Handheld gamers are eagerly awaiting a Steam Deck 2 announcement, but a new rumor suggests that the wait could be longer than expected.

Source is KeplerL2, who is generally considered a reliable source for insider hardware info, particularly on AMD GPU hardware and AMD SoC for consoles.

Previously I would have personally estimated Steam Deck 2 to release mid 2026-early 2027, but the recent info about an upcoming Steam Machine made me think that maybe I should push back that estimate.

Of course even if we assume this is reliable insider info, a lot can change in couple years, so things can definitely change.

  • Natanael@infosec.pub
    2·
    6 days ago

    IIRC the Switch 2 has weaker CPU in exchange for a more powerful GPU compared to the Steam Deck. Considering that console games specifically tend to be more GPU bottlenecked than by CPU, that makes the Switch 2 a bit more future proof since skilled devs will be able to deliver ports with a bit fewer compromises for a bit longer.

    But it’s going to take a while before anybody will see the difference in most games, because neither of them will be pushed to their limits in (officially supported) games for a while. Most games that run on the Steam Deck are just running with adjusted graphics settings, not hardware specific tuning.