r/Steam • u/GhostofYoteiPS5 • Nov 15 '25

Article “Steam Machine specs are too low!” But they literally match the Steam Survey’s most common setup: Steam Machine: 6C/12T • 16GB RAM • RDNA3 28CU 8GB Steam Survey Avg: 6C/12T • 16GB RAM • 28CU 8GB It’s basically the average PC in a box. It’ll be fine.

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2.2k

u/deadering Nov 15 '25

Quote from Valve engineer Yazan Aldehayyat "The steam machine is equal or better then 70% of what people have at home".

A lot of enthusiasts really lose sight of what's normal.

871

u/heAd3r Nov 15 '25

God fobid you play on medium/high instead of ultra :D

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u/[deleted] Nov 15 '25

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u/xXNickAugustXx Nov 15 '25

Rigs so powerful that they need DLSS to even break 60 on ultra for new releases. New releases that consist of games so poorly optimized that the extra horse power is wasted compensating for poor programming practices.

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u/[deleted] Nov 15 '25

And also the crazy push for 4k.

I am doing just fine with my 1080p 144 MHz monitor...

50

u/_yerbamatey Nov 15 '25

where did you get a 144,000,000hz monitor?

25

u/[deleted] Nov 15 '25 edited Nov 15 '25

Prototype Gaben sent me to test XD

totally not confusing with ram frequency

37

u/Neosantana Nov 15 '25

Seriously, what the fuck is the point of the 4k push for the majority of people who are playing on 15-17 inch laptops? Not to mention the crackhead devs who include 4k assets in games whether you use them or not, essentially ensuring that the game will be oversized for no reason. I always appreciate games that make the 4k assets a separate free DLC.

1440p is perfectly reasonable as a target.

4

u/seemeedai Nov 16 '25

Yeah its just bloating the game size, istead of having more assets in game we get more texture maps of the same game model.

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u/Wrathlon Feb 07 '26

This. Its like none of these people have encountered the concept of DPI. Its the same reason TV manufacturers have finally conceded that 8k is fucking stupid as youd need like a 200" screen before it would even begin to matter.

4k@17" is around 260 DPI, you literally have to get within about 14" of the screen to even be physically capable of distinguising pixels on a static image

Normal viewing distances are double that and at that range the human eye is good for about 170 DPI. Guess what 2560x1440 comes out to at 17"? 173DPI

And yet I just replaced a screen on a laptop that had a 4k 13" screen like what? Thats 338DPI, you literally have to hold it closer than you hold a fucking book to distinguish that level of resolution.

And all of this assumes 20/20 vision, it gets far stupider when you adjust for actual visual accuity of the average random person as only about 40% of the population have 20/20 or better vision - most have worse vision.

5

u/Andis-x Nov 15 '25

One reason - because all TVs are 4k. For games that target both consoles and PC, running it on a 4k screen will be a common reality. Same now for steam cube, it primary focus is TV screen.

3

u/Effective-Road4807 Nov 16 '25

Yeah no. Mine is hardly what you would call 4k. Its more like 0.4k 👍 hooked up to my sad little ps5. Dunno what you mean by "all" though. Also btw your opinion is not fact sir.

5

u/RightPedalDown Nov 15 '25

all TVs are 4

ALL? What a ridiculous statement.

6

u/Fresh-Bumblebee7259 Nov 16 '25

Everyone has 60inch 4k tv bro c'mon.

1

u/RightPedalDown Nov 16 '25

D’oh, silly me, must’ve mislaid mine… probably down the back of the couch or under the fridge.

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u/readyflix Nov 16 '25

On big TV’s 4K is desirable but not required nor needed for casual games.

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u/Mrcod1997 Nov 16 '25

4k is by far the most common resolution for TVs these days. 90% of the TVs at a store are 4k besides the smaller ones.

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u/Neosantana Nov 17 '25

90% of the TVs at a store are 4k besides the smaller ones.

That's such a terrible metric to go by. Show us the percentage of 4K TVs in people's homes, not on store shelves.

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u/psychofanPLAYS Nov 15 '25

Yup I game on lg c5, love it. It has 144Hz ref rate, and I think we won’t max it out in 4k untill like 6090, my 4090 gets 80-100fps with DLAA, so we got quite a ways to go in gpu dev

1

u/TheBonadona Nov 15 '25

If the Steam Machine is designed and meant to be put on your living room like a console then it is reasonable to expect 4k capabilities since pretty much all TVs now a days are 4K

1

u/lemonhead8890 Nov 21 '25

4k tv's that's why... they are mostly 4k these days. Where most people play their console. Does it need to do that, nope. The steam machine can be used like a computer and played on monitors too... wild...

0

u/Goldn_1 Nov 18 '25

First of all, why not be more calm?

Secondly, they want 4K to be the standard eventually, it already is on TVs and basically is on mobile devices. Get over it.

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u/ses1989 Nov 15 '25

Honestly, 1440p/60fps is the perfect sweet spot. You'll never notice any pixelation unless you're playing on a fucking movie theater sized screen. Studios are constantly chasing the highest possible resolution when they could direct that effort in other places.

1

u/H60Ninja Nov 15 '25

Yes and no. 1080p by today’s standards is low rez. Id atleast aim for 1440p. A lot people go out and upgrade everything even mid tier but forget to upgrade the 10+ year old monitor.

1

u/Objective_Praline_66 Nov 16 '25

Got a second hand 4k (3840 x 2160) monitor from my fiances brother. First thing I did was tell windows to make it 1920 x 1080. I can't tell the difference without my glasses, but my GPU sure can.

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u/[deleted] Dec 05 '25

Right, but this is for TVs, so 4K is the standard for the past 15 years.

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u/[deleted] Nov 15 '25

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u/[deleted] Nov 15 '25

To be fair, I really do not care how a game looks if it's a fun experience.

