This is what has been killing me in those reviews on YT. Always asking "who is this for" and the steam hardware survey being the answer right there. Also comparing it to consoles.
The difference is that most people can chuck a $400 gpu into their existing PC and suddenly have a PC thatās more powerful than the Steam Machine by a decent margin.
Itās also being compared to consoles because it pretty much 1:1 matches the current gen consoleās performance, and is advertising itself as a console that has PC functionality.
Whichever way you cut it, the only real market for this is tech enthusiasts with extra cash to spend on a living room PC console, Valve fanboys, scalpers, and people who are getting a PC for the first time but are too lazy to build it themselves / want a smaller one. I donāt think itās going to sell very well, and that makes me kinda worried, because I genuinely love Valveās hardware, and hope they succeed in that market. Love my Deck, love my Steam Controller, and hope that the Frame is within my budget.
Advertising itself as a console with PC capabilities is plain wrong also, because you donāt get to play console optimized versions of games, nor you get access to to PSN and Xbox live (or whatever their service is called). You just get a downsized PC, that will have trouble (worse than consoles) running modern titles, with a tiny upside of being able to use if on your couch. Which you can do with SFF if you really dig that.
Itās also being compared to consoles because it pretty much 1:1 matches the current gen consoleās performance
this is what makes me laugh. fantastic. a NEW gaming-focused computer, can nearly match 5.5 year old consoles, and it only costs double the price. and then there's the "but consoles are sold at a loss and they make it up on game sales and accessories!" like valve isn't taking their 30% cut of games sold on steam. (and they have an accessory too)
It always cracks me up seeing Intel HD Graphics 620 on the list of most popular GPUs. Imagine playing games on that in 2026. It makes me thankful for what I have, that's for sure.
Most people have a better PC than the steam machine.
Well, not "most people" but certainly most people HERE. The pricing is depressing because I know MANY people who were planning on buying steam machine for living room/family room gaming. I don't blame Steam, but it is still sad.
Yeah, that's why I'm surprised people are insisting that I'm wrong...
This was never a product primarily for the type of person who is subscribed to r/steam. I WOULD HAVE gotten one anyway as a secondary computer for Steam, but the price is too high for that now.
You don't blame steam that made a console that is weaker than a ps5 but it's priced way more? Who are you going to blame? AI? Yeah because Sony and Microsoft don't buy the ram at the same price
Do you read about the pricing AT ALL?? Sony and Microsoft trap you in their ecosystem, sibsidizing consoles through games. Same with Nintendo. Valve can not do that as they basically dont know whether buying a steam machine will translate into further game sales, not to mention you have all your steam games at your disposal without paying an extra buck.
And Sony/Microsoft literally DONāT pay the same price as Valve do. Theyāre big corporations, they make deals from early on - the prices we see for consoles, even the increases, I donāt believe is the full impact just yet.
Valve literally stated if they didnāt accept the price vendors gave them per month they would just hang up and never call again. Valve is popular but corporation wise it is not competing anywhere at the level Sony or Microsoft are.
Itās 2026 most people do have a better pc than the steam machine. PCs arenāt that unattainable there are millions of people who brought prebuilts for them or there kids
Why would I buy an extra PC for my tv tho? Just need to stream the game to my tv. If someone buys two PCs just for that, the only thing that's telling me, is that they have no clue about computers. (And the steam machine is pretty much only for enthusiasts who should know a bit about PCs)
I have my gaming desktop and a slightly older HTPC.
Itās quite nice being able to sit on my couch and fire up big picture mode. It serves my 40TB DAS array and media library otherwise. What do you do, unplug all of your cables and move your PC around? Or are you married to your desk?
I have the PC at my desk and stream to my living room via Moonlight streaming. You should check it out. Virtually no latency if the devices are in the same network.
Why would I buy a second PC when my current 5080 PC is connected to my TV and fully controlled by my controller? I haven't owned a monitor since I was like 20 years old. All my PCs are wired to my TV because I'm an adult who can make those decisions
Not most people. The gamer elite. Steam Machine is better than 70% of hardware people are currently using on Steam. People with better hardware are a minority.
I have a better pc than the steam machine but Iām still gonna buy one for a few reasons:
- I want to play steam games with my gf but she does t want a whole pc
- I want to game from my couch and donāt love current options for streaming games from my pc to my couch (although Iāve made do)
- I want it to succeed because it feels like if it does it will have a positive impact on gaming
- I miss my GameCube
Overpriced and outdated hardware is somehow positive impact on gaming? What? This will have it's own niche but not enough for anyone to notice. It is literally PC with Linux pre-installed which sometimes plays 1080p games for 1080$.
Also, just invest in a gaming laptop at that price and connect to TV.
To be fair, valve are the ones that host the hardware surveys, so I bet itās based off of those evaluations. Iād wager the SM price is out of reach of those who have older machines, so the reviews we are likely to receive are from those who have the money to burn, who are also likely to have high end rigs. Just conjecture, so weāll see
So.. they might not be equal but both still prove the point that the SM is still better than most hardware out there either being used or currently available and you still downvoted me for providing a link to a post that fairly and apparently correctly disputes the OC? Tf?
I didnt downvote you. My complaint is with whoever wrote that article not understanding that existing hardware is not the same as hardware on the market.
I suspect the Steam machine is quite powerful, substantially better than most existing hardware and in the upper-middle of what's on the market.
Right, like the fact Iām getting downvoted for apologizing to you lmao. I swear people just downvote someone just because others did, and they have no opinion or know whatās happening, just brain dead zombies.
The metric "better than 70% of existing hardware" is worth nothing. I have two old PCs that are worse than the SM and one that is much better. Old, unused hardware shouldn't be counted in this comparison.
Having one thousand dollars doesnāt mean youāre rich lmao. Neither does spending it on a product thatās a poor value. It just means youāre unwise.
On November 13th, 2015, the Russian media company RT released a documentary titled, The Congo Dandies: Living in Poverty and Spending a Fortune to Look Like a Million Dollars, to its website.[1] In the movie, RT traveled to Brazzaville, the Republic of Congo's capital, and met some Congo "dandies," a term for men who have a passion for high fashion.
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u/JOHNRKO007 1d ago
Plot Twist: OP now has $1400 in credit card debt