---
title: 'DF Direct Q+A: Steam Machine - The Big Price/Performance/Form Factor Discussion'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=XEyuXkI5wBM'
video_id: 'XEyuXkI5wBM'
date: 2026-07-01
duration_sec: 2447
---

# DF Direct Q+A: Steam Machine - The Big Price/Performance/Form Factor Discussion

> Source: [DF Direct Q+A: Steam Machine - The Big Price/Performance/Form Factor Discussion](https://youtube.com/watch?v=XEyuXkI5wBM)

## Summary

The DF Direct Q&A show discusses the Steam Machine's pricing, performance, and form factor. Hosts debate whether the $1,049 price tag is justified by its compact size and console-like experience, or if it's overpriced compared to DIY builds and traditional consoles.

### Key Points

- **Steam Machine Price** [03:21] — The Steam Machine starts at $1,049, which is significantly higher than expected and a major point of criticism.
- **DIY vs Steam Machine Size** [09:16] — You can build a more powerful PC for the same price, but it won't be as small (4L vs ~20L for mini-ITX) or as quiet.
- **Console Comparison Flaws** [16:34] — Direct comparisons to consoles are flawed because the Steam Machine plays PC games and doesn't require a monthly subscription for multiplayer.
- **Target Audience** [14:24] — The target audience is PC gamers who already have a Steam library and want a simple living room device, not console converts.
- **Valve's Pricing Constraints** [10:37] — Value didn't want to sell at this price; they lack the sourcing capabilities of Sony/Microsoft, leading to higher component costs.
- **Unified Memory Impractical** [23:10] — Unified memory would require a custom APU costing hundreds of millions, or an expensive chip like Strix Halo, making it impractical.
- **8GB VRAM Limitation** [22:38] — The 8GB GPU memory is a limitation but acceptable for this class of GPU; the verified program can help manage settings.
- **Valve's Commitment** [19:49] — Valve is committed to Steam OS and future hardware (Steam Deck 2) despite current supply chain challenges.
- **Nvidia Support Potential** [34:29] — Proper Nvidia support for Steam OS would be a game-changer, expanding its reach significantly.
- **Acoustics and Thermal Performance** [07:50] — The Steam Machine is whisper-quiet and performed well even in a 30°C heatwave during FSR4 testing.

## Transcript

Hello there and a warm if not very very
very warm welcome to the latest edition
of the DF direct Q&A show. Yes, we're
enduring a heat wave here. So um yes,
recording this under bright lights is uh
just the ticket. Uh joining me for this
particular show, it is Will Jud. Hello.
>> Hello. Good to be here. Looking forward
to talking about the steam machine with
somebody that actually owns a steam
machine. Incredible.
>> Yes. And there it is. Uh just just over
there. There we go. You can see it right
there. Tiny little cube there. Awesome
stuff. Um yes. Um let's just get
straight onto it. But first, this this
video is brought to you in association
with MSI and the MSI summer kickoff sale
is here. Upgrade your setup with huge
savings across MSI products. Get up to
£500 off desktops, up to 40% off
monitors, and deals across components.
Looking for a monitor upgrade? The Mag
341 CQP QD OLED is now £300 off, reduced
from £799 to just £499.
Plus, leave a review after purchase and
claim a £25 Steam code. Or experience
ultra high refresh rate gaming with the
Mag 272QP QD OLED X50. Now £200 off and
you can claim a £40 Steam code. And the
savings don't stop there. Find deals on
cases, cooling, power supplies, and
more. like 44% off the Mag Pano M100LPZ,
now just $49.99. With over 150 items
included in the MSI Summer Kickoff sale,
it's an excellent time to upgrade your
setup. And don't forget to claim your
Steam codes when you leave a review on
select products. Check out the MSI
summer kickoff sale now with the link in
the video description below.
Okay, so obviously the pricing of Steam
Machine, I think it's been the biggest
negative factor. I think we highlighted
that in the review. Um, and obviously
the discourse surrounding the machine is
basically defined by that price point.
Um, man, we've got uh a lot of points to
cover on this one. Let's just take this
question from Marcus. Hi, I found him an
exclamation point. The Steam Machine
price has landed and wow, the price
debate has been adnauseium has been had
adnauseium though that is not really
what I wanted to ask about. Part of the
value proposition seems to be form
factor integration and library access.
