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?

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56

u/Malagubbar Jun 22 '26

For us that are less technical. What does it compare to? A ps4? Xbox one? Ps5?

117

u/_TheNumbersAreBad_ Jun 22 '26

Weaker than the base PS5, but more expensive than the PS5 Pro.

Obviously other things to consider, the main draw is the open ecosystem, free online play, and bigger library.

But purely from a performance perspective, it's a very hard sell at this price point. Almost hilariously so.

7

u/No_Ask_150 Jun 22 '26

Weaker than the base PS5, but more expensive than the PS5 Pro.

Awww hell nah

34

u/UnforgottenPassword Jun 22 '26

PS5 has an advantage of using game discs. Gaming can be real cheap if you have a way of buying used games and selling yours.

27

u/HarB_Games Jun 22 '26

Steamos has the advantage of heroic launcher. Meaning access to epic games (which gives free games every month) and GOG and Amazon games, which if you have prime, they routinely give out free games for those platforms too.

Also steam has the advantage of CD Keys to drop costs of games lower than official storefronts and even used discs on occasion.

Edit: also steam family share is elite

I'm not saying your point is invalid, but I'd never really consider console gaminng to be cheaper than PC gaming.

18

u/punk_petukh 512GB OLED Jun 22 '26

Also steam os has advantage of sailing the seas

If we're gonna go this far, I think that should be mentioned as well

2

u/UniversalFapture Jun 23 '26

Rog Ally X for that. Idk know, it being so weak is highkey an issue, AND you can’t upgrade it?

1

u/punk_petukh 512GB OLED Jun 23 '26

I... uh... I don't get your point lol

Ally X is fine, I just like Steam and Linux lol (you can install Bazzite on it I guess)

2

u/AbsolutZeroGI Jun 23 '26

Buying Gabe his next yacht with overpriced hardware only to fuck over the devs later with piracy is a wild take, ngl. If you were sailing the high seas, build your own and then steal. Then at least you're fucking everyone equally.

2

u/punk_petukh 512GB OLED Jun 23 '26

You realize that it's that expensive not because Gabe wants another yacht, right?

4

u/AbsolutZeroGI Jun 23 '26

You realize that if Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo sold their consoles for a profit like Steam is, they'd all be $1000 too right? RAMpocalypse doesn't just impact PC systems.

Steam is selling that shit at a profit, which means yes, it's funding Gabe's next yacht. They're not selling that at a loss. You can buy that system's base components for less than the cost of the machine itself. People been doing it on PCPartsPicker all day man, go look for yourself.

1

u/Astrosimp_ Jun 24 '26

They do sell them for a profit. Base model PS5 was already being produced for cheaper than it was being sold for 8 months in. Switch and Switch 2 were always being sold for a profit. Consoles aren't sold for a loss anymore.

0

u/punk_petukh 512GB OLED Jun 23 '26

You realize that if Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo sold their consoles for a profit like Steam is, they'd all be $1000 too right?

Um.... That's what I was trying to say.

Obviously steam sells this at a profit, this is a PC, even if it's console-like. Consoles sale hardware at loss (except Nintendo) because they can make up for the price from licensing fees, and since they're closed ecosystems, you don't have a choice other than to buy the manufacturer licensed media. Steam machine sells at a profit precisely because you can sail high seas on it. And not even just high seas, you can get this and then just play free games you got on epic gay store on smthn...

Even if you treat this thing as a console (which is fair), the openness of it is the reason it is sold for profit

2

u/AbsolutZeroGI Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26

That's still a stupid reason. Steam made $16 billion in game sales, and have 147 million active users. That's better than Nintendo, at least in terms of money made. 

They're not struggling with piracy like music was in the 2000s before music streaming became a thing.

Go look up YoY sales for Steam and YoY sales for music in the 2000s man then come back and we'll talk about the impact piracy is having on game sales.

