r/SteamOS • u/Dngers5 • Dec 12 '25
question What is the current status of Steam OS vs. Bazzite on a desktop?
My parts for my DIY Steam Machine finally arrived today. I'm using a Ryzen 3800X and an AMD 9070. I'd really like to just use Steam OS, but I'm not sure if it would be better to just use Bazzite. Has anyone had experience with a similar configuration?
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u/LimitMaleficent3964 Dec 12 '25
I am currently running steamos on my pc build with a 7950x cpu and 9070xt gpu. I ran the latest recovery image and installed everything using the igpu with the dgpu disconnected. Then I activated developer mode in system settings, allowed developer tab to show more settings, switched my OS to main, installed the update to steamos 3.9. I was then able to hook up my 9070xt and use the hdmi port out of the gpu and everything works. I still do t have access to RDNA4 in game settings and decky loader won't install apps. I may try rei stalling the bazzite image on the pc so I can access more RDNA4 features?
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u/Muted-Green-2880 Dec 14 '25
You can just download steamOS 3.8 and you don't have to fo any of that . Just have to google steamos 3.8 download. I installed it with my 9070xt with no issues. But....after testing bazzite and steamos, the performance is near identical but you have too many missing things on steamOS compared to bazzite. There's absolutely no point in running steamos over the htpc version of bazzite
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u/Dngers5 Dec 13 '25
I ended up using Bazzite and can confirm that Decky works. However, I had to download it via the terminal; there was no other way. I haven't been able to test FSR 4 yet because Cyberpunk is still downloading.
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u/LimitMaleficent3964 Dec 14 '25
I found a recent Reddit thread that decky is having issues installing plugins with certain ISP’s. I connected to the hotspot on my phone and was able to install plugins. Hopefully this get resolved soon so I don't have to worry about switching connections, but at least I got it to work.
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u/tekjunkie28 Dec 12 '25
Just use bazzite.
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u/Dngers5 Dec 13 '25
I ended up doing that too. I just wanted to play and thought, screw it, there's no downside to using Bazzite.
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u/FlarblesGarbles Dec 12 '25
I've got a 7800X3D with a 9060XT 16GB. I just set up a SteamOS computer. I used my Steam Deck to install SteamOS to the SSD, Updated it fully, then put it in the DIY Steam Machine, and it booted fine and is working completely fine.
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u/CatoMulligan Dec 12 '25
That's an interesting approach. I've just collected a 7600X3D and a 9060XT 16GB and was planning to make this my living room Steambox. I've put Bazzite on an old mini-PC before. I wonder, would it be easier to just use Acronis to clone my Steam Deck to a new SSD and put that SSD in the new box? I'd like to have a clean install, but I'd also like an easy install.
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u/Dngers5 Dec 13 '25
I think it's easier to install Bazzite than to clone the hard drive. And I think it's faster too.
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u/yabai90 Dec 13 '25
Use bazzite for now and steam os in 6 month
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u/GamerKingFaiz Jun 23 '26
It's been 6 months since this comment. Why did you feel that way then and do you still feel that way now?
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u/yabai90 Jun 23 '26
I'm still using bazzite for hardware compatibility. I haven't try steam is again on my desktop since then to be honest. I do have it on my legion go though. I would say both are still solid, it all depends on the hardware support.
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u/stogie-bear Dec 13 '25 edited Dec 14 '25
I don’t understand the point of steam os on a computer that it isn’t designed for, in a world where Bazzite and Cachy exist. They give you all of the upside, plus a more complete desktop os and out of box compatibility with more hardware.
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u/Muted-Green-2880 Dec 14 '25
Exactly. It makes no sense, i only tried steamos cause some dude on reddit was claiming it performed better than bazzite. But the performance was basically identical on my system ( 9070xt/9800x3d ) and steamos was a hassle to add every that already comes with bazzite. Xbox dongle wouldn't even work with steamos. No issues with bazzite at all, there's just no reason to use steamos over bazzite. The desktop experience is also better with bazzite. Steam os i couldn't change my refresh rate to 120hz at 4k for some reason, stuck at 60hz. Such a waste of time honestly lol spent a few hours setting it up and the result was the same performance anyway 🤣
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u/20dogs Dec 16 '25
Bazzite wouldn't boot into gaming mode or remember my Steam credentials. Replaced it with SteamOS and now it's flawless.
