Steam Deck’s mobile CPU is known for its incredible efficiency, but it looks like AMD’s latest mobile processor, the Ryzen 7 8840U, has finally beaten it.
One of the most impressive factors about the Steam Deck is how it can deliver excellent performance at a 10W power limit, while other portable PC gaming handhelds like the Asus ROG Ally or the Lenovo Legion Go couldn’t match. This is due to the Steam Deck’s Aerith AMD APU built on Zen 2.
However, the AMD Ryzen 7 8840U processor, which was just released, scored benchmark test results that seem to confirm its victory over the Aerith AMD APU. According to Batman Arkham Knight test results from Twitter/X user Cary Golombthe new processor has 7% more frames per second (fps) than Steam Deck’s current model, with the former achieving 51.7 fps and the latter 48.3 fps.
And by the way, this is still 10W, which means the battery life is still there, but with higher performance.
AMD has a clear lead
It’s a nice little performance boost, but not so much that Valve should rush out and integrate the chip into future Steam Deck models. What it does mean, however, is that by the time a Steam Deck 2 rolls out, we could be looking at an improved chip that maintains the efficiency of the Steam Deck while delivering superior performance.
And considering how competitive the PC gaming handheld market is right now, at least four hours of battery life would give Valve a huge advantage over other devices.
The Ryzen 7 8840U also forms one challenge to Intel’s Meteor Lake hybrid. AMD claims its chips are much more power efficient than Intel’s, with the Ryzen 7 8840U delivering around 81% better performance per watt on office productivity tasks than Intel’s Core Ultra 7 155H. With the MSI Claw, Intel’s first foray into the PC gaming handheld market, this advantage could be a major point in AMD’s favor (and the Steam Deck 2).
So even though the gap between the Aerith AMD APU and the Ryzen 7 8840U is quite small, it’s exciting to see Team Red continue to improve its mobile chips and I look forward to seeing what the tech giant has in store by the time that the Steam Deck 2 is coming out. rolls around.