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You’ve clearly heard of the Steam Deck, and maybe Asus drew your consideration to the upcoming ROG Ally with its not-an-April-Fools’-joke. However that’s apparently simply the tip of the iceberg for AMD-powered Steam Deck rivals, which have no less than 4 handhelds primarily based on slivers of silicon the chipmaker has but to disclose.

One of many causes we received so excited in regards to the Asus ROG Ally is that Asus hinted it could be the primary handheld since Steam Deck to supply a customized half particularly tuned for portables — and a rising physique of leaks means that collaboration with AMD known as the Ryzen Z1.

And at present, Geekbench leaks (which ought to at all times be taken with a grain of salt) recommend Asus may very well be utilizing two such chips: a six-core, 12-thread Ryzen Z1 with two RDNA 3 graphics compute items (CUs) and an eight-core, 16-thread Ryzen Z1 Excessive with six RNDA3 CUs, which may have greater efficiency and energy consumption.

However get this. A delivery manifest noticed by VideoCardz additionally reveals an ROG Ally with one other unannounced identify: the Ryzen 7 7840U, a 3.3GHz chip with Radeon 780M graphics that’s suspected to be all however equivalent to that Z1 Excessive.

This wouldn’t be the primary time these boutique moveable PC makers have tried to problem the Steam Deck. A 12 months in the past, I wrote how they have been all gearing up with the off-the-shelf AMD 6800U laptop computer chip, which sadly didn’t develop into environment friendly sufficient for a reliable moveable. (Learn my Ayaneo 2 evaluate for particulars.)

However Aokzoe, no less than, appears fairly assured that it might probably match the Steam Deck with a 7840U: it’s been posting video after video of its A1 Professional’s efficiency to YouTube, together with one tiny clip the place the A1 Professional is operating the identical sport on the similar processor wattage and with comparable battery drain to the Steam Deck and nonetheless manages to run notably quicker.

If that’s what a 7840U can do, I’m heartened. (It wouldn’t be an excessive amount of of a shock contemplating we’re Zen 4 and RDNA 3 as a substitute of the Zen 2 and RDNA 2 within the Steam Deck’s Aerith chip.)

But it surely’s only a tiny glimpse for now, and we don’t know whether or not any of those firms can hit the fitting worth with these chips or get Microsoft’s assist to show Home windows into one thing straightforward and comfy to make use of on a gaming handheld. And AMD didn’t instantly reply to a request for this story.

One other factor that heartens me, although:

Final July, once I reached out to my AMD PR contacts about handheld gaming PCs, they instructed me they didn’t also have a contact who may deal with such a request, including:

We do not need any additional particulars to share at the moment relating to AMD chips in handheld gaming PCs. We’ll definitely be in contact with information and alternatives because it pertains to AMD sooner or later however sadly at the moment aren’t in a position to join you instantly.

This week, they launched me to a selected one who may also help me going ahead.