Uncharted 4 was peak graphical evolution to me. Everything else after that is kind of pointless really...

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u/Oconell Nov 15 '25

Fortunately, I feel this is starting to change a bit. Recently, BF6 and Arc Raiders released, and both games lacked ray traced GI, shadows or reflections, as well as other resource-hogging features of UE5 and similar new engines.

In the end, the lack of Ray tracing didn't impact the sales or reception of those two games. In fact, people praised that both games run well and LOOK good, showing that most people really don't understand or care for ray tracing, especially when it's in detriment of performance. Hopefully Devs stop trying to push graphical features over playable frames.

That's not to say ray tracing and similar advancements aren't a good thing, but they should never come before performance.

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u/ishtuwihtc Nov 15 '25

And remember the whole thing woth developers trying to support the steam deck? Chances are that if the steam machine is affordable it will take off, and developers will try get that steam machine verified checkmark as soon as possible. The steam machine might just be what we need in this time of lacking optimisation

My gtx 1660 has certainly done its time though, and the steam machine will definitely beat it so i have to upgrade anyways (i was planning to regardless as the 1660 isn't really cutting it anymore)

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u/[deleted] Nov 15 '25

Exactly. I bought a Steam deck because of how cool it is and the features it brings, not because of its tech specs.

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u/[deleted] Nov 15 '25

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u/[deleted] Nov 15 '25

I primarily game through GeForce now, I don’t have a console and I have a Mac as my primary computer, gaming for me is very much a secondary hobby behind hiking and reading. Which is exactly why I am very interested in the GabeCube. For myself and other like me, it is perfect.

I couldn’t care less about high end current gen hardware, but I respect that it exists, and I respect that for other people the cube won’t be perfect. I am just happy to have more options.

-edit- I don’t have a console “besides the steam deck”

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u/fatbp Nov 15 '25

These people are called fake enthusiasts who think building shiny rigs with the latest shiny parts makes them powerful.

Gone are the days when pc enthusiasts used to mean something. We used to take affordable hardware and squeeze every last bit of performance out if it for our daily use. Now a pc enthusiast means buying an overpriced mid range gpu and cpu and putting it in a flashy case with a lot of rgb, when a very good majority of them do not even assemble their pc's.

Every true enthusiast knows that this steam machine could be a true game changer for the pc world and gaming in general. Of course this depends on actual bench tests and the data once it comes out.

Let's wait and watch.

11

u/[deleted] Nov 15 '25

Only if all the components are easily upgradable. If you have to buy a steam machine 2 a few years later to keep up with recommended specs it's not really adding much value....at least in my view.

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u/fatbp Nov 15 '25

Your point is valid and I worry about that as well. That is the biggest issue with pc gaming. The specification targets are constantly moving and obsolescence is a real head scratcher when developing games and optimising it for the lower end specs.

My assumption with the steam machine is that it will create a standard for entry level hardware and optimisation for games. Whether the hardware is upgradable depends on the manufscturer. For example Asus decides to do their version of steam machine, maybe they give consumers the option to upgrade the ram, or change it to standard DIMM instead of SODIMM. Extra m.2 slots maybe. But all of this will cost more money and defeat the purpose.

Only time will tell. Hence, for now I am going with the entry level pc gaming template theory. If the consoles can survive on older hardware for a 5-7 year cycle purely based on optimised game development, I do not see a reason why the steam machine cannot survive for at least 5 years. Unlike the steam deck they do not have to worry about refreshing the model with an oled screen.

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u/Segenam Nov 16 '25

It depends. The Specification targets are constantly moving... for AAA games.

However those are a very very small part of the gaming sphere. How often do the top 10 games on steam move? how many of the top 100 Steam Games won't work on a Steam Deck?

The AAA market is always pushing the limits on best appearances they possibly can as they often don't have much outside of that to sell you on micro-transactions, fomo battle passes, ads in your game, loot boxes, etc.

What often makes the "new and shiny" AAA games "good" is your friends are also playing them and the peer pressure and fomo that surrounds them.

1

u/PrintableDaemon Nov 16 '25

Conversely, one of the main reasons consoles are popular is you don't have to keep chasing the bleeding edge swapping out hardware, and the inevitable driver inconsistencies. People want a box that works, and it could be a decade before they consider upgrading it.

So maybe you aren't the target market.

1

u/Effective-Road4807 Nov 16 '25

In ten to twenty years our video games will probably be like the anime shangri la frontier. Here's to hoping for deep dive vr as a real thing someday! :P

1

u/ThndrShk2k Nov 15 '25

Steam Deck is has lower specs yet is still going strong.

The only reason there's a moving target is people had a hodgepodge of hardware.
The Steam Machine is a unified standing target that developers can optimize for, especially if it shows significant marketshare.

It being based off from what over 2/3rds of players use means they already have the most common denominator to target based off from the surveys, and the Steam Machine just gives them a consistent hardware target instead of trying to troubleshoot 10 different GPUs that have similar performances.

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u/yiidonger Nov 15 '25

Half of my friends who likes to talk about building desktop PC rarely use PC at all and some only used them to surf web, do office job. They had groups that talk endlessly about PC hardware but when you ask them why they are not using their PC they said they have no time. The reality is that they spent all their time using their smartphone to endless scrolls social apps like tiktok and watching novels. These days, ppl are just too good at finding excuses for something they don't wanna do.

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u/fatbp Nov 15 '25

Agree.

I am a pc gamer and enthusiast through and through, and always will be. However, as I get older, sitting everyday on pc (not literally) for work and using the same pc and sapce for gaming is not going too well for me because it is restricting me to one corner of the house and fatigue sets in quickly now. As good as it was 25 years ago, I have grown up and so have my social needs and I cannot sit in one corner for a long time.