My dad is not a serious PC gamer, but I
already have a large Steam library, so
family sharing would give him an instant
pool of games without needing to build a
library from scratch. I could buy or
build him a traditional gaming PC, but
realistically, he does not want a tower
or Windows Windows setup or something
that he feels like a hobby project.
Yeah, fair point. Um, the appeal of the
Steam Machine is is a neat whisper quiet
little cube of Steam OS that offers
something much closer to a console style
experience while still giving access to
the flexibility of PC gaming. So, my
question is uh how should we think about
the value of that kind of product? If
performance is broadly in line with
similarly priced small PCs or DIY
builds, is it actually a strength that
Valve is delivering something this
compact, standardized, and console-like
for roughly the same money? I hope you
have a great week. ation point. Um, this
is an interesting question, isn't it,
Will? Because fundamentally, um, the
key, um, criticism of the Steam machine
is the fact that it does start at $1,049
and you can build, uh, an equivalent
machine, a more powerful machine for the
same price. However, pretty much all of
those machines that I've seen are kind
of like your your standard um, PC towers
or mini towers. Um, small form factor.
even then you're not dealing with like a
you know a 6 in 6 in cubed little device
like the steam machine over there. Um
what do you make of this uh discussion
about pricing?
>> I mean yeah I think it's obviously very
unfortunate for anyone that was looking
forward to it to suddenly have the
prospect of uh a machine that is much
much more than we kind of expected and
that Valve pitched as being a kind of
console equivalent device. And yeah, I
mean, I think that's just kind of the
reality of the day, unfortunately. And I
think, you know, PS5, Switch to uh
Series X, and the upcoming consoles are
all going to likely go up in price based
on our projections. It seems like this
kind of crisis is going to continue for
a long time. So clearly Valve have baked
in maybe, you know, three months, six
months of price increases into what it
uh, you know, what their cost price is
for the the Steam Machine, and they've
come up with this, you know, $1,049
price to kind of make sure they don't
have to change it immediately. Um, and
yeah, it's expensive. There's no way
around it. But I think, you know,
>> I think Marcus and Marcus' dad are in a
really good situation here in that
they're going to benefit really well
from the Steam Machine. You know, it
sounds like they don't need necessarily
the the most powerful PC that you could
buy for the money. They need something
that is, you know, flexible, works
easily, integrates easily into a living
room, and it takes advantage of the fact
that Marcus already has a big Steam
library, and there's a really good
family sharing option. So, you know,
from that point of view, obviously
you're paying more, but you are getting
some stuff in return that you don't get
from a standard PC build. And I think
that's fairly reasonable. Um, yeah. What
do you think?
>> Well, uh, it's a tricky one, right?
Because, um, uh, there's been
comparisons to PlayStation 5 and PS5
Pro. The PlayStation 5 from a GPU
perspective is a little bit more
powerful. From a CPU perspective, it's
less powerful. Uh the PS5 Pro um
obviously that's still cheaper but has a
much better GPU and the gap between the
CPUs closes up a little bit. Um the
issue with these comparisons with with I
mean there's all manner of comparisons
going on here and the issue with them is
that we're comparing um apples to
oranges. So let's consider first of all
the PlayStation side of things. First of
all, you know, and it's kind of borne
out by Marcus' case here. um if he
bought his dad a PlayStation 5, he's not
going to be able to play his PC games on
it. So, you know, this is kind of like,
you know, it's it's it kind of that sort
of argument only applies to a specific
person who doesn't have an existing
library of games anywhere. So, I don't
understand. I mean, I think in terms of
like um building out a console
comparison in terms of like the
performance of the machine, the
performance profile of the Steam machine
to get an idea of what it can do, I
think that's entirely valid and that's
what we did. But, you know, as I said in
the review, you can't play your PC games
on it. So, it's kind of academic. It's
more about, you know, getting the sort
of laying the sort of expectation level
of what we would have expected from that
hardware. So, you know, console
comparisons valid to a certain extent,
but not really borne out by the real
world. Now, you have the PC comparisons
where, you know, we did it as well. You
know, it's kind of like, well, what kind
of PC can you build for the same money?
