Valve RDNA 4-based Steam Console Rumors Arise, Only To Get Shot Down

[GGforever]

Extas1s is a prominent name in the rumor arena, who has provided trustworthy information in the past. Joining hands with HandleDeck, the duo recently made an interesting claim of Valve secretly working on a Steam Console of sorts, or perhaps some sort of eGPU for the Steam Deck. To back up their claims, the duo cited the fact that Valve is putting quite a lot of effort into drivers for AMD's soon-to-be released Radeon RX 9070 GPUs, and since those are desktop-only parts, a stationary console that will allow Valve to lock horns with Sony and Microsoft is likely in the works.

However, it appears that the duo may have rushed to a conclusion instead of considering the facts on the table. GamingOnLinux, who was quick to respond to the claims made by HandleDeck and Extas1s, stated that Valve working on AMD drivers for future hardware is nothing out of the ordinary, adding that Valve invests in a "lot of different areas for Linux", and not just the areas that concern their own products, which is absolutely true. This time around, the speculations arose when a Valve developer commented that Mesa drivers support for RDNA 4 cards should be good enough.




Just recently, rumors regarding a successor to the Steam Deck 2 was also doing the rounds on the internet, which were quickly refuted by informed sources. Of course, this absolutely does not mean that Valve is not working on future hardware - they almost certainly are - just that a documentation update to open source graphics drivers should not be taken as an indication of unreleased hardware being under development. The rest, of course, remains to be seen.

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[Daven]

The whole Steam Machines, Steam OS and Steam Controller would have worked when originally launched in 2013 if Valve would have launched an exclusive bundle that I call 'Three' for the Steam OS. The 'Three' bundle would have included Half-life 3, Counter-strike 3, Day of Defeat 3, Left 4 Dead 3, Portal 3, DOTA 3 and Team Fortress 3. Such an exclusive would have propelled a Steam console into the stratosphere.

 

[Denver]

If it turns out to be based on the 9070XT, it would be especially interesting, as it would provide an unprecedented comparison between official AMD drivers on Windows and Valve's open-source drivers on Linux.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

I think Steam has got a good thing going to with the Steam Deck. Keep building on that base and form-factor, maybe do a Switch-esq dock that allows for a higher clock rate on the parts and just keep on trucking.

No need for some completely separate product line in the form of a home console or something. Just give us a Steam OS and let folks custom build their home consoles.

 

[lilhasselhoffer]

The whole Steam Machines, Steam OS and Steam Controller would have worked when originally launched in 2013 if Valve would have launched an exclusive bundle that I call 'Three' for the Steam OS. The 'Three' bundle would have included Half-life 3, Counter-strike 3, Day of Defeat 3, Left 4 Dead 3, Portal 3, DOTA 3 and Team Fortress 3. Such an exclusive would have propelled a Steam console into the stratosphere.

So Valve, a company with immense financial resources, could have made their hardware magically work by releasing software. Specifically seven pieces of hardware that would basically have required multiple full development teams to work on for multiple years, whilst they were raking in cash for doing absolutely nothing relating to game development, with a smaller team, to have an absolutely insane per employee financial return.

That software could have saved a terrible launch where they half launched a set of specifications which required that manufacturers hit a single performance target, but they got to define the price point, meaning that it would have been a race to the bottom of profitability as the one who sold the most "consoles" would have dictated it by cost...like some sort of magical backwards capitalism? I cannot imagine that software that required none of their hardware would have fixed that, and the fact that you can makes me think there's something defective with your basic reasoning to allow such a conclusion to be reached.


TL;DR: software fixing hardware is a joke. Good luck selling that punchline, because it's not very funny.



On the "next' steam deck...I don't see the pull. When released it was basically a gameboy...and those sell for years and years until they get replaced. Yes, it was a computer, but Valve is still selling them. Why in Hades would someone buy several hundred dollars of new hardware whilst in the middle of a silicon shortage, that might give them a few percentage points of extra performance. Remember the Gameboy went classic, micro, color, advanced, SP, then dual screen over the course of like 25 years. Each of those steps was huge...whereas steam deck 2 being 30% more powerful would not go down so well...and 30% might be a huge quantity given the recent slowdown of etching processes.

 

[alwayssts]

Let's me honest.

Is/are new hand-helds and a STB coming? Yes.
Will it be RDNA4? Probably not.
Will it be UDNA and 3nm? Almost 100% certainty.

It makes sense to be getting everything in order for that eventual reality.