Steam Deck OLED’s 6nm Sephiroth SOC Smiles For The Camera, Efficient AMD Zen 2 & RDNA 2 For Handheld Gaming

Valve has just unveiled its Steam Deck OLED handheld console which comes as a refresh of the original Steam Deck, featuring an OLED screen, better connectivity, better storage functionality & most importantly, a brand new AMD 6nm SOC known as Sephiroth.

AMD Steam Deck OLED Has The Latest AMD Sephiroth SOC Hidden Under Its Hood & It Uses A Slightly More Efficient 6nm Process

In a teardown by Dave2D, we get to see a closeup of the internals and the new SOC that is used within the Steam Deck OLED console. This new SOC doesn’t change the core configuration from the original Steam Deck’s specs but it does feature a slight efficiency advantage.

Coming straight to the specifications, the AMD Sephiroth SOC is based on the 6nm process node. It features the same Zen 2 CPU and RDNA 2 GPU core architecture. The CPU employs 4 cores and 8 threads running at up to 3.5 GHz while the GPU employs a total of 8 Compute units or 512 stream processors running at 1.6 GHz clock speeds. The chip also retains the same 4-15W TDP but the new 6nm design should allow for lower “actual” power consumption when the device is running games and applications.

The 6nm process node also means that the die should be a tad bit smaller though we don’t have the exact measurements of the SOC at the moment. What is known is that the cooling system is pretty much the same with a single copper heatpipe running over the SOC and cooled by a single fan. Also, another fun detail is that the Sephiroth SOC has the ID “100-0000000932” which should make it easier to identify in online databases.

• 6 nm AMD APU
• CPU: Zen 2 4c/8t, 2.4-3.5GHz (up to 448 GFlops FP32)
• GPU: 8 RDNA 2 CUs, 1.6GHz (1.6 TFlops FP32)
• APU power: 4-15W
• 16 GB LPDDR5 on-board RAM (6400 MT/s quad 32-bit channels)

Now as for the mainboard and the battery, well there are definitely some changes so you won’t be able to simply swamp or replace components from older Steam Decks to the newer OLED versions.

Besides that, the Steam Deck OLED also features slightly faster memory now rated at up to LPDD5 6400 MT/s versus the previous LPDDR5 5500 MT/s speeds. The same 16 GB system memory has been retained. The SSD capacities are also increased with up to 1 TB models and the main addition is the OLED 7.4″ screen which features a resolution of 1280×800 and a 90Hz refresh rate with 1000 nits brightness. The handheld measures the same and will be launching in November. You can also check out our detailed coverage on the pre-order links here.

Handheld Gaming Console Lineup: