// PC GAMER — GAMING
AMD's new 'Gainsborough' APU rumoured to be the chip that powers the long-awaited Steam Deck 2
As Final Fantasy 7 fans will know, it's 'Gainsborough' because 'Aerith Gainsborough'.
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The original Steam Deck went on sale about four and a half years ago. And there hasn't been any clear indication that a true second-gen handheld from Valve is imminent. Until now, that is.
YouTube channel Moore's Law is Dead has a new video explaining how a rumoured AMD APU known as Gainsborough is likely to be the chip that powers the next-gen Steam Deck 2 handheld.
The MLID channel is admittedly not everyone's cup of tea, but has had some notable hits over the years when it comes to leaks and rumours. With that caveat covered off, what do we know about Gainsborough?
First, the codename does actually make sense. The OG Deck's APU was known as Aerith, as in the character from Final Fantasy 7. And Aerith's second same is, of course, Gainsborough.
In terms of the technicalities, there isn't a huge amount of information. However, one critical tidbit is that it will be built on TSMC's N3P node. That's TSMC's fanciest, most advanced and most efficient version of its N3 family of chip production nodes. That matters because it should make for a more efficient chip for a handheld where battery life is critical.
The immediate question is whether this makes sense given what Valve has said about a next-gen Deck. Late last year, Valve explained how it wanted the Deck 2 to be a really major leap forward over the first-gen handheld, not just an incremental step.
"We're not interested in getting to a point where it's 20 or 30 or even 50% more performance at the same battery life. We want something a little bit more demarcated than that," Steam Deck designer Pierre-Loup Griffais said at the time.
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