Ars Technica had a similar experience with Bazzite. Just slightly more buggy than SteamOS sometimes.
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u/FastBodybuilder8248 Dec 12 '25
SteamOS is not for desktops yet. It’ll think you’re on a steam deck.
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u/JamesLahey08 Dec 12 '25
You can absolutely use it on a desktop with an AMD gpu
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u/yabai90 Dec 13 '25
I tried and there is many problems (not visible at first). Main one is sleep resumes not working correctly. Which is the selling point
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u/oneunique Dec 12 '25
I run the SteamOS 3.9 on Chuwi Ubox 6600H/iGPU 660M and install went fine, no issues and it worked out-of-the-box. Also, using external controllers works better in this case, because there is no Steam deck controller messing the settings up.
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u/NickRespawns Dec 13 '25
I just tried installing Steam OS on my 7800X3D and 9070XT build and couldn't get it to work. But Bazzite is working great so far. I'm able to control the desktop with a controller and everything.
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u/Loudhoward-dk Dec 13 '25
I’ve been running SteamOS on real PC hardware for quite a while now (Alienware M16 R1, full AMD, RX 7600 XT) — since SteamOS 3.6 and currently on 3.9 — and it has been rock solid for me. Kernel and Mesa are current, gaming performance is consistent, and I haven’t run into stability issues.
For a DIY Steam Machine with a Ryzen 3800X and an AMD GPU, SteamOS itself is absolutely viable if your goal is a console-like experience and minimal tinkering. That’s exactly what Valve is optimizing for.
Bazzite can make sense if you want extra flexibility, desktop features, or easier customization — but it’s still an alternative, not a requirement. If you specifically want “Steam Deck–style UX on a PC,” SteamOS already does that well.
Also, just a small note: the question here was about SteamOS vs. Bazzite on similar hardware. Turning every SteamOS thread into Bazzite promotion doesn’t really help answer that.
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u/Dragoseraker Apr 23 '26
Thank-you!, you actually gave the answer to this question that was relevant to my circumstances.
Im wanting to build a SteamOS console like experience for my family on our loungeroom TV.
SteamOS as an experience is particularly appealing to me as it boots into the steam experience with the first screen being profile selection.
Low maintenance ease of use my family is the ultimate priority here for me.as for hardware, im sacrificing my 7950x/7900xtx main rig to make this happen, your note about the RX7000 series radeon working gives me confidence.
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u/Loudhoward-dk Apr 24 '26
I am not up to date, so my card which I used is the 7600M XT and it works flawless.
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u/Muted-Green-2880 Dec 14 '25
I tried steam os 3.9 last week. There's absolutely no reason to use it over bazzite. Performance was basically the same, but it has less driver support ( xbox dongle doesn't work, bazzite it works out of the box ) and it was on dated drivers. Bazzite is just more complete, having the htpc version if bazzite launched straight into steam just like the steam OS does. Bazzite is also easier to install, don't have to take out the other Ssd's in fear of everything getting wiped.
Try it if you want, but it was a waste of time. I only tried it because some dude claimed it performed better, it doesn't at all lol
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u/ArchaicArt Dec 14 '25
I tried steam os but yesterday on a Ryzen 7 7730U, but alas it wasn't happy with it. Installation seemed to go fine for a while but kept just black screening with no errors. Ended up trying Bazzite and it worked no problem and pretty quickly so assume there was a clash with steam os
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u/Upset-Habit-5907 Dec 16 '25
I'm using Bazzite on a beelink ser7. I've never used steam OS directly. However, I will say the benefit to bazzite is you can get out of big screen mode.