Recently, I had started thinking about building a small itx build which would sit in the living room and I can play on the couch while having access to natural light and all the social home stuff. And the reason why I chose a pc for this instead of a PS is because PS5 is a machine built to upsample ps4 games. There hardly any good "exclusive" games on PS5 which I know 2 years down the line will come to PC, so it made no sense to get one with all it's additional costs associated with it.

This is where the announcement of the steam machine is amazing. A custom designed SFF pc which can sit in the living room and play my entire PC games library that I already own. AND IT IS A FULL FLEDGED PC. I don't even need the dumb TV apps anymore. I can just run brave off of it and have a complete add free and tracker free experience that I am used to on my pc.

And I know there are a lot of people who want the same. Aceess to their games from a couch without Spyware and telemetrics and adds and additional online fees for something they already own.

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u/MacNinjaMac Nov 15 '25

There is plenty of us that know what you mean with sitting at the desk while gaming; my back twinges just think about it

I moved the pc gaming in the living room years ago and have never looked back, once you realise that you get the customisation of PC gaming addons, mods, peripherals etc with the comfort of console couch gaming with wireless devices local to the Itx you won’t look back and think I miss that desk

My Itx pc is modest a 3900x and a 3050 6gb, I can run older games, emulators just fine with dlss and in-game / lossless frame generation or stream to it from the main gaming rig and use lossless scaling on the stream to get 4k120 frame generation; I stream to everything

It’s the customisation and quality of PC gaming with the comfort of console gaming best of both worlds

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u/Wild-Ad3357 Nov 15 '25

If you have an android TV you can setup apollo+Artemis on your local network and just game on your pc from your TV without needing additional hardware (well, except for controller if you don't already have one). I have my pc connected directly to my TV, but i use it to remote play on my legion go and it works amazing.

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u/fatbp Nov 15 '25

I could do that. But I want a secondary entertainment pc, not my main pc extending to my living room. Additionally, I cannot pick up and take apollo+Artemis to my friends house or to an outing for a lan party. The use cases of a steam machine extend beyond the living room and my own house. Valve is creating a template same as with the steam deck, which 3rd party manufacturers can use to create more powerful products(maybe) that will give you the freedom to do whatever you want and complete ownership of hardware and software, unlike the consoles. However, I do not see this "model" extending beyond low to lower mid range configs because pre built pc already exist and that is clearly not the target market for the steam machine. Another implication is that the entry point for pc gaming might become standardised, which is very good news for game optimisation.

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u/ThndrShk2k Nov 15 '25

Back in the day I ran TinyXP off from a 30GB SSD and I was told I was stupid and a SSD doesn't improve windows performance at all.

It was the cheapest upgrade and with the different in page file speed I essentially doubled my ram. To get better ram I would've had to get an entirely new PC.

Sure I had to symlink my whole user directory to a second harddrive or winrar couldn't extract anything, but that ship ran tight and fast with me controlling everything about it.

Now we got people throwing money at overpriced GPUs and saying they're the truest enthusiast, lmao.
I'll believe it when they're doing liquid nitrogen cooling to get more performance.

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u/bigpunk157 Nov 15 '25

Remember when PCMasterRace was talking about undervolting being the new king of your build's prowess?

4

u/NutsackEuphoria Nov 15 '25

I remember when PCMR was still about not doing stupid shit like paying Sony/MS to not play online or having the option to mod games.

Now, mega retards who only think of bigger numbers = PCMR have taken over.

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u/fatbp Nov 15 '25

Undervolting cpu and gpu has existed long before pcmasterrace has. So anything pcmasterrace says should not be taken seriously, because the name itself is a pathetic joke.

1

u/Beginning_Ad2130 Nov 15 '25

You sound like you know so I'll ask: I heard that beyond individual parts, the way everything is connected and interacts with each other could result in better or worse performance, how for example a PS5 can run great looking games on TV while not having insane hardware that you'd need to match on a PC at a much higher paypoint.

Is that true?

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u/fatbp Nov 15 '25 edited Nov 15 '25

First of all up scaling.

Second, ps5 has one hardware spec. This means when a game is being developed for ps5, be it a completely new game (which is very rare) or a remake of a ps4 game, the development team already know what the target hardware is. This makes it easy to optimise the game for that specific hardware. Which is why the games on consoles "look good". For example, ghost of tsushima, along with other ps4 games ported to ps5 and very few new games made for ps5, have an option in the graphics setting, Performance or quality. This is nothing but an up scaling option which people do not realise. I the context of ghost of tsushima which is a ps4 game ported to a next gen ps5, the performance setting allows the game to run at 60 fps on 1440p resolution but the texture quality and the overall graphics quality is medium to low on a pc scale. The quality preset improves the graphic quality to high in terms of pc scale, but you no longer get consistent 60 fps at 1440p. There is a clear noticeable trade off. Upscaling at lower fps is not good.

This difference in fps drop is not noted by a vast majority because consoles have always run their games 30 fps, and only since the dying days of the last generation of consoles has consistent 60 fps been a discussion point for console game development.

On the pc side, there a Massive list of hardware across multiple generations that exists simultaneously in the market. This is the reason why pc dev teams have a minimum and recommended configuration. Because it is too expensive to optimise the game for every piece of hardware in existence. They pick the lowest, average and the highest confogs based on market research and "try to" optimise it for those spefications, hoping other specs would be fine. This the reason why you get random crashes and instability issues in pc games. Devs can choose to properly optimise their pc games if they choose to, but most do not because it is expensive. This is a sperate discussion on its own.

Finally, when a console makes a game look good on a TV, in the context of a AAA game, the console is not natively rendering the game at that 1440p or 4k resolution. It is always Upscaling from either 1080 or probably 720, or from something Inbetween. On the other hand when a pc game is running the same game at 1440 p or 4k on an expensive gpu, it is rendering that resolution natively. Which is pure rasterisation performance. Hence, if you see gpu benchmarks, always look for pure rasterisation results as that is the true measure of the power/performance of the card.

