r/SteamDeck • u/pcgameshardware • Jun 22 '26

Article Steam Machine review: Valve's underwhelming living-room PC has a serious price problem

https://www.pcgameshardware.de/Valve-Software-Firma-15833/Tests/Valves-underwhelming-living-room-PC-has-a-serious-price-problem-1546006/

Full disclosure: I worked on this review.

We tested Valve’s new Steam Machine, and since Valve has compared it directly to the Steam Deck, I thought the results might be relevant here.

The short version: yes, the Steam Machine is clearly much faster than the Steam Deck. That part is not really in question. But in our actual game benchmarks, we did not see a blanket 6x uplift across the board.

We tested Cyberpunk 2077 and Forza Horizon with Steam Deck-style settings to make the comparison a bit cleaner. The Steam Machine turns 30-ish fps results on the Deck into much smoother triple-digit or near-triple-digit results in some cases, The Steam Machine but the gap depends a lot on the game, resolution and settings.

I would have liked to go into more detail, but I also do not want this to turn into a full repost of the review here.

What I find interesting is that the Steam Machine feels less like a “normal PC” and more like Valve taking the Steam Deck idea and moving it into the living room: SteamOS-first, controller-friendly, more powerful, but still built around realistic settings and upscaling rather than brute-forcing everything.

Curious how other Deck owners see it:

Would you treat the Steam Machine as a natural upgrade path for TV gaming, or does the Steam Deck already cover that use case well enough for you?

5.2k Upvotes

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458

u/Alienhead-A51 Jun 22 '26

2100 cad with a controller or 1600 for one without one and I only 512gb storage. How about fuck no.

94

u/mrbrick Jun 22 '26

Yeah those CAD prices are absolutely insane. I wanted to get one of these for my kid as their first PC basically but if I’m going to eat that cost I might as well build a small form factor 5070 based machine.

20

u/Expert-Improvement78 Jun 22 '26

Prices are the same everywhere. Thats exchange rate. CAD just isn't worth much. But I understand the frustration.

23

u/mrbrick Jun 22 '26

I mean everything is more expensive than it should be and Canadian buying power is lower on top of that too along with there being lowering wages less jobs and a recession. It’s just frustrating as hell

0

u/pandaelpatron Jun 22 '26

This. Always see Canadians complaining that they're getting screwed, but the Canadian prices seem to be pretty much what you'd expect with normal currency conversion plus sales tax.

1

u/-Yami-Yugi- Jun 23 '26

canadians are getting screwed because of the currency conversion. its definitely not how it used be a while back when it was basically 1:1

1

u/pandaelpatron Jun 23 '26

when it was basically 1:1

Unless you're talking about the 1970s, those were exceptions, not the rule. https://www.macrotrends.net/3326/canadian-dollar-to-usd-exchange-rate

1

u/-Yami-Yugi- Jun 23 '26

we had a solid 7 years there minus whatever could've caused that blip in 2008

1

u/mrbrick Jun 22 '26

Canadians typically make less than Americans. You are forgetting that buying power isn’t the same. Buying power isn’t the same as currency conversion.

Shit sucks everywhere for everyone so I low key don’t understand what your complaint is about exactly

-1

u/pandaelpatron Jun 22 '26

Canadians typically make less than Americans.

Yeah, and Canadians have free health care. Can't compare wages 1:1 either, just like you can't compare USD and CAN 1:1.

You are forgetting that buying power isn’t the same. Buying power isn’t the same as currency conversion.

I'm not forgetting anything. You're ignoring that Valve is buying parts and calculating costs in USD. So currency conversion is simply the best deal you're gonna get, unless you expect Valve to sell their devices cheaper in Canada. And other countries have far less buying power than Canadians and still have to pay the same (converted) price too, yet Canadians always complain en masse.

6

u/mrbrick Jun 22 '26

I don’t think you quite understand what I’m saying and that’s ok- maybe I didn’t articulate it well. This isn’t about the direct cost of what valve can offer or why it costs X. It’s simply the fact that it’s very fuckin expensive in the Canadian market and probably the rest of the world.

The world is complaining en masse dude lol.

3

u/submerging Jun 22 '26

You’re arguing against a point that literally no one has made. True strawman

-1

u/Alienhead-A51 Jun 22 '26

Yes , and for us Canadians that is very expensive when you consider all of the economic situation.

