Valve's rumoured 'Fremont' SteamOS console spotted on Geekbench... running Windows 11

May we introduce Fremont, supposedly a new SteamOS device from Valve. It's just popped up in Geekbench's CPU results and according to some sources, it's a new console designed to connect to TV sets and running AMD CPU and GPU hardware.

Fremont was actually first mentioned at the end of last year, having appeared in an HDMI CEC test for a new device. But this Geekbench appearance is the first time it's been spotted running software and also the first look at the device's possible specifications.

According to the Geekbench entry, Fremont's CPU is an "AMD Custom" chip with six cores and 12 threads running at 3.2 GHz. It has the codename Hawk Point 2.

Hawk Point is AMD's last-gen APU for laptops, as opposed to the company's latest Strix Point chip. Actually, Hawk Point is really a revision of Phoenix, an AMD APU first announced in April 2023. Both Phoenix and Hawk point run Zen 4 CPU cores and RDNA 3 GPU technology. In both cases, they top out at eight CPU cores and 12 GPU compute units.

However, according to the same X source that spotted Fremont in Geekbench's online database of test results, the new device is getting a custom version of Hawk Point with the iGPU "removed" and AMD's Radeon RX 7600 discrete GPU inserted.

It's not immediately obvious why Valve would favour a defeatured APU with the iGPU removed as opposed to simply pairing the RX 7600 GPU with a six-core Zen 4 CPU, like the Ryzen 5 7600, but maybe there are packaging reasons why a mobile chip would make a better starting point for a set-top box than a traditional desktop CPU.

Either way, X poster SadlyItsBradley claims Fremont is a, "TV focused PC box/console running SteamOS." The most immediate problem with that claim is that the Fremont device in Geekbench is listed as running Windows 11 Pro, not SteamOS.

Whatever Fremont is, then, we can be fairly confident that whatever has shown up in Geekbench is a long way off being a final SteamOS device that will be sold to gamers. I mean, it's not even running SteamOS.

If you're wondering about the relatively old AMD hardware and wondering whether it makes sense for a new device that might still be a year away or more from launch, well, Valve has form when it comes to not chasing the very latest technology. When the original Steam Deck was launched in 2002, its Zen 2 CPU cores and RDNA 2 graphics weren't exactly cutting edge.

That was only more true in late 2023, when Valve released the Steam Deck OLED with a revised APU still based on Zen 2 and RDNA 2. So, a SteamOS console device released in, say, 2026 and running Zen 4 and RDNA 3 would hardly be out of character for Valve.

If the purported specifications are correct, Fremont clearly isn't taking aim at the high-end console market. The RX 7600 (and the 7600 XT) has 32 compute units. That's fewer than the original Sony PS5's 36 CUs and far fewer than a PS5 Pro's 60 CUs, albeit the PlayStation runs older RDNA 2 GPU technology.

Anyway, by this information, Fremont looks like a mainstream set-top box that will be affordably priced. It doesn't look like it will really be a low-cost alternative to a proper gaming PC. But it could be cheap enough to be viable as an "as well as" living room gaming PC as opposed to being "instead of".

In that regard it does feel quite a lot like the Steam Deck, which isn't powerful enough to be a keen enthusiast's primary gaming device, but has been pitched affordably enough so that many gamers can buy one to accompany their PC. We'll be watching carefully for future appearances of Fremont, that's for sure.

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