GPD recently updated its Win 4 gaming handheld with Strix Point APUs, and has now seemingly turned its attention to the Win Max 2. The system is available on Indiegogo, with an estimated shipping time set for sometime this December. The Strix Point update will not only bring improved performance to the table, but also enhance overall energy efficiency, which is crucial for such compact form factors.

The Win Max 2 is now available with AMD's latest Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 APU "Strix Point" APU, although a "Hawk Point" variant with a Ryzen 7 8840U is also available. The Strix Point APU outperforms the Hawk Point APU in almost every possible way, with the 12-core HX 370 pulling ahead of the 8-core 8840U by almost 45% in multithreaded benchmarks. In graphics performance, the story is much the same, with the Radeon 890M iGPU leading the 780M by almost 25% in synthetic benchmarks.

GPD's 6-inch Win 4 gaming handheld has been updated with AMD's latest Strix Point offering, less than a year after the recent Hawk Point upgrade. Potential customers now have the option to splurge on a system with the Ryzen AI 9 370 HX APU paired with 32 GB of LPDDR5X-7500 memory and up to 2 TB of solid-state storage.

For those out of the AMD loop, here is a quick refresher on the Ryzen AI 9 370 HX - 12 cores (8x Zen 5c + 4x Zen 5), Radeon 890M iGPU with 16 RDNA 3.5 CUs, and a 35 W TDP as configured by GPD. According to GPD's claims, the Strix Point update allows the system to perform significantly better, even edging ahead of a 45 W RTX 2050 Mobile in synthetic benchmarks.

According to The Verge, Valve confirmed its intention to extend support for its Linux-based SteamOS to rival gaming handhelds, including the ASUS ROG Ally. This move marks a significant step towards realizing Valve's decade-old vision of a widespread "Steam Machine" ecosystem. Lawrence Yang, a designer at Valve, confirmed to The Verge that the company is actively working on adding support for additional handhelds to SteamOS. This revelation came after eagle-eyed observers spotted a curious line in Valve's latest SteamOS 3.6.9 Beta release notes mentioning the addition of "support for extra ROG Ally keys." While the development is still in progress, Yang emphasized that SteamOS isn't quite ready for out-of-the-box use on rival devices. However, he assured that the team is making "steady progress" towards this goal.

This initiative doesn't necessarily mean that manufacturers like ASUS will officially endorse Valve's installer or ship their devices with SteamOS preinstalled. Many companies, including ASUS, have cited various reasons for sticking with Windows, including Microsoft's dedicated validation teams that ensure compatibility across diverse hardware configurations. Other devices, such as Lenovo Legion Go, AYANEO, and GPD Pocket 4, ship with Windows, but it could be interesting to see with SteamOS. Alongside support for third-party handhelds, Valve is also working on a general release of SteamOS 3 for non-handheld PCs. Finally, Valve hasn't forgotten about its promise to enable dual-booting on Steam Deck devices. While there's no specific timeline, Mr. Yang confirmed that it remains a priority for the company. We remain to see how this will materialize, and with added bells and whistles to SteamOS, the adoption of Linux-based gaming could be pushed even further.

AMD Ryzen 8040 "Hawk Point" mobile processors continue to roll out in all sorts of review sample guises—mostly within laptops/notebooks and handheld gaming PC segments. An example of the latter would be GPD's Hawk Point-refreshed Win Max 2 model—Cary Golomb, a tech reviewer and self-described evangelist of "PC Gaming Handhelds Since 2016" has acquired this device for benchmark comparison purposes. A Ryzen 7 8840U-powered GPD Win Max 2 model was pitched against similar devices that house older Team Red APU technologies. Golomb's collection included Valve's Steam Deck LCD model, and three "Phoenix" Ryzen 7840U-based GPD models. He did not have any top-of-the-line ASUS or Lenovo handhelds within reach, but the onboard Ryzen Z1 Extreme APU is a close relative of 7840U.

Golomb's social media post included a screenshot of a Batman: Arkham Knight "average frames per second" comparison chart—all devices were running on a low 10 W TDP setting. The overall verdict favors AMD's new Hawk Point part: "Steam Deck low TDP performance finally dethroned...GPD continues to make the best AMD devices. 8840U shouldn't be better, but everywhere I'm testing, it is consistently better across every TDP. TSP measuring similar." Hawk Point appears to be a slight upgrade over Phoenix—most of the generational improvements reside within a more capable XDNA NPU, so it is interesting to see that the 8840U outperforms its predecessor. They both sport AMD's Radeon 780M integrated graphics solution (RDNA 3), while the standard/first iteration Steam Deck makes do with an RDNA 2-era "Van Gogh" iGPU. Golomb found that the: "three other GPD 7840U devices behaved somewhat consistently."

