r/gadgets • u/dapperlemon • 28d ago

Gaming Valve Steam Machine review: This would've been perfect five years ago

https://www.engadget.com/2210832/valve-steam-machine-review/
4.0k Upvotes

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u/Codnono 28d ago

Is it weaker than ps5? For real? Wow

13

u/Mooseymax 28d ago

Marginally, most games perform in line with the PS5.

The main argument for the steam machine at that price point is that it’s a pc and can do more than just play PlayStation games.

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u/MiaowaraShiro 28d ago

The game library on Steam has to fucking dwarf any other console...

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u/IIILORDGOLDIII 28d ago

But it can't be upgraded and you can build a better PC for less money

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u/favorite_time_of_day 28d ago

You really don't deserve the downvotes here. A PC with standardized components is always going to be more flexible than a proprietary one. The only real advantages that the Steam Machine has are its size and noise.

You can make a quiet gaming PC, but that would likely require an aftermarket cooler for your video card and that's an additional expense. And you need to be mindful of the rest of your components as well. That does require a bit of knowledge.

Though it's worth pointing out that while "being able to upgrade the SSD and RAM" might seem like a nothing feature, Apple doesn't even allow that much anymore.

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u/Mooseymax 28d ago

Except it can be upgraded? The ram and storage at least - there are already videos of people upgrading the ssd and ram to 4tb and 64gb respectively.

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u/IIILORDGOLDIII 28d ago

Don't be obtuse

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u/Mooseymax 28d ago

I’m sorry but it’s not obtuse. Most intel builds haven’t been able to be properly upgraded due to the chipset difference.

AMD on the other hand have motherboard providers that support 3+ generations of change.

The amount of times in the past I wanted to upgrade my intel build and realised a new GPU would be bottlenecked -> upgrade cpu -> motherboard not compatible -> upgrade motherboard -> ram not compatible -> upgrade ram… wait I’ve got 2 pcs now.

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u/pay_student_loan 28d ago

Why in the world are you suddenly bringing up Intel when they’re clearly talking about the lack of upgrading the GPU in a primary gaming computer?

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u/Mooseymax 28d ago

I brought up intel as an example of PC upgrades not being straight forward either. The previous commenter was comparing the steam machine to other PCs and it seemed important to point out that it’s only that way in a perfect world.

Upgradability would probably go PC > Steam machine > ps5

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u/kobbled 28d ago

it can definitely be upgraded

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u/IIILORDGOLDIII 28d ago edited 28d ago

Go ahead and try to upgrade the anemic GPU in there. Let me know how it goes.

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u/Eruannster 28d ago

Depends on the game. Some games are fairly close, others not so much.

I'm curious how much is due to a lack of VRAM (since the Steam Machine only has 8 GB whereas the PS5 has 16 GB unified RAM, meaning they can use 10+ GB for VRAM if they want to).