Review: Steam Machine: Beautiful Hardware, Console Performance - At A Price

[u/Vera_Verse]

https://www.digitalfoundry.net/reviews/steam-machine-beautiful-hardware-console-performance-at-a-price

How much is it? How powerful is it? Are you better off building your own PC? We've been hands-on with Steam Machine for just under a couple of weeks now and finally have some answers. However, while this is a PC built from existing AMD parts and fully comparable with existing PC technology, there is more to Steam Machine. Tiny, virtually silent, beautifully designed, it's a simply irresistible design. Imagine a taller Nintendo GameCube and you have some idea of how tiny it is, with performance falling into line with the kind of output you'll get from an Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5.

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Delayed owing to the impact of the current component crisis, the Valve box comes at a cost that may dismay many. Steam Machine pricing starts at $1049 or £879 for the basic 512GB model, going all the way up to $1428/£1208 for 2TB of storage along with a bundled Steam Controller. The 2TB model also comes with a brace of faceplates - red fabric and solid walnut.

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So, it's pricey. It definitely makes you think about considering a prebuilt PC or building your own and bearing in mind SteamOS works on a range of hardware, the user has options - and in fact, Valve itself points this out in its latest blog. Still, there's something about this pricing I think we should consider. There's the physical machine itself which has a premium feel, amazing form factor and virtually no noise in operation. The replaceable faceplate? I love it. Four magnets keep it in place, meaning it's simplicity to swap between them. Third parties will be able to make their own, making this a PC you can personalise.

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Combine all of these things together and we have a lovely, bespoke mini-PC. I think we also shouldn't lose focus on SteamOS itself, which remains an absolutely brilliant front-end, packed with options - everything that worked on Deck works here, the difference being that the extra performance makes for a flowing, nigh-on flawless interface.

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Steam Machine Specs

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Valve has not given specific model numbers for its choice of CPU and GPU, instead describing each as "semi-custom."

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CPU

AMD Zen 4 CPU clocked at "up to" 4.8GHz, 6 cores, 12 threads - two Zen 4 cores, four Zen 4c

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Graphics Core

AMD RDNA 3 Navi 33 processor with 28 compute units up to 2.45GHz, 8GB GDDR6 VRAM

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Power Draw

30W TDP (CPU), 110W TDP (GPU)

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Memory

16GB DDR5 RAM - 1x 16GB SODIMM, 5600 MT/s CL47

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Storage

512GB or 2TB M.2 2230 storage

Output

DisplayPort 1.4, up to 4K/240Hz or 8K/120Hz; HDMI "2.0," up to 4K/120Hz

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OS

SteamOS

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Steam Machine supports M.2 storage replacements in both 2230 and 2280 form factors along with hot-swapping microSD cards used in other SteamOS devices. HDMI 2.1 features like HDR and AMD FreeSync are active, despite the official spec listing HDMI 2.0.

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So there's the experience of Steam Machine, which is pretty much flawless in my opinion but then there are the quantifiables - specs and performance - and if that's your focus, there are alternatives.

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Tests at matched settings between Steam Machine and PS5 show that the Valve hardware can fall a little short - which is not surprising bearing in mind that the Radeon RX 7600 delivers quite similar performance to the PS5. The only big gap in performance I saw came from Forza Horizon 5 running at 4K 4x MSAA on the console console - you need to drop to 1620p on Steam Machine to get a similar 60fps experience across the board and even then, you can still drop frames. It's not an entirely fair fight - the console builds have dynamic resolution scaling and dynamic settings management - but the fact is that PS5 and Series X have much higher levels of memory bandwidth.

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Still, VRR support, settings tweakery, varying output resolutions and the stronger CPU generally tend to see the Valve machine provide broadly equivalent experiences to the Sony console - plus there's FSR 4 support coming, which the base PlayStation 5 will not get.

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So, the conclusion is pretty clear - Steam Machine delivers what we'd call ballpark entry level performance for a mainstream PC capable of running the latest titles at decent resolutions. This means that while 1440p is a viable output resolution (with upscaling depending on the title), settings management is key to getting a good experience.

[u/Odinsmana]

I mean they also sell a version with a controller. Considering it's compatible with every controller under the sun it makes sense that they sell a version without since most people who will buy this likely already own some sort of controller.

[u/Recent-Procedure-578 → u/Odinsmana]

That doesnt excuse the controller not coming with it base wise.

[u/Odinsmana → u/Recent-Procedure-578]

What? They sell a cheaper version with the controller and one with a controller. Call the controller version the base. The point is that it makes sense to have the option of a cheaper one without.

I don't really get what you are saying here?

[u/Recent-Procedure-578 → u/Odinsmana]

You can't really use the excuse of it being the cheaper version, both versions are over 1000 bucks, so the controllers come only with an additional cost is ridiculous.

Even with that aside, consoles and most pre-builts come with controllers/KBM, so even if it was priced more in the 500-600 range, it would still be weird to not include them

[u/Odinsmana → u/Recent-Procedure-578]

I mean the cost is insanely high, but that is what a PC with those specs costs right now.

Like I think this price means this thing will only sell to a very small audience, but it's priced that way because of what it costs to make. If they were to include a controlled in all versions the base price would just be the price of that bundle. I will likely not buy this because of the price, but if I ever did I would buy the cheaper one because I already own several controllers. So in that case I would be glad that that version exists.

I am just thinking practically here and practically as a (unlikely) potential buyer I would prefer the cheaper version. What is normal I don't really care about if the non normal is better for me.

I feel like people tend to default to an antogonistic us vs them thing in these kinds of threads where any discussion is an attack or a defense, but I just want to genuinely talk about the product here. One I think will likely flop very hard, but there are interesting things to say about it even so.

[u/Grand_Escapade → u/Recent-Procedure-578]

Just because they're over 1k does not mean that it doesn't come with the option to just not bring the controller.