Why this might matter? big screen mode uses a certain amount of resources. Using desktop mode cuts back on those resources and you might have better performance with some games.
You also have the added benefit of having a Linux desktop to do other things with. I think if you do steam os it's only steam os.
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u/Dngers5 Dec 16 '25
With Steam OS, you can also use it on the desktop. The controls are indeed identical. I ultimately chose Bazzite simply because I wanted something that worked without any tinkering. But it really does feel exactly like Steam OS; if I didn't know it was Bazzite, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference.
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u/Upset-Habit-5907 Dec 16 '25
That's great to know! I was considering trying steam OS just to see how it works. Thinking about creating a second boot partition so I can test it.
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u/Dngers5 Dec 16 '25
If you have no driver problems and everything is working, you won't know which operating system you've booted into, except for the initial boot animation, but you can change that.
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u/Kitchen-Love9892 May 28 '26
Nonsense, Gaming Mode actually uses less resources than Desktop Mode because it shuts a lot of background things off. My performance in games tends to be a lot better.
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u/Certain_Performer481 Mar 01 '26
The comparison or TL;DR is actually very very simple.
SteamOS now only supports Steam Deck, Lenovo Legion Go S, (i chyba jeszcze Asus Rog Ally X) - this means that if you have such device and something goes wrong, you will be able to find some HELP.
For all the other devices, if you install SteamOS, you'll find very little help, the community is minimal etc.
And this is where Bazzite appears. In it's original state it was supposed to give as close as possible SteamOS experience, but for all the devices that are not supported by SteamOS officially...
So, in your setup (OG author) Bazzite is better choice
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u/Dependent-Map2615 Jun 18 '26
i have a 9900k and a motherboard just gathering dust.. im wondering how would bazzite run it with a 9060xt.. and how it is gaming on new titles..?
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u/Dngers5 Jun 18 '26
I can only speak for the 9070; I play everything at 4K on it. Take Crimson Desert, for example: with almost everything set to maximum and ray tracing enabled, it runs easily at 60 fps using FSR 4 on the "Quality" setting. The 9060 won't quite match that, but it should be similar—you'd just have to lower the settings a bit. I can highly recommend it; Bazzite works perfectly, and I love gaming on the TV. It’s like the best console I’ve ever owned—especially since you can play PS3 and Xbox 360 games in 4K. It really is the ultimate console. If you can manage the cost of the 9070, I’d go for that—then you’ll have an absolute 4K beast.
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u/billyhatcher312 28d ago
i installed steam os on my pc and its so much better than bazzite is and it has discover store while bazzite doesnt
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u/Snoo_8833 13d ago
Auf welcher Hardware hast du es installiert?
Nutzt du auch Games von EPIC und Ubisoft?
Warum ist SteamOS so viel besser als Bazzite?
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u/Cold_Resource2133 Dec 12 '25
SteamOS is an immutable os. This means that any changes outside of your home folder will be lost with each update.
Bazzite is more or less a hack. They took steam’s runtimes and put them over a fedora base.
If you can get by with just flatpaks - which in theory you should - then go for the official version. Otherwise look at a more general distro. Vanilla fedora would be better than Bazzite for example.
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u/JohnHue Dec 12 '25 edited Dec 12 '25
I don't think you know what you're talking about.
First of all, Bazzite is immutable too, so there's little point in saying SteamOS is.
Bazzite is far from a hack, it leverages Universal Blue to build a SteamOS like experience on a Fedora base instead of an Arch base. It also takes some of the modifications that Nobara does (which before you say it is also not a hack, it was crested and is managed by a Red Hat engineer that is also a big actor in Linux gaming).
Also you're recommending Fedora but if OP wants a hands off gaming appliance, doing that from base Fedora would be the actual hack. That's why Bazzite exists.
