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I’m a bit concerned about the vram situation. 8Gb is not a lot nowadays, particularly if you start adding stuff like ai framegen and stuff which these types of machines tend to need further down the line.
An extra 8gb wouldn’t have killed the profit margins.
I still don’t get why didn’t they just use an ITX motherboard with a Ryzen 7600 and a Rx 7600 in an ITX case and called it steam machine instead.
Less resources for engineering the thing that could’ve been sued for software development.
🎶 They’re here! They’re here! They’re fina-lully here! There’s no more time for expectat–
Companion Cube 😍
The only thing the old Steam Machines were missing a decade ago was good Linux compatibility via Proton, but now we’ve got that! I have literally never been more excited for a new “console.” Goodbye, Steam Deck.
Goodbye to Steam Deck for this? Both, both is good.
I’m buying this not just for TV play, but hopefully also streaming to SD as a performance upgrade (without handing a ton of money annually to GeForce for laggy inputs), as someone who hasn’t had a desktop to do that in a long while. At that point, Steam Deck is a GabeCube accessory turning it into a Switch.
That sounds like the perfect setup! If the Steam Deck were smaller, that’s exactly what I’d do too.
After finally getting a pay raise and trying Switch 2, the size is pretty subjective. I appreciate SD’s bigger size giving not only a better controller grip, but also actually good speakers.
It’s totally a personal preference thing, but the Deck really deserves the love it’s gotten. The screen and speakers are amazing, which is rare for handhelds. I have high hopes for the AYN Thor as an eventual successor to my 3DS.
I sort of gave up on upgrading my under TV Steam machine so this actually looks like a nice way back in.
Is Steam OS available for public use, or only Steam devices?
How much jank are you willing to deal with?
It is available for public use. https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steamoslandingpage?l=english
It is also arch linux based
based af
They do not list support for desktops, only Steam Deck and some other handheld devices.
Those are the only officially supported devices. They do also provide instructions on how to install SteamOS on other devices, and even encourage feedback on the experience.
Pretty exciting announcement! I was thinking about building a new rig and retiring my current machine with a 3080 to the TV. This might change that.
What I’m more curious about is how are the folks at Microsoft reacting to this news, since it sounds like the next Xbox was essentially going to be a PC. With Valve doing it first and the fact that the Steam store is so huge, I’m imagining this makes them a bit nervous.
Never buying Microsoft after the recall bullshit. Also not paying monthly subscription to enable Internet on my device
don’t wait for this, get or build a normal pc that you can change parts anytime you want, you will not regret it.
If I were 20 years older, I’d be happy to spec out a mini-ITX build. But with a 3 year old running my life, my time is limited and if the price of this is right, it might make more sense for where my current life is at.
This will no doubt be good for linux pc gaming. On the steamdeck Valve contributed greatly to the opensource proton project.
Linux PC gaming is already here. The only games that don’t work with Proton are if the developers specifically disable support for Linux (via intrusive anti cheat).
Why are people so excited about what looks like custom proprietary hardware designed to have a limited lifespawn and that will end up in a landfill in less than a decade?
I wish it had a more defined upgrade path, I really do. I was actually going to get a Framework 16 until their controversy came to light. For those of us who care for that sort of thing, the only game in town left the building.
So my answer is that this device checks all my boxes except for that. It’s built with Linux in mind, it’s small, it’s not a laptop, it has quality assurance and I don’t have to build it myself, and it can run all my favorite games. And it is still repairable, just not upgradable. But I’m going to get as much life as I can get out of it, and I’m not going to just throw it out or sell it when the next Steam Machine comes around. I’ll make do with what I have until it breaks or becomes unusable.
I’m seriously stoked about this, even though I’m not planning to buy any of the new hardware! It all comes down to the fact that Valve’s hardware projects force them to pump huge resources into open-source development, and we all get the benefits. That means the compatibility tools like Proton—which are essential for the high-end Steam Machine and Steam Frame—are immediately available to my desktop rig. By pushing Linux into the living room, VR, and high-performance space, they’re pressuring game developers to finally treat Linux as a serious platform. Basically, Valve’s huge investment accelerates development and developer adoption, which makes my own Linux desktop a way better and will hopefully get more people into Linux and open source.
This is a custom small form factor PC with many of its components being user replaceable. The GPU and CPU are soldered, which is unfortunate, but it is still significantly more upgradable and repairable than any other console that has existed. So what the hell are you on about?
And Valve already has a partnership with iFixit to offer replacement parts for their handheld gaming device, the Steam Deck, and they intended to continue that partnership with their new hardware products.
I think you’re just dumb and don’t know what you’re talking about.
It’s a console for PC gaming. Consoles have always been like that. The original Steam Machines were small modular PCs built by system integrators and they sold barely any of them.
