Valve Console information including performance data discovered

Valve has scored a real hit with its Steam Deck and revitalized the market for handheld consoles. Now new information shows that the company is probably working on another console. But it could be completely different.

Concrete information about the new Valve console

Valve is primarily known for its games such as Half-Life and its Steam platform, through which a large part of the global gaming community buys their games. Specific information that a user has now added in a post Reddit summarized, but indicate that the company around CEO Gabe Newell is working on the development of a games console.

Changes in the Steam Deck kernel show that Valve is currently testing the use of HDMI-CEC with a new device. To put it simply, the optional HDMI functionality, which has been available since version 1.1, improves communication between input and output devices. This can significantly increase the ease of use for users.

According to benchmarks, it’s probably not a handheld device

The device Valve is currently testing, which appears to be called “Fremont,” is being developed on a platform codenamed “AMD Lilac.” But what exactly this is is unclear. However, there are several system entries under this name Geekbench which primarily use the Ryzen 5 8540U from AMD. As the benchmarks show, the mysterious device has significantly higher performance than the Steam Deck. The multi-core results are more than twice as high.

Valve recently emphasized again that they only wanted to release a new version of the deck when a big jump in CPU performance could be achieved. According to the Geekbench numbers, that would be the case here. However, since the performance values ​​are in the range of a Ryzen 5 5600X3D, it is unlikely that Fremont is another handheld or a Steam Deck 2. A stationary console in the style of an Xbox or PlayStation is more likely. But that is pure speculation.

More new hardware

Just over two weeks ago there was also information about a second generation of the Steam Controller. Valve is obviously working on a successor to the moderately successful gamepad, which was discontinued in 2019. Render images of the controller with two trackpads developed under the code name “Ibex” have already been shown. However, similar to Fremont, it will probably take some time until it is published.