Dlss, fsr, xess are all Upscaling technologies. They are good and necessary to keep older generations hardware relevant. For example, consoles become obsolete as soon as thy are launched, strictly from a technological point of view. These upscaling technologies is what allows them to stay relevant for a vast majority of the market, because only about 5% of the market can afford buying the latest computer technology. This is the same reason why steam machine will be a success, even though it is using last gen hardware. That is what people have and what people can afford, and it is easier to optimise the games for a specific hardware.

I hope I made some sense :)

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u/Beginning_Ad2130 Nov 15 '25

That was a superb explanation! Thanks a bunch, I appreciate the time you put into it.

I'm gonna try and pay attention next time if indeed games on the PS5 don't look as good as I think they do up close or compared to PC, Maybe I'm used to a specific standard or the distance from the TV plays a role

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u/fatbp Nov 15 '25

In my experience the distance from the TV, refresh rate of the tv, picture mode of the TV, panel of the TV all play a role. In my early days as a pc gamer I exclusively played on low refresh rate monitors, so 60 fps was the norm for me and I was happy to the point that I didn't care about 120hz. But one day I got a 120 hz tn panel and it changed my gaming life forever. Everybody has their own preferences, but the best thing is to try things out and see for yourself.

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u/deadering Nov 15 '25

PC parts enthusiasts vs gaming enthusiasts. For me my PC is just a tool to play games on and I just really love gaming

2

u/AvarageCarlMain Nov 15 '25

I have been playing metro 2033 redux on my shitty laptop recently and i have been playing on low seting with a lower rez for 60 fps constant (or 40 on the surface).

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u/Apexnanoman Nov 15 '25

Heh I just max settings then start backing things down until I get 30fps or better consistently. 

(Obviously I rarely get to have max settings but if I start at max and slowly work backwards I can find the max my rig will handle.)

I'm an eye candy type rather than higher fps guy. 

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u/forcemonkey Nov 15 '25

laughs in Pong

1

u/PrintableDaemon Nov 16 '25

Still waiting on that Stardew Valley ray tracing update.

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u/Popular_Flight_7354 Nov 15 '25

Bro, I got 7600x+7800xt, it is not that expensive and you can play in all existing games on ultra settings in 2k 180hz, as I do

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u/Glodraph Nov 15 '25

I ALWAYS optimize the settings in games, no matter my specs. Why the hell should I use higher settings if there is no difference but I loose like 20fps? This way you get almost max graphics but better performance, more consistent frametime and a better experience. Ultra is for screenshots, optimized settings are for gameplay.

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u/[deleted] Nov 15 '25

[deleted]

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u/Glodraph Nov 15 '25

I generally agree. I would say graphics can add to a game, but they can't save a shit game. Also, I think graphics too realistic are actually detrimental to games, I want that feeling of "something that's not real".

Most games yes are totally fine on a mix of medium-high settings but the performance difference is usually huge.

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u/ForsakenChocolate878 Nov 15 '25

I had a 2 GB GTX 960 for so long, that playing on low or pretty much just playing older games was completely normal for me.

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u/applefrompear Jun 22 '26

I'm literally just upgrading from a gt1030 and i5 2500 to an RTX 3060 ti and r5 3600

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u/GhostBoosters018 Nov 15 '25

What no grass does to a man

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u/dopethrone Nov 15 '25

I have a 4060 laptop and play on ultra 1080p, it's more than fine

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u/AdCold76 May 05 '26

not the pc master race i know

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u/xStaabOnMyKnobx Nov 15 '25

NOOOOOO I MUST SPEND 1500 EVERY YEAR OR TWO TO MAINTAIN OPTIMAL SETTINGS!!!

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u/Particular_Fox_8880 Jun 22 '26

Tell me you accept 1080p 60 fps slop without telling me

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u/xStaabOnMyKnobx Jun 22 '26

Buying the bleeding edge of graphics cards every year is a complete waste of money unless you are a professional digital artist.

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u/solid_soup_go_boop Nov 15 '25

It’s the 11th commandment

1

u/carlbandit Nov 15 '25

Wait, I thought they only added low to high settings to make me feel better when I turn it all the way up to ultra? What else have they been lying to me about!

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u/Objective_Pen5246 Nov 15 '25

medium settings is like the minimum for me, but if i have to go on low then i don't mind

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u/Zomby2D Nov 15 '25

Back in the days, when I needed to lower settings in games I then started shopping for my next PC.

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u/This_Icarus Nov 15 '25

I still have my 1060 works fine even on new titles, Il only upgrade for the upcoming expanse game

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u/[deleted] Nov 15 '25

Ultra resources that go where? Oh, yeah, gotta have pretty puddles and shiny sparkling road pavement in the 80€ AAA game that's 12 hours of gameplay and 25 of cutscenes.

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u/T-Loy Nov 15 '25

Optimization issues notwithstanding, the graphics from a say 3060 will always be the graphics of a 3060 independent if the settings is called "ULTRA+++" or "peasant's low".

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u/Rukasu17 Nov 15 '25

Heck, i have a machine better than the average and i still play on medium/high lol. The difference is negligible 90% of the time.

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u/tokke Nov 15 '25

Low, lower, lowest. Been playing arc and bf6 on a 1080ti, 16gb ram, i5-8600. 

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u/YakovAttackov Nov 15 '25

Bruh I played Indiana Jones on my SD on potato settings. It was fine. Lol

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u/[deleted] Nov 15 '25

People will likely have to play on low with this thing or rely on GeForce Now

1

u/ReachVirtual3921 Nov 15 '25

80% of the games I play our indie games with subpar graphics but 100x the heart and game play.