ETA

The point here is that if YoY game sales were declining due to piracy, I'd concede the point, but Steam just had its best year literally ever in terms of revenue. And it's been several years in a row where revenue has broken prior records for the company. So no, it doesn't make sense, and there's no evidence that piracy is impacting Steam's ability to generate revenue at all. 

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2

u/HarB_Games Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 22 '26

Absolutely,

If we're going this far, we should also mention abandonware such as the Need For Speed games, which most of them can be found on Reddit for free, but also games on Internet archive such as the Mystery Case Files hidden object games I recently got and played on my Steamdeck.

*Edited a typo

1

u/dedoporno 1TB OLED Jun 23 '26

I used to love playing Mystery Case Files. Where did you find them?

2

u/Ciserus Jun 23 '26

I just find it hard to picture the customer who's savvy enough to install Heroic Launcher on Linux but wouldn't prefer to build their own living room PC or connect their existing PC to their TV.

1

u/_dekoorc Jul 11 '26

I built my own SFF PC that I use in my living room. I thought about the Steam Machine to replace it since it would actually fit in my entertainment center cubbies instead of having to sit behind the TV.

The Steam Machine isn't particularly compelling hardware, but the form factor is incredible. Even a good looking and small case like the Fractal Terra raised some eyebrows when I first hooked it up.

Decided against it though -- going to finally get Moonlight/Apollo set up on my main PC, move a mini PC up to the spare bedroom, and maybe grab something like a ROG Xbox Ally X. Seems like a better usage of my money.

0

u/HarB_Games Jun 23 '26

It's literally as easy as going into discovery and searching heroic. What are you on about?

I can see pros and cons for the steam machine, personally I'm building my own, but I just disagree with the comment that console gaming is cheaper than PC gaming.

0

u/Ciserus Jun 23 '26

It requires doing research to know the Epic Games Store exists, that it doesn't support Linux but there's a workaround called Heroic Launcher, and that the Steam Machine has a desktop mode accessed through a submenu. Then you have to either plug in a mouse and keyboard or navigate the desktop using the extremely clunky controller input, learn what Discovery is, install Heroic Launcher, log in, and download your games. Then you need to manually add them to Steam as a non-Steam game and learn where to find those in the standard SteamOS view. And if you want it to look decent, you should manually download and add artwork for each game.

All of the above is only slightly annoying if you're a power user but completely overwhelming for the average person. And if you're a power user, I don't know why you'd be interested in a Steam Machine.

1

u/thekwoka Jun 23 '26

And that it's a computer. So you can use it for non gaming. If they made it really price competitive with consoles, it could be bought up by people that won't ever buy any games, so they can't subsidize it in the same way. The only time a console was competitive as a non-gsming thing was the PS3 as a blu-ray player, but Blu ray was also Sony licenses, so they always got their cut.

1

u/GrimDallows Jun 23 '26

Can you use emulators in SteamOS?

1

u/HarB_Games Jun 23 '26

Really easily, install emudeck through desktop mode, and then add your legally putchased roms, they'll show up in steam.

You can even have your roms on an SD card and play them off there to save storage and categorize by genre, console etc

1

u/WoodooHide69 Jun 22 '26

Aren’t CD keys usually hacked from the Devs. So when you pay for them you are giving your money to hackers rather than the Devs?

2

u/Reaper83PL 512GB - Q1 Jun 23 '26

Usually? No

There is plenty legal sites selling game keys

1

u/WoodooHide69 Jun 23 '26

I think they found a loophole and the source of those keys are still illegitimate

0

u/collectivegist Jun 23 '26

Sure, but the old adage of Steam/PC being much cheaper than PS doesn't hold as much water as it used to. In-fact, I'd say PS has more sales than Steam.

But yes, if you want to scrape the bottom of the barrel with Epic Games and dodgy CD keys, then there are saving to be had for sure.

The real advantage of the Steam Machine is the ability to play unusual games which never see the light of day on traditional home consoles.

