Leaked AMD CPU is a hint that Valve is now working on the Steam Deck 2

A leaked AMD Gainsborough chip has been discovered in a benchmark, which could potentially be the CPU for Valve's upcoming Steam Deck 2. The codename suggests that this could indeed be the CPU for the handheld sequel. The AMD Gainsborough APU boasts 6-cores (12-threads) and a base clock of 2.4GHz. However, the link between this chip and Valve's next-gen handheld remains tenuous.

TechPowerUp spotted this engineering sample chip via OpenBenchmarking, but further confirmation is needed. The chip was tested with 24GB of system memory, but there are doubts about whether it reflects a potential upgrade for the Steam Deck 2. Benchmark results show that this new AMD APU scores 3,508 points in Furmark at 1024 x 768 resolution, faster than the Steam Deck's score of 3,323 (1280 x 800).

Initial benchmarking results are unimpressive, but remember that this is early testing with unrefined drivers. The Gainsborough APU is expected to debut late in 2027 or 2028, which might be too early for a Steam Deck 2 launch, especially given the RAM crisis. Valve's CEO Pierre-Loup Griffais has been guarded about the Steam Deck 2's timeline, emphasizing that hardware details are still unclear.