this post was submitted on 13 Apr 2024
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Steam Deck

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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

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

which in my opinion is a clever move.

Well that's an interesting take? We have these things called "power profiles" that are not new. It's just hamstringing performance...

[–] [email protected] 27 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 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

[–] [email protected] 19 points 7 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

...or for the Deckard

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

also whether or not all the power on that chip is able to be used or if its just going to thermal throttle at 50% load

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I kind of wonder if they would switch to ARM for the next one

[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago

@solberg @Fubarberry It already requires a colossal effort to run Windows games on Linux. Adding ARM to the equation would only be a solution looking for a problem.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

We'll get there eventually, but I think x86 to arm support is still too far out.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Maybe they’ll release that one in Australia.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Yall can hope! Do people import ones from Asia?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Usually from third party eBay and Amazon sellers. There's a price premium, but not bad if you're willing to wait for a sale.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago (3 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

if the steam deck doesn't do the same I fear their sales will plummet until a new model comes out.

What will happen is the Deck will consistently have smoother gaming performance as developers optimize their games for the hardware, just like they do with consoles.

No sense in bothering with that for a piece of hardware that gets a new generation every year.

Also Valve probably doesn't care if consumers choose a different handheld. Their goal was to create/expand a market to sell games, and they've already done that. Their work is basically done at this point. Same idea behind Steam Machines that were 100% developed by 3rd parties.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

The Deck is basically a Series S with when you factor in the much lower resolution.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Most consoles go 7+ years without performance upgrades. I hope Valve follows the same pattern while continuing to optimize SteamOS.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I'm guessing we'll get a shorter lifespan, maybe 4 years.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

I think if there are substantial increases in performance and efficiency then yes, they'll have to, especially for the latter. That's something home consoles don't have to concern themselves with.