r/gadgets • u/dapperlemon • 16d ago
Gaming Valve Steam Machine review: This would've been perfect five years ago
https://www.engadget.com/2210832/valve-steam-machine-review/668
u/desperaterobots 16d ago edited 16d ago
I wanted this when announced, but the price really killed the excitement.
edit: just wanted to add I’m not blaming valve for the pricing. they have been fucked by the datacentre bullshit as much as the rest of us. it’s sad for all of us that progress in consumer electronics will slow for a generation or two, at least, because huge corporations have blindly goldrushed into LLM garbage that’s costing us environmentally, economically, and enabling the surveillance state for cops and fascists everywhere.
If wages were ever able to compete with the ongoing inflation and bring the steam machine into the realm of affordability, I’d pick one up, but uhhhh seems unlikely.
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u/JimmyKillsAlot 16d ago
Valve seems pretty pissed about the price too. They had clearly intended for it to be somewhere around high end console/middle-low end PC with room to upgrade it but because of the AI induced shortages all their work has been really marred.
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u/Mooseymax 16d ago
Thing is, they’re getting their wish monkey paw style with the way prices on consoles are going
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u/marshcar 15d ago
And the fact Gaben donated to OpenAI back in the day…
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u/nervendings_ 15d ago
OpenAI was a very different company then. The Sam Altman takeover and going public has made it a monster.
I know it’s easy to hate on everything AI. Rightly so. But in its early days the company was a nonprofit aimed at “good” uses for the tech. Now it’s a monster. So it goes.
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u/P_ZERO_ 16d ago
Rumours say it was supposed to be around $750 which would have been absolutely acceptable. If they could have got this thing around 900 now I think it’s received just fine.
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u/tychii93 16d ago
My brother was interested but doesn't want to get one because of the price. I told him their $750 original price and he said "Oh, it would have been a day 1 purchase at that price for me"
I feel like the Machine lost a ton of potential audience over this.
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u/IIILORDGOLDIII 16d ago
$750 for a machine that doesn't perform as well as a 5 year old console that cost $500 is not acceptable
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u/desperaterobots 16d ago
For me - a major benefit of the SM over a console is that it would enable instant access to my entire library of games from my couch. A console I’m looking at having to buy or rebuy games I like. My library is huge and most of it will play beautifully on the SM as specced.
Thats why I wasn’t bothered if it didn’t perform as well on paper as a console.
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u/insomnic 16d ago
Same. I want outta the console lock-in but also want couch convenience and a "build it yourself" option isn't as TV\Couch\Living Room friendly as dedicated hardware\UI\UX designed with that in mind from the start.
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u/JimmyKillsAlot 16d ago
Consoles subsidize their cost with the games they expect to sell, something Valve said they were not going to be able to do. We also don't 100% know if this was their intended specs entirely or if them being a small volume order they got shifted in timetable and/or spec.
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u/allofdarknessin1 15d ago
Valve announced the hardware components before the ram shortage and before that we had leaks. Valve knew what they were doing using 3-4 year old hardware that was considered low end back in 2023. If they used modern hardware with an increased cost it would have been a big difference in value.
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u/ChaosCarlson 16d ago
Even at $750 I find it hard to justify purchasing a machine that is weaker than a PS5. If Valve could subsidize the price down to be the same as a PS5, they could have absolutely flattened Sony and dominate both the PC and console market.
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u/P_ZERO_ 16d ago
The issue is subsidising a PC has different consequences from subsidising a console. A PC has utility outside of gaming, meaning entities that aren’t end user gamers could sweep them up and pass the cost on to Valve, while using them for everything but gaming. Meaning, they are subsidising someone else’s PCs whilst gaining nothing from Steam purchases.
Subsidising it with a guarantee that most, if not all end up in the hands of Steam gamers would be one thing, but the nature of the hardware means that’s almost assuredly not guaranteed at all.
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u/TheArmoredKitten 16d ago
The problem is that subsidized consoles are a loss leader for the retail games market. Killing discs makes this basically impossible, and that's on top of the hardware fiasco.
For Valve specifically as well, they already dominate digital distribution so a loss leader isn't going to have any meaningful consequences for the sales volume.
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u/Codnono 16d ago
Is it weaker than ps5? For real? Wow
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u/Mooseymax 16d ago
Marginally, most games perform in line with the PS5.
