Updated

Updated · PC Guide - For The Latest PC Hardware & Tech News · Jun 16

Steam Machine Geekbench Scores Top Steam Deck by Up to 72% as Valve Targets Summer Launch

Updated

Updated · PC Guide - For The Latest PC Hardware & Tech News · Jun 16

Steam Machine Geekbench Scores Top Steam Deck by Up to 72% as Valve Targets Summer Launch

Q: Is Valve’s new machine the next evolution of the handheld Steam Deck, or a completely different living room console?

Valve’s new machine appears to be a different living room console, not a next-step handheld Steam Deck. The strongest evidence is its form factor and positioning. Leaks and reporting describe “Valve Fremont” as a compact, cube-like Steam Machine built for a TV setup, with HDMI output, a large cooling system, and performance targets closer to a home console than a portable device. It is repeatedly framed as Valve’s return to the living room, reviving the Steam Machine idea rather than replacing the Steam Deck. The Geekbench listings reinforce that distinction. They show a custom AMD six-core, 12-thread chip and a shift from Windows 11 Pro in earlier tests to SteamOS in the latest ones, suggesting Valve is finalizing a console-style SteamOS experience. Reported graphics hardware—an RDNA 3 GPU with dedicated VRAM—would put it well above the Steam Deck’s handheld-class power budget and closer to a small-form-factor gaming PC for couch play. That said, the Steam Deck still matters here. Fremont seems to build directly on the Deck’s software foundation: SteamOS, Proton compatibility, and the console-like interface that made the handheld successful. In that sense, it is an evolution of Valve’s platform strategy, but not of the Deck’s hardware category. So the clearest reading is that Valve is expanding beyond handhelds. The Steam Deck remains the portable option; Fremont looks designed to be its more powerful big-screen companion.

3 articles · Updated · PC Guide - For The Latest PC Hardware & Tech News · Jun 16

Two Geekbench 6.7.1 entries uploaded June 15 show Valve’s codename Fremont posting 2,334 and 2,282 single-core scores, with 7,316 and 7,392 in multi-core.
Those results put the Steam Machine well ahead of the Steam Deck’s listed 1,353 single-core and 4,573 multi-core scores, reinforcing Valve’s claim that the new box is far more powerful.
The leaked specs point to a semi-custom AMD Zen 4 chip with 6 cores, 12 threads, a 4.8GHz clock, 16GB of RAM and a dedicated RDNA 3 GPU, versus the Deck’s 4-core Zen 2 SoC.
Because the scores are pre-release and the Steam Deck reference uses an older Geekbench version, the comparison is indicative rather than final ahead of reviews expected before the summer launch.