You must log in or register to comment.
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).
Yes, Steam Machine is optimized for gaming, but it’s still your PC. Install your own apps, or even another operating system. Who are we to tell you how to use your computer?
I wonder if this means it’s less locked down the Deck? Like is it kind of an iPad vs Mac situation? When I got the Deck and it was my only CPU travelling around at one point, I tried installing some general tools so I could get some actual work done on the road. Things were fairly heavily sandboxed, though nothing was a total deal-breaker I guess?
It will run on Steam OS like the steam deck is.
If you have troubles with its protections (like the non-writeable system partition), you can just disable them.
You do know you can boot up to a full-ass Linux on the deck?
Afaik that side has zero sandboxes
Yeah but that lock down is just there to protect most users. Afaik it doesn’t require any heavy workarounds?
yeah you can just dualboot another non-atomic distro and call it a day
Curious about this too. I love my Steam Deck, but Desktop Mode is horrible. You can’t install apps from the command line because they just get deleted on every update, including CUPS which made printing a huge hassle. You have to jump through hoops to get it to mount an external hard drive automatically. I could never get Discord voice or video chats to actually work. But if you install a separate distro, you lose out on the performance settings that are locked to Game Mode.
Now that Valve is actually doing a desktop, I’d love to use this as my daily driver so my old ThinkPad can finally rest. I’m hoping Valve will finally fine-tune Desktop Mode so people can actually use it. Or at least not throttle performance if people want to install a different OS. Maybe they could even let us boot directly into Desktop Mode this time?
That looks really cool! I’ll likely pick up a couple of the new controllers, but I’ve currently got a few mini PCs scattered around the house for gaming so I won’t need a steam machine until one of these craps out on me. But I’m very excited for the folks who will be able to get and enjoy it!
Ooh that’s completely unnecessary to my use but looks amazing and if I had a big enough place it would be something I’d seriously consider
Getting Shuttle PC vibes from the form factor.
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 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.
You call pretty interesting hardware what looks like non-replaceable parts?
Retro Game Corps was estimating $500-$600 and they are defintely out to lunch with that
Depends on tariffs.
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.
I’m wondering how much horsepower this stationary device have compared to a PS5 or Series X.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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(?)
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 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.
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.
Let’s goooooo I just need to sell one kidney and I can complete the set
How much is it?
Around 700, if we follow previous trends and account for inflation.
The Steam Machine will not be $700 I’m certain. I’m betting around the $300-400 mark. I think most are assuming around $400 based on the fairly weak hardware (8GB of VRAM i+is of particular note), but they make money from sales on the market. I wouldn’t be surprised if they sell it as a loss, because anyone they move off of console to PC is an even larger profit in the long term than any profit they could make from hardware sales.
Consoles used to be sold at a loss when they were competing more on hardware rather than peer pressure and brand loyalty. Now they’re sold at a profit and they require a subscription to use the internet you’re already paying for, and they get a cut of sales. Valve would be stupid not to try to undercut them.
The 2015 steam machine was sold for 400-600, so I was basing it off that
It’s expensive, but not that expensive.
I meant that I am that poor
Relatable
The kidney?
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.
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.
Never buying Microsoft after the recall bullshit. Also not paying monthly subscription to enable Internet on my device
No 4k120Hz. bummer. To be fair, 4k120hz is not a primary market pull.
I mean if you’re playing older stuff it will output 4k 240. You can probably run Crysis at 4k 240 on that thing.
Eh, that’s not really how it works. It all comes down to the HDMI standard. The HDMI 2.0 used by the steam box has a max officially supported output of 4k60hz. You need HDMI 2.1 to get 4k 120hz - regardless of the capability of your machine.
I’m fairly certain that there is an issue with AMD and HDMI licensing that is a barrier here
Ah, I was looking at the DP specs not the HDMI.
Yeh this will make it a tough choice for me. Have an OLED TV and playing something like Hades 2 in 4K120 would be really nice. Maybe a USBC hub/adapter could do the trick but that’s kinda weird and an extra cost. Definitely dampened my hype for it sadly.
It’s for people to play on their living room TV. Most of those don’t do 120 Hz.
They’re becoming more common though. The Sony oled I just got does 4k120. I’m bummed it doesn’t have hdmi 2.1 though. VRR would have been nice but maybe the hardware is powerful enough it won’t need it.
I do 120 hz on my TV. With PS5 and Xbox I think market for it is bigger than you would think for 120 hz TVs among gamers who picked up new TVs when they got their new console.
It’s been a long time since I looked at consoles, how many games will render at 120 fps? I thought developers would try to find a balance between fps and graphical fidelity. Do games have uncapped fps now?
Right, like I said, 4k120hz is a very limited market. However, for those of us with living room OLEDs, 4k120hz would be very much appreciated. The couch gaming experience on a 77 inch 4k120hz oled is pretty wicked.
It has DisplayPort 1.4 which supports 4K@120hz
Fair enough. The displayport has limited use though, given how there aren’t many (any?) large 4k120hz televisions with displayport. And let me be clear, that’s no dig against displayport (which is the better standard). As far as I know, certain shady license deals keep hdmi artificially ubiquitous on televisions.
That same shadiness is why AMD GPUs can’t directly support HDMI 2.1 on Linux. But there are workarounds like DP to HDMI converters or using 4:2:0 which is tolerable for non-HDR gaming at least (not so much general PC use).
In one of their videos on the store page, they even show the face plate being changed. :O
Yeah, it seems that they have different color and graphics face plates, but what looked really cool to me was the actual live display front panel showing machine vitals. Someone in comments mentioned that it’s e-ink. Very interesting.
There’s an LED strip, y’all!
Cool, I hope they keep that idea. 😀
Anyways it all depends on price/performance is good.
Previous attempts at 3rd party Steam Machines were not good in that regard.The LED strip? It’s on the units that have already been tested and demo’d. What looks really interesting is the (presumably optional) front panel display that shows machine vitals. I’ve only seen that mentioned on some articles and videos.
I saw that area and secretly hoped for an optical drive slot, not that it would ever happen.
Have you heard of the Steam Deck? Things aren’t the same as they were ten years ago.
What a moronic question to ask on a Steam Deck sub?
Of course I have, and Steam deck was priced very aggressively, but info on who makes this Steam Machine and how it will be priced is 100% absent here.
There was a pretty massive attempt at launching steam machines years before Steam Deck, and that it didn’t go well.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_Machine_(computer)
Following a two-year testing period, Steam Machines and its related hardware were released on November 10, 2015. By 2018, many Steam Machine models were no longer offered on the Steam store.
How does that raise the question whether I’m aware of Steam Deck???
Have you heard of irony? Especially considering the sub this is in, I thought it would be obvious.
I don’t understand the purpose of that, or how that would be irony.
Looks just like a dumb comment to me.If that’s how you want to see it, that’s fine.
Is Steam OS available for public use, or only Steam devices?
It is available for public use. https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steamoslandingpage?l=english
They do not list support for desktops, only Steam Deck and some other handheld devices.
It is also arch linux based
🤔wonder if this would double as an hdr-compatible media pc.
Prreciousssss…
We wants it!
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.