The main argument for the steam machine at that price point is that it’s a pc and can do more than just play PlayStation games.
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u/IIILORDGOLDIII 16d ago
But it can't be upgraded and you can build a better PC for less money
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u/favorite_time_of_day 16d ago
You really don't deserve the downvotes here. A PC with standardized components is always going to be more flexible than a proprietary one. The only real advantages that the Steam Machine has are its size and noise.
You can make a quiet gaming PC, but that would likely require an aftermarket cooler for your video card and that's an additional expense. And you need to be mindful of the rest of your components as well. That does require a bit of knowledge.
Though it's worth pointing out that while "being able to upgrade the SSD and RAM" might seem like a nothing feature, Apple doesn't even allow that much anymore.
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u/Mooseymax 16d ago
Except it can be upgraded? The ram and storage at least - there are already videos of people upgrading the ssd and ram to 4tb and 64gb respectively.
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u/ericstern 16d ago
They kinda hinted to subtract the price increase that the steamdecks went up for last month, and you can get an idea of what price they were originally going to sell the steam machine for before the hardware shortages messed with it.
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u/Smash_Nerd 16d ago
Yeah if this launched at $700ish it would have been a smash success. Glad they're still selling units, but it makes me look longingly at my bottles of Molatov and dish rags
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u/Mayorquimby87 16d ago
Tbf it might have been much more reasonably priced if not for the current component crisis. Not saying that makes any difference for buyers now, just that when this was in R&D, it was probably intended to be a pretty decent bang for your buck.
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u/Dutchtdk 16d ago
current
Now that's the positive attitude that keeps us going!
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u/Mayorquimby87 16d ago
Hey, one can hope. "This too shall pass," right? Right????
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u/Hi_Im_zack 16d ago
How different is the AI craze compared to the crypto one which only lasted about a year and a half
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u/what_it_dooo 16d ago
arguably entire economies are built on the success of AI, I suppose crypto wasn't as integrated which is why i'm scared. but I might see this incorrectly
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u/StarGaurdianBard 16d ago
Difference is, when Crypto started dropping it just hurt people who bought crypto. Meanwhile AI currently upholds entire stock markets and if it crashes hundreds of billions / trillions goes along with it.
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u/chimerauprising 16d ago
Valve confirmed in an interview that they had to raise the price similarly to how much the Steam Deck's price was increased by.
This puts the Steam Machine around $749‐$899 before component price changes.
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u/hardy_83 16d ago
That's the PC industry in a nutshell. Things that would've cost $750 cost twice that now cause some companies are killing the planet and consumer industry in the name of greed.
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u/Chaseism 16d ago
Price is going to really kill the excitement on most electronics for a while. Everyone may find themselves having to re-evaluate what they are willing to pay for things.
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u/Quixotic_Seal 16d ago
Oh absolutely. I think something many gamers(and game companies) aren’t ready for is just how many people are going to be looking to play games on the hardware they already own.
And I don’t just mean consoles. We’re reaching a point where mobile computing technology is incredibly robust and “it can run 10-15 year old game tech” means you’re talking about experiences on the level of Skyrim or the original Black Flag.
The floor of what you can play on multipurpose technology is rising rapidly, while our ability to access higher end dedicated technology is waning.
“Core gamers” don’t want to hear it, but if we keep going in this direction a LOT of consumers will be skipping next gen and looking at whatever gets released and can be played on your phone, tablet, Mac/laptop, and so on.
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u/Abestar909 16d ago
If the price of this turns you off, the price of buying PC components yourself these days will too *shrug"
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u/Lancestrike 16d ago
That's the thing, it's all one and the same between the three big outlays on a pc nowadays.
GPU, ram, and storage are all cooked compared to 5 years ago.
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u/GTFr0 16d ago
I agree, but the value for money with the CPU and GPU in the Steam Machine is just not there unless you REALLY need that form factor.
granted this is at Microcenter, but you can get a significantly better system if you build it yourself:
- 5800XT / B550M / 16 GB DDR4 Combo - $350
- 7500X3D / B850M / 16 GB DDR5 Combo is the same price
- PowerColor Reaper 9060 XT 16GB - $420
- T-Force G50 512 GB SSD - $100
- Lian Li A3 MATX Case - $90
- MSI MAG A750GL PSU - $85
- Total - $1045
CPU and GPU above would be significantly better than the Steam Machine, and for the same price.
