Support NeoGAF

[Topher]

Valve has said it's "hard at work" on Steam Deck 2, while continuing to work on getting the Steam Machine, Steam Controller, and Steam Frame out the door.

In November last year, when Valve announced its trio of new hardware devices, IGN asked Valve programmer Pierre-Loup Griffais about Steam Deck 2, and he told us that Valve was "making sure… that it's a worthwhile enough performance upgrade to make sense as a standalone product."

Now, five months later, with Valve confirming a release date and price for Steam Controller, we thought we'd ask Griffais for an update on Steam Deck 2.

"We're hard at work on it," he replied. "And obviously every step of the way, if you look at our hardware projects over the years, you can draw a straight line from the original Steam Controller and Steam Machine to Steam Deck, to everything that we're announcing and shipping this year. And we expect Steam Deck 2 will be a lot of the same where a lot of what we're doing here will be learnings that build up to it."

So, no firm release window on Steam Deck 2, but it sounds like Valve has every intention of releasing the device at some point. And, based on Griffais' comments both now and last year, performance will be the key question Valve must answer before Steam Deck 2 becomes a reality.

"We're not interested in getting to a point where it's 20 or 30 or even 50% more performance at the same battery life," Griffais told us last year. "We want something a little bit more demarcated than that. So we've been working back from silicon advancements and architectural improvements, and I think we have a pretty good idea of what the next version of Steam Deck is going to be, but right now there's no offerings in that landscape, in the SoC [System on a Chip] landscape, that we think would truly be a next-gen performance Steam Deck."

The Steam Deck handheld launched in February 2022, with the OLED model coming out November 2023. Steam Deck is over four years old now, and while there is a long list of Steam Deck-verified games to play, it does struggle to run some modern PC games well. Indeed, in September 2023, Pierre-Loup Griffais told The Verge that the next Steam Deck was at least a couple of years away, which had some hoping for the next version in time for the holidays last year.

Hopefully Steam Deck 2 will have improved battery life, when it eventually comes out. As IGN's Steam Deck review points out, battery life is a "massive problem" while running Windows. Even when running the native SteamOS on the device, we noted "battery life still wasn't great," citing the fact that God of War on default settings chewed through a fully charged Steam Deck in just 90 minutes.

Valve Says It's 'Hard at Work' on Steam Deck 2, but There's Still No Release Window

Valve has said it’s “hard at work” on Steam Deck 2, while continuing to work on getting the Steam Machine, Steam Controller, and Steam Frame out the door.

www.ign.com

---

 

[OverHeat]

 

[The_hunter]

Realistically, steam deck 2 needs FSR4.

 

[asdasdasdbb]

Realistically, steam deck 2 needs FSR4.

More like Switch 2 to get hacked

 

[Trilobit]

I hope it gets a dedicated Chat-button.

 

[pqueue]

they are waiting on the pc release of GTA 6 as well

 

[PSFore]

Good thing the first Steam Deck is easy to find in stock.

 

[StereoVsn]

Realistically, steam deck 2 needs FSR4.

I would hope that they will go with RDNA5 (or is it UDNA) SoC so hopefully whatever is the gen version of FSR.

Otherwise what even is the point.

 

[CrustyBritches]

If the Deck has been out of stock for months now due to the memory crisis, I doubt we'll ever see a Deck 2, or even Steam Machine or Frame.

 

[SABRE220]

Realistically, steam deck 2 needs FSR4.

FSR5, they will need RDNA5 or a refresh to hit the ideal power/efficiency mark, or maybe they could even do a curve ball with researching Intel's next gen arch, which might be very impressive from rumors, as AMD's handheld offerings so far are honestly pathetic for 2026.

 

[kevboard]

FSR5, they will need RDNA5 or a refresh to hit the ideal power/efficiency mark, or maybe they could even do a curve ball with researching Intel's next gen arch, which might be very impressive, as AMD's handheld offerings so far are honestly pathetic for 2026.

they have ARM support now, so they could go with Nvidia.

imagine a super pimped up Tegra T239 successor on a smaller node, with a more modern architecture... that thing would be insane!

the Switch 2 beats all PC handhelds in terms of efficiency with a 5 year old chip, imagine what a new one could do.

 

[Durin]

I would hope that they will go with RDNA5 (or is it UDNA) SoC so hopefully whatever is the gen version of FSR.

Otherwise what even is the point.

Pretty much, if they want a generational difference it needs to not just support FSR4, but the full fat version that has dedicated cores to crunch machine-learning.

Also, if they could pull off a variable refresh rate OLED screen with HDR at that size, chefs kiss.

