upgrades

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Despite the agingAMDAPU that powers theSteam Deck, it continues to be one of the best PC gaming handhelds on the market — setting the gold standard for its competitors like theAsus ROG Ally XandLenovo Legion Goto follow.

And it’s because of this that, in a recent interview with Reviews.org,SteamDeck designers Lawrence Yang and Yazan Aldehyyat confirmed that the planned successor to the device will boast some serious tech upgrades. According to Yang, Valve isn’t planning on “incrementally better” yearly releases. Instead, Valve is planning “to wait for a generational leap in compute without sacrificing battery life before [it ships] the real second generation of Steam Deck.”

This all matches with what we currently know about the Steam Deck 2’s release, thanks to the multitude of reports discussing the Steam Deck successor. Back in March 2023 for instance, Yang told thepublication Rock Paper Shotgunthat “a true next-gen Deck with a significant bump in horsepower wouldn’t be for a few years.”

During Tokyo Game Show 2023, Valve coder Pierre-Loup Griffaistold CNBCthat the team is hard at work on the current Steam Deck, but in terms of what comes next, “we’re kind of looking at this performance target that we have as a stable target for a couple years.” Meaning that we won’t be seeing the Steam Deck 2 until at least 2026.

This all makes sense sinceAustralia finally got its handson the Steam Deck. Before, gamers had to purchase the handheld from third-party importers, but now they can officially buy the device through Valve itself.

The future of Valve’s Steam Deck 2 is bright

Though Valve hasn’t stated what kind of chip they’re looking to power the Steam Deck 2, we at least know that it’ll definitely pack quite the punch. AMD’s latest mobile processor, the Ryzen 7 8840U, already has a leg up on the currently used Aerith AMD APU in terms of power.

According toBatman Arkham Knighttest resultsfrom X (formerly Twitter) user Cary Golomb, the new processor supports 7% more frames per second (fps) than Steam Deck’s current model, with the 8840U getting 51.7fps and the Aerith 48.3fps. Keep in mind that this is off 10W of power, which is what the Steam Deck uses now — in other words, this new mobile chip can squeeze out more performance at the same level of battery life efficiency.

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Obviously this won’t be the chip that Valve goes with, as it’ll be wildly outdated by the time the Steam Deck 2 drops. But it’s certainly promising that the components it needs to fulfill the promise of a massive tech spike will be waiting once Valve is ready.

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Named by the CTA as a CES 2023 Media Trailblazer, Allisa is a Computing Staff Writer who covers breaking news and rumors in the computing industry, as well as reviews, hands-on previews, featured articles, and the latest deals and trends. In her spare time you can find her chatting it up on her two podcasts, Megaten Marathon and Combo Chain, as well as playing any JRPGs she can get her hands on.

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