The Steam Machine is a small desktop computer manufactured by Valve, the company behind the PC video game sales platform known as Steam.
The uniqueness of this PC lies in the fact that it has a small, compact and light design, as it is designed to play computer video games available on Steam easily and quickly, as if it were one of the best video game consoles.
How the Steam Machine works
The operating system of the device is SteamOS, which is based on Linux. Thanks to its design and stable operating system, to use the Steam Machine you only have to plug it into the TV or gaming monitor, turn it on, pick up the controller and play. It will not be necessary to configure anything else because the device will do this automatically. Thanks to this, you will not have to deal with the cumbersome graphics settings that are mandatory on a desktop PC or laptop.
As for the gaming experience that you will find on this small computer, according to Valve, it is the same platform that is available on the Steam Deck, although much more efficient, since the Steam Machine is six times more powerful than the Steam Deck.
Technical specifications
The Steam Machine is in the shape of a small and light black cube because its measurements are 156 x 152 x 162 mm with a weight of 2.6 kg. As for its ports, you will have at your disposal: a DisplayPort 1.4 output, an HDMI 2.0, 2 USB-A 3.2, 2 USB 2.0 and 1 USB-C 3.2 Gen 2. In addition, it is compatible with Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3.
The power of the computer will determine the FPS and the resolution at which you can run the video games to enjoy a formidable experience. The Steam Machine's hardware is custom made by AMD. In the CPU you will find an AMD Zen 4 chip with 6 cores and 12 threads with a frequency of 4.8 GHz and a TDP of 30 watts.
For its part, the GPU is made up of an AMD RDNA 3 with 28 computing units, a clock frequency of 2.45 GHz and 8 GB of GDDR6 VRAM. The RAM memory is 16 GB DDR5 and the storage is an NVMe SSD type with 512 GB and 2 TB versions, both expandable through a microSD slot. The cooling has a single 120 mm fan.
Based on its specifications, Valve claims that the Steam Machine has the ability to offer 4K resolution at 60 FPS thanks to AMD's FSR image scaling, which has support for ray tracing. This means that, to reach 4K, the Steam Machine will generate a native image close to 1440p (2K) and then upscale it to 4K through FSR support, so 4K resolution will not be native.
Prices
The costs will depend on the model you choose, Valve offers the following:
– 512 GB of memory without controller: 1039 euros
– 512 GB of memory with remote control: 1108 euros
– 2 TB without controller: 1359 euros
– 2 TB with controller: 1428 euros
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