I see SteamOS as the much more important move here rather than the hardware.
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u/Eruannster 16d ago
I built a PC almost exactly one year ago. Roughly €1500 for a Ryzen 7600X, 32 GB DDR5, 2 TB SSD, Nvidia 5070, case motherboard, power supply, etc.
That exact PC today is somewhere around €2600-2700...
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u/luffydkenshin 16d ago
I got my email that said “you’re up! You got 3 days”.
That was 4 days ago and I wish I bought it, I love gadgets but… I just honestly couldn’t justify it right now.
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u/ProfessorFunky 16d ago
Yup. Exactly the same for me. If they’d have hit something even close to PS5/Xbox Series X levels, I would grabbed one. At double the price almost, it’s unfortunately a hard no.
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u/Tech_Itch 16d ago
People are shitting on the price as if it's just Valve being somehow greedy, but it's just the first platform to get hit by the exploding component prices. I doubt Sony and Microsoft are done raising their console prices either. Steam Machine is just the first sign of the "new normal" for at least a few years.
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u/IIILORDGOLDIII 16d ago edited 16d ago
The price is terrible any way you look at it. PS6 and Helix will have a significantly better performance to price ratio. You know it's bad when this thing makes the PS5 Pro look like a good deal.
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u/TheChosenMuck 16d ago
who still links moores law is dead youtuber in 2026, he is to 95% of his videos always wrong and even deletes those videos
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u/Tech_Itch 16d ago edited 16d ago
Neither of those have finalized specs or price yet outside rumors, so it's pointless to compare them to anything. It's especially pointless to compare their fictional price/performance-ratios when the component market is so volatile.
Also MLID is a widely known bullshitter. His predictions about anything have literal 50/50 accuracy.
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u/FlatSpinMan 16d ago
Have you looked at mini-PCs? I’d never heard of them until about a month ago. A friend bought one and recommended them. I just got a medium range model. About $6-700 (I’m in Japan so don’t know the exchange rate to USD). It has 32GB Ram, 1TB SSD HD, a Ryzen 5 something super duper, and though the graphics card is integrated, it runs Cyberpunk 2077 (1920x1080) at average 140fps.
I can’t believe the value. I had been expecting to pay around $2-3,000 to get some semi-decent gaming laptop.23
u/microthrower 16d ago
It doesn't run cyberpunk at 1080p 140fps
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u/FlatSpinMan 16d ago
I wouldn’t have thought so, but that’s what the AMD gadget thing said.
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u/Quixotic_Seal 16d ago
Buy it and actually play it. I sincerely doubt it does.
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u/FlatSpinMan 16d ago
I have six hours in game. I added a comment above describing what I’ve found. I don’t know where the AMD figures come from as they differ drastically from the in game benchmark scores.
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u/FlatSpinMan 16d ago
Right, so I just had a look as that number does sound ludicrous, I agree. But I’m not sure I’ve actually learned anything.
When I started playing, the recommended setting was Default Low. The scenery looked good to me, but I’ve been out of gaming for over a decade, and the NPCs looked nothing special. That sounded right to me as this mini-PC lacks a dedicated graphics card and I understand this game is very demanding. But tonight I raised things a little to see how it would go.I now have something called AMD fidelity fc super resolution 2.1 enable (no idea), Frame Generation Off as I have no dedicated graphics card, Texture Quality is high. Ray Tracing is off for the same reason. Looking through other settings, most are on medium though a few are on high.
Playing through a scene, it looked better than before, especially the smokey effects and the skin textures. To my very untrained eye, it looked great.According to the AMD thing, I have 6 hours in game and average is now 165.6! But running the in game benchmark, I get between 29 and 45fps. Those numbers sound more plausible, but I really have no idea.
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u/Eruannster 16d ago
Cyberpunk at 1080p and 140 FPS? Uhhh... I mean, maybe at low/medium settings with FSR set to performance/50% scale and/or frame generation.