I’m not a hardware guy, how is this different from the Steam Deck? Is the hardware here used of crappy quality by comparison? I thought most people liked the Deck (and everyone in here, I thought this is general Linux for a second), I sure do and will likely use it for a decade.
Hardware in the cube is said to be roughly 6x more powerful.
Well I know that, but isn’t that good in the context of waste (OP’s problem)? Since PS6 hasn’t been released yet, it’s seems the PS5-like specs here will last a decade and be future proof enough. PS4 is almost 13 years old and still has games coming out. The Switch 2 is PS4 level and it seems to be successful for now, and Steam Deck was aiming for that benchmark too.
(You can tell I’m a tech idiot by how I measure power in Playstations)
The difference is in the form factor. The Steam Deck is a purpose-built device for handheld gaming, with the expectation that it won’t be useful for AAA games that push current PC hardware. It’s found that niche and serves very, very well there. For that reason, it will likely outlive its tech specs - it will continue to work for many lower-spec indie games, because expectations will be reasonable.
The Steam Machine, on the other hand, is positioned as something that can play all current games (that aren’t kernel-level DRMed to hell and back, at least). These become outdated the moment new games start coming out that run poorly on it. Since it’s not upgradeable, the whole device becomes outdated and will need to be replaced if you want to play the next new hotness at a good FPS.
The GabeCube looks awesome! The GabeGoggles probably aren’t riddled with spyware. The controller fucks so hard it could be an aphrodisiac. Massive win for valve today.
Valve just casually changing the entire PC gaming landscape on a Wednesday…
I’m still surprised that there’s no USB c on the front. I’ve felt this way for 3 hours now since I first saw the picture.
Agreed, I wonder if this has to do with pricing? I imagine they can save on PCI lanes this way, and can keep the cost of components down.
And only HDMI 2.0, not 2.1. At least it has DisplayPort.
@dangrousperson @WhatGodIsMadeOf The hardware is apparently capable of HDMI 2.1, but the HDMI Forum doesn’t allow open source to have HDMI 2.1 drivers.
If you hook this up to a monitor you can use DisplayPort with the full features. I wish TVs had DisplayPort.
This is not only about gaming. If this low consume high performance sweety is actually affordable, 2026 could actually become the biggest year ever for Linux users. SteamOS is based on Arch Linux, and considering the power of the machine, editing should be more than doable. Now, i’m not too sure about the current compatibility/emulation of windows native software on linux, but with a substantial increase in desktop users, there could be some serious breakthrough, just like we already had with Proton for the games.
The relevant bit is not that SteamOS is based on Arch, but that it is running KDE Plasma desktop.
with a substantial increase in desktop users there could be some serious breakthrough like we already had with Proton
Most desktop users are not going to turn developers.
I don’t think that’s what they mean. They mean it’ll show these companies that there’s a market and money to be made by releasing Linux versions of their software.
Both really.
The bearded madman did it! He really nailed it!
Looks cool, don’t think it is for me but hope they succeed this time. Same goes the VR headset.
I am interested in the controller though, but my 8bitdo’s are still working fine, so probably not buying in the short term.
If I am correct, CPU in this one is approx 7600x-7900x which i fucking cool! I got HX99G and I love my little machine. It seems that insides of Steam Machine are a little bit better, which is fucking insane and probably will mean that prices are not going to be super high. In any case, seems to be a very stable machine to run games on with a 4k TV.
This thing has pretty interesting hardware:
The chip almost looks like a cut down AMD Ryzen AI Max 385, but with fewer CPU cores and GPU CUs, but the GPU gets its own dedicated VRAM, rather than sharing it, like it does in something like a Framework Desktop.
It also seems like it gets a decent amount of power, so likely at higher clock speeds, performance should be pretty good for not that much money. If this is supposed to be a console then it can’t be much more than a PS5 at $550 or PS5 Pro at $750.
I suspect the CPU is probably some Ryzen 7640u and the GPU is a 7600m equivalent.
This doesn’t seem to be an APU
You call pretty interesting hardware what looks like non-replaceable parts?
I was going to build a gaming pc for the first time in years on Black Friday
This news put it on hold immediately. I’ll just get the Steam Machine instead, it’s exactly what I’ve wished for: a more powerful Steam Deck without a screen or controller built in.
AND it’ll run 4k games so I don’t need to downscale to my monitor.
I’m perfectly fine with it being FSR and only 60fps, as 99% of the stuff I play are single player games anyway.
With 8GB of VRAM, 4K gaming will suffer some.
4k FSR, so it’s not rendered at 4k, but upscaled on the GPU
Which I’m perfectly fine with
Dave2D mentioned that Valve said it isn’t aiming to directly compete with consoles, but rather sff PCs. So the price will likely be in the $700-900 range(?)
I can see this going for around $750 personally
Below this price it will literally “evaporate” in seconds after release.
