AMD has released the Ryzen 7 8840U processor, and it is particularly enticing when considering its performance in a low power limit scenario. The Steam Deck is a super interesting piece of hardware, notably because of its AMD accelerated processing unit (APU) code-named Aerith. The Valve handheld is efficient and highly renowned for that reason.
In terms of power efficiency, faster gaming handhelds like the ROG Ally with more recent processors fall short of the Steam Deck. However, a new test indicates that the AMD Ryzen 7 8840U, which is based on Zen 4 core architecture, has finally surpassed the Aerith AMD APU, which is based on Zen 2, in the Steam Deck. @carygolomb, a user of X (previously Twitter), shared this benchmark.
In case you are wondering why performance matters so much—especially when operating at the 10W power limit—here it is. The user’s ability to play games while on the go is ultimately determined by the portable device’s battery life. When power was restricted to 10W, only the Steam Deck could achieve such high performance levels. This is no longer accurate in light of the AMD Ryzen 8000 introduction.
According to this above-mentioned benchmark, you can see that the Ryzen 7 8840U (constrained to a 10W power limit) is performing better than the Steam Deck’s Zen 2 Core + RDNA 2 Graphic-based “Aerith” processor. Paired with the newer Radeon 780M graphics, the Ryzen 8000 processor gets 51.7 FPS on average. The Steam Deck gets 48.3 FPS.
Because of this, GPD Handhelds with AMD Ryzen 7 8840U are unquestionably among the best to take into consideration right now. Be aware that it is yet unclear if the Ryzen 7 8840U and the Steam Deck OLED have superior power efficiency. The Steam Deck that was tested is not specified by the gaming benchmark. This can be the original OLED or another one.