Will it be possible to change the GPU or add an external GPU to the Steam Machine?
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Steam Frame, Steam controller and Steam Machine Revealed
- Thread starter Topher
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Bry0
Member
They've expressed the same desire in recent media releases for steam machine. as long as the machine is AMD/AMD there is virtually no difference. Nvidia is a hurdle but that is also another thing valve can only work so quickly on without nvidia changing how they do things. At the end of the day it's just a Linux distro with gamescope. It's not really as special as people seem to think it is.
Topher
Identifies as young
Special only in the sense that everything is done out of the box, but that is important. Whoever it comes down to doing the work, Nvidia is the roadblock right now for a lot of gamers. I've seen that expressed here many times from folks, including myself.
Wolzard
Member
In the latest version of Proton, an automatic converter has been added to use FSR4 on other AMD GPUs.
However, according to the changelog, this feature is disabled by default, according to the developer, due to forces beyond their control. This suggests that something official might come in the future, either from Valve or AMD.
Release Version 3.0 · HansKristian-Work/vkd3d-proton
A new major release, yay! A few milestones have been reached over the last year, warranting a new major bump. It's been quite a while since the last release due to new things coming up constantly. ...
github.com
No, just build a MicroATX PC if you want a fully modular system.
External GPU never make sense. When you add the size of a GPU along with a PSU to run it along side the rest of the machine, you are at the same size of a small standard PC that's fully modular.
RoadHazard
Gold Member
Eh. When the PS5 released the 3090 was the best you could buy, and yeah, that was better than the PS5 GPU, as was the 3080, but the PS5 GPU is somewhere around a 2080 I believe? That was the high end card of the previous Nvidia generation at the time. The PS6 isn't releasing until like 2028, so I really doubt it will be blown away by 40 series cards from 2022. The 60 and probably also 70 series will be out by then. The PS6 will probably match the 5080 at least.
Haint
Member
Why is this man dressed like a street urchin from an 80s movie's dystopian future while sitting in his own home?
Shogmaster
Member
As I have speculated previously, The CPU seems to be Ryzen 5 8540U, and the GPU the RX 7600M. These are from existing AMD previous generation laptop bargain parts bin, and the only customization seems to be slight increase in wattage to increase performance, since as a plugged to the wall box, battery life is not a concern.
8540U was always logical choice among Zen 4 laptop APUs in regards to lowest parts cost possible, since it has the smallest die (137mm^2) with least amount of GPU Compute Units (4 RDNA 3 CUs) since a discrete GPU chip would be included. Other 6 core Zen 4 ULV APUs (7600U,8640U) are 178mm^2 and have dies space wasting 8 CUs.
This CPU choice does incur glaring limitations to the Steam Machine: Low end discrete GPU and only one PCIe 4.0 m.2 SSD slot. 8540U, unlike the other Zen 4 APUs, have mix of full size and compact core CPU cores (not a true 6 core Zen 4 performance), and more importantly maximum of 14 PCIe 4.0 lanes. 7600U and 8640U have 20 lanes. This means 8540U limits the GPU to 8 lanes instead of usual 16 (a more powerful GPU like 7600M XT would be wasted), and you are still left only with 6 lanes for SSD (4x needed) and wireless card (1x).
This limitation forced Valve to only include one m.2 SSD slot, which means if you want to expand the fast storage, you need to discard the original SSD included in the Steam Machine. Most normal Mini PCs include two x4 m.2 slots, and you simply have to add a second m.2 SSD, making storage expansion very simple matter. Steam Machine will force you to install a new copy of Steam OS and transfer old data from the old SSD to the new one. Not ideal at all, especially for a box meant to be user friendly like a console.
For a PC box aiming for console-esque user friendly set up, this is a huge issue. If the buyer wants to avoid all the storage expansion headaches, he/she will be forced to buy the more expensive 2TB version instead of going for 512GB version and upgrading later. $800~900 insead of $600~700 would be a hard pill to swallow if a cheap PC box is the appeal of this box...
8540U was always logical choice among Zen 4 laptop APUs in regards to lowest parts cost possible, since it has the smallest die (137mm^2) with least amount of GPU Compute Units (4 RDNA 3 CUs) since a discrete GPU chip would be included. Other 6 core Zen 4 ULV APUs (7600U,8640U) are 178mm^2 and have dies space wasting 8 CUs.