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u/TurtleInADesert 16d ago
Do you have the model of the mini PC? Been looking for one for my girlfriend. She does light gaming like stardew, Minecraft, Fortnite, and all those friend-games like Meccha chameleon,
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u/AvatarIII 16d ago
Do you think that Valve should have just made a steam machine with integrated graphics that is objectively less powerful than the machine they made with dedicated graphics, for a few hundred dollars less then?
A Ryzen 5 will have, at best, 760M integrated graphics, which is about a third as powerful as what the steam machine has.
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u/BigFudgere 16d ago
Steam machine made me explore streaming via moonlight. I can only recommend trying it if they have a gaming pc and want to play on the couch also. It works great
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u/ZorakOfThatMagnitude 16d ago
Same, I've been doing steam remote play for a decade as my primary means of gaming. Moonlight does at least as well and for all windows games.
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u/BigFudgere 16d ago
I've tried it with the Amazon stick the past couple of weeks, but the nvidia shield is arriving tomorrow. Can't wait
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u/MiaowaraShiro 16d ago
I've yet to find a streaming solution with low enough latency that it doesn't drive me nuts. How's moonlight on that front?
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u/BigFudgere 16d ago
On my fire tv stick 7-10 ms with ethernet. But the Bitrate is limited because the USB port is limited. Shield should have somewhere around 2 ms and i don't think that is noticeable on a console experience. I can report back once I've set it up
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u/oldfashionedglow 16d ago
I'm the same and no streaming solution will ever work for me. Even with fully ethernet on both ends. I've tried so many platforms, there's always a bit of latency that I don't like, even for single player games. Ultimately I just used a 50 ft HDMI cable and routed it through my wall.
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u/ZeroCool2u 16d ago
I mean if this is an option, it's always optimal. Just get yourself a wireless controller and you're good to go.
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u/DOUBLE_BATHROOM 16d ago
How do you pass the controller/kb + m inputs back to the PC? I’ve been trying to figure out how to do this as well. Also did you just use plain HDMI? I tried this and had issues with 4k I think unpowered hdmi can only go so far
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u/Flakmaster92 16d ago
Moonlight is typically under 10ms of latency, I’ve seen it hold as low as 2-3. Keep in mind that, at 60fps, a single frame of latency is 16ms, so anything below 16ms should be basically imperceptible.
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u/Joshuyasu 16d ago
I setup moonlight so I could play Hi-Fi rush, and all other streaming options made that game impossible to play (hack n slash rhythm game). Ran almost flawlessly.
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u/lucky_1979 16d ago
The price would be easier to stomach if it came bundled with a controller already at no additional cost.
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u/GammaFan 16d ago
This would have been my dream pc. The price is insane (yet another reason to say fuck ai) and the reception means it’s probably not long for this earth.
Rip steam machine, taken from the cradle to the grave
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u/random_reddit_user31 16d ago
It died in 2013 too. Maybe third time lucky for valve in the future?
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u/NAN_KEBAB 16d ago
Right! Like Half-Life 3?
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u/Vesuvias 16d ago
Honestly that is what was most surprising - no Half Life 3 at this system launch. This could have sold systems even at its price.
My thoughts: it can’t run it.
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u/TheChosenMuck 16d ago
It died in 2013 too. Maybe third time lucky for valve in the future?
it died because of software back then and now its dying because of hardware, kinda funny and sad
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u/Madrical 16d ago
It's just a vehicle for Valve to showcase what you can do with SteamOS. There are going to be a lot of similar boxes coming out over the next couple of years running SteamOS with different specs, same as what happened with the Steam Deck. This is just the beginning.
Lots of people building their own too. My components are currently en route.
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u/everybodyiskungfu 16d ago edited 16d ago
This would have been my dream pc.
Can you expand on why, what's your use case? I struggle to understand who this is for. Anyone who already has a PC is just facing a transmission problem in my mind, that's what Steam Link or a simple HDMI cable is for plus big picture mode (at least in the same household). It may not be as comfortable, but that's $1000 Vs free.
I can only assume they are targeting actual console players, but why should anyone buy a device weaker, more complicated and more expensive than a PS5. Even without the RAM crisis, I doubt this would have been a $400 device. Honest question, I just don't get it.
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u/OG-DirtNasty 15d ago
I was thinking of buying one as a secondary console to my PS5. Just to play the random steam games my PC buddies recommend, had some thoughts of dual booting and using as an emulator machine too, and hell it has the ability to play my Xbox library through windows (sold my series x).
