The Problem With The Steam Machine: Its Current Gen

people who can only look at anything in gaming behind the lens of a console gamer
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How can y'all even say something is a scam before we even know its retail price? Lmao. There's a lot of talk and rumors, but until we know for sure, it's all hearsay.


Same. There is an enormous library that a PC/Steam Machine supports that consoles don't. That's such a ridiculous statement, lmao.

it could be $1k and that doesn't make it a "scam". It just means it is overpriced. People won't buy it and the price will drop or it will be discontinued. Microeconomics 101.
 
1) I too am surprised at the low spec.
2) This is not a 1:1 replacement for a ps5. Not even close and I'm confident it's not meant to be.
3) Cross gen is going to be practically double-crossgen next go around, and this can play anything a ps5 can play.
4) This is a good companion to an enthusiast who already has a ps5, or even ps5 and switch. Someone juse thinking about getting into pc gaming.
5) It's probably not projected to sell more than 5 million or so. So targeting actual edge cases/niche makes sense.
 
it could be $1k and that doesn't make it a "scam". It just means it is overpriced. People won't buy it and the price will drop or it will be discontinued. Microeconomics 101.
Very true! Which is certainly possible with the current state of the ups and downs of materials. But if no one bites, then it'll drop until people do, much like we've seen with their past hardware.
 
I can play most of the modern indies on my 20 years old pc. Gabecube can emulate switch(+2?) and ps3(+ps4?) too. Add current gen(backlog+new) aa/aaa games+future indie/aa games and free multiplayer(they will probably solve anticheat issues too) on top of those. It will last at least 10+ years. They can't lock you out too(ps3 is capable to run many indie games but they don't allow it).

Besides, we're no longer seeing dramatic changes in gaming technology like we used to. Even the ps4 is still capable of running many modern games, so it doesn't make sense to dismiss this device's power. I just hope the price will be competitive.
 
it could be $1k and that doesn't make it a "scam". It just means it is overpriced. People won't buy it and the price will drop or it will be discontinued. Microeconomics 101.
Yes, we have a word for that. Ripoff. Why people use scam as a catch-alll term for things they don't like is beyond me.
 
Stopped reading there. A PC is able to play most games from the 80s up till today. Good luck playing Thief or Unreal or your PS5.
Firstly, you should have kept reading and not jumped to conclusions. If you did, you'd realize that you're very wrong. Secondly And??? What's your point? You setup a beautiful straw man and argued a point that the OP is not arguing. If the rumored $700 price is true, it's a scam of epic proportions. You can put together a better pc today for approximately the same amount of the rumored price of $700. You'll also get better upgradeability as a result of putting together your own pc.

The only thing unique about the steam box is that it brings steam os to a desktop like device. In a world where Bazzite exists, it's not exactly remarkable. The OP's point is that this pc has no legs. It's already outdated today. It hasn't released yet and if you were recommending a pc to someone to build, you would not recommend these terrible specs. This pc will be more expensive than existing consoles while delivering worse performance. The idea of paying more for a pc with worse specs than a console that came out 5 years ago is completely insane.

When I initially saw the device, I was excited to purchase it. Once I learned the specs, I folded. I have a 5090/9900x3d and the idea of a smaller device for the tv sounded appealing. However, no fsr4, 8gb of vram are just tremendous dealbreakers. Even if it was weak, with sufficient vram and good upscaling technology, it would still be viable. In it's current state, it's a big waste of money.
 
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Correct me if I'm wrong but, you can't even play games like Battlefield 6, COD, or Fortnite on steam os...

As one person already pointed out, awful lot of Valve dick sucking going on around here. :messenger_tears_of_joy:
You certainly can. I'm not sure why that makes for "Valve dick sucking", because people are excited or interested in new tech? We don't even know the price of it yet, lmao.

So you're saying you can install windows? Very plug and play.
You can do the exact same thing with the Steam Deck if you wanted to, so doing it with the Steam Machine is no different. My understanding is that it's certainly not a hard thing to do either, at least for those genuinely wanting to do so.
 
1) I too am surprised at the low spec.
2) This is not a 1:1 replacement for a ps5. Not even close and I'm confident it's not meant to be.
3) Cross gen is going to be practically double-crossgen next go around, and this can play anything a ps5 can play.
4) This is a good companion to an enthusiast who already has a ps5, or even ps5 and switch. Someone juse thinking about getting into pc gaming.
5) It's probably not projected to sell more than 5 million or so. So targeting actual edge cases/niche makes sense.
I think that is a perfect avatar bet....but not yet, gotta wait for tga nom announcements, may revisit. Also need info on price.
He's still here. The forum needs an exorcism

The Exorcist GIF by filmeditor
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The most popular vintage games are being actively remastered nowadays more than ever.
A lot of those remaster suck so much ass that I'd rather play the original to be honest. Just look at the abhorrent thing that is the House of the Dead 2 remake.

Remasters are cool (if well done) but it's important to not lose access to the classics.

Correct me if I'm wrong but, you can't even play games like Battlefield 6, COD, or Fortnite on steam os...
The GabeCube is a PC. If you want to play those games, you replace SteamOS with Windows or even create a new partition just for those games.

Firstly, you should have kept reading and not jumped to conclusions
I'm not going to read a whole paragraph that starts by being disingenous. Fuck that.
 
If Valve can manage to price it well it could perform well anywhere in the world. It's pretty compact.

It could do well in Japan but the new digital ps5 price has stolen its chances.
 
