this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2023
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AMDs 7000 series APUS (and Z1) aren't efficient enough, no performant enough to really warrant a real upgrade if valve is going for a console like experience.
Sure you can get 10% more performance at the same power level, but why bother? Valve had to custom design their own APU to hit their power goals, and there's no way chasing that yearly 0-10% gains is going to pay off.
Whatever. You can clock down a 7840 and it will be plenty efficient.
It isnt though. Check out the phawx on YouTube, he's done extensive testing.
The truth is you can underclock the 7840u but it still is less efficient at those lower wattages. I think if I remember the data right it crosses over around 12watt tdp to being as efficient then more powerful at higher clocks, but at 10w and lower the custom apu in the deck is king. The new apu for the oled deck is even more efficient at those levels too.
The point I think they're trying to make is right now nothing can beat the performance for the power at lower tdp right now, and so they want to wait for newer and better apus so they can maintain the size and battery life a best as possible, while keeping it relatively accessible cost wise.
I own a win max 2 and I can tell you that as nice as that extra 10% performance is, I spent around $1200 and my SO spent $500ish on their deck. That's why valve isn't making a deck 2.0, to hit those higher performance benchmarks the cost raises exponentially, and it isn't worth it right now for them.