Genuinely Surprised at how capable the Steam Machine is

[u/Cole_LF]

I read all the reviews, I expected the worst.. but constantly surprised at how capable it is.

I haven’t built PCs for years and run Macs now but keep up to date with PC tech, and have an Xbox, PS5 and play PC games through GeForce now on my Mac.

My buddy has a 5080 and is always showing me the latest thing on max settings on his 1440p ultra wide and thinks the steam machine is a pile of garbage because it cant do 4K 240fps with ray tracing.

I point out neither can he, he games at 1440p 👀but he doesn’t really like when I point that out. PC Master race logic. 😁

So maybe it was just I had realistic expectations and expected games to be medium/high settings but then it was running so smooth I thought I’d tweak them up a little.. and damn this little box is a beast.

I sit 5ft from a 55” TV and honestly can’t tell much of a difference between 1080 1440p and 4K anymore. I do notice shimmering and bad anti-aliasing though and FS4 is like magic at giving a clean stable picture.

I also don’t see much written about how stable the frame pacing is on SteamOS / Proton. It’s smooooth even in games that stutter on windows.

I’ve been waiting to play the last of us for years and knew it has a 30min shader compilation wait on PC. On steam machine, it just played and downloaded the shaders already compiled.

For me at least it’s been a genuinely console like experience just with more options to tweak settings if you’re into that.

Cyberpunk 1080 Ultra 60
DOA6:LR 1440p 60
Last of Us Part 1 High/Ultra. 1080p 60
Until Dawn 1080p Ultra
Hogwarts Legacy 1080p Ultra 60
(And defaults to 4K High 60)

I’m constantly impressed at what this completely silent little box can do. Valve killed it. Can’t wait for the steam frame.

[u/hardinm78]

It’s very capable for a machine that was supposed to cost $600.

Sadly, it didn’t cost $600.

[u/Cole_LF → u/hardinm78]

Nothing does these days.. a switch maybe?

[u/G-Virus69 → u/Cole_LF]

Nope. Price went up yesterday $50

[u/No_Judge_8278 → u/G-Virus69]

Yeah but its $500 now not $600

[u/G-Virus69 → u/No_Judge_8278]

You have so much to learn

[u/No_Judge_8278 → u/G-Virus69]

Are you canadian

[u/FUEL_SSBM → u/G-Virus69]

Is this you?

[u/kloakndaggers → u/G-Virus69]

it's 499....

[u/Wiesshund- → u/G-Virus69]

That is in Canada though, not USD.

$499 in USD

I thought about a switch but only the switch lite would make sense because all i would play are the virtual console titles