GPD has disclosed to ITHome that a specification refresh of its Win Max 2 handheld/mini-laptop gaming PC is incoming—this model debuted last year with Ryzen 7040 "Phoenix" APUs sitting in the driver's seat. A company representative provided a sneak peek of an upgraded device that sports a Team Red Ryzen 8040 series "Hawk Point" mobile processor, and a larger pool of system memory (32 GB versus the 2023 model's 16 GB). The refreshed GPD Win Max 2's Ryzen 7 8840U APU was compared to the predecessor's Ryzen 7 7840U in CPU-Z benchmarks (standard and AX-512)—the results demonstrate a very slight difference in performance between generations.

The 8040 and 7040 APUs share the same "Phoenix" basic CPU design (8-cores + 16-threads) based on the prevalent "Zen 4" microarchitecture, plus an integration of AMD's Radeon 780M GPU. The former's main upgrade lies in its AI-crunching capabilities—a deployment of Team Red's XDNA AI engine. Ryzen 8040's: "NPU performance has been increased to 16 TOPS, compared to 10 TOPS of the NPU on the 'Phoenix' silicon. AMD is taking a whole-of-silicon approach to AI acceleration, which includes not just the NPU, but also the 'Zen 4' CPU cores that support the AVX-512 VNNI instruction set that's relevant to AI; and the iGPU based on the RDNA 3 graphics architecture, with each of its compute unit featuring two AI accelerators, components that make the SIMD cores crunch matrix math. The whole-of-silicon performance figures for "Phoenix" is 33 TOPS; while 'Hawk Point' boasts of 39 TOPS. In benchmarks by AMD, 'Hawk Point' is shown delivering a 40% improvement in vision models, and Llama 2, over the Ryzen 7040 "Phoenix" series."

GPD have recently unveiled the pricing for their upcoming 10.1" Win Max 2 handheld gaming PC with the entry level model coming in at 899 USD. The GPD Win Max 2 comes equipped with either an AMD Ryzen 7 6800U or Intel Core i5-1260P processor paired with 16/32 GB of LPDDR5 memory and a 1 TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD. The device features a 2560×1600 10.1" IPS touchscreen with a peak brightness of 400 nits along with a backlit QWERTY keyboard and dual hall effect sensor analogue sticks. The Win Max 2 includes WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 as standard with an optional 4G LTE modem available for an additional 79 USD in addition to USB4/Thunderbolt 4 ports and a spare internal M.2 slot.

The device is equipped with a 67 Wh battery that supports USB Power Delivery up to 100 W alongside active cooling with double heat pipes. The 899 USD Indiegogo model is limited to 50 units and features the Ryzen 7 6800U, 16 GB RAM, and a 128 GB SSD while the base retail model will regularly cost 1159 USD and features an upgraded 1 TB SSD. The base model is also available with the Intel Core i5-1260P for the same price. The onboard memory can be increased to 32 GB for an additional 200 USD and the storage to 2 TB for a further 100 USD while a customized M.2 2230 1 TB SSD is offered for an additional 139 USD.

The GPD Win 3 is the next handheld gaming computer from GPD, featuring a slide-out 5.5" touchscreen display. The device consists of left and right game controllers along with a keyboard under the screen. The device is equipped with either an Intel Core i5-1135G7 or Intel Core i7-1165G7 along with 16 GB LPDDR4x 4266 MHz memory, and a 1 TB NVMe SSD. The computer also includes impressive connectivity with WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.0, USB Type-A, 3.5 mm audio, and Thunderbolt 4 along with docking station compatibility.

The Gorilla Glass 5 IPS screen only has a resolution of 1280 x 720 which will help battery life and gaming performance. The device is powered with a 44 Wh battery and can be fully recharged in just 1.5 hours using a 65 W power adapter, this should provide 14 hours of light use, 7 hours of moderate use, and 3 hours of heavy use. The GPD Win 3 weighs 560 grams and will be available in black with a limited edition silver version. The Core i5-1135G7 version will be available for 799 USD while the Core i7-1165G7 will sell for 899 USD during crowdfunding with pricing for the dock not yet announced. The GPD Win 3 is expected to ship sometime in 2021 and the Indiegogo campaign will be live soon.