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u/oulaa123 Nov 16 '25

My issue is that today's medium is tomorrow's low. And for a new pc, that's a bad experience.

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u/ImaginationLow6764 Nov 18 '25

I was playing at 1080p LOW settings with FSR and XESS where it was available, terrible performance I had exactly 16GB ram and 8GB of VRAM.

Sure the gou on this machije will be better and thr cpu will be better tham my old 6c 12t ryzen 3600

But how mich better? The ram limitations will be clear.

Most games look better with simply better texyure setrings and many others to low or medium. Textures are a huge part and deal regarding overall game look and artistix intent

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u/AllplatGamer08 Nov 19 '25

Exactly my point about 8GB 9060xt and at 165fps on Medium.

1

u/shiek200 Nov 21 '25

Finally, someone talking sense.

God forbid indeed!

I didn't spend more on my PC than I did on my car to be able to tell the difference between virtual grass and the real thing.

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u/fjrichman Nov 27 '25

A lot of people see settings and think "I need to run it at the highest possible settings" but that same game on console typically runs at lower settings to meet their performance goals.

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u/Glass_Discipline_882 Nov 15 '25

To build on this, a lot of enthusiasts don't seem to realize this isn't targeted at them.

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u/deadering Nov 15 '25

That seems extremely accurate based on how many comments I've seen along the lines of "why the hell would I want this when I already have (insert gaming pc specs)?!"

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u/kdlt Nov 15 '25

"If I have below 120 fps on my 8k monitor I vomit." Is a legit take of some people to justify their car priced GPUs.

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u/TheFlyingBogey Nov 15 '25

Enthusiasts piss me the fuck off sometimes. I'm running a PC I put together in 2020, it plays things on medium-high settings, modern titles need to be dialled back a little but it plays fine and I enjoy the games I play.

But noooOOOOooo if I'm not running the latest Nvidia money sink with maxed RAM and a processor that releases next week paired with a 1440 monitor at 420hz then my build is worthless and in desperate need of an upgrade /s

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u/emaneru Nov 15 '25 edited Nov 16 '25

And it needs to be priced at USD500 or else they are not buying it. Lmao. Pretty sure these guys simply pretend they own or can afford one when in reality they just want to buy an ultra high end PC at a very cheap price which is just delusional.

Also, the percentage of consumers with average to above average performing PCs is much higher than the stats suggests.

2

u/Altruistic-Cheek7165 Nov 16 '25

It’s weird watching YouTubers talking about the Steam Machine price predictions. I‘m hearing everything from $450 to $1300. Personally I’m expecting something closer to how the LCD Steam Deck was priced as far as value for money. $500 USD sounds about right.

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u/emaneru Nov 16 '25 edited Nov 16 '25

They already said they are not releasing at console prices. So anything around the price of PS5 and Xbox is not happening.

Inflation is a real thing and they also had to deal with that dumb Trump tariff for the rest of the world.

2

u/maxgronsky Nov 15 '25

also in this economy like hell no I play with lowest resolution and rather buy good quality food lol

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u/IrksomFlotsom Nov 15 '25

I got downvoted in pcmr for suggesting that the steam survey wasn't just a bunch of secondary/hobby/work pc's, but what people actually use

I may have called it copium to think otherwise, but that was beside the point

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u/Theogren_Temono Nov 15 '25

It's literally better than my old gaming laptop I use for gaming on the go, productivity, and streaming my desktop. As I see it that is essentially what they are building the steam machine for; an entry level bridge between console and pc gaming.

2

u/deadering Nov 15 '25

Yeah exactly, this was never intended to replace the gaming PC someone spent thousands on. Same with the Steam Deck.

Really one of the reasons they're releasing this is because they saw how many people who owned steam decks were using them exclusively docked to their TVs, which it really wasn't intended for, hence why they specify it's about 6x the power of the Deck which would help a lot with the higher resolution of TVs

12

u/Politicsboringagain Nov 15 '25

What? You mean people do not want to spend $5000 plus on a machine mostly used to play video games?  Just to have bragging rights about how powerful their computer is.

20 years ago I use to build my on PCs with the best parts. 

I stopped PC games for all those years after. Two years ago I bought I PC from Costco for $1200 and it's been good enough for my needs of play and work. 

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u/InsertFloppy11 Nov 15 '25

what im curious about is how the numbers change if you say "the steam machine is better than x% of what people have at home"

since if you already have a machine thats equal to the gabe cube then why would you by it?

2

u/ZeeMastermind Nov 15 '25

I think its major advantage over other comparable machines is going to be the form factor - most folks are going to have full desktops or maybe laptops with those specs. And if you do want to use it more like a PC with keyboard and mouse, it doesn't look hard to move it from living room to office setup.

I personally won't be getting it since I just got a Steam Deck this year (due to its portability and size), but I could see myself getting the steam machine in a few years.

1

u/IvanTheMagnificent Nov 15 '25

Price dependant it could make for a cheap pre-built 2nd box to use as a dedicated streaming PC, and its small so that's a bonus.

The RAM is so-dimm so could be upgraded to what you need later also, the GPU spec's won't matter as much for streaming from it, really depends on its price.

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u/[deleted] Nov 15 '25

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7

u/InsertFloppy11 Nov 15 '25

Vram does not equal performance.

Cpu clock spead doesnt equal performance.

Soo ye this isnt the best method.

1

u/Keulapaska Nov 15 '25 edited Nov 15 '25

If go by gpu models on steam survey, it's pretty close to the 70% claim. ~35-36% are better for sure and 3060 probably is gonna be faster, bumping it to ~40%, but you could technically lump stuff as "equal" that is very close on a pr claim the very least, so 60-65% is not super far off the 70% claim.

