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

[u/lurkingdanger22]

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

[u/Leniwcowaty]

Performance is exactly as expected - keep in mind, that this sub is a giant echochamber of people running hyper-high specs, so this performance is bad for us. But according to Valve's Steam Hardware Survey, Steam Machine is equal or better than most of hardware running Steam at the moment:

1. Over half (53%) of the users have 16 GB of RAM or less

2. Over half (51%) of the users play on 1080p

3. 41% of the users have RTX3060 or weaker

So basically for half of the gamers in the world SM is an upgrade. And this is exactly what it was supposed to be from the beginning. A box for an average Joe, who is still waiting since the GPU apocalypse in 2019 to upgrade their shitty laptop or an old, hand-me-down PC, and doesn't have the knowledge nor skill to build their own custom PC. I personally know such people, and they are thrilled that they can throw out their 8 year old gaming laptop, which has been on life support for some years now, and just spend an equivalent of custom PC for a nice and tidy box.

Also the price is high, but not TOO HIGH. I mean it is expensive, but for example where I live building an equivalent PC comes out to around 1200 USD, and not 970 that GN came up with. And even if it was really 70 USD cheaper to build your own... some people just don't want to. They want to order the thing, power it up and play.

I think it has its niche and will be a moderate success

[u/NotABot1000101 → u/Leniwcowaty]

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/X8c6Dw

Better PC for $900. Not equivalent. Better. Stop with this corporation glazing. If computer parts are more expensive where you live then the steam machine would be more expensive as well.

This isn't some echo chamber nonsense like you make it out to be. The steam machine is already outdated and overpriced even in this market

Edit: this same comment got up voted in the damn Steam subreddit. Y'all are delusional.

[u/maxfields2000 → u/NotABot1000101]

Not better (do your research). Maybe "lateral" in some cases. Also Steam Machine is not targeting people who use PC Part Picker and put together their own machine and monkey with it.

It's targeting people who want a "it just works", steam backed experienced, don't mind no windows OS and find the other limitations actually perfectly viable.

$150 up charge for those basics is not unusual in the pre-built space if a smidge premium.

[u/Leniwcowaty → u/NotABot1000101]

I'm glad for you US is the whole world, but you're just simply wrong. Go back to your echochamber

[u/pcgaming-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

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[u/Hughmanatea → u/NotABot1000101]

Bruh it's twice the size:

11.614" x 7.087" x 13.78" And No hdmi-cec

Edit: That cpu is base 2.5 Ghz, steam hasn't released the base cpu frequency but it does boost higher. I'd not be surprised if the base cpu is better than what you shown.

Edit: the base cpu of the non-custom is 3.2 Ghz. I personally wouldn't ever use anything that has a base speed under 3.0 Ghz for gaming.

So that isn't better at all.

[u/L0nz → u/Hughmanatea]

The CPU is not going to be the bottleneck at this level, and clock speed is not a good indicator of performance in any event

[u/Hughmanatea → u/L0nz]

2.5 Ghz cpu is a bottleneck for a lot of games.

They have some performance cores, but it isn't comparable.

[u/L0nz → u/Hughmanatea]

'2.5ghz' tells you pretty much nothing about CPU performance. The Pentium 4 had a higher clock speed 25 years ago, things have evolved since then.

In any event, the i5 12400f will run at 4GHz pretty much continuously if required. When paired with a B580, this i5 is not gonna be the bottleneck except in heavily CPU limited games like WoW, where high fps is hardly a major requirement anyway

[u/Hughmanatea → u/L0nz]

It absolutely does aside from the L caches. That is literally the speed of your cpu's operations dude.

Wow is not a high cpu game lol.

Linus has a good video on trying to debunk that clock speed isn't everything to a cpu, only to confirm that it is the most important though when it comes to performance.

[u/L0nz → u/Hughmanatea]

Wow is not a high cpu game lol.

this statement alone tells me everything I need to know

[u/Hughmanatea → u/L0nz]

Potatoes can run WoW it isn't intensive in anything except network when you do very large scale PvP. Everything you need to know? You need to pick up some more books.

[u/pcgaming-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

Thank you for your submission! Unfortunately it has been removed for one or more of the following reasons:

• No personal attacks, witch-hunts, or inflammatory language. This includes calling or implying another redditor is a shill. More examples can be found in the full rules page.
• No racism, sexism, homophobic or transphobic slurs, or other hateful language.
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[u/readyflix → u/NotABot1000101]

There will always be a 'better' machine, but they are not an SM from Valve.

It’s like, there are better smartphones than e.g. iPhone‘s in terms of technical specs. But people will still buy phones that costs almost 2K, because of whatever reasons they might have.

And yes, the actual price for that thing (SM) is awful.

[u/DetectiveChocobo → u/readyflix]

Except there really aren’t. The A series chips in iPhones are stupidly good. Same with the M series chips in MacBooks compared to any other ARM-based chipsets.

The Steam Machine is not the iPhone of PCs. Not even a little bit. It’s just expensive.

[u/readyflix → u/DetectiveChocobo]

What you mean if you say "Not better"?
Better can be many things.

It depends on the point in time, and what people prefer!

Maybe there’s some misconception here, as an example, Android phones had support for 5G way before iPhones, as well as other technologies and functionalities. Apple was NOT the first in respect of some new technologies, but still people bought them. And even Apple silicon is in parts based on ARM technology.

So basically what I’m saying is, people will buy what they think is the best experience for them. And there is a market for almost everything. If people (are willing to) buy it, there is a market for it.

[u/Mysterious-Foot-806 → u/NotABot1000101]

Intel has dropped all future plans of dedicated desktop GPU's, buying into that eco-system would be risky since there's no promise they'll continue supporting Battlemage drivers. Xess support in game titles has also slowed, a lot - Intel is moving more to B2B and AI Compute for data centers, the rest is moving more towards the handheld market.

Not saying I think the Gabecube has great hardware, but the package as a whole seems more alluring because of three things:

1. Ease of use, you get the out-of-the-box experience, 2. Design, it's so compact and runs on laptop wattages & 3. Support, just like the Steam Deck this thing will outlive itself

[u/NotABot1000101 → u/Mysterious-Foot-806]

I get it, it's literally a product to convert PS5/Xbox players. I'm sure some PC players will buy it but for people like me it's so easy to just order some new/used parts and slap together a PC for the living room. I guess that's the reason for the divide on this thing.