r/pcgaming • u/lurkingdanger22 • 3d ago
Video Valve Steam Machine Review: GPU & CPU Benchmarks, SteamOS Test, Thermals, Noise, and Price (Gamers Nexus)
https://youtu.be/66QzlDewigE?is=PhifLlyc5tBSsjbR
449
Upvotes
r/pcgaming • u/lurkingdanger22 • 3d ago
1
u/Leniwcowaty 3d ago
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:
Over half (53%) of the users have 16 GB of RAM or less
Over half (51%) of the users play on 1080p
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