Valve's Fremont SteamOS console surfaces with six-core Zen 4 CPU and RX 7600 GPU

[midian182]

Highly anticipated: Valve's long-rumored return to the living room is starting to look real. A new Steam Machine – like device, codenamed Fremont, has surfaced on Geekbench, hinting at a serious play for the console space. Powered by a custom AMD APU with six Zen 4 cores and a Radeon RX 7600 GPU, it suggests Valve may not just be experimenting this time, but it may be gearing up to compete head-on with traditional consoles.

Following the short-lived and unsuccessful Steam Machine mini-PCs more than a decade ago, few would have expected Valve to return to the home console market. But the Steam Deck and SteamOS Linux distro have proved big hits, with the latter being used by third-party developers such as Lenovo.

In December, a Steam Deck kernel update referenced a device codenamed "Fremont" that features an HDMI port connected directly to a graphics chip, suggesting it is a standalone TV box, not a new Steam Deck dock.

Now, Brad Lynch, the original Fremont leaker, has spotted the machine on Geekbench. It is described as a six-core APU with a maximum boost clock of around 4.8GHz. It's listed as being from the Hawk Point 2 family. That's the Ryzen 8000G desktop APUs, Ryzen 8040 mobile, and Ryzen 200 mobile chips, all of which use Zen 4 cores and RDNA 3 iGPUs.

According to the Geekbench JSON entry, Fremont has what could be a dedicated Radeon RX 7600 series GPU, so we could be looking at a Navi 33-based GPU with 32 Compute Units and 8GB of memory.

Lynch writes that the processor in Fremont is semi-custom with a removed iGPU, and that the console will have a discrete RX 7600 that won't share RAM with the SoC. The hardware will be packed into a custom case and use a customized Valve motherboard.

He adds that Fremont will come with the Ibex gamepad that was leaked in the SteamVR driver files alongside the Roy controllers for the rumored Valve Deckard XR headset.

Expected to come with the Ibex gamepad leaked in the SteamVR driver files alongside the Roy controllers (for the Valve Deckard XR headset)

Ibex and Roy controllers have a very aligned tooling/development schedule

Likely to see Valve Fremont, Ibex, Deckard, and Roy all at once pic.twitter.com/2Qgyh9BpNg

– SadlyItsDadley (@SadlyItsBradley) August 20, 2025

Fremont gained a 2,412-point single-core score and 7,451-point multi-core score. Exactly when the console will launch or how much it will cost remains to be seen, but an appearance in Geekbench could suggest it's closer than expected. Valve might even be hoping to launch in time for this year's holiday season.

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Valve's Fremont SteamOS console surfaces with six-core Zen 4 CPU and RX 7600 GPU

 

[mbrowne5061]

Don't know if I'll go for a new Steam console - using my Deck as streaming box from my desktop is pretty good - I am excited to see what the new controller is like. Those touch pads are pretty spectacular for fine control. I honestly don't know why we didn't see them catch on more than the central touch pad on the PS5.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

I can’t imagine buying a gaming box with an 8gb GPU in 2025. Unless this thing is $300 or less it’s gonna flop.

 

[Axeia]

I can’t imagine buying a gaming box with an 8gb GPU in 2025. Unless this thing is $300 or less it’s gonna flop.

That is a very unrealistic expectation.
The only new cards you find around that price with more memory are the Intel Arc B570/B580.
The card in it alone is ~$250, doubt they're selling the motherboard, CPU, PSU, case, storage and RAM for 50 bucks.

I'm guessing a price somewhere in the 450-600 area.


I am somewhat surprised they didn't get AMD to build them an APU with similar performance. The consoles keep doing that so there must be cost benefits to it (other than simply just needing one big heatsink and needing less space).
Then again they probably prototyped on some off the shelf hardware and then just slightly customized that setup.

 

[Burty117]

If they offer higher end models or something with a phat APU (AI Max 395) I’d pick one up as long as they’re not massively overpriced.

 

[Billybobjoey]

I can’t imagine buying a gaming box with an 8gb GPU in 2025. Unless this thing is $300 or less it’s gonna flop.

Depending on how PC-like it is, you very well might be able to just drop a higher end GPU in it, provided the PSU isn't underpowered and it's got the space for it of course. I'm interested to see how they handle that.