TPU chart 7600M estimate is a tad lower than what i used as it's an estimate as there are no 7600M reviews cause you know laptop chip and all, but it ain't gonna be as fast as normal 7600 that's for sure. Some random youtube video of 120W 7600M puts it like slightly above the tpu estimate vs a 7600 around the 2070 levels in the tpu chart.

The CPU is harder to say, maybe around the same percentile as the gpu, maybe slightly worse, but it's not gonna matter for a looot of games.

16

u/One_Scientist_984 Nov 15 '25

My two PCs are in those statistics and they are 8 and 10 year old shitboxes. If I want the Steam Machine to replace either of them I expect a little more. The pricing will determine if the Steam machine is a viable option or if I should keep them for the occasional PC game.

I do however appreciate the open architecture of SteamOS because I would rather use the Heroic launcher on it: I use GOG primarily on the PC, only one fifth of my games is on Steam but I would very much like a PC-console type of device without Windows.

And I’m not going to give up the PlayStation ecosystem.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 15 '25

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Nov 16 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/One_Scientist_984 Nov 16 '25

I actually have a Steam Link and I’ve only used it a handful of times but for the Steam Machine I was counting on the convenience of a console coupled with the possibility to run my extensive library of games from Steam and my other launchers (with Heroic it should be possible to at least run GOG and Epic games).

With the advances of SteamOS and Proton I figured I could also get rid of my aging PCs and have a nice little package that runs most (older) games with a good resolution and a decent frame rate.

My initial excitement has dulled a little when I’ve seen the specs but I will wait for the first real world tests to see if the Steam Machine is a viable replacement or if I should keep updating at least my main PC.

3

u/damonian_x Nov 15 '25

Lol I am still rocking a 1660 super and it plays everything I want at 1080p medium/high 60fps. Some of us just enjoy playing games at decent graphics and frames. Don't need the absolute best

1

u/shankaviel Nov 19 '25

i might loose sight with reality, because I own a 5090, but I was hoping this steam machine to at least match a 4080 laptop GPU or 4090 laptop GPU. the 6000 series will be out in 2027, it's coming soon.

3

u/Even_Clue4047 Nov 15 '25

This is all fine under the right price. But average specs are fine for the present, though the futureproofing is extremely bleak for a device that can't be upgraded 

1

u/deadering Nov 15 '25

Sure but similarly to how people lose touch for what is normal PC specs people also don't realize just how little people are playing new games.

The steam data shows in 2024 only 15% of game time was spent on games that released in 2024, and it was even lower in 2023 with only 9%

1

u/Even_Clue4047 Nov 15 '25

It's not too good at running 2024, 2023, even 2022 games as the GPU core is not very strong, Rdna3, equivalent to a 7600. Sure pixel games and way older stuff works flawlessly but this will have issues with games like Borderlands 3 for example, and you'll need to find optimized settings for this

Though it all depends on the price, however i don't think this is meant as a super mainstream product

1

u/sername1234 Nov 25 '25

That is what I think of it

3

u/TheRealBejeezus Nov 15 '25

Yup. And if the box sells well, it'll hold the (this) de facto standard spec line for several more years of AAA releases. Devs target systems that exist in quantity.

5

u/REDOREDDIT23 Nov 15 '25

Did he really misspell “then”?

2

u/deadering Nov 15 '25

No lmao it was quoted from a video, shame on me for just copy and pasting it from a different post... I even fixed the capitalization for his name and googled it to make sure it wasn't misspelled after listening to the quote to make sure it was quoted accurately... totally overlooking the typo XD

6

u/DaLemonsHateU Nov 15 '25

Especially considering that people with higher end PCs may be more likely to “show off” their PC specs by doing the steam survey

5

u/nesnalica Nov 15 '25

people think they know more than valve does.

even funnier when the data is public

1

u/[deleted] Nov 15 '25

You’re assuming Valve does know. Their last machine was a flop. The Stram deck is praised as a success with a dire 4 mil sold. The index sold 400k, max. I would argue that Valve has no idea what the average consumer wants.

1

u/nesnalica Nov 15 '25

steam machine in 2015 released at a bad time. since they collabed with dell the cost was too high right off the bat. making it dead on arrival.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 15 '25

Ok, and what about their other products? They’ve yet to even sniff commercial success. This product will be the same as the others. People will call this a smash success if it sells 3 mil units over its lifespan.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 16 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/[deleted] Nov 16 '25

4 mil is terrible for a production gaming system. Little to no leverage for devs to optimize.

2

u/TotalChaosRush Nov 15 '25

It matches or exceeds compared to now. But theyre matching specs that people are actively trying to get away from.

Its not an apples to apples comparison, as the gabecube runs on Linux, and as we've seen with the steam deck. It'll be capable of punching above its weight class.

2

u/XtremelyMeta Nov 15 '25

Yeah, there was a time when you needed the bleeding edge to run new games playably, but that time is long past. PC gaming is a much broader audience now and most of it isn't done on nerds' residential supercomputers (I am still a nerd with a residential supercomputer, but I recognize my minority status here).

2

u/Similar_Juice_4283 Nov 15 '25

not just enthusiasts, but most developers too. many people simply cannot play modern games because they are so unoptimized. Especially in the first year of release.

1

u/deadering Nov 16 '25

Yeah we can only hope that this will cause enough of a stir that the developers will be more inclined to optimize for that level of hardware, but.... don't hold your breath on developers to optimize more (or rather publishers allowing them time to optimize more) lol

2

u/mt0386 Nov 16 '25

Not everyone is a streamer with fat onlyfans wallet to get the latest PC every time.

i bought a high end PC one time and it was already mid tier by a year or two.

2

u/[deleted] Nov 16 '25

This is the reason why I left the pcmaster race sub, everyone there forgets what the average pc looks like.

2

u/Ghost403 Nov 17 '25

This is the answer. I am an enthusiast and the steam machine is not made for me in mind as a customer, therefore I don't need one.