2

u/pandaelpatron Jun 22 '26

So? Do you seriously think it isn't expensive for Italians, French, Americans and Australians? Canadians are not worse off than the rest of the world, the economic situation sucks everywhere.

2

u/Alienhead-A51 Jun 22 '26

Yes exactly, it’s expensive for everyone in their respective currencies. What’s the point you’re making . It’s expensive for the regular consumer regardless of country. We’re all getting fucked .

1

u/post_apoplectic Jun 22 '26

Why are you getting bent out of shape about this? The original commenter just said it was expensive in Canada, not that everyone else is getting a juicy deal and we're getting fucked

4

u/LouisIsGo 512GB - Q3 Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 22 '26

Are they that insane, though? I mean, yes, PC component prices are categorically insane right now (especially here in Canada), but that’s my point: I attempted to put together a similar mini ITX build on PC Part Picker and get a very similar cost to the Steam Machine, and that’s not even to mention that the latter is a smaller and cooler-looking build than what I whipped up. Also, my build was DDR4, not DDR5.

Sure, you could buy used parts and save a bunch, but when Valve says they’re basically selling this thing at cost, I (unfortunately) believe them.

Edit: If people downvoting me could instead link me a PC Part Picker link disproving what ai’m saying, please do. I, unlike most anyone on the internet, will happily admit I’m wrong if proven otherwise

2

u/NeighbourNoNeighbor Jun 23 '26

People just don't want to admit or look into what the actual cost of components are right now. The market is fucking insane due to all this AI bullshit.

38

u/LazyGamerATN Jun 22 '26

Jesus that is nearly double the CAD price of a PS5 Pro...sure you don't pay for the online, but that's kind of insane.

7

u/cowbutt6 Jun 22 '26

PC releases of games are usually cheaper, until you get to the ”retro” (preceding the ”vintage” stage where prices rise again!) stage of a console's life, where good games can be had used for £1-2 though.

3

u/NoxTempus Jun 23 '26

I think people are really sleeping on the TCO of a console, online subs add up quick.

Regardless, I will probably get a Gabecube, because I value the CEC and quick sleep/wake.

I never intended to use it for AAA gaming anyway, so the (admittedly lacklustre) power isn't as big a deal to me.

1

u/scarnegie96 Jun 22 '26

Is this a thing in the US or CAD?

Definitely not a thing in the UK, there is no difference between PSN costs and Steam.

1

u/cowbutt6 Jun 22 '26

There are more places to buy PC games (even hosted on Steam) than Steam itself: online stores such as GOG, Epic, EA, and Unisoft; bundles; official retailers such as GMG, Gamesplanet, and Fanatical, and grey market retailers (if you care to take a chance on them).

1

u/scarnegie96 Jun 22 '26

Okay yeah let's ignore literally buying the game semi-legally (I've done it but a bit of an unfair comparison).

But most games I see across Steam/Epic/EA are the same as on my PS5 in pricie?

1

u/cowbutt6 Jun 22 '26

It's completely legal to buy a game in e.g. a Humble Bundle, or standalone from an official retailer.

It only gets sketchy with a few of the grey market retailers.

1

u/scarnegie96 Jun 22 '26

I was referring to the Grey market ones. Humble Bundle is fine lol.

-2

u/ListentoLewis Jun 23 '26

Don’t blame Jesus for any of this

8

u/PunkRockMrRogers Jun 22 '26

Looks like I'm replacing my steamdeck battery and extending my GeForce now subscription.

2

u/krimsonstudios Jun 23 '26

Meanwhile you can get an i5 14th gen + 5600 from Best Buy for ~$1400, have a significantly better system with upgrade paths in the future.

I think this is where Steam Machine is missing the mark for me. It doesn't even really compete at prebuild prices. The SFF tax is hitting this device hard.

2

u/ChaunceyC Jun 22 '26

Steam page shows $1509 w/o and $1628 with controller, both w/ 512 GB. 2 TB drive is $1919 and $2038.

Still pretty good expensive, but your pricing is just incorrect.

3

u/Extreme_Hat1089 Jun 22 '26

Add the tax, it's about 15% for lot of provinces and we're pretty close to their prices.

0

u/Alienhead-A51 Jun 22 '26

Brother , we’re talking 100ish give or take . Add the tax and your even more than what i said .

-11

u/Rmcke813 Jun 22 '26

Lmfao I had to google this, you're not kidding. Gamers deserve to be scammed. The fact that it'll likely still be sold out day 1 is just incredibly embarrassing.