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The upcoming Phoenix APUs from AMD are a game-changer for portable and handheld devices. Between 15 and 45W TDP, Zen4/RDNA3... They're slowly trickling out to thin and light laptops, but I can't wait to get them in the next Steam Deck killer.



I still want them to release a 6W chip. Intel still owns that part of the x86 market, and actually has decent chips.


Agreed! The N5105/6005 have been remarkable, and maybe they’ll replicate that with the Alder Lake N chips.

Chinese ODMs seem to have already started making mini-pcs with the new chips, and I imagine routers will follow quickly.

Until AMD’s media engine improves, the Intel chips will still be valued by the Plex/Emby crowd.


> I imagine routers will follow quickly.

I'd love a new router board with a 6 W CPU and some storage ports. But all I can find is media player boards with at most one ethernet.

Dream board atm would have said 6 W CPU, DC power, two ethernets, one 2.5 Gbps, and some M.2 and SATA slots. For a combined routing/storage box.


Have you seen this? It’s a 10W CPU but mostly seems to hit everything you’re looking for.

I imagine an Alder lake N version of this will appear sooner or later, and the N100/N200 should give you the 6W part you’re looking for.

https://m.aliexpress.us/item/3256804762512339.html?gatewayAd...


Oh that's nice-ish, thanks! Bookmarked.

Not as nice as my old Atom router because of the active cooling on the CPU and the ATX power connector. The latter I can fix with a PicoPSU but the former...

I'd rather have a passive radiator on the CPU and add some airflow via a huge case fan - which is what i'm doing now for my router box. That way it's a lot more silent.


This forum post has some real world stories of it's use. https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/topton-nas...

It seems like the CPU fan stays off almost all the time, and is apparently very quiet even when on.

> Oh, and I forgot to mention, I have set the fan to come on at 36 degrees and go off at 34 degrees. It's off most of the time (pseudo-passive) ;-)

> s I'll use the stock one first becase the heatsink fan is dead silent as @Camprr23 has mentioned.


I have been impressed what my GPDWIN2 m3-8100Y processor can do at 7 watts.


Exciting indeed. And if it still runs Steam I doubt Valve will blink an eye.


A hardware refresh is not on valve's list unless there is a significant performance gain.


I totally could believe that in another year or 2 there will be sufficient performance uplift. steam Deck with 50% more performance at the same battery life would be great.


I think I read somewhere that extending battery live is Valve's main priority for next Steam Deck


I hope a dynamic 120Hz screen (like in the iPhone but obviously not as screamingly expensive) is also in the pipeline.

With a 120Hz screen, you can run the UI and overlays at 120FPS, run cinematics at 24FPS or 30FPS and the game at 40FPS or 60FPS. All fits neatly into 120Hz.


> you can run the UI and overlays at 120FPS

How does a 99% static UI or overlay benefit from 120 fps?


That would be the right priority. Double the battery would make it even more competitive with Nintendo.


They are going to need more performance by then too though. They are tied to the PC gaming universe and the games people want to play will keep getting more demanding.

They have it a lot harder than something like Switch.


The basic system requirements for most PC games has barely budged in years mostly due to high GPU costs and lack of killer features that would require higher requirements. Neither factor seems to be immediately changing.


I don't see anyone demanding desktop graphics on handheld.


especially because if you half the tdp of the CPU, you can cut the cooling a bunch which reduces the cost and noise.


if it makes the battery last 30% more, you can bet it is


> They're slowly trickling out to thin and light laptops, but I can't wait to get them in the next Steam Deck killer

You mean the Steam Deck 2 or a new device that will "kill" the Steam Deck?


Steam Decks killer feature is Steam so it'll be an uphill battle to kill it.

That said no one has streaming down perfect yet. Steam Link, AMD link, Moonlight all suck.


Parsec is pretty close, at least on a LAN. https://parsec.app/


It's not really a game changer. AMD will advertise 15w - 45w chips but they will boost well over their marketed TDP.


It's not a game changer because it will boost opportunistically like every other CPU? What?


We already had a game changer, Apple Silicon. AMD chips are a bit better than Intel's on mobile but not by much. Mobile Zen4 and RDNA3 SoC would not be a game changer. We already know how they perform on desktop and how much power they use per performance.


I was wondering how far I'd have to scroll before someone trotted out the Apple horse.

Farther than I thought, it turns out.

You know, for all the stuff about Apple silicon being a game changer it doesn't really seem like the game has changed that much...


Yeah, it hasn't. x86 is still crap.


Let me know when Apple decides to sell their chips to 3rd party manufacturers, when they end up in a handheld gaming device, and when most games run natively on ARM with competitive performance.

Apple silicon was only a game changer for productivity tasks, and only for people willing to jump into the Apple ecosystem. In all other cases, especially for gaming, an APU with the performance of Zen4/RDNA3 at the announced TDP doesn't exist yet. So, yes, it's a game changer.


> when most games run natively on ARM with competitive performance.

They just need to run natively on ARM to get performance that's more than competitive on the CPU side. The GPU is no slouch but is not top of the line (yet). Seems trivial to pair the ARM CPU with an external GPU.


So why would your phrase your argument as "it's not a game changer because it boosts if there's available power/cooling", rather than "it's not a game changer because Apple's CPUs are better"?


How upcoming? Will we see them in laptops this year?


The Zen 4 8 core APUs should be in laptops before the end of February, while the 16 core ones are expected in March.




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