Unless they can really ramp up ARM translation in the next year, I still hope they keep it x86 because the compatibility day one can just build off all the momentum gained.

 

[SABRE220]

they have ARM support now, so they could go with Nvidia.

imagine a super pimped up Tegra T239 successor on a smaller node, with a more modern architecture... that thing would be insane!

the Switch 2 beats all PC handhelds in terms of efficiency with a 5 year old chip, imagine what a new one could do.

NVIDIA is notoriously hard to work with and has shafted both Microsoft and Sony in the past with console partnerships. It is also so massive that its bargaining position and priorities mean Valve would probably get fleeced instead of getting an affordable APU deal, especially with the limited sales the Steam Deck generates as a niche device. With AMD, the situation is different because, sadly, Nvidia owns more than 94% of the GPU market share, and they need these APU/console deals much more and would offer Valve a much better bargaining position.

The Switch was a unique scenario because Nintendo basically went shopping in Nvidias trashbin for some ancient parts and Nvidia got branding and experience in the handheld space. With the switch 2, it was again conservative hardware from a few architectures behind their active GPU line at the time, so Nintendo could get a cheaper deal and would pretty much guarantee 100m+ sales compared to 6m?, meaning a much stronger bargaining proposition than Valve.

Unless Nvidia is aiming to launch a branding showcase for their New/gpu combo through a partner, Valve would be better off looking at a desperate supplier like Intel who would be very accommodating to gain a customer or choose the safe and relatively cheap option in AMD who finally seem to have a winner in Rdna5 but again amds recent track record of translating those technologies into the handheld space have been shocking recently.

 

[kevboard]

NVIDIA is notoriously hard to work with and has shafted both Microsoft and Sony in the past with console partnerships. It is also so massive that its bargaining position and priorities mean Valve would probably get fleeced instead of getting an affordable APU deal, especially with the limited sales the Steam Deck generates as a niche device. With AMD, the situation is different because, sadly, Nvidia owns more than 94% of the GPU market share, and they need these APU/console deals much more and would offer Valve a much better bargaining position.

The Switch was a unique scenario because Nintendo basically went shopping in Nvidias trashbin for some ancient parts and Nvidia got branding and experience in the handheld space. With the switch 2, it was again conservative hardware from a few architectures behind their active GPU line at the time, so Nintendo could get a cheaper deal and would pretty much guarantee 100m+ sales compared to 6m?, meaning a much stronger bargaining proposition than Valve.

Unless Nvidia is aiming to launch a branding showcase for their New/gpu combo through a partner, Valve would be better off looking at a desperate supplier like Intel who would be very accommodating to gain a customer or choose the safe and relatively cheap option in AMD who finally seem to have a winner in Rdna5 but again amds recent track record of translating those technologies into the handheld space have been shocking recently.

this is the mobile market tho.

Nvidia has tried to get into the mobile SoC market for ages, with very little success.

so I could see them maybe looking at something like the Deck 2 as a way to promote their ARM based mobile chips in more systems than just the Switch/Switch 2.

hard to say tho of course.

 

[SABRE220]

this is the mobile market tho.

Nvidia has tried to get into the mobile SoC market for ages, with very little success.

so I could see them maybe looking at something like the Deck 2 as a way to promote their ARM based mobile chips in more systems than just the Switch/Switch 2.

hard to say tho of course.

Yes, but Nvidia is even putting their previous main business, the GPU market, as an afterthought in their pursuit of AI. They already have the biggest player in the mobile market locked down in Nintendo. The Steam Deck is too niche, and the sales numbers are way too low to be the de facto showcase for the ARM chips. Their real target for this tech would be a major phone producer like Samsung, etc., and also the laptop/tablet market in my opinion.

 

[Nelly_Nel_7.1.3]

Valve has said it's "hard at work" on Steam Deck 2, while continuing to work on getting the Steam Machine, Steam Controller, and Steam Frame out the door.

In November last year, when Valve announced its trio of new hardware devices, IGN asked Valve programmer Pierre-Loup Griffais about Steam Deck 2, and he told us that Valve was "making sure… that it's a worthwhile enough performance upgrade to make sense as a standalone product."

Now, five months later, with Valve confirming a release date and price for Steam Controller, we thought we'd ask Griffais for an update on Steam Deck 2.

"We're hard at work on it," he replied. "And obviously every step of the way, if you look at our hardware projects over the years, you can draw a straight line from the original Steam Controller and Steam Machine to Steam Deck, to everything that we're announcing and shipping this year. And we expect Steam Deck 2 will be a lot of the same where a lot of what we're doing here will be learnings that build up to it."