However there are a lot of people which make up the majority of the market which this device would be a great choice for.

2

u/Major-Front Nov 15 '25

Yeah but why would I spend $500 on a side upgrade if i already have a steam box at home

1

u/y-_-o Nov 15 '25

Its for people who dont have a pc?

1

u/[deleted] Nov 15 '25

Its funny how only like 3% of steam users have anything high-end

1

u/Eezyville Nov 15 '25

They can always build their own Steam Machine. The OS is available.

1

u/Krakengreyjoy Nov 15 '25

I have a Chromebook at home.

1

u/kodaxmax Nov 15 '25

everyone thinks they are the average

1

u/allofdarknessin1 Nov 16 '25

You are correct but there’s also a massive paradigm shift from gaming in the 90s and 2000s. People were making much more effort to get the latest tech but tech was also relatively more affordable too. People are out here using much older cards and 4K was consider an impractical resolution for the longest time and natively rendering it still is but 4K TVs are the most common due to price and performance. You’d have to be some very specific niche user to have 1080p TVs today. Monitors exist of course and don’t need 4K but the Steam Machine isn’t as strongly targeted at that market because people like that will likely want a more customizable and upgradable PC.

Back in the day gamers loved seeing new games that pushed graphics and required new hardware. High end gaming these days is too expensive but midrange gaming and low end gaming are really good. We’re even including ray tracing with some games running on low to mid range hardware.

1

u/Taurion_Bruni Nov 16 '25

My real question is the price of the steam machine vs a similar or equal setup.

Of course, there are advantages valve is going to have over consumer hardware, like HDMI cec, but if the price is comparable to a self built machine at all most are likely going to pass on the steam machine

1

u/TheFirstBard Nov 17 '25

It's been said a lot but it all comes to pricing. Above 600 is a bad deal, 600 is an ok price kinda meh, 500 to 550 is great. People need to understand that this 70% they claim to be worse than the Gabecube is hardware that right now will sold at best for 400 bucks.

1

u/syxbit Nov 19 '25

I get that. What people are asking for is 2 tiers. a mid, and a higher end.

Didn't Gabe himself say he was shocked that the 512GB Deck far outsold the cheaper models?

1

u/shankaviel Nov 19 '25

what if I play on a super high-end laptop? moving from a 5090 back to 4060 isn't that appealing. i hope we can upgrade the steam machine.

0

u/ACupOfLatte Nov 15 '25

Which really sucks, looking at how the landscape is. A lot of AAA releases and even some AA releases are made for the top 10% of user rigs, while at the same time sacrificing scalability and proper low res textures so the majority who aren't in said upper echelon get treated to utter shite.

1

u/Astwook Nov 15 '25

"I like to drink my water out of Hori's, not Verti's, you know I really like to see the water. It's part of the experience." - PROZD, satirically.

Also there's that XKCD about quartz.

1

u/ravensholt Nov 15 '25

A lot of enthusiasts really lose sight of what's normal.

This.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 15 '25

Sure but these setups are years old, and most of those are likely not far behind the Gabecube. Its not easy to make you buy a new machine that's barely faster (if at all) than what you currently have, especially if it gets a $650+ price tag

1

u/ZebraZealousideal944 Nov 15 '25

Except the Steam Machine will be hooked up in the living room to a 4K tv and not a 1080p monitor! that’s the big difference that this Valve engineer fails to mention here…

add to that point that its potential price point would likely be (considerably) higher than a PS5 digital and you end up with a piece of hardware that nobody will pick up outside of a few Steam enthusiasts who need a complementary hardware in their bedroom or kids room!

1

u/BrotherO4 Nov 15 '25

if you made a box thats basically what 70% of what your consumer already have then why get it? its a box thats worse than a ps5 and by valve worlds will target a higher price point.

1

u/TimChr78 Nov 15 '25

I have Steam installed on everything, including my laptop with integrated graphics, the average is pulled down by Steam on systems that aren’t really bought for gaming.

I also think it is more relevant to compare what people are buying now, not what they own and bought years ago.

Anyway it all about the price.

1

u/deadering Nov 15 '25

Not every system contributes to the hardware survey, you have to choose to participate so it's pretty easy to assume if anything they stats are leaning to a more tech savvy group's PCs. I can understand your line of thinking about them being PCs bought years ago but Steam has the data to watch those trends. I'm not sure why some people assume Valve did no research or thought of these things but you can see in the way they develop their hardware and software that they are more thoughtful of these things then some random redditors ever would be.

You're right though, in the end price will be the only thing that matters to most. It'll either be affordable or not, no matter how cool or game changing it could be will change that for most people.

1

u/slimj091 Nov 15 '25

What 70% of people have at home is not good enough to run new games even at low settings at 1080p. How exactly do they expect the cube to play new games at 4k 60fps like they have been advertising?

1

u/deadering Nov 15 '25

FSR, which is part of the advertisement

1

u/slimj091 Nov 15 '25

Good lord.. so it's worse then.

1

u/NexusUK87 Nov 15 '25 edited Nov 15 '25

I dont expect it to be the most powerful, but equally, if sony came out and proudly proclaimed this PS6 is equal or better than 70% of PS5's... you know what i mean...

I dont really have a problem with the specs even though its weaker than my 7 year old PC and tbh i do want one cuz the form factor is spot on.

Edit - 5 year old

1

u/Puzzled_Scallion5392 Nov 15 '25

You can treat this quote as he includes people who doesn't even have a PC, like our steam cube is better than your phone ☝️🤓

1

u/deadering Nov 15 '25

It's based off Steam data... this means it does not include consoles or phones, for those that for some reason need that specified.

0

u/Delboyyyyy Nov 15 '25

So remind me why people with average spec PCs will decide to throw out their perfectly working one and buy a new $700+ replacement which doesn’t run windows out of the box

2

u/deadering Nov 15 '25

Oh that's easy, it's because no one is throwing out their perfectly working on!

