Hardware costs have been on the rise, and Valve’s latest venture, the Steam Machine, enters a market already filled with established consoles and a variety of compact gaming PCs. In this challenging landscape, the pivotal question arises: who is the Steam Machine intended for?
For console enthusiasts, the Steam Machine may require a bit of unpacking. Unlike the straightforward experience offered by PlayStation or Xbox, this device does not provide the same level of simplicity. Conversely, traditional PC gamers might wonder why they should opt for a prebuilt SteamOS system rather than assembling their own rig or purchasing a Windows-based machine. For those who already own a Steam Deck, the Steam Machine essentially presents a stationary counterpart to a familiar concept. A deeper examination of the device may reveal Valve’s target audience.
Hardware: Compact cube with PC roots
The Steam Machine, a compact system measuring 16.5 × 15.5 × 15.3 cm, is designed to merge SteamOS with the extensive Steam library while offering a user experience reminiscent of consoles. Valve positions this device not as a customizable mini PC but rather as a ready-to-use living-room system that balances the simplicity of a console with the openness of a PC.
Equipped with a custom AMD CPU featuring six cores and twelve threads, the Steam Machine boasts 16 MiB of L3 cache and a maximum clock speed of 4.86 GHz. This powerful processor is complemented by 16 GiB of DDR5 memory and a discrete Radeon graphics unit with 8 GiB of GDDR6 video memory, identified under SteamOS as “AMD Radeon Graphics” based on the Navi 33 architecture. The GPU, closely resembling a slightly scaled-down Radeon RX 7600, operates with 28 compute units, translating to 1,792 ALUs, and maintains a power budget of 110 watts.
Storage-wise, the SteamOS system is equipped with an NVMe drive offering approximately 1.9 TB of space, with a Kingston controller. Additionally, it features a zram swap of around 7.6 GiB. Running SteamOS 3.8.9 in its x86-64 version, the Steam Machine can function as a Linux PC with a KDE interface in desktop mode, or as a gaming interface tailored for controller input, similar to the Steam Deck.
In terms of connectivity, Valve ensures that the Steam Machine meets the essential requirements for a living-room PC. Display output is facilitated through one HDMI 2.0 port and one DisplayPort 1.4 port, supporting up to 4K at 120 Hz via HDMI and up to 4K at 240 Hz or 8K at 60 Hz through DisplayPort. The device features a total of four USB-A ports—two USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports on the front and two USB-A 2.0 ports on the rear—along with a USB-C port capable of 10 Gbit/s. Network connectivity is robust, offering Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi 6E, and Bluetooth 5.3, along with a 2.4 GHz wireless adapter for the new Steam Controller.
While the Steam Machine’s form factor may evoke comparisons to consoles like the Xbox Series X or even two GameCubes stacked together, its hardware remains closely aligned with PC architecture, distinguishing it from most consoles. However, it does not offer the same level of customization as a bespoke system.