So, no firm release window on Steam Deck 2, but it sounds like Valve has every intention of releasing the device at some point. And, based on Griffais' comments both now and last year, performance will be the key question Valve must answer before Steam Deck 2 becomes a reality.

"We're not interested in getting to a point where it's 20 or 30 or even 50% more performance at the same battery life," Griffais told us last year. "We want something a little bit more demarcated than that. So we've been working back from silicon advancements and architectural improvements, and I think we have a pretty good idea of what the next version of Steam Deck is going to be, but right now there's no offerings in that landscape, in the SoC [System on a Chip] landscape, that we think would truly be a next-gen performance Steam Deck."

The Steam Deck handheld launched in February 2022, with the OLED model coming out November 2023. Steam Deck is over four years old now, and while there is a long list of Steam Deck-verified games to play, it does struggle to run some modern PC games well. Indeed, in September 2023, Pierre-Loup Griffais told The Verge that the next Steam Deck was at least a couple of years away, which had some hoping for the next version in time for the holidays last year.

Hopefully Steam Deck 2 will have improved battery life, when it eventually comes out. As IGN's Steam Deck review points out, battery life is a "massive problem" while running Windows. Even when running the native SteamOS on the device, we noted "battery life still wasn't great," citing the fact that God of War on default settings chewed through a fully charged Steam Deck in just 90 minutes.

Valve Says It's 'Hard at Work' on Steam Deck 2, but There's Still No Release Window

Valve has said it’s “hard at work” on Steam Deck 2, while continuing to work on getting the Steam Machine, Steam Controller, and Steam Frame out the door.

www.ign.com

---

 

[Wilhelm_85]

It won't make sense until they can at least 3x the performance of the current Steam Deck and support 1080p/HDR with at least the same battery life, but I'm not sure that technology currently exists for retail.

 

[rebellio]

Unless Nvk + NOVA peak performance sadly valve stick amd for performant driver stack

 

[vaibhavpisal]

they have ARM support now, so they could go with Nvidia.

imagine a super pimped up Tegra T239 successor on a smaller node, with a more modern architecture... that thing would be insane!

the Switch 2 beats all PC handhelds in terms of efficiency with a 5 year old chip, imagine what a new one could do.

How is Arm compatibility with steam OS?

Do all games work?

That would be biggest make or break point.

Switch 2 is also a console. I expect ps6 portable to have similar efficiency as Switch 2. One is 12 watts (system power), other is 15 watts (soc). From what I remember.

 

[hardwood007]

I am probably in the minority, but even with newer and better upscaling, I hope Deck 2 retains same screen size and 800p resolution of Deck oled.

All of these PC handhelds have too high of a native display resolution in my view.

 

[LavitzSlambert]

I am probably in the minority, but even with newer and better upscaling, I hope Deck 2 retains same screen size and 800p resolution of Deck oled.

All of these PC handhelds have too high of a native display resolution in my view.

Total waste of processing power and battery life to have all of these tiny 4K screens. Give me lower DPI that equates to 1440p on a TV and pocket the difference.

 

[jshackles]

I am probably in the minority, but even with newer and better upscaling, I hope Deck 2 retains same screen size and 800p resolution of Deck oled.

All of these PC handhelds have too high of a native display resolution in my view.

Yep I'm fine with 800p - though I wouldn't say no to 1422x800 to keep the 16:9 aspect ratio. Squeezing in an extra 200 or so horizontal pixels would be a small price to pay to not have them either completely dead for a lot of games, or worse, cause some games to not work at all.

I know it's been 4 years since the Steam Deck launched, but they've been a pretty shitty four years for tech innovation in general. I'm curious to see if Valve can make a successor to the Steam Deck that feels like it's a worthwhile upgrade that has a solid performance to value proposition.

 

[mckmas8808]

Realistically, steam deck 2 needs FSR4.

At a minimum!

 

[hardwood007]

Total waste of processing power and battery life to have all of these tiny 4K screens. Give me lower DPI that equates to 1440p on a TV and pocket the difference.

Even 1080p native display on ROG Ally, 1200p on Legion Go feels unnecessary. First of all, the increase in resolution kills some of the gains that the Z1E/Z2E has over the steam deck SoC.

Secondly, Z1E and Z2E don't even support a competent upscaler

Third, staying at 800p or a resolution close to 800p would improve framerates, thermals and battery life.

I would argue even 1080p native in handheld on Switch 2 is unnecessary, even with dlss lite. Switch 2 has quite poor battery life, even with the efficiency of the T239 and dlss lite.

