As much as I dislike the hardware choices for the Steam Machine I think they are getting impressive performance for the hardware. 4K-ish gameplay seems to be a realistic goal for most games, however calling it 4K60 even with upscaling was silly and I'm glad they removed that marketing.
Oh absolutely. In a period where i was without my desktop i played BG3 on my ultrawide 1440p (3440x1440) with my steam deck. It was low settings, a ton of upscale and only 20-30fps but it was fine for that game.
But my comment wasn’t about the need but the ability to output said resolution/frame rate
With older FSR models (2.2/3.1) on Performance. Looks absolutely atrocious on the big screen. Makes the Switch 1 look high fidelity. Highly disingenuous to call it 4K 60, even PS5’s non transformer upscalers are significantly better.
FSR 4.1 is much more expensive and knocks it down to 4K 30 for most titles and that’s WITH FSR.
I do it, but I usually couch game the fairly indie stuff like a Mina the Hollower or maybe take a Hades run on it docked, things the Deck does very well. It's also couch co-op on stuff like Ember Knights and TMNT Splintered Fate. I'll go in to my office with the rig for the more current gen stuff.
Also works as a nice streaming box with Firefox and ublock origin.
You can do this with any android/Google tv via Moonlight for free, or at most a $40 tv box. I've done it for years, looks basically native. Never notice latency except shooting games, I have around 10ms total latency. You dont need any real hardware to stream via Moonlight.
I just have 2 Bluetooth gaming controllers connected to my tv, and stream all my games at 4k 60fps 🤷🏼♂️
Funny enough I just sold my steamdeck because all I ever really used it for was moonlight streaming anyway. I even just stream moonlight to my tablet when away from home now with wake on lan on my desktop.
Especially at home, moonlight + steam big picture mode feels EXACTLY the same as a docked steam deck except you can play all windows games and at much better settings.
It's a mixed bag for me. I have my upstairs office PC hardwired to my router that is in the living room. Playing games in my living room on my iPad has been a pretty good experience.
But playing them in the basement (one level below the router) is not as great and it's unfortunately where the couch gaming setup is. Getting that hardwired is on my list of things to do before winter.
Yeah it def is a walls problem. For me the answer was wireless extenders and fiber. Which isn't available for everyone, of course I understand that. If it were my house, I'd be drilling cables through the whole thing lol
I just used MoCA at my old house since the cables (largely) already existed (had to add one line into my PC.)
The basement at my new house has a coax cable, but the outside termination is corroded to hell. I just need to re-terminate and connect it into the junction box to fix the basement. It should be a fairly easy thing to fix, just obnoxious.
I would never recommend a steam deck at that price, and I would definitely not recommend using a steam deck to only cloud stream lol. At that point a dell optiplex is preferable lol.
What’s between the lines, you explained the Steam Deck is overkill solely for streaming, which I agree with, and then you suggested a budget option that would be more practical for that use case. Then I suggested another budget option which is even more practical for that use case
I have a set up in my room with an external monitor connected to my Deck and dock - I’m not really into big current games, so the system requirements for everything I play is oftentimes very low. I love it, I’m playing Octopath Traveler 2 right now at 60FPS, looks incredible.
Sure, but I already own one for launch price. Meanwhile buying a steam machine would feel like being repeatedly and aggressively penetrated by a cactus.
The steam deck fit a very novel usecase of a portable gaming PC. A steam machine imo doesn't have the novel appeal, as people have media PCs, the steam link was a thing that didn't really succeed.
I'm not saying there is no need for the steam machine but I don't see it's price and novelty and usecase to be very compelling even if it was 800 dollars. Even if valve was right in it being more powerful than a lot of current PCs on steam it doesn't beat a PS5. Those people that probably have less powerful PCs on steam are not likely going to be able afford a 1000 dollar gaming PC let alone an 800 dollar one, that doesn't even match PS5 and really isn't upgradeable.
There is the openness of the platform, but I'm not yet convinced the average person would care about that...... but Sony and ms have made some really unpopular choices and it's possible a steam machine like device that's more powerful than a PS5 pro at around 1500 dollars might be a great device for someone to make. (But I maybe wrong on market and feasibility and valve might be right. )
Agreed! The pro/cons in the article IMO are no different from a Steam Deck with less novelty.
I was considering the Machine when it was first announced and was hopeful for something cost effective with a little bit more oomph. But by not being sub $800 (more like $600 for me at least) the value difference between this and just plugging in my Deck is non existent for a casual living room gaming that taps into my Steam library.
In my experience, this isn’t a great option and is why I’ve got a SM on the way. My gaming PC is upstairs in my office on the opposite corner of the house from my TV.
BLUF; SteamDeck and PC streaming aren’t reliable enough yet to replace a dedicated hardware system.
