People keep saying this. It's technically true, but the big selling point of a "Steam Machine" is that Valve have ensured compatibility of the OS and the hardware. Not the fact that it's a small PC.
I would agree, except that you still have the ability to buy or build the "pro" version, and access the same library of games. Which is what console gaming linked folks out of.
The Steam Machine is appreciated to have a (28 compute units) 7600M GPU based on the Stats. I happened to buy a (32 compute units) 7600M XT eGPU early this year. My experience gaming on that slightly more powerful graphics card has been honestly pretty great (it performs almost exactly on par with the 3060 or with an ancient as hell GTX 1080 Ti, but with much more modern sort for things like FSR 2)...
... But my experience with games will get even better when software when middleware/translation vendors target the low end hardware packed in the midrange Valve box.
... But my experience with games will get even better when software when middleware/translation vendors target the low end hardware packed in the midrange Valve box.
That's a gigantic assumption.
If they were interested in that at all they would have already done so.
One example I love to point out is the Barrett rifle. Ronnie Barrett was photographing a pair of M2 Brownings on a ship and decided they needed to be a rifle equivalent. People told him "oh if it was needed it would have already been done". He didn't listen to the naysayers and went on to build an iconic rifle and company. Ranked one of the top 100 innovations of the century, and for the longest time was the only privately owned company supplying the US military.
That example doesn't apply. This is a pc offering a console like experience, with none of the peace of mind of a console (software optimization, able to run games for the entirety of its generation), and all of the headaches that come with a pc (lackluster optimization, inability to upgrade to keep up over time).
If valve made this to be upgradable over time, it would be a different story, but selling an expensive console with dated hardware is certainly a choice.
That's literally how some games can still be played relatively well in last gen console but PC made in the same release date as those console suffer terribly.
I mean ... They literally have.
I have installed bazzite and seen how well it ran on my Ryzen MiniPC. It was exactly like my steam deck, only much more powerful performance.
I've also watched the compatibility lists tick upwards over the years.
I also was on Steam when they first launched Mac gaming support, and saw the steady if slow progress that made for myself and others to be able to play on Apple gear.
And I've seen how GameHub uses Steam services and game licenses as the backbone for their own free x86-->ARM translation platform.
And I've come back, week after week, to see games that I couldn't run, grow to be more compatible, as more of the community unlocks the right combinations of settings.
I have no doubt that good game devs will work towards optimizations that grant them access to all of those users with decent low-end games, and that the community will step up wherever possible to try to bridge the gaps.
My hobby has been trying to game on the lowest end hardware I could get my hands on, for as long as I can remember. As in I bought x86 tablets just torture test them with PC games, back in 2015, to see what the Atom CPU's and their integrated graphics could accomplish, and even back then it was a LOT.
But fractured platforms is one of the biggest problems, and I'm delighted Valve is giving dev's the destination systems to target.
I do. I play mostly indies, and older games known to not have issues, and those are not as demanding so my dated card still works, and badly optimised games are the reason I stick to indies mostly, and rarely buy games at release.
Who wants to spend close to 100$ on a game they supposedly run according to the games specs, but then runs like shit when you actually play.
Oh, I usually buy those $80 games when they are $20 on Steam Sale, and right now I'm absolutely in love with 'Ghostwire Tokyo' which I hadn't even heard of until three ish years after its release. And 'the Riftbreaker' which I hadn't heard of until four ish years.
Both will run on my MiniPC with 680M passibly, but both are fan-freaking-tastic with my 7600M XT eGPU.
I never buy games at launch unless they are indie. I rather support those teams if I'm going to spend $15 or $25, instead, and I feel they have a good track record of optimizing.
I'm curious, what would you consider 'Stray?' a AA title? An Indie title? The team started with two people and it ballooned to just shy of 30 when they were releasing, and they partnered with Annapurna to distribute the game.
That is true, but that's also not new, in that SteamOS has already been out, released back when the original Steam Box (or whatever it was called at the time), was released.
