Potential Steam Deck 2 Chip Shows Up in Leaked Benchmarks, Yet Another Potential Final Fantasy-Themed Codename

Leaked benchmarks have revealed a potential chip for Valve's upcoming Steam Deck 2 handheld, sparking speculation about the device's capabilities. The AMD APU, codenamed Gainsborough, features 6 cores and 12 threads, paired with 24GB of LPDDR5 memory. However, the GPU specifications remain unknown. This is not the first time Gainsborough has surfaced; import documents for the chip surfaced recently, using the same "GBR" abbreviation as the leaked AMD engineering sample.

The chip's codename follows a pattern established with previous Steam Deck APUs, which were named after Final Fantasy characters - Aerith for the original and Sephiroth for the Steam Deck OLED version. While the leaked Gainsborough chip doesn't perform exceptionally well, with a FurMark score of 3,508 compared to the original Steam Deck's 3,323, it's likely a lower-resolution test (768p vs. 800p) that accounts for some of the difference.

The chip is most likely an engineering sample running on early drivers, implying significant potential for improvement before the final release. Although the benchmarks don't provide conclusive data on the Steam Deck 2's ultimate performance, their existence suggests Valve's next handheld is nearing completion. However, the handheld's launch timing may depend on Valve's ability to fine-tune drivers before announcing the device.

With the gaming hardware market radically transformed since the Steam Deck's 2022 release, the Steam Deck 2 could be more expensive than its predecessor. Valve has previously navigated challenges like the RAM crisis and pricing struggles with previous handhelds, indicating their awareness of potential financial hurdles.