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Valve Claims Steam Machine Outperforms 70% of Current Gaming PCs (www.techpowerup.com)
submitted 11 months ago by to c/pcgaming@lemmy.ca
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[+] -28 points 11 months ago (18 children)

8 GB of VRAM and 16 GB of RAM … those are the specs of my almost 15 years old legacy machine. I doubt that the Steam Machine outperforms anything made in the last 5-10 years.

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  • [–] 22 points 11 months ago (8 children)

    These figures just haven‘t gone up all that much over the last decade. Sure, you can get 128GB of RAM and 24GB of VRAM if you‘re willing to pay for it. But if you don‘t want to spend upwards of $5000 for your PC and you‘re maybe not that experienced, you might just look for a gaming rig from a vendor you‘ve heard of before and get 16GB RAM and 8GB VRAM even in 2025 with current-gen hardware.

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  • [–] 7 points 11 months ago

    I agree, I think it's all about affordability and ease of use. If they can sell them for a nice price (somewhere around the price of a PS5 pro) and they're easy to use I don't see a reason why they wouldn't sell. Hell, I might even buy one myself. I have a very old gaming pc (close to 10 years old now) and even though I've replaced some parts over the years (ram, GPU, storage), the core of it is still very outdated and it might almost be cheaper to switch to something like this then to upgrade my existing pc.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago* (6 children)

    I'm always amazed how much you get taxed for prebuilts. This thing is at least $1k more than what I spent (with a similar config), and the CPU is still worse than the one I got lol.

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  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    I agree with you, but, I also realize that I've been building my own PCs and keeping up with the ins and outs of hardware/software design/developments since roughly the age of 14.

    Most people don't do that.

    Most people (in the US) read write and think at a 5th or 6th grade level.

    They just want box that make play video game go whee!

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago

    IMO if you "just want box that make play video game go whee," you should just buy a console (the Steam Machine, for example). That's literally their purpose.

    Anyway, if you, for instance, just buy parts using recommended parts lists (some of the review sites have good enough builds, or you can just use the brain dead "build with AI" option on Newegg), you could probably just pay a computer store to build it for you for a lot cheaper than $1k.

    Or you could just read the manuals and build it yourself since the manuals are usually pretty straightforward with pictures showing you what to do. It's basically just an expensive LEGO set lol. Really, as long as you can read a manual with pictures and use a screwdriver you're pretty much good.

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  • [+] 5 points 11 months ago (1 child)
    [deleted]
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  • [–] 0 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

    Sure, doesn't really take that long to research and build it though, and in my experience if you get a prebuilt, most people aren't gonna like get it serviced or troubleshoot it with CS unless there's something seriously wrong with it. They'll likely just live with minor annoyances.

    The only significant benefit IMO is if you really end up needing to RMA something (like if the motherboard is shot), you can just RMA the entire thing instead of figuring out which part is messed up. However, I've had mixed experiences RMAing laptops before, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's just as bad for desktops.

    It's definitely not worth $1k+ IMO. If I spent $1k more, I could've gotten a 5090.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Are we looking at the same link? The one I see is listed for $1099, so I'm not sure how you managed to spend $1k less.

    Though anything with an Intel Ultra CPU should go right in the garbage, but that's a different issue.

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  • [–] 18 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    This is the moment where you realize that you are either uncommonly wealthy, or spend significantly more of your money on gaming pcs than most people do.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago (2 children)

    In the whole ~30 years I’m using computers now I probably owned 2-3 computers in total. I wouldn’t say I’m wealthy or spend too much money on PCs, I just get the best hardware available and use it as long as possible.

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  • [–] 5 points 11 months ago*

    Hey I'm not saying too much money, I'm saying significantly more than what most people spend.

    The first is a value/ethical/moral judgement, the second is just numbers, just objective reality.

    8 gigs VRAM, 16 system RAM, 15 years ago?

    Most GPUs 15 years ago had one or two gigs of VRAM.

    As far as I can tell, no consumer grade, 8 gb VRAM gpus even existed in 2010.

    (tho, i guess SLI and Crossfire were things people did back then... maybe you had a dual or even quad gpu system?)

    The first 8 gig VRAM GPU was, I think, the Radeon 290X VAPOR-X, this thing:

    https://videocardz.com/49757/sapphire-launch-radeon-r9-290x-vapor-x-8gb-ram

    Launch MSRP of $650.

    In 2014 dollars.

    That's roughly $880 in todays dollars.

    Thats more expensive than me, right now, getting a 9070 (non xt), those are down to under $600, or not too far off of that, at this very moment.

    Meanwhile, most AMD, budget conscious people are probably still gonna find that too pricey, and go for a 9060 XT, 16 gb version, as they're closer to $350.

    Either your specs are wrong, your recollectiom is wrong, or you're spending a good deal more money on your pc builds than the average person.

    A person who is able to save up and buy some.e pretty solid hardware, only occasionally?

    That's a sign of relative wealth, having the ability to save up and plan. Most people don't have that, at least 25% of the US right now has more debt than wealth, ie negative equity, ie, theyre essentially debt slaves.

    Most people are constantly needing to buy new, shitty shoes, that wear out, because they never have the budget margins to have any real savings, but they gotta keep walkin.

    Like, I also am a person who will save up a good chunk of change, get a new solid machine that'll last a while.

    But I realize that that is far from common.

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  • [–] [S] 16 points 11 months ago

    I doubt that the Steam Machine outperforms anything made in the last 5-10 years.

    It's all about the price... and the very recent years weren't exactly kind in relation for price per performance

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago

    Many modern games can run on a 780m integrated AMD GPU(APU) with FSR and other bells and whistles enabled. One can run some games on a em680 - a palm-sized PC with underpowered 680m GPU. It is not gonna be 4k@60 of course. Could probably be 1080p@30 depending on release year, requirements and settings. But that is a super tiny computer with a built-in GPU that has more power over your typical GPU from 2015!

    Now, Steam Machine is going to have a dedicated GPU that is around as powerful as 7600. With FMF and FSR it could probabaly do many games from 2020 to today at 4k@60. Hardware is not as bad as many think here. There are not so many games that require more than 8gb of VRAM. Maybe they also design SteamOS to work better with custom PCs that are more powerful than Steam Machines. Who knows? But so far, hardware is not so outdated and will be sufficient for a few years.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Must be nice to have such awesome 15yo machine, as my 6yo still have only 4gb vram (1650s).

    If You had enough coins to buy top top tier 2010 rig with 8gb vram back then, You surely had much to upgrade it in 2015, 2020, and also did nice 5090 upgrade this year too! Who cares single 5090rtx do cost 4-6x than whole Gabecube is expected to cost.

    Having industry market is awesome, You can find something ultra powered for Yourself, and I can do find some budget for myself too.

    Ngl, I'm slightly jealous You're in the top 30%, even top of the top of it these 30%, that article is NOT about.

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