Seems strange to not go with RDNA4, but I am assuming this was done for cost reasons.
I guess they don’t want a device in the thousands but in the hundreds to keep it accessible. The success of steam deck compared to all its competitors would make me think they are right with ths strategy.
A 7600 class GPU makes perfect sense for a device like this. It doesn’t need to be cutting edge, just play current games decently. And price is a major factor. If they can sell this thing for $500 it’ll be a surefire hit.
Yes, cost is likely a very big factor.
But also, people are apparently unaware of this… but FSR4 works, sorta, on RDNA3.
Given AMD’s much, much more open approach to driver code, and their stated stance of ‘we will try to get FSR4 working on RDNA3, but no promises’…
It would seem to me that committing to an RDNA3 architecture could possibly indicate that progress on that front is going better than expected.
This is a complete guess, ie, speculation…
… but if Valve is going with RDNA3… this could indicate that they themselves are working with AMD to attempt to make… maybe call it FSR4.3 or something I dunno, basically, a version of, or operating mode for FSR4 that is better optimized to run on RDNA3 architecture.
Or at the very least, that Valve is in communication with AMD and AMD has privately told them that their own progress on FSR4 on RDNA3 is going better than they’ve yet publically announced.
…
Also, it is very much worth pointing out that these GeekBench scores for ‘Fremont’… were done on Windows.
There is literally 0 chance Valve would release a Windows powered device, they have SteamOS… and properly configured linux distros are already generally outperforming Windows by roughly 5 to 10% fps, in games that … basically, came out more than 3 to 6 months ago and thus have decent Proton support.
RDNA3 supporting FSR4 would be a bit win for everyone (even people not on RDNA3 GPUs; more collection against Nvidia benefits everyone).
Yeah, RX 9060 XT 16 GB would look way better.
What’s that?
It’s the architecture in the new AMD GPUs (e.g. 9070 XT), it seems like a better fit (FSR4, better ray-tracing performance) for a console style PC.
It’s the processor graphics apparently
If it’s a successor to the Steam Deck, I’m already sold. I don’t know how many hours I’ve put on that thing but it’s a lot. And I’ve had it since it came out.
Same, every console I had was purchased waaay into the current generations lifespan. Hell I got my PS3 when they released the PS4 :) …yet somehow I preordered the Steam Deck after 1 hour the official site went live. Its a brilliant little machine.
If this is an Xbox style device that can be optimized for by game companies, you’d be surprised what a six core cpu and 7600 can pull off. It should be faster than the latest consoles by a fair margin at least
Agreed. I am not so much surprised about card class, as much as the decision to go with RDNA3, especially since for mainstream games ML upscaling is a big thing.
The design has likely been locked in for a while. This could also be a placeholder GPU for testing.