 

[Seomel]

Man, i can wait. I know the performance wtc improvements gonna be off the chart when they are done.
Its crazy that deck is already so old. Time flies

 

[March Climber]

Please be clamshell, please be clamshell…

 

[Seomel]

Please be clamshell, please be clamshell…

Leave that shit for chinese android hanhelds.

 

[Dorfdad]

Valve should outsource the hardware to third party and just focus entirely on the OS. They are not big enough to handle 4/5 hardware / os and game proton improvements simultaneously.

Release a steam deck certified program and work with a single vendor to design it and let them run with it.

 

[Seomel]

Valve should outsource the hardware to third party and just focus entirely on the OS. They are not big enough to handle 4/5 hardware / os and game proton improvements simultaneously.

Release a steam deck certified program and work with a single vendor to design it and let them run with it.

Valve knows what they are doing tho. Look at much more expensive handhelds and what the performance is like compared to hw. Also most other big handhelds have ton of quality issues and not even gonna mention price. Market wouldnt be what it is now without steam deck

 

[cormack12]

Well.

Work harder?

 

[IlGialloMondadori]

At this point, with the price of hardware, just don't bother. Wait it out until prices come down a bit. We need like 3 or 4x perf and a reasonable price to make this worthwhile.

 

[Minsc]

Even 1080p native display on ROG Ally, 1200p on Legion Go feels unnecessary. First of all, the increase in resolution kills some of the gains that the Z1E/Z2E has over the steam deck SoC.

Secondly, Z1E and Z2E don't even support a competent upscaler

Third, staying at 800p or a resolution close to 800p would improve framerates, thermals and battery life.

I would argue even 1080p native in handheld on Switch 2 is unnecessary, even with dlss lite. Switch 2 has quite poor battery life, even with the efficiency of the T239 and dlss lite.

Legion Go is 1600p, and it actually works out fairly well since it's integer scaling (exactly 100%) from 800p, so you get super crisp for desktop use and also nice performance from using 720/800p.

 

[hardwood007]

Legion Go is 1600p, and it actually works out fairly well since it's integer scaling (exactly 100%) from 800p, so you get super crisp for desktop use and also nice performance from using 720/800p.

I have the OG Legion Go. And also The Go 2. Yes, you can do integer scaling on the Go. I tried it with a few games and found it to be blurrier than on the steam deck. Of course, that's due to the PPI difference as it has a much larger display, but I suspect it could be due to integer scaling which is not perfect I suspect.

An 8 inch ish display size with 800p or 720p would be the sweet spot in my view.

 

[Minsc]

I have the OG Legion Go. And also The Go 2. Yes, you can do integer scaling on the Go. I tried it with a few games and found it to be blurrier than on the steam deck. Of course, that's due to the PPI difference as it has a much larger display, but I suspect it could be due to integer scaling which is not perfect I suspect.

An 8 inch ish display size with 800p or 720p would be the sweet spot in my view.

Yeah I've read the complaints, but don't really understand them, I feel like there's got to be some fix, how do you screw up a perfect 100% enlargement? Maybe it's some sort of post filtering happening, I've seen that on the Deck too if you have the wrong options enabled, it will look blurry.

Literally you're taking 1 pixel and making it be 2x2 pixels, there should be no difference at all. None. Unless something else is happening in the process.

Like if you took a 1280x720 image and integer scaled it to 2560x1440, it would be a 1:1 copy, even when reduced back to 1280x720 with integer scaling.

What's even stranger is when you compare a native 800p image on the Deck, to a game running at 1080p downsampled to 800p, the 1080p often looks easier to read/crisper, but I guess that's just pseudo AA helping out, still it is surprising to see how even the default 800p resolution on the Deck isn't really as clear as 800p can look, as looking at games downscaled to 800p looks even better.

 

[hardwood007]

Yeah I've read the complaints, but don't really understand them, I feel like there's got to be some fix, how do you screw up a perfect 100% enlargement? Maybe it's some sort of post filtering happening, I've seen that on the Deck too if you have the wrong options enabled, it will look blurry.

Literally you're taking 1 pixel and making it be 2x2 pixels, there should be no difference at all. None. Unless something else is happening in the process.

Like if you took a 1280x720 image and integer scaled it to 2560x1440, it would be a 1:1 copy, even when reduced back to 1280x720 with integer scaling.

What's even stranger is when you compare a native 800p image on the Deck, to a game running at 1080p downsampled to 800p, the 1080p often looks easier to read/crisper, but I guess that's just pseudo AA helping out, still it is surprising to see how even the default 800p resolution on the Deck isn't really as clear as 800p can look, as looking at games downscaled to 800p looks even better.