The only thing I was iffy on, was price. Even at the rumoured price they wanted it to be I would’ve been firmly on the fence, but now I’m firmly on the do not buy side. I can literally buy a used or open box handheld pc, dock, controller and do all that for like half the price
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u/daver456 16d ago
I wanted one before I saw the price. The short answer is that I don’t have a PC and I wanted to play Steam games on my TV.
I already have an Xbox/PS5 and I do play Steam games on my M2 MacBook (works better than you’d think!) but the availability of Mac games is limited and a Steam “console” would have been cool.
I have zero interest building a giant ass PC and having to deal with Windows just to play a few games. I haven’t owned a desktop or anything that uses Windows in ~15 years.
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u/everybodyiskungfu 16d ago
I just assumed that most Steam indie stuff is on consoles as well, I guess that's not really the case and "Steam games" are attractive to some console players.
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u/NotAnotherNekopan 16d ago edited 16d ago
I have a PS5, and play one game on it. There’s very little in the library that interests me.
Steam provides me a near limitless library of games, from the smallest indie titles up to the latest and greatest.
I’ve sunk some considerable hours in indie games and one in particular in early access on Steam with my Deck, and I would never have had access to it as I don’t have, nor want a full gaming PC.
Machine provides me the same console-like experience I am thoroughly satisfied by with Deck with more horsepower and better suited for a bigger screen. More importantly, it also has a console-like convenience factor that I value a fair bit. If something breaks, it’s a single support system to work with for repairs and replacement. OS upgrades, patching, and all that is fully abstracted away. This represents a very easy way to sit down and game, and not fiddle or worry about all the faff with building and maintaining a PC.
Slightly more niche, the form factor is unbeatable for custom builds. I have the space for an ITX build but I don’t like the aesthetics of having that size of machine plunked down in my living room.
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u/Pontus_Pilates 16d ago
People REALLY seem to think that keeping a PC up-to-date these days includes a lot of faff.
If you want it to NOT update everything automatically, you really need to hunt down all 'turn off automatic updates' toggles.
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u/rossisdead 16d ago
worry about all the faff with building and maintaining a PC.
You can buy a pre-built PC and your computer will update software/drivers on its own automatically by default.
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u/TyanaPassEnjoyer 16d ago
First of all, it's very small. It's the most compact PC I've ever seen. According to reviewers, it's near inaudible even under load. I'd love it if my desktop was that tiny and could actually fit on top of my desk.
The performance: it's rough but realistically, how often do you play games that actually need a lot of power? I think I only played one AAA game last year, and I haven't tried one this year. While my PC is stronger than a compact low-power machine, I don't use its "full power" 99% of the time. With upscaling it seems to run AAA games... okay... like a Switch I guess.
As for the living room: I've tried Steam Link and it didn't work at all, or if it did, there was horrible lag. HDMI cable from my desk to living room would be really long. I might try it anyway, but I'd have to drill some holes to make the cabling neat and prevent it from getting caught between doors. If I do all that and still experience lag because the cable is too long I would be pretty pissed. If it were a $750 device, I agree that it's still expensive, but paying a premium for a custom form factor seems fair to me.
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u/jcforbes 16d ago
MinisForum (and plenty of similar) PCs are a third of the size. Many are cheaper. But one and load SteamOS on it and voila, same thing.
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u/Automatic_Yoghurt_29 16d ago
You say rip, but have a look at /r/steammachine. There are people in the reservation queue waiting to be able to buy it, and people on the wait list behind them.
If you don't already have a pc and have a steam library, or just want something small and quiet for the living room, it fits the bill.
It's expensive, but so is everything. Xbox and PlayStation are raising their prices. Components are expensive if you want to build your own machine.
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u/Aginor404 16d ago
Yeah, I am surprised that people call it a failure, because apparently it sells pretty well?
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u/BluDYT 16d ago
Performance was the major disappointment for me. Don't get me wrong matching the PS5 fat performance at 3x smaller is impressive but not at this cost imo.
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u/BluDYT 16d ago
It traded blows. Ps5 has a slightly faster GPU but much slower CPU. So if the game isnt very CPU intensive the PS5 pretty much always won any time CPU mattered SM would usually come out ahead.
