Valve Announces Steam Deck 2 Delay Until Significant Upgrade in Compute Performance

The launch of the Steam Deck marked a significant shift in gaming, enabling fans to indulge in their favorite AAA titles from the comfort of their beds, courtesy of a handheld device. It’s no surprise that gamers are buzzing with anticipation over the possibility of a Steam Deck 2, especially with the substantial advancements in APU technology in recent years. However, according to a conversation with Reviews.org, Valve has made it clear that a new version won’t be arriving soon. They are holding out for a “generational leap in compute” before considering a release.

The RDNA architecture from AMD made a huge splash in the world of gaming, surpassing the older Vega offerings with enhanced performance and better driver support. In collaboration with AMD, Valve developed a custom chip for the Steam Deck, known as Van Gogh, using the second generation, RDNA 2.

This APU came equipped with four Zen 2 cores paired with an eight Compute Unit-based RDNA 2 iGPU, both of which were introduced around 2020. Despite the introduction of an OLED model recently, the anticipated performance upgrades remained elusive.

AMD’s new Strix Point APUs, or Ryzen AI 300, are built upon Zen 5 and RDNA 3.5 foundations. When asked if a successor is on the horizon, Steam Deck designer Lawrence Yang was quite clear in his response, “It is important to us, and we’ve tried to be really clear, we are not doing the yearly cadence.”

Valve’s approach is similar to that of giants like Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. Even the PS5 Pro continues to rely on the older Zen 2 architecture. Although the handheld gaming industry has seen some progress, with Intel now entering the fray with their Lunar Lake (Core Ultra 200V) CPUs, these advancements haven’t been groundbreaking enough to warrant a Steam Deck 2 just yet. Yang explained, “We really do want to wait for a generational leap in compute without sacrificing battery life before we ship the real second generation of Steam Deck.”

From a technical standpoint, today’s APUs aren’t significantly faster at sub-15W levels than they were during the Rembrandt (Ryzen 6000 Mobile) era. While Lunar Lake represents positive innovation, Valve seems to be holding out for something more impactful. A potential Steam Deck 2 could very well deliver a substantial boost in performance and battery longevity. Additionally, Valve is exploring an ARM64 version of Proton, considering the use of Arm cores alongside a GPU option from Intel, AMD, or NVIDIA, much like the Nintendo Switch.