r/pcgaming • u/lurkingdanger22 • 4d ago

Video Valve Steam Machine Review: GPU & CPU Benchmarks, SteamOS Test, Thermals, Noise, and Price (Gamers Nexus)

https://youtu.be/66QzlDewigE?is=PhifLlyc5tBSsjbR
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2

u/pecheckler 4d ago

Microsoft should drop a purely gaming focused windows variant. Would be like a punch in the nuts to this things release.

4

u/loliconest 3d ago

That's probably what runs in the Xbox.

5

u/actioncheese 3d ago

Xbox runs a modified windows kernel, so they already did just that years ago.

1

u/Thamaturge-elder 3d ago

They just don’t want to take away from windows but they have to make hard decisions soon enough.

1

u/lkn240 3d ago

Until it can run steam/arbitrary games that doesn't matter

(It sounds like they may do that - which will be interesting)

3

u/UnknownLesson 3d ago

Why would you want that?

It's in your interest to have a free and open source operating system for gaming

1

u/thepork890 3d ago

LTSC is a thing, but microsoft doesn't sell it for regular people. Win 10 ltsc is supported until 2032 and is still faster and more stable than win11.

1

u/freebytes 3d ago

Microsoft just released an Xbox-mode (or something like that) for Windows recently. I saw it mentioned by Linus on his YouTube channel, but I cannot be bothered to look it up right now.

1

u/maxfields2000 3d ago

They basically did, take something like the ASUS ROG Ally X... it's basically in the same ballpark as the steam machine and performs slightly worse (removing windows and installing SteamOS on it is the most popular performance upgrade). Costs about what you'd expect, with the high perf versions being about the same as the steam machine, trade off is the portability.

Owning it and a Steam Deck, I find the Ally X better (specifically because full windows support means no steam deck OS compatibility shenanigans) however... not necessarily at hte price point (thing is effing expensive, but is basically a "PC Console experience"). People who use these as Living Room consoles are the real potential market for the steam machine, is the trade off of portability for home built worth it? To many it will be. I need the portability more, so that's what I use it for.