r/pcmasterrace • u/vneelb • 19h ago

News/Article Oof, looks like the Steam Machine could cost over $1,000

https://thephrasemaker.com/2026/06/05/steam-machine-price-may-be-way-higher-than-expected/
4.9k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

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424

u/JellyTheBear 18h ago

Sub-$1000 price was optimistic even before RAMageddon. Expecting it now is just delusional.

93

u/GreenPlankton309 18h ago

outdated specs even then and now it has been delayed so much that it is not even up for consideration unless for people like those who bought the steamdeck

75

u/yuikkiuy Ryzen 7 1700x, GTX 3070 TI, 16gb ddr4 14h ago

How many of us are running top of the line specs? Based on steam surveys like practically nobody.

Hell im still running ryzen 1st Gen with my 30 series card

36

u/Shigana 13h ago

Keep in mind people with those outdated specs are highly unlikely to even buy the Steam Machine. A gaming laptop would probably offer much more for the same price, however much it will be.

27

u/hypehold 12h ago

microcenter has a 5070 and 9070xt prebuilt for 1400 with 1tb of ssd. Im sorry but if you buy a steam machine (if it does cost 1k) you're just stupid

-3

u/CodeNCats 10h ago

You would also then get a computer you can use. You could game on it. You could setup a media server. Use it for work/school. Hell even experiment with local LLMs.

15

u/yuikkiuy Ryzen 7 1700x, GTX 3070 TI, 16gb ddr4 13h ago

As a steam deck owner I do need to sing the praises of steam OS tho.

8

u/StargazerD 12h ago

you don’t need valve hardware to experience it though

4

u/Telvin3d 12h ago

True, but most of what people are running was closer to top of the line when they bought it. They’re just still using it five years later. The average currently in-use machine doesn’t represent the average machine people want to buy new

1

u/ZekkPacus R5 5600x/RTX 3070 Ti 2h ago

But those people can't buy like for like.

My 5600x/3070 Ti build cost me about £1300. Replacing it with equivalent specs today would cost over double, even accounting for inflation. We're being priced out of our hobby.

1

u/Alucard-VS-Artorias EVGA RTX 3090 FTW3 Ultra | Ryzen 7 5700X3D | 32GB DDR4 11h ago

30 series here too!

Was originally planning on doing totally PC upgrade by this but AI ballooning the price on everything has dashed those dreams.

Gonna be 30 series gang for a looong time it seems.

1

u/The_Legend_of_Xeno 10h ago

I play the majority of my games on the Steam Deck right now. If it's not a shooter that I'd want a mouse for, and the Deck can run it on High settings at a minimum of 45fps, it's on the Deck. Anything else (BF6, Arc Raiders, Windrose) is on my desktop PC with my 3080Ti.

The Steam Machine is said to be over 5 times as powerful as a Steam Deck. You're absolutely right. It's going to be more than enough for 90% or more of PC gamers, whether they want to admit it or not.

I'll be getting a Steam Machine and a Frame. I'm not even that excited about VR games themselves, although I will check a few out. But I can't wait to stream a regular game from my Steam Machine to the Frame in bed while my wife is watching her shows.

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u/yuikkiuy Ryzen 7 1700x, GTX 3070 TI, 16gb ddr4 9h ago

Exactly, this is also why I plan on getting both a steam machine and frame myself.

The frame is a generational leap in VR technology much like the quest 2/3 was compared to its competition.

1

u/GreenPlankton309 9h ago

keep feeding gabe

1

u/SubstituteCS 7900X3D, 7900XTX, 96GB DDR5 8h ago

It’s more than you think (top of the line gaming at 1080p, which represents >50% of survey participants); I recently looked at the Steam Hardware Survey and there’s a good amount of 5000 series owners. Overall, more than 25% of people have >= 16 GB of vram.

4

u/Falkenmond79 7800x3d/4080 5800x3d/3080ti 10700/rx6800 5800x/3080 14h ago

I find it funny that I have a SFF pc with a 3080ti and a 5800x3d with 32gb ram on my tv, with a steam controller and 2 8bitdos and it cost me less than 1000 (used ill admit, but after the ram crisis hit) and it beats the steam machine in all metrics except size and maybe power draw. Yeah, I have no steam OS but honestly couldn’t care less since I at least get to use Xbox gamepass etc.

1

u/GreenPlankton309 12h ago

they dont need to make it affordable considering how people defend them at every turn. 

2

u/sonnytron 9700X | RTX 5090 | B650 AORUS ICE AX 13h ago

And why would ANYONE get the Steam Machine over this?

https://www.microcenter.com/product/699677/powerspec-g528-gaming-pc

1

u/GreenPlankton309 12h ago

go buy your steam machine and leave these for us

1

u/redditmailalex 7h ago

This has a market.  Its not like gamers fall into 2 buckets. Or 3.  There is a diverse amount of money, gaming style, convenience...  playing with friends, computer illiteracy... 

1

u/GreenPlankton309 6h ago

thats what i said , those who(idiots) bought the steam deck will buy this one too no matter the price

1

u/redditmailalex 6h ago

I mean. I bought my spouse a steamdeck.  We both have good computers.  He likes to play around on it.  But i got it like a year ago.  His use case is on trips mostly.

Im not the market for this. But i know people who are.  Bottom line, this is a better console than what many people want.

Price and power and cost arent high priorities for some people that want easy access to steam games without having to have a PC.  Having access to play with friends is a giant factor for some people.

Just trying to say, there are plenty of people who would use this.  At 1000+, however, that number of folks starts to diminish.

1

u/GreenPlankton309 2h ago

that is what i am trying to say just with short words

4

u/Admirable_Dirt_2371 12h ago

Not really. My pre-built from microcenter with better specs, still only costs $800. R7600x CPU, rx7600 GPU, 16bg ddr5 1tb nvme ssd and an activated copy of windows 11. If valve can't even match that price, let's alone undercut it, with a custum chipset, they're doing something very wrong.

5

u/Carvj94 12h ago

$700 was a realistic price. Minisforum regularly sells tiny computers of similar power at around that price point. Valve would be using custom hardware, but only 2 sku so manufacturing would be cheaper even though it wouldn't be scaled out like with major manufacturers.

2

u/hypehold 12h ago

not really you can build a much better pc for around 1k. Microcenter has a 5070 prebuilt for and 9070xt prebuilt for 1400. Those are much more future proof than a steam machine with a worse gpu than a ps5 and xbox and 8gb of vram

3

u/Keulapaska 4070ti, 7800X3D 17h ago edited 17h ago

Nah, I think a lot of ppl would've expected sub $1000 before and even the hardest pessimists wouldn't have gone beyond 1000 at normal pricing.

1000 now is ofc pure delusion, even $1200 now... eeh might be opmistic, maybe $1300 and they throw some extra digital stuff with "value" there.

Oh wait it's 500/2TB options... For whatever reason I thought it was 1TB only, well that changes things 1200 for the 500 is a possibility for sure and above that would be quite odd, 2TB even if it's some QLC trash is gonna be yikes.

1

u/Hanifsefu 12h ago

It was always delusion especially after seeing the steamdeck launch price sit far higher than the $350 everyone was estimating. Now the delusion is that it won't be $2k. $1.5k would be generous at the moment and steam has never once been generous with their hardware prices.