And the answer is um pretty much the
same thing, but you can put in an um
RX960 XT uh which is a much more
powerful proposition than the Steam
machine. However, are are we comparing
like by like for like rather when you're
sort of dealing with tiny little box
there and and sort of mini tower PC? I
don't think we are. Um that's that's
kind of you know the whole point of the
Steam Machine I think was to kind of
like move PC gaming into different
spaces, specifically the living room I
guess in this case. And um those
machines do not meet that criteria. They
don't do that really. Um secondly,
there's a lot of other little things in
there. you know the um the acoustics
just awesome. I mean we we are running a
heatwave here. I was doing some FSR4
testing on Steam Machine yesterday and
it was still operating just fine despite
the fact that within my office it was in
excess of 30° C. you know, if that was a
a PC, that would have been like, you
know, fans at maximum warp
and even then, you know, maybe things
would have uh sort of, you know, uh the
performance would have dropped a bit,
but um yeah, so are we comparing like
like for like there? Not really. Um and
then you have kind of like um building
your miniITX machine. I think that's a
fair shout, right? because you can you
can build a living room PC, but at the
same time um what's the warranty
situation like? You know, there's
there's a reason why um pre-builts
exist. And um yeah, you kind of want to
have a sort of backup of um assurances
that the thing is going to work uh and
and be sort of serviced if something
goes wrong. And secondly, there's the
concept that maybe you don't want to
build a PC. Crazy thought, I know.
So, one thing I've been thinking about
is that, you know, even when you do make
this miniITX PC, and we speced out a few
for the website, is that you're going to
end up with something that's probably a
little bit more expensive than the Steam
Machine when all is said and done. You
got to build it yourself. And you're
getting something that's really unlikely
to be as small as the Steam Machine is.
Like even a small miniITX PC is often,
you know, in the 20 L kind of range and
the Steam Machine is what, like 4 L. So
there's a huge gulf in, you know, where
you can stick that and how nice it looks
and everything else, right? So I don't
know, obviously, you know, Valve are
making it as easy as possible for people
to go out and make their own mini ITX
PCs and have the other way of doing it,
right? So, they're kind of leaving all
the options open, which I respect, but
obviously having the Steam Machine in
such a nice form factor and with all the
extra little features it has, like being
able to control your TV, there is value
for that. And I don't think it's
unreasonable for people to say, you know
what, that that sounds good to me. Like
one point they've made a lot with the um
Steam Machine is that it's so much more
powerful than the Steam Deck. And people
have gotten so much running on that and
have had really good experiences with
it. And I think we're going to see a
similar situation where, you know, the
Steam machine comes out and game
developers start to target the device a
little bit. We have the verified program
to know where games are going to run
well or not and people are going to be
able to get, you know, every last bit of
performance out of the thing. So, I
think, you know, there's a strong
argument to say like this is going to
age relatively well,
>> right? Yeah. I mean, it all depends what
those new consoles do next year and how
they're priced. I think fundamentally I
think the core problem here, the core
issue is that basically Valve didn't
want to sell this machine uh at this
price point. I think that's the bottom
line. They were looking for something
else.
>> And um when I spoke to Valve, it was
kind of like well you know we saw you
added like circa 40% price um to the
Steam Deck
>> and um is it a similar margin for Steam
Machine? And they kind of indicated that
broadly yes but you know Steam Machine
has more memory than Steam Deck etc etc.
If you apply the same multiple to um the
the $1,049, you start at $750,
which is still kind of like um you know,
in excess of PlayStation 5 money, but
kind of a bit more understandable at
that point. You know, it sort of works.
And then we found out, you know, um that
um Valve simply don't have the sourcing
capabilities to get the the same kind of
um deals as Sony and Microsoft, etc. And
so that's where we are. you know,
basically they've they've um they need
some to improve logistics, I think, in
order to be able to secure those deals.
But the promise has not been fulfilled,
I guess, is the main problem here, which
is kind of like, yes, we're going to
bring a console style box and um it's
it's built on affordable parts. You
know, those AMD CPU and GPU they've got
in there, they are essentially salvage
parts from other products. And um uh you
know the promise was yeah we've put this
together uh the form factor is great and
um you know pricing should be reasonable
I think was that uh was was the basic
idea but the pricing for whatever reason
isn't reasonable and and we are where we
are. Yeah, it it's certainly uh um a bit
of a sad situation really, but I guess
we were kind of expecting it to happen
when we saw the price increases on the
on the Steam Deck
>> because um they were just crazy high to
the point where you looked at like an
Asus Rog Alli X, the Xbox Alli X uh
handheld and it was like $50 more for so
much more. Um yeah, I mean I'm going to
be interested to see if the um you know
the likes of MSI, Asus, maybe uh you
know um the people that assemble
pre-builts like Cyber Power come up with
their own small form factor machines
that that kind of offer the extra
performance with a similar um with a
similar price point possibly. I mean the
build that you put together for the
website I thought it was pretty good. Um
obviously it's a bit bigger but still
kind of fits the remit.
