Valve's new Steam Machine is a smart little gaming PC that looks at home on a desk or under the TV. Could it pose a threat to games consoles too?
When you think of gaming PCs, you almost inevitably think of Windows-based hardware. However, Valve is hoping to change that mindset with the unveiling of the Steam Machine. It might even change your mind about what a games console is.
, Valve is making a fresh assault on the gaming hardware market with the Steam Machine, a new Steam Controller and the Steam Frame – a VR headset.Let’s start with the Steam Machine, Valve’s second attempt to get into the PC hardware business. Valve first tried to get Steam Machines off the ground a decade ago, working with hardware partners such as Alienware and Zotac to produce systems based on SteamOS. It wasn’t a roaring success. Varying specs and poor games support for the Linux-based OS killed the concept at birth. Things are in a much better place this time around. Valve has already proven with the Steam Deck that its Proton compatibility layer can comfortably run most Windows games on the Linux-based SteamOS, plus the design of the OS itself has been massively refined. Playing games on SteamOS feels much like playing games on an Xbox or PlayStation. It’s arguably a smoother, more streamlined experience than the consoles.Steam’s also making the hardware itself this time around, not relying on third-party hardware designs. And the new Steam Machine looks very smart indeed. The hardware is a compact black cube – much smaller than an Xbox Series X – that will look equally at home underneath the TV in a living space as it would on a desk. Customizable face plates and an LED strip running along the front of the machine make it more attractive than your average gaming PC. It will have a semi-custom AMD Zen 4 CPU running at up to 4.8GHz and another semi-custom AMD RDNA3 GPU, running at up to 2.45GHz. The company claims it will have six times the graphical power of the Steam Deck. The big question mark from the spec sheet is whether it has enough memory: 16GB of DDR5 RAM is at the low-end for a modern gaming rig, as is 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM. However, the Linux-based OS is not as demanding as Windows, so it may not be a huge issue. There will be two different models, one with a rather tight 512GB of SSD storage, another with a more spacious 2GB. Both will include a “high-speed” microSD card slot, although that’s not the ideal media for storing games. Connectivity wise, it’s a bit disappointing that the Ethernet socket is only Gigabit, and the Wi-Fi is also a generation behind, sticking with 2x2 Wi-Fi 6E. Bluetooth 5.3 is included, and there are four USB-A ports and one USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 for connecting peripherals. Interestingly, the trailer video suggests Valve sees this device being used for more than just gaming. “Steam Machine is a PC, so run whatever software you want,” the narrator states, showing someone running a multi-monitor desktop. SteamOS has a desktop mode based on Arch Linux, which makes much more sense on a desktop PC than the Steam Deck handheld.The Steam Machine has an integrated 2.4GHz wireless adapter for the new Steam Controller, which was also announced by Valve. The new Controller will work with regular PCs and Macs too, but Valve obviously wanted a custom controller to pair with its new desktop hardware. The Steam Controller brings ideas from the Steam Deck, most notably dual touchpads under each of the sticks, which makes it easier to control games that are primarily designed for mouse and keyboard input. Aside from the regular XYAB buttons and the four shoulder buttons, there are also four “grip buttons” on the back of the controller which can be assigned to different functions. Each of the controllers comes with a “Puck” that’s used for charging and providing the wireless connection to the PC, if you’re not using a Steam Machine. The battery will last for almost 36 hours of gameplay, the company claims.Finally, there’s a new VR headset entering the fray too, in the form of the Steam Frame. Valve is calling this a “streaming first” headset, and it comes with a Wi-Fi 6 dongle to create a smooth connection between the headset and a Steam Machine/other gaming PC. However, the device itself runs SteamOS and it can play games directly, the idea being you switch to streaming for the more demanding titles. The Steam Frame has 2,160 x 2,160 resolution per eye, with what’s described as an “experimental” maximum refresh rate of 144Hz. The field of view is up to 110 degrees. It comes with a pair of handheld controllers that have a similar layout to the Controller, albeit without the touchpads. There is capacitive finger tracking on the back of each controller though.The Steam Machine, Controller and Frame will all be available in “early 2026”. However, what we don’t have yet is any firm indication on price.that the Steam Machine will be priced comparably to a PC with similar specs, but it’s hard to draw many conclusions from that. The Steam Deck remains more keenly priced than many of the Windows handhelds, so hopefully the same will hold true for the Steam Machine. If Valve can keep the price of the entry-level Steam Machine in the region of $500-$750 it might even prove competitive with Xbox and PlayStation games consoles, especially as there’s no sign of next generation hardware from either Microsoft or Sony. Steam has already set the standard for handheld gaming. Could it become the new standard for desktop/beneath-the-TV gaming too? Don’t bet against it.
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