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People who game on Steam don't give a fuck about "next gen" (which isn't even a real thing anymore).
that's the most sane response i've read in those days, gens are gone, and sincerely i cannot imagine things going forward will be any different that want valve is trying to do, don't expect more than 1 or 2 exclusive ps6 games in the first years, everything needs to be crossgen and in doing so everything will be multiplat and scalable. Gens are gone, and ps5 is the perfect example. List on ps5 exclusives from wikipedia, not mine
 
The target audience isn't people who already a PC or a PS5. It's people who want to play current gen games but don't own the hardware to do it. In that sense, it's a direct competitor to the PS5 which should make things interesting, finally. Because God knows Xbox hasn't been competitive since the 360 days and Nintendo left the console space a long time ago.
 
I have a rtx 4070 and it is last generation. It considered an upper-mid tier card these days. With that said it would run circles around a PS5/PS5 pro. A 4060 would destroy a ps5 in performance. Last generation does not mean squat. If you took a PS5 console always guy and put him on a machine like this with a 4060 his mind would be blown.
can confirm. got outta PC gaming in 2012 (RIP Hawken), mostly played on PS4 and PS5, found a good deal on a 4060 tower last november for black friday... i wouldn't say my mind was blown, but its certainly a huge step.
 
A lot of those remaster suck so much ass that I'd rather play the original to be honest. Just look at the abhorrent thing that is the House of the Dead 2 remake.
The House of the Dead 2 remake is the only bad one I can remember and even then it's better than nothing.

Most other remasters often bring updated graphics, display modes, bonuses, etc.

Just compare the original Doom on the Saturn with its remaster on the Switch! 😍
 
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People who game on Steam don't give a fuck about "next gen" (which isn't even a real thing anymore).
That is a big lie. I game on steam and I don't recall giving you permission to speak on my behalf. If that were the case, why are there lots of people like me on steam buying 4070s, 4080s, 4090s, 5070s, 5080s and 5090s? Clearly we care.
 
like someone said, it's for those who want to play indie games without the stench of Windows. That's the target market.

IT's for the Valvedictorians. The cream of the crop of the Valve fan club.
 
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CPU should be significantly faster than current gen, Zen 4 vs Zen 2, GPU should be in the ballpark of PS5/XSX. The main problems are 8GB VRAM and (currently) no support for FSR4 upscaling, neither of which are dealbreakers IMO. It's not top-end but it's OK. I think many people will be happy with the on-screen results.
 
CPU should be significantly faster than current gen, Zen 4 vs Zen 2, GPU should be in the ballpark of PS5/XSX. The main problems are 8GB VRAM and (currently) no support for FSR4 upscaling, neither of which are dealbreakers IMO. It's not top-end but it's OK. I think many people will be happy with the on-screen results.
The speed of the cpu is irrelevant as the bottleneck is the gpu. A cutdown 7600 will perform worse than a ps5/xsx in gpu limited scenarios which accounts for a majority of the most played games.
 
CPU should be significantly faster than current gen, Zen 4 vs Zen 2, GPU should be in the ballpark of PS5/XSX. The main problems are 8GB VRAM and (currently) no support for FSR4 upscaling, neither of which are dealbreakers IMO. It's not top-end but it's OK. I think many people will be happy with the on-screen results.
Yep, it's "good enough". Everything is going to depend on pricing and with current memory pricing going nuts and even NVME drives creeping up, that could be problematic.
 
Then don't respond to the post. If you're not going to do the minimum and read the argument before responding to it, then don't clog up the thread by derailing it with rebutting arguments that were never made.
OP opened the thread with a lie and I pointed that out. If that makes you mad it's none of my business. :lollipop_tongue:

the original Doom on the Saturn
I'm not going to put you on ignore because you say funny stuff. But this is the last time you get a response from me.
 
- 8GB of VRAM in 2026
- 512 Gb SSD (and people laugth for XSX or PS5 825GB)
- RDNA 3 (no FSR4 or at least, the best way)
- HDMI 2.0 (4K 60Hz RGB HDR 10 bit not working)

It's just a scam
It can do 4k 120hz, hdr 10bit and vrr. HDMI 2.0 cert is due to one missing feature, it otherwise has all 2.1 features.
 
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Stopped reading there. A PC is able to play most games from the 80s up till today. Good luck playing Thief or Unreal or your PS5.
While reading the original post, I thought about a response I could write. You nailed it, thank you :messenger_peace:

I had a steam deck for a weekend a couple of months back, gave up, too much tinkering.
In the meantime, my son was born with down syndrome. My priorities changed. Even though I have even less time, I purchased a used deck again two weeks ago and accept that not everything works right away and some stuff might never. I constantly run into walls I have to overcome, but I will get there in time. Immensely enjoying the deck now.
I'm interested in the steam machine, depending on the price. But right after the announcement I knew that I would constantly read 'i don't know who this is for', 'I don't know who would buy this' etc. on here :messenger_grinning_sweat: gaf is full of people who can't seem to grasp that there are others out there, other worlds, other views of life, other use cases.
 
It's just a weird segment of people that it seems to be targeting... PC gamers who want to play their existing library on their tv.

Actually now that I've typed that, maybe that's not that weird.
Not weird to me.

I'm quite tired of paying for online subs on console and rebuying my games. I'm just very, very fed up of platforms wanting to be a service themselves, but I totally expect Steam to do something similar.

If the price is right, the proposition is appealing. A reputable brand, a decent spec and value machine that I can also just use as a normal PC or media PC.

So I think there are a growing number of these users who just can't be arsed dealing with some of the above. PS5 is basically just a PC so why not just get a Steam Machine and buy significantly cheaper games.
 
The speed of the cpu is irrelevant as the bottleneck is the gpu. A cutdown 7600 will perform worse than a ps5/xsx in gpu limited scenarios which accounts for a majority of the most played games.

I don't think the difference in user experience in terms of graphics is going to be all that much different than PS5/XSX, but we'll see once Steam Machine is in consumer hands.
 
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