>> Yeah. I mean,
>> yeah. Um, it's it's just really sad.
Let's move on to this question from
anxiously chrono figured. Hey, DF crew.
I st I struggle to understand who the
target audience for the Steam machine
is, especially at this price. I admit it
looks cool, but so does the Series X.
Um, Steam OS is amazing, but if the main
aim is to have a nice piece of hardware
that provides a good gaming experience
in the living room, then the current
consoles already do that. It could have
been a great entry point into the uh
Yeah, it could have been a great entry
point into the PC world. And I admit I
considered buying one on sale before the
Ramageddon and storage aocalypse.
But good prices and sales are just a
couple more things AI has taken away
from us. Cheers. Exclamation point. I
think you know basically as as we've
already mentioned here, the problem here
with that kind of comparison is it you
know it kind of suggests that you aren't
playing games at the moment. Therefore
you don't have an existing library.
Therefore, you have the choice to choose
an ecosystem. Whereas, you know,
basically, I think chances are you're
probably already invested in one
ecosystem.
And um you're going to need to be buying
machines within that ecosystem, whether
it's PlayStation, Xbox, or PC. So, I
think, you know, that's kind of like the
target audience for the Steam Machine is
the PC gamer who maybe just wants to be
able to play fast-free games within the
living room. And um I think that was the
target audience and I think maybe there
was um aspirations of expanding that
audience um by providing you know really
good accessible hardware. I'm not sure
what you think about that.
>> Yeah, I I I think yeah I I agree pretty
much. I think anxiously chrono triggered
is in the same situation that a lot of
people are in where they thought oh yeah
I maybe I've heard about the Steam Deck.
I've tried a Steam Deck that's really
good. Valve can make some really nice
hardware and so I have belief that this
will be good for the price and it, you
know, it looks reasonable and has these
other advantages and I'm sure Valve are
also, you know, very upset and gutted
that, you know, things have gotten so
expensive. So, you know, I I think that
obviously takes away from the mainstream
aspect that Valve are probably going to
try and target for this, but it still
doesn't mean that um you know, the the
Steam Machine is necessarily the only
way forward. Like, it's a very good
option if you want something that's very
streamlined and works well. And, you
know, they're making it easy to to build
your own if you want to do that instead.
Um, one more thing is I I guess you know
Sony and Microsoft and Nintendo are all
kind of insulated against price
increases just because they operate on
such scale and they have a lot more
leverage when it comes to suppliers.
Obviously, Valve is completely the other
end of the scale. But we may see that
when it comes time for the next
generation consoles that they're also
going to be at these kind of ridiculous
price points and it just becomes the new
normal. And maybe at that point the
Steam Machine becomes a little bit more
viable when people can say, "Ah, yeah,
the PS, well, it's £1,500 though, so
maybe I'll go for that cut price Steam
Machine instead and get a similarly uh
fluid experience." I mean, who knows?
But yeah,
>> I mean, yeah, talking about again the
console comparisons here because
anxiously figured he's is picking it up
again basically. Um the the pricing
doesn't really again it's apples to
oranges, right? Because you're buying
your PlayStation for $600 at this point,
right? Um and however, you're um
basically locked into that specific
store with no competition. Um, you're
also paying a monthly fee for
multiplayer.
>> Yeah.
>> So, there's a lot going on in terms of
um cost throughout the whole ecosystem
there that maybe isn't being factored
into this at all, which I think is a bit
disingenuous. I guess my question to
you, Will, is like um I'm pretty sure
that when Valve released the Steam Deck,
right, I think the base model was like
$399 for the 64 gig um flash version. um
they must have been subsidizing that
they must have been um basically taking
a loss on the units sold and I think if
they were I think they've in fact they
even mentioned that the pricing was
painful for them from a certain
perspective it was new for them but you
know from that point of view um there is
a strong argument that Steam Deck was
looking to expand the audience
>> you know to bring PC gaming to different
places I'm not sure that applies to this
but what do you make of this um
statement that Valve put out about not
subsidizing um the Steam Machine at all.