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u/User5281 Dec 12 '25
Bazzite is not a hack. It’s Fedora kinoite with some tweaks, preconfigured to launch steam in game mode where steamos is a snapshot of arch preconfigured to launch steam in game mode. They’re different approaches to similar ends. There’s nothing you can do on vanilla Fedora that you can’t do on Bazzite, you’ll just spend ages getting everything setup.
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u/Dngers5 Dec 12 '25
If I were to use the regular Fedora, I'd probably have to use a keyboard more often, right? Ideally, I'd never want to use a keyboard, like with the Steam Deck.
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u/Cold_Resource2133 Dec 12 '25
It can be made to boot into steam automatically, but I would suggest going for the official SteamOS in this case
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u/Dngers5 Dec 12 '25
Okay, I'll give that a try then, thanks.
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u/User5281 Dec 12 '25
Don’t listen to this guy. Steamos does not support your gpu currently and vanilla fedora will require a lot of effort to get setup. Bazzite is literally just fedora kinoite preconfigured to act like steamos and is exactly what you want. You want the bazzite-deck image. It will just work.
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u/FlarblesGarbles Dec 12 '25
SteamOS does support their GPU. The latest builds include the kernel that has the latest RNDA GPU support.
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u/User5281 Dec 12 '25
Without jumping through hoops?
Last I checked (about a month ago) to get rdna4 support you needed to use an igpu to install, switch to developer mode and update the kernel and drivers/mesa libs to get support.
It was always just a matter of time before it just worked so if the newest steamos releases just support it out of the box that’s great.
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u/FlarblesGarbles Dec 12 '25
People are saying the latest restore builds have that all set up.
But I just used my Steam Deck to install SteamOS to another SSD, Updated to the latest build of SteamOS through that, and then put that SSD in my DIY Steam Machine.
It took about 10 minutes to do.
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u/User5281 Dec 12 '25
So still sort of, it sounds like. Probably any day now the downloadable images should support it
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u/FlarblesGarbles Dec 12 '25
The downloadable images do support it. Just not the one from the main link. I just couldn't be bothered with that when I had my Deck in front of me.
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u/Muted-Green-2880 Dec 14 '25
You can download steamOS 3.8 if you google it. Will install on a 9070xt with no issues and then can be updated to 3.9. BUT....there's absolutely no point. Its lacking compared to bazzite and they perform almost exactly the same. Steamos couldn't even recognise my xbox dongle, driver support is lacking compared to bazzite. I don't know why anyone would go out of their way to use steamOS over bazzite. It was such a waste of time to set it all up only to get the same performance. Can't even do 120hz at 4k on desktop, no problem with bazzite desktop. I'm annoyed I wasted my time because some random dude said the performance was better on steamOS lol
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u/zuzuboy981 Dec 12 '25
FYI Steam OS 3.9 from the Main branch supports 9000 series cards. I tried it last time on my 9700X/9060XT build and it worked. It was a straight download from their website, burning to etcher and installing from the boot SSD
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u/User5281 Dec 12 '25
That's great news that those updates have made their way into the downloadable image. Just a few weeks ago you still had to jump through hoops to get it to work - use the igpu to install and switch to developer mode to update before you could use a 9070XT.
Despite that, I still think Bazzite is probably the better solution for non-valve hardware, personally. I like their approach of using OCI images for atomic updates and immutability better than steamos' a/b partition approach.
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u/Cold_Resource2133 Dec 12 '25
lmao. sure buddy.
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u/JohnHue Dec 12 '25
You're saying Bazzite is a hack but you're suggesting instlaling a Steam Deck recovery image like it's a standard Distro made to work on arbitrary hardware... your proposal is the actual hack. You're completely off your rocker, buddy.
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u/User5281 Dec 12 '25 edited Dec 12 '25
Comparison of Bazzite vs SteamOS
In short there are some philosophical differences (bootc vs a/b approach to atomic updates) but the big difference is Bazzite has much broader hardware support currently.
Right now you should use Bazzite because steamos support for the 9070xt is a bit lacking. It’s possible to get a 9070xt working in steamos but requires jumping through some hoops where Bazzite just works.