 

[dangh]

It might be a good 1080p console-like pc. Not for me though, but I guess they will be pushing the price down.

But I'd be happy with their controllers. I already have the previous one and I'm as well glad to see they went with symmetric design.

 

[redgarl]

Valve should focus on the steamdeck. They tried this in the past and it was an utter failure...

 

[CapNemo72]

Is this close to PS5 or Xbox Series X?

 

[ScottSoapbox]

I can see the appeal for some, but I already have previous rigs more powerful an APU laying around if I need some steam gaming on my other TV.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

That is a very unrealistic expectation.
The only new cards you find around that price with more memory are the Intel Arc B570/B580.
The card in it alone is ~$250, doubt they're selling the motherboard, CPU, PSU, case, storage and RAM for 50 bucks.

I'm guessing a price somewhere in the 450-600 area.


I am somewhat surprised they didn't get AMD to build them an APU with similar performance. The consoles keep doing that so there must be cost benefits to it (other than simply just needing one big heatsink and needing less space).
Then again they probably prototyped on some off the shelf hardware and then just slightly customized that setup.

Valve is not paying MSRP for any of this hardware. Asking $600 for a system with a low tier 8GB GPU (that is also on the last gen arch, so no rDNA 4) and a mobile CPU is actually insane. You can get brand new PS5s for under $500 now.

 

[acrossthestars]

We've already got games that refuse to even launch, if they detect less than a minimum amount of RAM—to say nothing of refusing to run if they don't detect ray tracing capabilities. The problem isn't even that 8GB of RAM is insufficient, for most use cases. The problem is that the market is signaling that minimum thresholds have already been established. Even if you can run a game on less than the minimum, the average person is going to look at hardware with "less than recommended" specs, and come to the conclusion that they are in for a subpar experience.

Unless this new hardware is less of a game console and more of an eGPU, where you can upgrade the hardware over time, as new hardware requirements reveal themselves, this thing is already DoA.

 

[opckieran]

This’ll probably run $599.

 

[Subset6]

I just want the distro. Like the ill fated steam controller’s, the best thing to come from them was the updated steam controller interface/customization for other pads.

Similarly if we can get a baseline steamOS distro to install on any custom rig that would be huge.

 

[Durch]

I really hope they focus more on the Steam Deck aspect as well as the OS.

It would be a mistake to think PC users would want to buy such an underpowered device, but for those who want to dip their feet into the market, it's a start. However the other factor is the subscriptions the other consoles provide for games and I see that as the deal breaker.

 

[Axeia]

Is this close to PS5 or Xbox Series X?

Digital Foundry chose to Benchmark the PS5 (non-pro) against the RX 6700 XT to get a mostly like for like comparison.

The supposed RX 7600 performs very similarly. So yeah, basically PS5 non-pro level of performance (possibly a bit better, drivers have improved since then and Linux sometimes squeezes out a lil bit more performance compared to Windows). The 8GB might become a problem on higher resolutions so I'm guessing it's aimed at 1080p, shame they didn't put at least 10 or 12GB VRAM on there.

Valve should focus on the steamdeck. They tried this in the past and it was an utter failure...

The Steam Machines launched in 2015, when the majority of games didn't run under Linux. No one wants a gaming box that can't be gamed on.

The Steam Deck got launched in 2022 (whopping 7 years later) and runs the vast majority of games a-okay. Now in 2025 (10 years later!) the software is even more refined. A lot of people are looking at a Windows 10 system that can't be upgraded to Windows 11. Might be a great time to make a power grab, offer a gaming alternative that isn't Windows based right when people are forced to upgrade.
Not everyone wants a handheld, offering a desktop alternative allows them to sell to more users.
More users = more market share = more developers will make sure their games run under SteamOS (basically just use anti-cheat software that is Linux compatible).

 

[darkeasterbunny]

Valve should focus on the steamdeck. They tried this in the past and it was an utter failure...

Why should they focus on the steamdeck? Milking what works is for other companies. Valve has always strived.
Half life was the first shooter of its kind.
CS had the first online drm and the first tradable skins.
And sure, some things might seem like failures, but they learned from the (by the way great) steamcontroller and steam"consoles". Without the experience they gained from that there would have never been a steam deck. Again, a risk, to make the steam deck at that time. Keep developing steam O/S, again a risk after the steamconsole thingie failing.