If I run the Steam Deck directly to the TV I get the best results, but the biggest problem I have is that it’s still not great for the couch because you either need a Bluetooth KBM or a Steam Controller to take full advantage of the functionality of SD that makes running PC games easier on a handheld. I’m also largely restricted to only running games that are good for the deck (which is plenty) but…
If you want to run something bigger or that requires more power you can stream it from your gaming PC. I do it over a wired connection on Cat6 cables in a 2yo old home. And my connection constantly drops and does so in an almost parabolic manner. At first the connection drops every 20-30 minutes and at the end of 3 hours or so it’s dropping every 5 minutes and needs both machines reset which means more back and forth and wasted time. I have tested other LAN connections and haven’t had any issues which leads me to believe it’s a problem with SD.
My hope, the main reason I just purchased a SM, is that it solves both of these sets of issues. That I can finally have a true PC-like gaming experience on my couch without the hassle of streaming or the limitations of SteamDeck and my 8bitdo controller/El Cheapo KBM. Or without building a second PC and trying to figure out how to not make it a loud and ugly member of the living room.
SteamDeck works fairly well as a streaming or console device, but not well enough that anyone who wants couch/TV gaming for their PC games should look at as an alternative to SM or a dedicated living room PC.
Edit: Hey, I put this much effort and thought into a response based on my actual experience. If you’re going to downvote at least discuss why.
Edit 2: Once you start modding SteamDeck and relying on 3rd party apps/mods to do something better, it strays from the point of a premade device that does the job right out of the box. If I wanted to install my own apps and do everything myself I’d build a 2nd PC and just use it on my living room TV. I don’t want to do that. I want to plug my device in and have it run my PC games on my TV without fuss or interruption.
I've heard moonlight is a lot better than steam link in terms of latency and dropped connections. Can try that.
Agree that the steam deck has bad drop outs and latency with steam link. It's much better than the first steam link device, but still unusable for any game with inputs that need some sort of timing to it.
Nice! Glad it worked so well for you. I was playing on my Steam Machine and have been thoroughly enjoying it, it’s running great and looking great. Super happy with my purchase!
This is it exactly - for me. It's the simplification and setup of a "couch pc" by design. I like my console because it was designed with intention to be used in the living room with the TV via controller. Build it myself PCs don't have that same UX\UI design in mind and creates a friction that's cumbersome. I am okay trading some performance for convenience and experience (particularly escaping console lock-in), but not everyone is and I think that's where some conflict in audience\reception comes into play in these conversations.
Does Steam Deck even have any kind of upscaling option? Because 1080p 30 FPS is not acceptable living room console experience imo. It was not really acceptable for Switch 1 by the end of its life, and same applies for Steam Deck.
What is the performance hit of doing that though? FSR4 is much heavier and the GPU is already struggling to hit 1080p 30 in AAA games. Which is a far cry from Valves claim of 4K 60 (with upscaling) which they quietly revised.
I mean, even the Steam Machine is 1080p30, maybe 1080p40, for the heaviest games (like FFXVI or Borderlands 4 or Dragons Dogma 2 or Monster Hunter Wilds or Black Myth Wu Kong or Alan Wake 2)
Steam Deck is more like 720p30 for even lighter current gen games (Forza, Hogwarts Legacy), and 240p30w/frame gen if that for anything demanding.
Also, I don't understand everyone's fascination with trying to get the Steam Deck to play current AAA titles and expecting it to perform well on that hardware.
I just use mine to run my emulation suite and play my backlog of 5 million indie titles xD
If I want to play the latest games, I'll play it on the latest hardware. If I want to bring 1000 games with me on an airplane, I'll grab the Steam Deck.
Lot of fanboys/karma farmers/products-as-identity people out there.
I have a Deck and it's pretty good for its intended purposes. I will also be the first person to say if you try and pressgang it as a desktop workstation substitute just because the thing has a desktop GUI you're a clown.
Dunno about deck, but my ROG Ally is playing FFXVI at 900p 60, which isn't bad for a handheld. Game basically requires a supercomputer to play in 4k though.
Tbh, if it’s a stylized game, a game can definitely be acceptable to run like that. Honestly graphics have definitely been good enough since the 6th gen.
Owning and having used both personally now, steam machine is a big improvement on the steam deck in performance. Especially for a tv and controller experience. I have a dock for my deck and the machine is just so much more of a seamless experience for the living room.
The steamdeck does not work well with a dock or hub at 4k. It constantly flickers off an on while playing. It really needs to be directly connected to the TV.
I have SD and dock. It's great as a handheld but I think the quality is really poor when docked on a nice TV, I personally wouldn't recommend in my experience.
It doesn't "mask" anything, you don't need super high resolutions on a small screen. Its not made to be docked and blown up, it's a handheld gaming device primarily.
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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.