It probably will anyway.
Index and Steam Deck both sold like crazy on release, Valve has already proven itself with their hardware.
Last time they’ve locked the sell on account base. Hopefully they’ll do the same this times too.
You’re not fitting a 6 core processor and a **60esque card in a ssf case for less than $1k I don’t think, so even $900 is competitive
I think you can. The Ryzen 7600 and Rx 7600 are kinda cheap nowadays, even better if you use a 7500f.
You use a Chinese b650 ITX motherboard around 150 dollars and boom. You don’t need to buy expensive stuff to make a passable small PC.
I believe that Valve can afford to sell hardware at cost or even a little in the red. Getting people in the steam store ecosystem makes it back and then some in the long term.
Normally that only works if you have DRM that locks the games to your platform, so that people don’t get the hardware at a discount then use it to run someone else’s software.
But, in Valve’s case, it really has no competitors in the PC gaming space. That might not last forever, but it almost certainly will last as long as this PC / console is around.
Well, they already did that with the Deck, they earn very little from the hardware. Chances are they’ll do the same.
Retro Game Corps was estimating $500-$600 and they are defintely out to lunch with that
Depends on tariffs.
Is it an APU, or is it a “desktop” CPU and GPU on one board? CPU specs are close to the 7600x but downlocked. And with dedicated vram I’d assume the GPU is it’s own separate thing.
GPU looks like it’s probably a tweaked RX 7400 based on the specs.
This seems to blur the lines between desktop and mobile APU’s, but I would bet that’s it’s closer to a higher clocked mobile chip, than it is to desktop. The only reason I think this is the case is due to the similarity spec wise with the Max 385, and that it’s semi-custom.
If it was just a 7600x CPU + 7600 GPU I think they would have just said so. It could be separate CPU+GPU, but I think it might be possible that it is built more like a SOC, where the GPU is just given its own dedicated VRAM.
Looking at the hardware of say a PS5, it has 16 GB of GDRR6, the same as the Steam Machine’s VRAM.
If everything is soldered anyway, there is no reason to have separate chips for CPU+GPU, especially if that hardware already exists like the AMD Ryzen AI Max line.
According to Dave2D’s review, RAM is upgradeable, and GPU has dedicated VRAM.
Well I’m probably wrong then, framework said they couldn’t get good performance and maintain signal integrity with upgradable memory for the Ryzen Max cpus, so this is likely discrete Cpu and GPU. Probably all soldered in the same mainboard though.
Well I’m probably wrong then, framework said they couldn’t get good performance and maintain signal integrity with upgradable memory for the Ryzen Max cpus
On the other hand, Framework is run by far right sympathizers and are a few billion short of what Valve’s R&D might have access too.
If everything is soldered anyway, there is no reason to have separate chips for CPU+GPU, especially if that hardware already exists like the AMD Ryzen AI Max line.
Cost is a factor because just as with Steam Deck the two SKUs will only differ in storage space, not in performance. Using last gen RDNA3 is 100% a cost driven choice.
There was the story recently that AMD demanded a very high minimum order (10 million or so?) for semi-custom versions of the lasest Ryzen and RDNA iterations for some Xbox handheld which is unlikely that handheld would sell.
By going this route, Valve avoided this. Surely there is spare manufacturing capacity for RDNA3 by now.
To keep the package small, they might still have laptop type discreet GPU, just integrated on the same board.
I would have thought unified memory would pay off, otherwise you spend your time shuffling stuff between system memory and vram. Isn’t the deck unified memory?
What you lose shuffling between CPU and GPU you gain by not having your GPU and CPU sharing the same bandwidth.
Apple gets away with it by having an ungodly massive memory bus. I don’t think valve is getting a 512 bit memory bus on what’s probably a RX 7400/Ryzen 7600 tier CPU. Both of those combined would be like half that?
Apple gets away with it by having an ungodly massive memory bus.
It’s kind of impressive how effective Apple’s marketing team was towards developers when they started that push towards ARM PCs. A lot of people can remember that having shared memory benefits from not having to copy memory between the CPU and GPU, but barely any of them remember that the only reason it’s feasible is because Apple gave their devices insanely high memory bandwidth.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, look no further than the original Nintendo Switch. With an incredible 64-bit memory bus and 1600MHz memory clock speed, it was already being bottlenecked by its memory bandwidth 2 years into its lifespan. And that’s counting first/second-party titles like the Link’s Awakening remaster, not even shitty ports of games made for other consoles.
I’m wondering how much horsepower this stationary device have compared to a PS5 or Series X.
I’m not the best at gauging this but it seems it’s meant to be carried around and plugged into a 4K TV and operate okay at 60fps for most games that multiple people would play while in the same room. The specs seem to align with that. What would the GPU be comparable to? A 6700 (non XT)?
GamersNexus estimates a 7600.