>> Yeah, it's interesting. I feel like they
could have maybe gone halfway and maybe
just bundled the controller for no extra
cost, something like that, because
presumably that isn't as um dependent on
other uh you know on flash storage
basically being expensive. So, they
could have done something to make it a
bit more amenable, but I kind of get the
point that they don't want to just
undercut anyone else who potentially
could be making mini PCs and kind of get
an unfair advantage from that. I mean,
I'm not sure if that's entirely not
truthful, but if that's the the entire
story, but I can kind of understand that
if you get into the habit of subsidizing
things, then you're kind of dependent on
people definitely using Steam OS and
definitely buying a lot of things from
Steam and it kind of sets maybe the
wrong expectation for the future. So, I
don't know. In the end, it didn't
happen. So yeah, not much really to say
about that, I guess, other than the the
controller bundle thing could could have
been better, but
>> I don't know. What do you think?
>> Um, I think there is two sides to this
because um the pricing is now dominating
the the discussion on this to the point
where it is effectively detrimental to
the product. That said, do do Valve care
>> uh because they're going to sell all of
them anyway and they're not going to uh
miss out on um games being bought on
Steam because you know if somebody
builds their own Steam machine
>> and they're putting Steam OS on it,
they're likely going to be buying their
games on Steam. And even if they're just
a PC gamer, they're likely to be buying
their games on Steam.
Um it was really interesting in the
interview. Uh there are a lot of things
that um we talked about and uh you
supplied a lot of the questions to that
but there was one that I put at the end
which was basically you know this
situation isn't great you know is are
you still going to continue uh
developing Steam Deck 2
uh because you know this pricing
situation isn't going to change in the
foreseeable future. That's their read on
it. And uh the response was basically,
well, people still need to play games
and we're going to make the hardware
that makes that possible. So, you know,
they're still all in on this despite all
of this crazy stuff going on. Yeah. I
just think that, you know, there was a
very sort of specific balance for this
product when it was put together in the
initial stages. It was to create
something more accessible. It was to
create something cute and exciting. And
I think they succeeded on that. And um I
think also there was a pricing part to
it which was to make it affordable and
that's the reason why you get that
specific CPU and that specific GPU um
which aren't you know they aren't great
parts let's be clear you know they're
kind of like just a touch above entry
level really if we if we're looking uh
looking at it but you know taken as a
product altogether with a decent price
it would have done really really well. I
mean, we are in a situation now where
yes, it's going to sell out most likely
because they can, you know, they're not
able to make as many of them as they
wanted to in the first place, but in
terms of that target audience, I think
it's now skewed from, you know, maybe
expanding that audience just to kind of
like um uh doing something for the core
who have to pay for the privilege.
Okay, let's move on to the next
question. This one comes from Steve Mil.
Hey Fman, exclamation point. uh did
Valve miss the mark by not using unified
memory for the Steam machine. They
shipped with 24 GB total memory uh which
thus is their total cost. However, only
8 GB is addressible by the GPU. Seems
like a big miss. Having the consolelike
flexibility of unified memory would have
at least solved the 8 GB GPU limitation
and solved some performance issues
without modifying the overall costs.
Thoughts?
I have some thoughts. So, um, basically,
yeah, unified memory is really cool and
it makes a lot of sense for certain
applications, but you are kind of paying
a price for it. Um, obviously, if it's
soldered to the board, then the user
can't upgrade it. Uh, Valve can't easily
make changes to how much they're going
to equip each machine with. And there's
a trade-off in terms of your RAM wants
to be really low latency, your VRAM is
kind of really high bandwidth and you
can only satisfy, you know, one of those
things at a time with the unified
memory, right? It kind of has to sit
somewhere in the middle. Whereas if you
have RAM which can be all in on low
latency and VRAM which can be allin in
high bandwidth, then there's potentially
some performance implications there,
right? So yes, they they could have done
it a bit differently, but clearly I
think you know the core issue is that 8
GB is just about enough. It's not ideal,
but on this class of GPU, which is kind
of, you know, we we roughly think it's
between the RX6600 and the 7600,
somewhere in that region.
>> 8 GB is a limitation, but it's not a a
drastic limitation. And hopefully
through the verified program they can at
least guarantee that most games will
come out with um you know specs and and
settings at a certain level that that
isn't a problem.
>> I think there's a design issue here
which uh Stephen is perhaps overlooking
is the fact that um to be able to use
unified memory you basically need to
unify the CPU and the GPU as well.
>> Yeah.
