Steam Deck 2 delay was right choice for Valve as mid-generation refresh would fare better
Steam Deck 2 delay was right choice for Valve as mid-generation refresh would fare better
Valve won't be releasing a Steam Deck with more performance until at least 2025. Given the smartphone market's reputation for disappointing incremental updates, this is the right choice. Valve should, however, throw gamers a bone with a Steam Deck 1.5.
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That argument that any SoC upgrade wouldn’t be noticeable right now is partially true. A better SoC can be fabricated, but that would offset any cost Valve would willing to accept given the current Steam Deck pricing.
It’s better to wait for what AMD creates. Surely they’re preparing new RDNA and ZEN architectures, plus TSMC new nodes. Those guys have an special sub-node to target low power devices, being the latest the one Apple eats every iPhone launch.
If they pushed a new Steam Deck, it would be marginally better and most folks wouldn’t be so compelled to upgrade. Also, you fragment your development team, now you have to maintain two devices.
Yeah, it’s better to wait a good timing when AMD and TSMC aligns, then you push forward and you offset the prior 4 year old model.
Given how repairable the steam deck already is, it'd be nice if it could be pushed one step further and make some sort of mini-socket for the SoC.
Obviously that's not a Valve thing to do but an AMD, and trying to downscale a desktop CPU socket style is primed for failure (a lot of companies are soldering on for a reason), but if AMD could make a standardized "whole system chip" that can just be swapped every generation, you wouldn't have to purchase the chassis over and over again.