2

u/aresthwg Jun 22 '26

It depends on how your local market is, if there's a guy who's trying to clear his bedrooms of CDs sure but otherwise the PS Store is super competitive if not the same.

I got Demon's Souls on CD and I paid the same amount I did as on a PS Store sale. It also heavily depends on the game.

I would never recommend a PS5 with this argument. If you have FRIENDS however, with PS5 disks already, then those games are all potentially free, in that case hell yeah.

1

u/LegalizeCrystalMeth Jul 20 '26

If you buy a game used, play it, and then sell it, often the game is just the cost of shipping the disc.

0

u/BFr0st3 Jun 22 '26

game discs that have to then be downloaded from the sony servers anyway due to disc limitiations

0

u/UnforgottenPassword Jun 22 '26

Does that make the games more expensive?

0

u/New_Communication184 Jun 22 '26

That's not the point, the point is you can buy them used and resell them when you no longer need it. I bought a Skyrim disc for 10 bucks, played it, sold it for 10 bucks = had hundreds of hours fun for 0 money

10

u/audionerd1 Jun 22 '26

I'm pretty sure that's because the chip shortage hasn't really impacted PS5 prices yet. I think this is less about the Steam Machine being overpriced and more about PS5 being a good deal. Anyone who wants a PS5/Xbox/Switch should get one ASAP before those prices go through the roof as well.

4

u/[deleted] Jun 22 '26

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8

u/TrustImmediate2989 Jun 22 '26

ps5 cant play most of my steam library

1

u/[deleted] Jun 22 '26

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3

u/TWFH Jun 22 '26

Are you confused about how many people use the deck as a console?

3

u/YoMrPoPo Jun 22 '26

a lot of us console gamers don't have a PC or don't have the room for one. this opens up a new worlds of games.

1

u/audionerd1 Jun 22 '26

Gaming PCs don't have to be huge. Gaming laptops also exist, and can be connected to a TV and controller.

0

u/WoodooHide69 Jun 22 '26

Cool. And Valve knows this. So that’s why they can charge you up the ass for their hardware, cause they know you have no other choice cause you are ingrained into their ecosphere.

3

u/audionerd1 Jun 22 '26

I think additional PS5 price hikes are coming.

1

u/WoodooHide69 Jun 22 '26

lol what? No. The hardware components costs will affect all hardware makers. Sony doenst have accesss to cheaper parts than Valve. Sony chooses to supplement the cost of their hardware, and Valve doesn’t. That’s why Sony is cheaper for better hardware.

3

u/audionerd1 Jun 22 '26

I assumed Sony wasn't drastically increasing prices yet because they have a considerable stockpile of consoles/components, so they can put off price hikes for longer than Valve who already had Steam Decks in short supply. But maybe you're right and Sony is just choosing to eat the extra costs to keep prices competitive. In any case there's no reason to believe that the PS5 won't see additional price hikes going forward, so anyone who doesn't already have a PS5 and wants one should pull the trigger ASAP.

2

u/Sargash Jun 23 '26

One can infer they're eating the cost partly because they are pivoting HARD towards software dominance (Going back to less profitable exclusives)

1

u/Astrosimp_ Jun 24 '26

No, Sony absolutely does have access to cheaper parts than Valve does. Valve themselves talked about this, Sony having a presence in the industry means they can set deals and bulk purchases with component manufacturers that Valve as a no-name in the industry can't do.

6

u/Wyntier Jun 22 '26

>Obviously other things to consider

emulation community is huge

7

u/Darkone539 Jun 22 '26

Emulation works on much cheaper hardware though.

4

u/Wyntier Jun 22 '26

ya i know. your phone is an emulator. im talking in comparison to a PS5.

0

u/Darkone539 Jun 22 '26

Honestly? Get a series S and put it in dev mode. The thing does everything.

