Valve Announces No Yearly Steam Deck Updates; Steam Deck 2 Delayed for Future Tech Advancements

The Steam Deck has transformed the gaming landscape by allowing players to dive into AAA titles right from the comfort of their beds using a handheld device. However, as gaming enthusiasts buzz with excitement over a possible Steam Deck 2, Valve is tempering expectations. They’ve made it clear that a sequel will only arrive when there’s been a significant leap in computing power—a sentiment echoed in a recent chat with Reviews.org.

AMD’s RDNA architecture represented a major leap over its predecessor, Vega, offering better performance and driver support. In collaboration with AMD, Valve developed a custom chip for the Steam Deck known as Van Gogh, utilizing the RDNA 2 architecture.

Currently, the Steam Deck packs an APU with four Zen 2 cores and an eight Compute Unit-based RDNA 2 integrated GPU, technologies that have been around since 2020. Despite last year’s OLED update, there was a noticeable absence of performance upgrades.

AMD’s latest innovation, the Strix Point APUs (Ryzen AI 300), harness the power of Zen 5 and RDNA 3.5. When pressed about a future Steam Deck, designer Lawrence Yang reiterated, “It is important to us, and we’ve tried to be really clear, we are not doing the yearly cadence.”

Valve seems to be adopting a similar strategy to industry giants like Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. Take the example of the PS5 Pro, which still relies on the older Zen 2 architecture. Even with Intel entering the scene with its Lunar Lake CPUs, the advances aren’t robust enough to warrant a new Steam Deck just yet. Yang emphasized that they’re committed to waiting for a true generational leap that enhances compute power without compromising battery life for the next iteration.

When it comes to technical specifics, today’s APUs show only marginal speed improvements at sub-15W power levels compared to their predecessors, such as the Rembrandt series. Although Lunar Lake presents promising design innovations, it hasn’t yet met Valve’s high standards for a follow-up device. Additionally, Valve’s work on an ARM64 version of Proton might pave the way for integrating Arm cores with a GPU solution from Intel, AMD, or NVIDIA, reminiscent of the setup found in the Nintendo Switch.

Stay tuned as the gaming world eagerly watches for what Valve has in store for the Steam Deck’s evolution. While the wait for a significant hardware upgrade might be long, Valve is committed to delivering a device that can truly redefine portable gaming.