>> Uh which which isn't part of the design
here. So, you know, when you've got that
unified uh SOC, which would be, you
know, the the CPU, the GPU, the media
encoders, everything sits on a single
slice of silicon and um then you can
have like a single unified memory
interface that attaches to uh the
memory, which would be in this case, I
guess, GDDR6 or 7. Um the problem is
that um that would require spinning up
an entirely new processor out of
nowhere. So basically then you're
looking at hundreds of millions of
dollars in development costs in creating
a new APU from scratch. Um the only
other alternative I think would have
been for Valve to do some kind of
variant on Stricks Halo which does that
job.
>> Yeah.
>> Uh which has you know they could have
maybe locked off one of the chiplets uh
for the CPU. You don't need 16 cores and
32 threads for a Steam machine.
um uh then you're left with the uh main
um GPU slice there where maybe there
would have been salvage parts for that
as well. The issue there is that Stricks
Halo is first of all gigantically
expensive. Uh secondly, you're getting
performance in line with a PlayStation 5
when you're when you're when you're
using Stricks Halo, which is ultimately
just a bit better than um what the Steam
Machine is already delivering.
>> Yeah,
>> you would have had the advantage of
unified memory, of course. Um but that's
um uh you would have likely ended up
with a much more expensive processor in
the in in the in the process there. when
looking at what uh Valve has actually
delivered here, it is, you know,
essentially um a lower-end mobilebased
CPU cluster um has been sort of factored
into a GPU as well, but it is
fundamentally a mobile CPU. And I think
you know the the GPU is kind of desktop
class. It is Na'vi 33, the same as the
RX7600,
but it has a lot in common with the um
7600M, which also has the 28 compute
units. Um so yeah I think it's basically
a case that um the fact that there is a
separate CPU and GPU was done for uh
cost reasons and then because you've got
a separate GPU it can't share the same
memory as the uh as as the main CPU. So
that's kind of like how things ended up
there. I mean, I think it would have
been awesome to do a a Stricks Halo box.
And I think fundamentally, if people are
looking for um um a small form factor PC
uh that is sort of more powerful or as
powerful as a PlayStation 5 that does
have unified memory to overcome that
issue, you're looking at a Stricks Halo
box. And a Stricks Halo box is way, way
more than $1,049.
Uh, interesting question nonetheless,
but yeah, kind of like um suggests that
Steam Machine shares design concepts in
line with a standard console, but that's
not really how it works.
>> Okay, let's move on. I got a question
here from Matt GPT. Hello Jets. Uh, with
a Steam controller now pushing back
deliveries until 2027, is it realistic
to expect Valve to ship anything at in
volume at the moment? The Deca
controller are impossible to get hold
of. The machine and frame are delayed to
an unknown date. And we have been
waiting for HalfLife 3 for more than two
decades.
This seems to be a bit more of a problem
than being directly triggered by the
RAM/s storage supply constraints. Enjoy
the mini heatwave. I'm not enjoying it.
Uh as it seems to be nice for every
nation in which the DFT reside. Yeah,
it's not great. Um,
basic question here from Matt GPT. Can
Valve ship anything at this point? And I
think basically the answer is it's
challenging clearly.
>> Yeah, definitely. I mean, obviously the
RAM and SSD pricing situation doesn't
help. The fact that there's inflation,
the fact that there's, you know, tension
on supply lines in general, you know,
it's just a bit of a weird time to make
or ship anything. um they are going to
be shipping the Steam machine soon I
guess. So that proves that they can
still do something and obviously the
Steam Deck although it is now extremely
expensive we do expect that to
eventually come back onto the market and
be purchasable and whatnot. So clearly,
you know, Valve as a as a company is
functional, but I think the interesting
thing about Valve is that they're kind
of masters of their own destiny in that
both they have a huge amount of money
and they have the luxury of being able
to say, "This is what I really want to
do, and I'm and I'm happy to wait until
it's done, until it's perfectly ready,
and then we'll do whatever we want."
They also have, you know, employees
within Valve are kind of free to choose
what teams and what projects they work
on. So they're probably a little bit
less pushed by an outside force to bring
things to completion, which you know,
traditional companies typically do have
somebody in that role, right? So there
are some kind of structural things
there, but I mean, nobody's having a
good time shipping things at the moment.