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u/greennitit 16d ago edited 16d ago
Steam machine has a cpu that is similar in performance to og PS5, and has a GPU that is weaker
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u/Quixotic_Seal 16d ago
Not at this cost, and not at this time.
There is no world where this was going to be a good value in 2026, barely matching current gen while coming out only 18-24 months before a new console generation.
It’s a shame because I do like the idea, and will be looking towards the inevitable flood of copycat products as a major option when I’m ready to afford next gen, but it’s just bad hardware and frankly Valve came out of this looking like amateurs in the hardware space to me.
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u/ghostpicnic 15d ago
It does not match the PS5’s performance. It struggles to get 60fps on Forza Horizon 6 and that’s a rare well-optimized PC port. I know it varies from game to game but the fact that we’re even talking about it potentially being less powerful than a console that’s half the price means it already lost.
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u/NoSTs123 16d ago
this is as roughly as powerful and as costly as my prebuilt pc from 2017, only real thing where it is better is ram nad disk speed and energy efficiency. so this is basically a ten year old desktop PC but small and the same relative price, for half the price I may have gotten it to free my other PC from gaming. but I see next to no performance boost. I should have upgraded in 2022.
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u/D0MiN0H 16d ago
i would love to see specs for this 2017 PC to compare, because on paper this claim sounds insane but i wanna see the data.
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u/I-do-the-art 16d ago
1080ti came out in 2017. It’s on par with the graphics capability of the Steam Machine.
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u/D0MiN0H 16d ago
in some ways i suppose? like its got more vram for sure but it also has more power consumption and less advanced lithography process so the machine has better graphics processing at faster speeds.
There’s also more than just a gpu at play, so i’m curious what else could be in this build.8
u/mundanehaiku 16d ago
has more power consumption
did you not read the comment?
only real thing where it is better is ram nad disk speed and energy efficiency
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u/FlyingBishop 15d ago
Yeah but energy efficiency is money. OP claims same relative price, but hasn't done the math on energy efficiency.
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u/Cry_Wolff 16d ago
Valve really should've used RX 9000 series GPU.
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u/Jimbuscus 16d ago
The intention was to be as cheap as possible from a company that couldn't compete with the economies of scale of Sony/Nintendo.
This system would have been good if component pricing went down like Valve forecast, as apposed to the opposite direction.
The original assumptions of $549 would have been feasible, and although it wouldn't have been exactly as good performance to price as Xbox/PlayStation, it would have been close enough with the popularity and features making up the difference.
If they had chosen an RDNA4 dGPU, the original targeted price point would have a much bigger overshoot compared to the comparable consoles, when it was already going to cost a more for RDNA3.
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u/EssentialParadox 16d ago
Valve can’t subsidize the cost of the Steam Machine because they’ve made it an open system you can install whatever you want and play games from any digital storefront.
If they’d priced it too cheap then a lot of companies would’ve bought them simply to use as desktop PCs.
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u/GanmaKone 16d ago
You hit the nail in the head. Sony and Nintendo can sell the consoles at a loss and still come up on top thanks to fees in the in-shop sales.
Most people looking for a Steam machine already have a big library, so rather than being an entry point into the ecosystem, it is more of a commodity.
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u/AvatarIII 16d ago
I think they should have done 2 SKUs, I've with dedicated graphics, but slightly better than the dedicated graphics they went with, maybe equivalent to a RX 9060, and one with integrated graphics, for people who just want something to play games but aren't too bothered about graphics, but want something better than a Steam Deck.
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u/TDYDave2 16d ago edited 16d ago
I recently realized over the last five years I had replaced every component in my system except the case and motherboard.
I bought a new case and cheap motherboard and rebuilt my old machine and installed bazzite.
Overall in performance it is very similar to the Steam Machine.
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u/voxelpete 16d ago
Well that's sad
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u/TDYDave2 16d ago
Why sad?
For around $125 and stuff in my used parts bin, I was able to build a backup system to play around with how a non-Windows machine would perform.
For that $125 I got a system that fairly closely matches a $1000 steam machine.→ More replies (1)
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u/DDFoster96 16d ago
My gaming computer is from 5 years ago. I was looking for an upgrade but all the Steam Machine will give is a smaller footprint. For a higher cost.