Valve is the great company it is (highest revenue per employee, apple doesn't even come close) because they try to do new things and try to do them right.

 

[adisoftcafe]

Is this close to PS5 or Xbox Series X?

Yes, PS5 uses a GPU in the RX 6700 non XT class. This should be 10-12% faster. It should offer very good performance at medium settings for most games.

 

[Y2JB47]

I built something similar (but higher spec) last month for the living room. Steam OS, no kb or mouse attached. It’s runs amazingly well and finally brought pc gaming to the living room. Steam OS is fantastic.

 

[OortCloud]

It might make MS wake up and actually put some effort into making Windows 11 better rather than a worse and worse data-scraping-AI-shoehorning-advertising-billboard....but I doubt it...

 

[dangh]

I just want the distro. Like the ill fated steam controller’s, the best thing to come from them was the updated steam controller interface/customization for other pads.

Similarly if we can get a baseline steamOS distro to install on any custom rig that would be huge.

There are many distros like steamos. Bazzite or cachyos are excellent. I use just tumbleweed and that's already good enough...

 

[Axeia]

Valve is not paying MSRP for any of this hardware. Asking $600 for a system with a low tier 8GB GPU (that is also on the last gen arch, so no rDNA 4) and a mobile CPU is actually insane. You can get brand new PS5s for under $500 now.

Graphics cards margins on the cheapest ones are known to be extremely slim. Sounds like this will be largely a PC, so not unlike what you'd get from Dell, HP, Lenovo etc.

Most of the prebuilts in the $300-600 range have Intel Iris XE graphics.
Source: https://tweakers.net/pcs/vergelijke...zPU7JKS8wpTtVRKijKTE71TaxQsjIzMIBxM4HyxgYGtQA
(Euros, dollars same thing more or less)

This will be in roughly the same ballpark performance wise as the PS5, but without the economy of scale. The bill of materials to them might be about your proposed $300 but no chance in hell they can sell it for that.

Support teams, logistics, warranty, R&D etc etc.
With the Steam Deck they've shown they're willing to provide aggressively. So maybe at best 450? But I doubt it. I'm guessing about $550, but tariffs are a thing and just increased the PS5 price by 50 bucks so 600 wouldn't surprise me either.
If it's more than that I'd still expect it to pretty much sell out but not have the same kind of hype.
If it's more than 750 it might get a rather lukewarm reception

 

[Axeia]

Since the likely use case for most is hooking it up to a TV, I wonder if they'll try to get this certified for high quality Netflix/Amazon/Disney+/HBO/Hulu etc etc.
At the moment your stuck with Android TV boxes/Apple TV box (or your smart TVs apps).

At the moment you literally can't get the higher quality streams on the streaming services on PC. Microsoft Edge and the MS Store Apps for Netflix and Amazon still top out at 1080p. If you got a membership granting access to 4K streams you can't get them on PC - could be an interesting additional use case for the Steam Machine (box?).
Probably not because the reason they don't give you the higher quality is to prevent people from ripping streams (even though the rips show up immediately - so clearly it's not working).

And if they offer some kind of 'certified mode' where the system is exactly at it should be without anything besides games and whatever SteamOS comes with installed then the games with anti-cheat would want to hop on that bandwagon as well. Wonder if SteamOS will be strong armed into that direction by third parties or keep the open spirit of Linux.

 

[Gravitytr1]

It might make MS wake up and actually put some effort into making Windows 11 better rather than a worse and worse data-scraping-AI-shoehorning-advertising-billboard....but I doubt it...

They don't need to wake up. They have been very good at conspiring with partners to close off and lock w11 more, buy off other companies or otherwise trick users into doing their bidding for them.

Companies like MS and Apple (and now Google) don't need to innovate or compete. In fact, they've stopped doing that a loooong time ago and their power and profit has only increased.

 

[Lounds]

Personally I think Valve would sell a base PC like this with minimal margins to basically attract more console gamers into the PC space. I could see this at $400/£400 and it would sell well. Remember it won't have the cost overheads the steamdeck has due to less components. I could see them selling them without a controller and then sell a controller for $50/£50.

This could also just have been a prototype they were working on that never sees the light of day. Either way someone will have looked at the data within valve to see if this venture could increase steam revenue, not that they're struggling financially or have shareholders to please.