This CPU choice does incur glaring limitations to the Steam Machine: Low end discrete GPU and only one PCIe 4.0 m.2 SSD slot. 8540U, unlike the other Zen 4 APUs, have mix of full size and compact core CPU cores (not a true 6 core Zen 4 performance), and more importantly maximum of 14 PCIe 4.0 lanes. 7600U and 8640U have 20 lanes. This means 8540U limits the GPU to 8 lanes instead of usual 16 (a more powerful GPU like 7600M XT would be wasted), and you are still left only with 6 lanes for SSD (4x needed) and wireless card (1x).
This limitation forced Valve to only include one m.2 SSD slot, which means if you want to expand the fast storage, you need to discard the original SSD included in the Steam Machine. Most normal Mini PCs include two x4 m.2 slots, and you simply have to add a second m.2 SSD, making storage expansion very simple matter. Steam Machine will force you to install a new copy of Steam OS and transfer old data from the old SSD to the new one. Not ideal at all, especially for a box meant to be user friendly like a console.
For a PC box aiming for console-esque user friendly set up, this is a huge issue. If the buyer wants to avoid all the storage expansion headaches, he/she will be forced to buy the more expensive 2TB version instead of going for 512GB version and upgrading later. $800~900 insead of $600~700 would be a hard pill to swallow if a cheap PC box is the appeal of this box...
analog_future
Resident Crybaby
You could very easily just plug in an external USB ssd.
Bernkastel
Ask me about my fanboy energy!
Digital Foundry did a video comparing Switch 2 and Steam Deck
Games are way better optimized for Switch 2. It would be the same with Steambox vs PS5. But when the PS6 arrives, the Steambox will look a generation older.
Games are way better optimized for Switch 2. It would be the same with Steambox vs PS5. But when the PS6 arrives, the Steambox will look a generation older.
PeteBull
Member
Yups, i keep reminding fellow gafbros where the gpu in gabecube stands among pc hierarhy, its way below base peasant station 5 even, and it will only launch sometime in 2026...
www.techpowerup.com
Even rx 9060xt 16gigs, which is budget amd option, streetprice of 350$ is fricken 81% faster on avg, not to mention rdna3 to 4 archi so much better rt and ai upscaling and on top 2x vram pool which will be crucial in under 2 years once next gen ps6 and xbox pc launch.
AMD Radeon RX 7600M Specs
AMD Navi 33, 2410 MHz, 1792 Cores, 112 TMUs, 64 ROPs, 8192 MB GDDR6, 2000 MHz, 128 bit
Even rx 9060xt 16gigs, which is budget amd option, streetprice of 350$ is fricken 81% faster on avg, not to mention rdna3 to 4 archi so much better rt and ai upscaling and on top 2x vram pool which will be crucial in under 2 years once next gen ps6 and xbox pc launch.
Themacabre
Member
You are thinking like a PC person though, worrying about some future that won't happen. People aren't going to upgrade the storage at all, nor would they need to. This is the same as people bringing up that they can't replace the video card or CPU when the number of people that actually do things like that is an unbelievably small % of an already small %.
Topher
Identifies as young
That's not necessarily true about "most normal mini PCs". I've looked at plenty of them over the last couple of years and it is not uncommon at all for there to be one m.2 slot And there is no need to discard the 512gb. As
analog_future
said, external USB storage or microSD are options
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I collect VHS tapes
Gold Member
FYI you can get 20% off using the PayPal promo right now.
You can get 20% back on Steam credit by using PayPal's Pay in 4 (after unchecking "save my info") and, with Augmented Steam, add custom wallet amounts up to $1,250 to fully take advantage of the promo.
You can get 20% back on Steam credit by using PayPal's Pay in 4 (after unchecking "save my info") and, with Augmented Steam, add custom wallet amounts up to $1,250 to fully take advantage of the promo.
Shogmaster
Member
Most 6 core Zen 4 mini PC uses 7600U which has 20 lanes. They all offer two m.2s.That's not necessarily true about "most normal mini PCs". I've looked at plenty of them over the last couple of years and it is not uncommon at all for there to be one m.2 slot And there is no need to discard the 512gb. As
I'd say any none Intel N series mini PCs offers two slots.
Shogmaster
Member
Broseph, Steam Machine don't even have USB 4. You are stuck with 10Gbps which mean max speed is 1.2GB per second with NVMe external SSDs vs upto 8GB per second internal...
Topher
Identifies as young
Can you link to an example mini PC of what you are talking about?
Minsc
Gold Member
Kinda sucks the Ally X handheld can use external GPUs and docks at USB4 speeds 40Gbps, but the actual desktop/MiniPC Steam Machine is chained to slow speeds, so if you want to use a USB4 hub or dock, it'll be a lot slower on this than the Ally X.
Probably the first real disappointing thing I've read so far about the device.
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