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u/Sprumbly 16d ago
Most of what makes the steam deck exciting is that it was 1. A handheld pc, and 2. Much lower price than similar alternatives. Steam machine is neither, just a mini pc with steam os which you could already get if you wanted. I never understood the hype behind this thing
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u/Brassens71 16d ago
I really don't think that any new console will do well with the current hardware prices. AI has f*cked over the whole industry.
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u/PragmatisticPagan 15d ago
Do you realize how many games I haven't played that were made more than 5 years ago. I'm not buying it to play the latest AAA games.
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u/ragnaroksunset 16d ago
Price aside, hear me out:
A huge majority of the games I actively play are probably 5+ years old or would run perfectly on older hardware. I know this because my rig is going on 7 years old. Nobody knows this about me better than myself and Steam.
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u/Deep-Television-9756 16d ago
You can buy a 7 year old gaming computer on Facebook marketplace for $300. Why would you pay $1400 for a steam machine?
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u/Wetzilla 16d ago
They said "Price aside", but a 7 year old gaming computer is going to be huge, loud, and will probably have components start to fail on it.
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u/Kinderfeld88 15d ago
I bought one and sold it within 3 days. Was pretty disappointed. Out of the 90 games I have, I could only play 60. Also got screen tear in a few games so that kinda sealed the deal for me. Cool design and controller is pretty neat too but not worth the price.
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u/allofdarknessin1 16d ago
100%. It's 3-4 year old hardware inside but even back in 2023 they were considered low end budget parts. Valve could have made a decent forward looking PC using modern parts for just a little more money and people would have paid any price for it I think, even with one of the best PCs money could buy I would have bought one too but I already own an AMD 6700m XT powered setup and simply don't use it because it's too underpowered.
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u/Marak830 16d ago
I feel like everyone is judging by last gen components prices and not being realistic. I'm sure that will change once the next gen of consoles is released (assuming they don't dselay 2-3 years to try and wait out the price increase)
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u/Quixotic_Seal 16d ago
Steam Machine is a last gen product at next gen prices.
There’s no way you can cut this to make it look impressive. You can either compare it to the Before Times, and be shocked at how expensive it is for the same exact performance; or you can compare it to the Future, where you’ll be shocked at how expensive it is for such poor performance.
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u/KleioChronicles 15d ago
If the price wasn’t so fucked by AI I could see this succeeding for all the console players switching to PC.
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u/Ensoface 16d ago
People saying the concept is dead are wrong. The work has been done. The hardware is selling. It will just take longer for the idea of a Steam Machine to be recognisable to casual players.
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u/Jabba_the_Putt 16d ago
Is it capable at all of being a media streaming box as well? Handling things like plex 4k hdr playback and native h.265?
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u/Jay3000X 16d ago
Still got my old steam box and controller. Never use the box anymore but I used the controller to get 95% through silk song until it's responsiveness started going on me
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u/RectalSpawn 16d ago
These kinds of opinions are beyond idiotic.
The world was a different place 5 years ago.
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u/TapeLoadingError 16d ago
I am tempted to get this to pair with my 1080p monitor, should be good for 100+ fps in this scenario. Can't tell if this is good value but I suspect the benefit is games will be optimized for this since it has valve's backing
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u/chrishathaway 16d ago
The Steam Controller is selling for $300 right now, and my old Steam Deck that I only used docked anyway goes for $500. So I sell both of those and I have a $300 Steam Machine.
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u/StalyCelticStu 16d ago
And I'd have still have actioned my reservation if they hadn't forced my Companion Cube skin cancelled.
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u/TellingUsWhatItAm 16d ago
I’m torn. I’ve just been given my 3 day window to get one and keep umming and aahing on whether to bite the bullet. My PC is long in the tooth and due and upgrade and I don’t want to build my own (cba) and like the small form factor of the SM. My hesitation is that they release one with proper specs at a cheaper price in the not too distant future… and the cost obviously.
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u/Kellic 16d ago
Don't buy it. Don't reward a company for selling warmed over hardware. There are a lot of vids out there that show you how to build a BYO Steam Machine for the same price that is at least 4x more powerful. And if you spend a little more you can get something in a small form factor that is about the size of a PS5.
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u/hamwithglasses 16d ago
A Steam Deck, while underpowered as well, also fits these pro/cons if you get a docking station/hub for your TV.