The OG Steam Deck (7nm, comparable to the Series S) has a die size of ~162mm^(2). In there, it packs an 4 core, 8 threads CPU and a 8 CU GPU.
On the other hand, the Xbox Series S packs an 8 core 16 threads CPU with 20CU GPU of the same architecture in ~197mm^(2) die.
This is a technical question, how come the Series S packs much more in just 25% more size? I’m not saying the Steam Deck should be as powerful as a Series S (that’d never happen, the power constraints would not make it possible), but I wonder if the CPU in the Series S is cut-back or if there’s anything in the Steam Deck’s SoC that could have been removed to get a lower cost.
Because the actual cores and graphics CUs take up only a portion of the die in the first place. There’s I/O, other processing units, etc. that are standard and take up a portion of the die, as well. In other words the compute doesn’t scale linearly with die size, it’s asymptotic.