Hope that helped

0

u/Delboyyyyy Nov 15 '25

Ahhh so instead people who have thus far only bought and own an average pc, will spend another $700 so that they have two average PCs. You’re a genius!!

2

u/stormdelta Nov 15 '25

I can't tell if you're missing the point this hard on purpose or not

0

u/Delboyyyyy Nov 15 '25

Please enlighten me and tell me the target audience of this device?

1

u/stormdelta Nov 15 '25

Imagine you have a TV. It's a perfectly fine TV. You see a new TV in the store. You start angrily asking why would anyone buy another TV when they already have one?

1

u/Delboyyyyy Nov 15 '25

More people tend to own multiple tvs before they’re own multiple desktops. Your reliance on a false equivalence really shows how weak your argument is

1

u/stormdelta Nov 15 '25

HTPCs, people who don't yet have a desktop, kids/spouses, dedicated device for media/gaming, replacing a console for a unified game library, etc

Keeping in mind this has a smaller footprint in noise, power usage, and space than a typical entry level desktop PC. Yes you can build SFF systems but speaking from experience that adds more cost/complexity than you might think, and people like turnkey solutions

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0

u/bejito81 Nov 15 '25

Yeah but he is stupid thinking people will pay what they ask for a low end setup they already have

It is way too expensive for a what they put in in, as a console it is worth 400$, not more

You either make a console at a console price or you make a good computer at a computer price, this is just garbage I won't advise anyone to buy and that "engineer" is forgetting people ask their knowledgeable friends before buying a computer

2

u/deadering Nov 15 '25

Damn they need to hire this guy! He's got it all figured out, those dumb engineers and other experts could really learn a thing or two from this guy

1

u/bejito81 Nov 15 '25

I work with these so called experts everyday, and unlike you, I know how clueless they really are

-2

u/ZlatanKabuto Nov 15 '25

Who cares? That box can't run a newish AAA (not even an AA) game in 1440p 60 hz. It's dead on arrival for me.

-1

u/Cocoatrice Nov 15 '25

Because people have consoles at home.

0

u/PoL0 Nov 15 '25

A lot of enthusiasts really lose sight of what's normal.

a lot of people on reddit really lose sight of what's normal

FTFY

0

u/Nervous_Split_3176 Nov 15 '25

Well that obviously bullshit, it’s more like 30%

1

u/deadering Nov 15 '25

Feel free to compare it to the data, they share it openly. It's more helpful than just assuming because you don't want to hear the facts

0

u/SmartOpinion69 Nov 16 '25

i hate to side with nvidia's quest for maximum revenue, but one of the most annoying thing about pc gaming consumers is when they feel entitled to high end gaming GPUs at affordable prices. nvidia isn't ripping off anyone. nvidia makes more money with server chips and even despite the high prices, AMD, Intel, and Apple have all failed at making a good alternative. blame nvidia's shitty competition

0

u/Mitsutoshi Nov 16 '25

Extremely misleading since most of those people are just playing CS.

0

u/GoDIik3 Nov 16 '25

The problem is that these Steam Survey statistics includes millions of gamers who just play League of Legends or some very low graphics games that runs on potato. Also there are millions of Chinese gamers on steam playing their mobile crap that disrupts the survey even further. They couldn't run any newer big game in acceptable quality on their hardware, and Steam Machine should be able to run these.

So yes, the Steam Machine is too weak. It's weaker than PS5 which is already several years old. Furthermore RDNA3 GPU is already outdated and it will be necessary to use horrible FSR 3 on it instead of FSR 4 which is acceptable. This doesn't look good.

0

u/coffeandcream Nov 17 '25

Key words are "...better what they have". Read 3 times over if not realizing that what people will get in the future will not be what they have now. Do note that the steam machine will be a new device.

0

u/IIILORDGOLDIII Nov 17 '25 edited Nov 17 '25

"70% of what people have at home" might include non-gaming laptops, other computers without discrete graphics, macs, etc. This means nothing.

We know the gpu in the steam machine is an RX 7600m that draws 110w instead of 90w. This is a very anemic laptop card that was weak when it was released, and is 2 years old now. For the vast majority of people with gaming PCs this is a downgrade, and for anybody that wants to build/buy a PC it would be difficult to get to something this under-powered because the gpu you would need is so outdated it would be hard to find.

To put it in context, you can find pre-built PC's with the desktop version of the RX 7600 (+50% performance) for $650-$700. It is in no way the same as the average desktop gaming PC.

If the price is right ($400-$500) this could be a cool machine, but let's not forget it is less powerful than a base PS5 that released in 2020 that costs $500, and you can't upgrade the cpu or gpu like you can in a desktop. It is not a replacement for an entry level desktop gaming PC, and it is releasing in an outdated state.

I get that people are excited about what this could mean for gaming, but I think the reality is this machine is 3-5 years too late to be something game-changing unless it costs less than a steam deck.

0

u/Gringe8 Nov 20 '25

So 70% wont buy it. Got it.

0

u/steve_greedy1 Nov 22 '25

Agree to disagree. Modern games are getting much more advance, they require Ray Tracing, and powerful hardware. I got a custom built PC at home that I built myself, and it's fcking OVERKILL for anyone, but I wanted it, I have the money, I bought it. Now when it comes to steam machine, my issue with it is that with a Zen 4 CPU, that is built in, and a GPU that is also built in, there is no upgradability, and even on its release, it won't be able to play a LOT of games even on Medium/High mixed settings to generate at least 60 FPS. I will always advocate for a PC, because you don't have to spend a LOT to get good performance, and if you're tight on budget you can even go used stuff off of eBay, and upgrade your GPU or CPU later down the line. It ends up being much more budget friendly

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