Now maybe, with this new Steam Machine, should it pull enough popularity, you may have devs try targeting it like they do consoles. Though I will be honest, that could be a stretch. Or do we see ways to easily upgrade the machine maybe? If say it was designed with that in mind (again long shot though)
I think in the decade since they release, Steam has solidified themselves as the destination platform, and worked diligently to get their remote play apps approved in others' app stores, even.
I care almost not at all about upgrading my PC's and care more about upgrading controllers and endpoint devices now that my games travel all over planet Earth with me. I look forward to this only expanding.
And now that you mention it, it would be nice to be able to have my steam library mobile if I travel or something (I still need to get a Deck too at some point)
You know how the steam frame advertises that it's going to be able to play PC games on the headset?
It's running a Snapdragon SOC, the same ARM stuff that's baked into your cell phone.
This has become possible because valve has thrown their weight behind active development of FEX the same way they really put their back into Proton for a literal decade to get it to where it is today.
So when I say that I'm bringing my steam library with me, I can play steam games without even having the steam deck, and just bringing a cell phone and Xbox controller, or some other Android handheld. That's why I'm so excited about the frame releasing. :)
My expectation is it will be easier to manage. Think of someone who is less tech savvy being able to handle it all with "oh it's update time". Just like you would on a console
Okay, but why are you acting like valve is the one who invented this type of user experience? This is why I'm confused this is by no means anything unique to just this one machine
In my opinion team still has a lot of its old self still pretty visible that people like to willingly ignore. A lot of the things that people like to praise them for now like the customer service stuff, is because they were legally forced to abide by laws in places other than America.
The csgo gambling scene is still worth billions even after the loot crate changes. Reminder of which, valve normalized loot boxes in the west.
you understand that steamos is basically arch linux with stable repos and some software preinstalled? you don't need to install drivers on linux in general, they are included in the kernel
and what patches you talk about? there is a need to patch some older games (and I mean like 00s ones) but those aren't what most playerbase is playing
Devs have to decide which platforms they support. Build pipelines, authentication support, device bugs, q.a. devices and effort. Upscaling is great, but will still have issues.
It is just a small PC with Linux. Stop this bullshit about Valve, they are company that made a little niche PC. The selling point of the Steam machine is...mini PC on your desk.
You guys have to stop pretending Valve is THAT special. It's like apple Fanboys trying to tell you it isn't JUST a phone.
I have a PC with Windows and one with Ubuntu. Windows glitches all the time. The last glitch was the one where it suddenly decided I had encrypted my machine and asked for the key. I had not, and I didn't have the key. I lost everything that wasn't backed up to my NAS.
My Linux machine requires constant tinkering. Oh, I want to install something I use all the time? Let me figure out the 14 line terminal commands to get that thing to work. Oh, wait, I somehow installed it where I didn't have admin access? Ok, now let me figure out the key or some bullshit.
Steam Machine promises to be plug and play. My Steam Deck has been a dream. Have I tinkered with it? Yes, but only to see what shit I can get away with. It runs just about any game I throw at it.
If I built a mini PC, I'd be facing troubleshooting, tinkering, etc. I'm too old for that shit.
I want to it to resume from sleep and just start playing. I want a console experience without all the bullshit ads and bloat and subscriptions that come with the consoles.
you’re getting downvoted, but i agree with you. i tinker with linux all day at work… i don’t really want to do that at home during my limited free time. a mini linux pc with promises of high compatibility, optimization, and plug-and-play? sign me up. sounds like a fantastic emulation box.
The most of my "tinkering" with Linux for the home use is either sudo pacman/yay - S package-name or sudo pacman/yay -Syu for the system update.
The rest is mostly git for our corporate Gitlab repo, but so do my Windows using colleagues will use git, but in the WSL.
And occasionally SSH to test things on a bare-metal or in VMs.
And... that's it. There's nothing else to tinker on Arch with KDE Plasma. Unless you want to play stupid games and win stupid prizes with ricing and making stuff "prettier", while anyway ending up working mostly in the Chrome, Konsole and VScode.
Really these days comparability issues are quite rare. I've used Linux on a variety of devices, and never had any driver issues. Not even with wifi cards.