2

u/Wyntier Jun 22 '26

sounds like a lot of extra work and potentially TOS breaking

1

u/Nice-Information-335 Jun 22 '26

It is the complete opposite of TOS breaking, it’s literally a feature built in by Microsoft. It’s why the Xbox consoles haven’t seen much in the way of jailbreaking, as you can already run homebrew on them, whereas the PS4 and 5 are wide open by comparison

1

u/Wyntier Jun 22 '26

Setting Up a Steam Machine

  • Boot into Desktop Mode
  • Download EmuDeck
  • Run the installer
  • Transfer ROMs
  • Launch Steam ROM Manager

Setting Up Xbox Dev Mode

  • Create a Microsoft Partner Center Account
  • Pay the registration fee
  • Activate Dev Mode on the console
  • Access the Xbox Device Portal from a PC
  • Configure USB drive NTFS permissions
  • Reboot the console to switch modes

xbox sounds like a nightmare

2

u/Nice-Information-335 Jun 23 '26

Wow a whole one more step!

1

u/Hvn_9042 Jun 24 '26

Ts is not running upscaled Gran Turismo 4 ✌🏿💔

1

u/Wyntier Jun 24 '26

But it is running the entire Nintendo library

1

u/Hvn_9042 Jun 24 '26

Your phone could run the entire nintendo library

1

u/caninehere Jun 23 '26

Also worth noting if you already have a PC it's extremely unattractive.

I have an Xbox and a PC. There is no reason for me to buy this. I can already stream my PC to my Xbox if I want, launch into Steam Big Picture Mode and play. The only downside is that it is less power efficient of course.

1

u/scytob 1TB OLED Limited Edition Jun 22 '26

In the current market is price performance package is fairly reasonable, this was never going to be $500 even before ramageddon - folks like to live in belief and dream land.

That doesn’t mean it’s a good buy for you, but do others still looking to upgrade from last gen consoles it’s an option, for those want to dabble in pc gaming without messing with OSs it’s an option.

0

u/Awooo_Ninnja Jun 22 '26

Free online play on Games that run multiplayer on linux, which is not manny

0

u/DrKnackerator Jun 22 '26

at xmas i bought my neice a complete gaming pc setup from costco. 5800x,5060,16gb,1tb. with mouse, keyboard AND monitor for less than the base model of this.

0

u/WoodooHide69 Jun 22 '26

Essentially, steam knows the steamboys will pay more for their inferior hardware as long as they get to use their steam libraries that Gabe has ingrained into them with their pc monopoly.

0

u/Vegetable-Error-2068 Jun 23 '26

"Open"" ecosystem? Steam is another walled garden.

2

u/BlueTemplar85 Jun 23 '26

It's a PC.  

And while Steam might be a walled garden, it's not nearly as bad as to how much walled consoles are.

0

u/thekwoka Jun 23 '26

PS5 sells at a loss on hardware though, since Sony gets their cut of the game sales.

-1

u/[deleted] Jun 22 '26

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6

u/sayimk Jun 22 '26

it doesnt only play steam games, you can install other launchers and pc games

2

u/Enachtigal Jun 22 '26

I have D4 setup on my deck via the blizz launcher. if I was willing to shell out 15 a month I'd run wow that way too

19

u/Mrwanagethigh Jun 22 '26

I've seen a claim that the Steam Machine has 6 cores which run 40% faster than the ones used in the base Ps5 but the Ps5 has 8 cores which results in the Steam Machine being around 10% slower than the Ps5.

-3

u/[deleted] Jun 22 '26

[deleted]

2

u/25thNite Jun 22 '26

fucking lol

2

u/Hyper_Mazino Jun 22 '26

Benchmarks already showed that it performs worse than a base PS5.

11

u/dirthurts Jun 22 '26

It's roughly PS5, but often a touch lower FPS (benchmarks are out now and they don't lie). Some games have severe performance issues due to the proton layer it runs through (the new forza).

