Grab a napkin, juicy rumours incoming. Credible chatter now claims Valve has found the motivation to build a true successor to the Steam Deck, and the silicon centrepiece could be a beast: a Zen 6-based AMD APU codenamed "Magnus." If true, we're talking about a colossal performance jump. This same APU is rumoured to power the next‑gen PlayStation and Xbox, though any Steam Deck 2 version would presumably be a scaled‑down variant tuned for handheld thermals and battery life.
On the Moore's Law Is Dead podcast, the crew said:
"Internal sources suggest that Valve is working on its next device, pointing to a Steam Deck 2. What's more, it's tipped to deliver a major performance boost based on a now‑leaked AMD 'Magnus' Zen 6 APU, which is expected to power the PS6 and next Xbox."
Still, multiple industry watchers caution that a Steam Deck 2 is unlikely to surface before next year at the earliest. Zen 6 silicon itself isn't expected to become real, shipping hardware until earliest 2026, maybe even 2027. So whatever Valve's cooking, we're very much in the early‑days rumour zone, and it'll probably be a good long while before any second‑gen Deck lands in our hands. However much we're all dreaming about it, patience is the name of the game.
Meanwhile, the competition is sprinting. Lenovo's Legion Go S is coming with SteamOS. Microsoft/ASUS have their handheld project slated for later this year. And Valve's own "Deckard" VR effort continues to bubble in the background. In other words: the landscape is getting crowded fast, and that pressure could influence whether — and when — Valve actually greenlights a full‑blown Steam Deck 2.
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