It’s been over three years since the launch of Steam Deck, a truly watershed moment for gaming as a whole as handheld PCs became mainstream. While a successor to the system is undoubtedly in the works, Valve may have far more ambitious plans in mind for future hardware.
Speaking on the Broken Silicon podcast, YouTubers Moore’s Law Is Dead (MLID) and Jimmy Champagne discussed rumours surrounding Valve’s upcoming hardware. Interestingly, the two suggest Valve is working on a home console that could compete with PlayStation 6 and next-generation Xbox consoles.
The leakers discuss that Valve is eyeing up the same AMD ‘Magnus’ APU that would power Sony and Microsoft’s systems. This chip allegedly features a combination of three Zen 6 and eight Zen 6c CPU cores.
Most impressively, though, Magnus boasts astonishingly large integrated graphics for an APU. More specifically, rumours say the iGPU die size alone is 264mm2, making it larger than Navi 44 which currently powers Radeon RX 9060 XT.
Given the size of the die and its presumed power requirements, this choice of chip doesn’t make sense for Steam Deck 2 or any handheld. The only way to satiate such an APU would be through mains power, making a traditional console configuration the most likely approach.
While the prospect of Valve entering the console space intrigues me, the notion doesn’t come without concern. As much as the company has vastly improved SteamOS since launch, issues remain that keep the operating system from performing as a seamless experience akin to the software on PlayStation, Xbox, and even Nintendo consoles.
As someone that lives and breathes technology, I’m perfectly content to overlook such quirks but whether the majority of consumers are as patient remains an open question. Truthfully, I’d love to see the market break away from the closed storefronts of major players, providing further control and choice of price and purchases, but open ecosystems are practically the antithesis of consoles as we know them.
There’s still a healthy chunk of time to address these potential pitfalls, as the earliest Zen 6 silicon likely won’t be with us until 2027 with Valve’s home console potentially following as late as 2028. In the meantime, I’m excited to see what form Steam Deck 2 will take, particularly as it doesn’t seem we’ll be getting a variant sporting a Ryzen Z2 Extreme APU.
I’ll keep my ear to the ground for further developments on all things Valve, Steam Deck or otherwise. To make sure you stay up to date with the latest rumours and news, hit up Google News and make sure you’re following Club386.
