The Steam Deck is four and a fractional years old, and handheld gamers are eagerly awaiting a Steam Deck 2 — but Valve has consistently stated it needs a new part alongside a “generational leap” in achievement and effectiveness before construction the sequel.
There’s several logic to accept that part has now damaged cover: AMD Gainsborough. But I’m a tad skeptical.
As leaker Moore’s Law is Dead and IT Home report, the latest AMD drivers have leaked the codename for a earlier unidentified chip: an “AMD Gainsborough.” The archetypal Steam Deck part was named “Aerith” following Final Fantasy VII’s heartbreaking affection interest, and Gainsborough is her final name. Plus, the part appears to be a semi-custom one (read: designed for a particular customer) on TSMC’s relatively latest N3P process.
IT Home checked import/export records and established that AMD’s already been shipping test equipment for the Gainsborough part for validation, suggesting that a possible client power already be evaluation to see if it’s suitable for their device.
Those import records additionally display the Gainsborough part volition be fairly small, alongside an FF6 bundle measuring 25mm by 25mm. Today, leaker Gotou_3rd apparently revealed that AMD’s next handheld chips, the Ryzen Z3 and Z3 Extreme, volition additionally be 25mm by 25mm chips. Gotou additionally published a imaginable part of an AMD glide phase that suggests the Z3 is targeting 15 watts, the identical power letter cover as the Steam Deck and Steam Deck OLED.
Image via Gotou_3rd
This isn’t fairly adequate to tie Gainsborough specifically to a Steam Deck 2, though.
First, a semi-custom part doesn’t continually breeze up in its initially intended gadget. It’s lengthy been rumored that the Steam Deck’s own semi-custom chip wasn’t initially designed for the Steam Deck, but fairly a Magic Leap headset, and that it was shopped about for tablets (including this canceled Microsoft tablet, the narrative goes) before Valve took advantage. There are portions of the first Steam Deck’s chip that went entirely unused.
Second, you should cognize that “Aerith” (Steam Deck), “Sephiroth” (Steam Deck OLED) and “Gainsborough” are not Valve’s codenames. When I visited Valve’s agency in delayed 2023, I commented on this Aerith wafer hanging on the partition — and Valve designers told me they didn’t really desire the Final Fantasy codenames. AMD was the one that chose them.
Some additional evidence that Valve isn’t tied to those names: When Microsoft and Asus picked the “Ryzen Z2 A” part for the vanilla $500 Xbox Ally, they were choosing an “Aerith Plus” chip.
Third, 25mm by 25mm power be small, but it’s really ample for a Steam Deck! The first Steam Deck’s “Aerith” chip, before it shrunk to eliminate the unused components in its “Sephiroth” revision, reportedly measured 19mm by 19mm. But perchance it’s efficient, and perchance it’s additional affordable if this apple doesn’t autumn too far from AMD’s 25mm x 25mm Ryzen Z3 tree.
Lastly, Valve was motionless figuring out “how and when” to do a Steam Deck 2 as of final month, following it would have theoretically received these Gainsborough chips. But I conjecture Valve power fair be trying not to overpromise, following this year’s RAM-forced hardware delays.
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