Yea 100%. I have tried 1080p downsampled on my Deck oled and it is indeed much better than 800p native.

My Go is collecting dust now. Running 800p is no go, as it is too blurry. It cannot just be due to lower ppi compared to steam deck. The integer scaling is messed up somehow. 1600p is too high of a resolution. Anything in between would have weird resolution scaling as well.

Well I could play some light weight games like visual novels on it at 1600p. But why would I want to carry such a heavy handheld for that when I have lighter and more ergonomic options?

Go 2 is heavier but they really improved the ergonomics. I don't know what they were thinking with the shape of the detachable controllers on the Go

 

[kpopSuperstar]

A horrible time to release anything like that now, wait to see what the new Playstation will be, and then come over the top 2 years later with a slam dunk.

With so much you hear from it, it is kind of wild that they only shipped a few million of the thing.

 

[Minsc]

Yea 100%. I have tried 1080p downsampled on my Deck oled and it is indeed much better than 800p native.

My Go is collecting dust now. Running 800p is no go, as it is too blurry. It cannot just be due to lower ppi compared to steam deck. The integer scaling is messed up somehow. 1600p is too high of a resolution. Anything in between would have weird resolution scaling as well.

Well I could play some light weight games like visual novels on it at 1600p. But why would I want to carry such a heavy handheld for that when I have lighter and more ergonomic options?

Go 2 is heavier but they really improved the ergonomics. I don't know what they were thinking with the shape of the detachable controllers on the Go

Yeah, I was tempted by the Go for a while. I've always been a fan of the compartmental setup like the Switch, a tablet is super easy to stick in a pocket without the controllers attached, despite the size, I find it easier to transport than the Deck or even Ally X, at least when it's not attached.

I guess something like the Thor Odin 2 or whatever the dual screen one is also seems pretty tempting to me, that's even OLED as well on the upper screen. But Android on that unfortunately, though maybe a plus for battery life.

 

[simpatico]

They were never even able to meet the demand for Steam Deck one. Harder to buy at retail than Supreme Jordans.

 

[PSFore]

They need to sort out the Steam Deck 1 situation. Otherwise, they have no SteamOS hardware, making all the advancements pointless for a lot of new buyers.

 

[Doggyred]

They were never even able to meet the demand for Steam Deck one. Harder to buy at retail than Supreme Jordans.

They were always in stock before the ram shortage bullshit.

 

[Comandr]

8" screen at 1920x1200 resolution. 800p is just barely "HD" and is not good enough in what will likely be 2028. If we can't achieve 1080/1200p with upscaling in 2028 - what the fuck are we doing?

Give people choice. I thought you guys loved that. You can always lower your resolution.

I wouldn't mind if the size was sliiiightly bigger to accommodate the larger screen and potentially bigger battery.

Add another usb port or two and a processor that supports FSR4 and buddy we are golden.

I don't feel like I'm asking for a lot here.

 

[Germuso]

Hard at work and valve in the same sentence.

Lol

 

[kevboard]

8" screen at 1920x1200 resolution. 800p is just barely "HD" and is not good enough in what will likely be 2028. If we can't achieve 1080/1200p with upscaling in 2028 - what the fuck are we doing?

Give people choice. I thought you guys loved that. You can always lower your resolution.

I wouldn't mind if the size was sliiiightly bigger to accommodate the larger screen and potentially bigger battery.

Add another usb port or two and a processor that supports FSR4 and buddy we are golden.

I don't feel like I'm asking for a lot here.

the optimal resolution would be an exact 2x increase from the deck.
2560x1600.

that way you could implement an integer scaling mode to go back to 1280x800, with no uneven scaling issues, for more demanding games. and for less demanding games, or games that run well with upsampling, you could target the full screen resolution.

 

[Comandr]

the optimal resolution would be an exact 2x increase from the deck.
2560x1600.

that way you could implement an integer scaling mode to go back to 1280x800, with no uneven scaling issues, for more demanding games. and for less demanding games, or games that run well with upsampling, you could target the full screen resolution.

I won't deny that a higher resolution screen would make things better or easier. Though I am concerned about the price of a higher resolution screen like that.

I do wonder how many people will start a game and it will just automatically set to 1600p and people complain that the games run like shit because they don't understand anything about how computers work and are just treating it like a console.

 

[Bitstream]

Everytime I see a valve post about some unannounced hardware, the steam machine and new VR headset get pushed back another month.

That said, I'd love to see Valve go for an ARM/Nvidia build next time, assuming they can work out the x86 translation layer.

 

[Hudo]

That's cool and all.

But Half-Life 3.