Steam Deck 2 spec rumor surfaces online with massive GPU upgrade

A Steam Deck 2 from Valve could be in the works, and rumored specs reveal that the device might have an OLED screen as well as a big GPU upgrade.

The Steam Deck is one of Valve’s greatest hardware successes, and a successor could be in the works. The Steam Deck 2 was thought to have been a long way off. But, one user on the Chiphell forums (via NoteBookCheck) claims to know what’s powering Valve’s next-gen handheld.

With all rumors, take them with a massive grain of salt, as although this spec rumor is significant, things could still change, and hardware may not yet be finalized. The original post even denotes it as gossip. But, it’s the first we’ve heard about the handheld.

The rumor claims that the APU will be based on AMD‘s Zen 4 Hawk Point processors, and will make use of a 16CU GPU. This would be double the current Steam Deck’s eight compute units, which could offer a significant boost in power for the handheld. We suspect it might be AMD’s RDNA 4 architecture powering the chip, much like how the Steam Deck got slightly earlier access to RDNA 2 when it debuted.

This led the Steam Deck to have an advantage over competitors like Ayaneo, as there were no off-the-shelf solutions to compete with Valve’s custom chip.

The RAM capacity is not specified in the rumor, however, it does give us some indication of transfer speeds, with the Steam Deck 2 allegedly using LPDDR5X RAM running at 8533 MT/s. There is currently no indication of storage sizes for the next-gen handheld specified in the rumor.

Big display upgrades

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The Steam Deck 2 is poised to get a big resolution upgrade, to 900p. Given that the rumor only states 900p, we assume the handheld will retain its 16:10 aspect ratio and be 1440 x 900. You should also expect an OLED screen, as well as a tasty 90Hz refresh rate. Valve could be simply testing the waters with the current Deck OLED to find ways to optimize the system for the inevitable Steam Deck 2.

When could a Steam Deck 2 be released?

Given that the Steam Deck OLED just released, it would be reasonable to assume that Valve would not want to release a new handheld so soon. Given these alleged specifications, we would estimate that the Steam Deck 2 will ship towards the tail end of 2025 at the very earliest, with 2026 being more likely. The rumor states that the Steam Deck 2 will ship in Q3/4 of 2026.

The Steam Deck 2 could cost you a pretty penny

The poster notes that given the boosted specifications all round, the Steam Deck 2 might cost a lot more than the original handheld. But, this remains to be seen. Zen 4 will be older as AMD prepares Zen 5 for 2024, but the custom nature of the chip and all of the upgrades under the hood could drive up pricing.

Again, just remember that this is still rumor, meaning that it might be off the mark, but if these speculated specifications are anything to go by, the Steam Deck 2 could be a monstrous upcoming gaming handheld.