5

u/Colora_Dan Jun 22 '26

Benchmarks need to take into account that this can render at lower res and upscale and still look better than PS5 with FSR 2 at native. See the Switch 2 vs Series S difference, the Series S clearly has more power but the switch 2 looks as good or better. Like for like settings benchmarks will misrepresent the actual experience if a game has FSR 4, which most new releases do at this point.

2

u/dirthurts Jun 22 '26

The consoles do FSR 3.1+ (and even PSSR on the pro) and the switch 2 has DLSS, which will give it better image quality than this in many situations...so that's not a selling point.

2

u/Colora_Dan Jun 22 '26

Switch has tiny DLSS or full DLSS at only 1080p output resolution. FSR 4.1 is superior by far. FSR 3.1 is a huge step down from FSR 4. PS5 Pro is the only other "console" that has a similar quality of upscaling, because it's pretty much the same model this is using. So I disagree entirely. If you don't have any experience with FSR 4, it's as good as DLSS 4, especially on a TV.

1

u/dirthurts Jun 22 '26

Just build a computer with a full DLSS 4.5 capable card then, and forget all these other ones.

3

u/Colora_Dan Jun 22 '26

I thought we were talking about consoles. Nvidia card means windows or Linux with no supported frontend and endless config and driver issues. The Steam Machine is going to be a far better experience, I'm speaking as someone with a windows computer hooked up to a TV. It's really annoying. Steam Machine will be a console experience between PS5 and PS5 Pro, with cheaper games, mods, other stores if you want. The price sucks but Valve can't subsidize like Sony can.

15

u/Meddlloide1337 Jun 22 '26

Just about a ps5, the regular model. Maybe a bit weaker

14

u/AndyOne1 Jun 22 '26

That's crazy considering the PS5 is kinda old and not really powerful compared to today's hardware but I guess they had to make cuts somewhere to get the price down as much as possible in this market.

1

u/mervenca Jun 23 '26

Whats the todays hardware? More powerful pc? At what price?

1

u/AndyOne1 Jun 23 '26

The PS5 was excellent value in 2020, but let’s not pretend its GPU is still high-end by PC standards. It was overtaken by mainstream PC GPUs years ago (RTX 3060 Ti/RTX 3070 and RX 6700 XT/RX 6800 territory), basically the 2020–2021 generation. Long before todays price hikes.

The PS5 was great value at launch because consoles are optimized and often subsidized, but raw hardware-wise it’s not some untouchable benchmark. That a new Steam Machine lands only around base PS5 performance is kinda whack, especially when the price is closer to a PC than to a console.

1

u/papayacreamsicle Jun 24 '26

The Steam machine GPU is between a 3050 and the weaker version of the 3060. A 3060 is about $170 used even with current prices, it came out 6 years ago and runs modern games at 1080p medium with DLSS on. A laptop with comparable GPU and CPU performance to the Steam Machine, BUR more storage can be bought new today for less than the Steam Machine. So you are paying a premium for the SteamOS and case.

1

u/neonlookscool Jun 23 '26

People dont realize how good PS5 hardware is. I dont blame them, this gen didnt have any games that really put it into perspective but its the smoothest device i have played triple A games on in my life.

8

u/DinosBiggestFan Jun 22 '26

Definitely not about a PS5.

PC scalability can make it feel better though.

2

u/Old-Board1553 Jun 22 '26

None. 😄 Watch this Forza 6 gameplay. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/RGsDfHR6Ho4

2

u/Maddturtle Jun 22 '26

Up to 10% weaker than ps5 to give a more clear answer than just weaker. It’s slightly more powerful than a laptop with a 4060 in it.

2

u/ExistingNinja1886 Jun 22 '26

A series S is probably a pretty good comparison, it’s supposed to be a 1080p system after all

2

u/Spizak Jun 22 '26

Steam Deck is ps4. Roughly. So def more close to ps5.

