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Steam Machine

store.steampowered.com

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Re: Steam Machine

#531

Post by grafporno »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #308
jasonjmcghee wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow this looks great. Foveated streaming, great resolution, wireless, 144hz, looks much more comfortable... As much as I want this, I feel like it'll end up being a really cool thing that just sits on the shelf. Edit: foveated streaming , not rendering

It looks good until I reached one bit: > Passthrough - Monochrome passthrough via outward facing cameras This is an outright bone-headed move that I can't believe Valve is making. Only having monochrome cameras means augmented reality is basically a non-starter. AR has a lot of potential. I literally bought a Meta Quest 3 just for PianoVision [0] when I already had a Valve Index. I would love to see some sort of AR-b…

> AR has a lot of potential

Name one that has to do with with this box competing with xbox and playstation in people's living room.

Re: Steam Machine

#532

Post by SparkBomb »

patrickdavey wrote: post #526
CobrastanJorji wrote: post #367

> Install your own apps, or even another operating system. Who are we to tell you how to use your computer? From your mouth to Tim Cook's ear, friend.

Will it be possible to play retroarch games too? (i.e. the old SNES/NES games) etc. ?

Retroarch is already on Steam as well as other emulators.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1118310/RetroArch/

Even if you didn't want to use the Steam versions. Steam OS is essentially a customised Arch Linux and you can install stuff as you would on other Linux distros e.g. via packages and flathub. Basically it is a regular computer underneath. That is why I am very excited about this Steam box.

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/guides/view/how-to-install-ext...

Re: Steam Machine

#533

Post by jeroenhd »

energy123 wrote: post #414

A reason to get this instead of Playstation/Xbox is that games on Steam are significantly cheaper through keys sites like g2a.com or just waiting for discounts. Playstation/Xbox know you're locked in because you've already sunk money into the console, and they use this pricing power against you.

Just pirate the games instead of using key sites, they're full of chargeback scams that often end up costing developers more money than piracy. Those ten bucks you save really aren't worth the trouble of losing your account over.

With how often Steam games are on sale, you may ass well wait a little longer and buy directly through Valve.

The beauty of PC is that you can also buy games through GOG and Epic if they offer a better price.

Re: Steam Machine

#534

Post by SparkBomb »

ugurcant wrote: post #63
thadt wrote: post #29

Pretty much the only reason I boot to Windows anymore is to play games with my kids and family. The direction of this thing is dangerously close to being all I'd care about from a desktop computer. If Valve pivoted into making a well-supported laptop with good hardware that ran Linux and played games...

I was in the same shoes, then one day I decided to give a shot to Bazzite. To my surprise the installation was extremely smooth, and everything worked right away. Now I’m playing almost everything on it (Arc Raiders, EU V, HLL and Horizon FW recently). If you want to _try_ all you need is 15 minutes, some HDD space and an empty USB. You don’t have to give up Windows at all, dual booting is also pretty smooth.

Gaming on Linux is hit and miss, depending on the distro you use and your desktop environment. Some games should be launched with gamescope if you are using Gnome/GDM

To have HellDivers run in borderless window on Debian 14. It required me to manually compile gamescope (wasn't that difficult but Valve's instructions are out of date), and use the backports on Trixie to upgrade the kernel to 6.16, and update wireplumber and pipewire (sound was flakey on some games). Kernel 6.16 performs much better than 6.12 just generally.

All the Arkham games work perfectly. Doom Eternal has some weird latency in the mouse and aiming doesn't feel right.

I could never get my Xbox One bluetooth controller behaving with Linux. I ended buying a 8bitdo Xbox style controller which works perfectly. It is much better made than the Xbox controller and roughly the same price.

Re: Steam Machine

#536

Post by Jnr »

paxys wrote: post #193
haunter wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

8GB VRAM + 4K + FSR3 is very tough situation. Basically bit better than an Xbox Series S but quickly outpaced by midrange PCs. It will all come down to the price.

Yeah non-upgradable 8GB VRAM would make it a no-go for all but the most casual gamers. But then the casual gamers would rather buy a PS5 for the same price, so let's see where this one fits in.

As a Steam Deck owner since pre-orders, unless the price is extremely high, I am going to get the Steam Machine as well. Kids plug the Steam Deck to TV to do couch co-op gaming even though the resolution is only 720p. So getting a better resolution and performance while still getting access to the huge Steam library and non-steam games (Minecraft, etc.) is worth it. I don't care about the latest AAA titles and FPS shooters, for those I already have a desktop PC.

PS5 is too expensive long term and is not usable for anything else. And when Steam Machine becomes obsolete, I'll probably just use it/gift it as a mini pc/home-server to someone in the family.

Re: Steam Machine

#537

Post by PeaceTed »

ranger207 wrote: post #214
thot_experiment wrote: post #37

> Who are we to tell you how to use your computer? i'm having a hard time describing the feelings this makes me feel. like i've been stressed, bedraggled and worn down, and suddenly there's a moment where i can just rest it's nice to be excited about something for once instead of the baseline expectation of a horrible adversarial experience, which is the case for most tech in 2025 it is somewhat depressing that it's…

A couple weeks ago Amazon said something about "we were trying to compete with Steam and even with all our resources nobody noticed" and that made me realize something: ideally, companies with similar products and services compete on features and cost, but nowadays the big tech providers compete more on lock in than anything else. But in the market of video game retail stores the competition _is_ on features and pric…

I definitely didn't notice, I had no idea they were trying anything like that.

Re: Steam Machine

#538

Post by Rohansi »

embedding-shape wrote: post #509
zeld4 wrote: post #346

8GB vram in 2026?!

I'm thinking maybe it's unified memory? They posted "16GB DDR5 + 8GB GDDR6 VRAM" as the specs as RAM. Typically you'd put the GPU-only VRAM together with the GPU, but the GPU has it's own separate row in the specs. Kind of suspicious how they placed those together like that, isn't it?

It's not unified here. The Steam Deck is and does not list them separately.

Re: Steam Machine

#539

Post by PeaceTed »

kevincox wrote: post #480

I wonder what video codecs will have hardware decoding support. Because having this able to support HTPC options with AV1 and h265 decoding would pair amazing to sticking this on the main TV for family gaming as well. I'd be shocked if it didn't have h265 support but AV1 is not quite guaranteed at this point.

This is the one area that Intel ARC absolutely excels at. If ARC doesn't survive long term, that might be its legacy in the same way Matrox pivoted to multi screen cards after the failure of Parhelia-512 GPU.
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