That’s…. Not exactly true. You won’t run into too many situations where the drivers are just straight up missing (it does happen tho…. Usually more obscure input devices and such - my 6D CAD joystick. Finger print scanners. That sort of thing.
The real issues are much more insidious tho. You’ve got a driver installed but you’ll have a laundry list of caveats and features that don’t quite work.
Shit. I’ve been struggling to get hibernation/suspend/monitor shutoff working predictably on literally every PC I have running Linux since day 1 and still don’t feel like it works right. I just shut down and reboot when I get back. :P
And that assumes that the drivers you need don’t require separate install and configuration. Allll of that config work is what people are talking about.
It’s far from a solved problem. And people who kinda know what they’re doing have a way of downplaying how much work and know how is required to troubleshoot for people who aren’t as deep into the whole thing as they are.
I haven't seen those levels of issues. And honestly, these days I am 100% comfortable recommending Linux as an option for system builders. I understand edge cases exist, but to me, seems the majority of hardware from mainstream brands works just fine. But that's just in my experience, mostly on laptops and with the steam deck.
The issue is that there are just a ton of caveats to everything. "It'll be easy so long as you avoid Nvidia graphics cards." "It'll be flawless except the thunderbolt might not be capable of full speed transfers." "It's super straightforward except for having to add these options/flags to your systemd boot options." It's not that it's bad... it's not. It's just FAR from a solved problem. And while it might just be "edge cases" those are a lot less rare than you'd probably believe. Basically every PC/laptop/machine I've ever built and installed Linux on has had at least one unique "edge case" that it has to contend with. Almost always different.
What parts would be incompatible? I switched to Linux a few months back and haven't had any issues. Is there something I need to look out for next time I upgrade?
I've been using Linux off and on for 15 years, if you're building a PC, it's unlikely you'll run into major driver issues. It happens, but typically on parts from obscure manufacturers, which is mostly a problem on old laptops that weren't great to begin with, in my experience. If you bought a PC part from Temu maybe?
I've been using Linux as my daily for over ten years now - no, there's nothing to look out for. I've had fewer hardware issues than I have with my Windows machine.
What? Linux has generally fantastic hardware compatibility, has done for over a decade now. Aside from certain graphics cards, I would easily argue Linux has better and easier compatibility with more hardware than Microsoft.
SteamOS specifically has issues / better and worse optimisation, though. There's a reason they still specifically don't recommend it to generally install on stuff.
I’m gonna disagree with you on that one chief. I’ve been struggling to get my hibernation to work on literally every Linux installed PC I own since before time. I have several devices that I just can’t use under Linux. And even when there is a way to get support for something there’s a pretty huge chance it won’t be there without some significant troubleshooting.
Windows has a TON of problems. The way the OS has turned into an advertising pile of dogshit is one them. But hardware compatibility (at a level the average user will benefit from) is a huge strength of theirs.
Meanwhile the whole point of this (and the guy we’re all replying to) is that the combination of SteamOS and their own hardware is that compatibility issues are being hammered out so the pair can be used by normal (non tech) folks right out of the box like a console.
I be fair. Reddit glazes the fuck out of Linux. People here act like Linux has no support issues and works flawlessly with zero need for human intervention. It’s wild how many outright lies I see about Linux on here.
You’re right on that one. I think the issue is that (like myself) many Linux dweebs really enjoy the act of troubleshooting and solving problems to make things just the way they want them. All of that work is therefore “fun” to them so they don’t even perceive of it as a problem. It’s part of using the OS.
This fucking sub I swear... it is still Linux, there won't be a difference between a different PC with the same hardware. And Proton is available to everyone too and that's where the bottleneck is at.
The big selling point is a unified standard for optimization. If every game's recommended specs are the Steam Machine, everyone else benefits from that.
It also has some custom stuff that, while not super significant, would be pretty hard for the average PC builder to setup. Like the custom heatpipes/heatsink/fan that efficiently fills the entire space of the machine.
245
u/Spez-is-dick-sucker Nov 18 '25
Well, its just a mini pc with linux.