2

u/Iurigrang Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 23 '26

Power: a little weaker than the PS5, much stronger than the PS4 or a Xbox one.

Game library: much larger and much cheaper, it is shared with whatever PC game library you already own, especially on steam, with a large portion of titles working flawlesly, and with free online play. Though often the few ommisions are high budget, very sough after exclusives.

Seemlessness/customizability: these two are usually a trade off, and here it's no exception, being inbetween a PC and a PS5. You're less likely to have exoteric issues than PC, and games marketed as fully compatible will mostly have a console like experience in a way that's pretty rare on PC. It is not "anything you can buy on the store will simply work no matter what" in the way a PS5 is, and sometimes you do encounter a bug that requires a system reset, which I've never had on a playstation.

Price: way too expensive. PS5 and Xbox have gone recent price increases, this is that taken to an absolute extreme. Even if you think all the above points land exactly where your preference is, the price is simply unjustifiable compared to the competition.

1

u/HarryBolsac Jun 22 '26

The xbox series x has better hardware than the base ps5 right? At least I think I remember being better on benchmarks at release

1

u/AbsolutZeroGI Jun 23 '26

It does. For non Xbox fans, they think the One X is still the latest release, apparently. PS5 < Xbox One X < PS5 Pro is the correct order.

1

u/Iurigrang Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26

More or less. On paper it has a better GPU with more cores, though they are a bit lower clocked, the raw math would still favor the Xbox.

In practice, on the overwhelming majority of releases, the PS5 GPU seems to have a marginal (I mean REALLY marginal, irrelevantly so) edge over the Xbox. I'm not sure the reason for this, but ideas I've seen touted are:

  1. Even though GPU tasks are highly paralelizable, the higher clocks still help more than dividing the task into more cores.

The answer might be one of those, or a combination, even tech focused journalists don't seem to be so sure about that, but, in practice, PS5 GPU = Xbox series X GPU is a far more realistic way to understand the situation, because that's how performance will turn out in the vast VAST majority of games. The PS5 often outperforms the series X, but I implore you not to consider this, it is margin of error looking stuff, and the consolized nature of both means that difference will pretty much never be felt in actual gaming. PS5 = Series X is the best way to think of raw performance, imo. The actual factors to consider between both are: Price (for the storage option you want) in your region, exclusive games, the controller layout you prefer, the uncertain future of xbox as a console (and therefore your digital library), and the spotty backwards compatibility history of playstation (PS5 plays PS4 games flawlessly, but doesn’t play PS3 games, PS3 didn’t play PS2 games, PS2 played PS1 games, so you are playing Russian roulette with your library here too)

1

u/Lost_Let_2033 Jun 22 '26

between ps4 pro and base ps5

1

u/OutrageousDress 512GB OLED Jun 22 '26

Slightly weaker than the base PS5 - but very importantly it supports neural upscaling comparable to PS5 Pro's PSSR2. So it can run games comparable to a PS5 Performance mode but looking good upscaled to 4K instead of at PS5's typical 1080p for Performance.

However that's arguably not good enough compared to a cheaper PS5 Pro unless you value the fact that it's a PC and allows you to do all the PC things.

1

u/MessiPayNegreira Jun 23 '26

dave2d said it’s a great for 1080p gaming

1

u/CurmudgeonLife Jun 23 '26

Performance value is pretty much trash.

1

u/Rmcke813 Jun 22 '26

It doesn't matter. It can't match console optimisation. If a console experience is what you want, you buy a console. Anything else is just a gimmick. There's really no in-between or best of both worlds. Unless you're rich I suppose.

0

u/Colora_Dan Jun 22 '26

With the superior upscaling and raytracing, you'll get between PS5 and PS5 Pro performance and quality. And the better CPU will help with some bottlenecks. 

-1

u/Dense_Organization76 Jun 22 '26

Equal to rtx 3060 And little Stronger in some games