Everyone is, you know, thinking, okay,
well, how do we make this cheaper? How
do we, you know, get away with not
shipping our new products yet? How do we
wait until things cool off? So, you
know, in in in one sense, yes, they
haven't shipped that much, but at the
same sense, everyone is dealing with the
same challenges, and, you know, we're
seeing a lot of things getting delayed
right now. So, I don't think it's a
purely Valve problem.
>> Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think it's just
extremely tricky for them. I mean, the
stories that um they shared in the
interviews about sourcing RAM sounds
completely nightmarish, to be honest.
And um yeah, I mean basically it seems
to be a sort of wild west in terms of uh
logistics and procurement at the moment
which isn't great for them at all. I do
wonder I mean we did discuss um in fact
um one of the the questions that you put
down when we uh spoke to Valve was about
sort of securing um third party
partnerships
>> you know in in in getting um in getting
these components and maybe that is a
route forward for them going forward.
Yeah, certainly tricky though. Yeah, I
think to sort of summarize on this one,
I think the obviously there's issues at
Valve in terms of actually getting stuff
out of the door at this point and it
certainly seems to be very very tricky
and I'm not sure based on the
conversations we had with them that it's
going to get any easier for them anytime
soon. I mean there have been sort of um
um comments from AMD that maybe things
are going to ease up um sort of maybe
towards uh the tail end of next year and
into 2028 but I didn't get any kind of
indication from Valve that they feel the
situation is going to change at all. Um,
but they did say that, you know, if it
does change, they'll be rethinking
pricing on Steam Machine, which I think
is obviously a logical route forward
there, especially if there are going to
be new consoles coming out, which, you
know, may be putting pressure on the
Steam Machine price point.
>> Maybe not because they are existing in
different markets, I guess. Yeah, but
it's not great. Okay, let's move on. Got
this question here from Michael P. Um,
hi Foundryman. Perhaps the most
interesting part of the Steam Machine
announcement was Valve outlining their
plans to ship Steam OS for all AMDbased
PCs with other graphics card support
indicated potentially for the future.
How realistic uh would it be to get
native Nvidia Linux support with a
future Steam OS version? I think it's
basically extremely realistic because
they've said they're going to do it.
>> Yeah, I think that sounds about right.
Um clearly uh there are bigger players
uh involved here. Nvidia themselves
obviously need to be quite active in
this and that's not always easy.
Historically their approach to Linux has
been a little bit more hands-off than
AMD you could say. They have a closed
source uh driver and they don't tend to
make new drivers available on Linux as
quickly. I know when Forza Horizon 6
came out, I was running a Linux PC on
Cashios with I think it was a GTX 1660
or something inside and that worked
perfectly fine. But when Forza Horizon 6
came out and I wanted to play it, the
driver wasn't available for days after
and I ended up just booting back into
Windows to to get that done eventually.
So there is, I would say, some
organizational inertia to overcome. Um,
Nvidia is typically a little bit more
keen on proprietary stuff and that makes
it difficult for uh people in the Linux
community and for Valve to be able to
implement things in a way that actually
makes sense and avoids, you know, bugs,
artifacts difficulties restrictions
etc. So, if anyone can make it happen,
obviously Valve is a is a really good
candidate. I think Nvidia are no doubt
looking at the popularity of Steam OS
and Linux in general and perhaps that's
enough to kind of force a bit of a
rethink. But yeah, I'm I'm cautiously
optimistic. I think it would be lovely
to to have it happen because this is one
of the biggest stumbling blocks for
Linux at the moment is that, you know,
people always say, you know, go with
AMD, you'll have less problems. And
that's kind of been borne out in my
experience. But I guess we'll have to
see exactly, you know, how successful
Valve are in in this attempt.
>> I agree. It would be lovely.
Be absolutely lovely. Um, no. Uh, more
seriously, I mean, um, here's the thing,
right? One of my big takeaways of using
the Steam Machine is that basically
everything works, right? You've got a
great interface that's very, very
smooth, very, very nice to behold, great
functionality that PC users would like.
And if the P if the functionality isn't
there, then you know obviously you can
sort of dip back into the Linux desktop
and set things up there. Then go back to
that lovely interface and you're good to
go. Um the the stumbling block has been
from my perspective in terms of like um
Linux um adoption has basically been
that Nvidia at the forefront of you know
doing some fantastic um new things with
graphics rendering right and um you know
path tracing multiframe generation that
sort of stuff you know uh really nice
new features for people to enjoy and um
if that support isn't there day one um
on all the new titles within Linux
within Steam OS that's a problem. Um,
but it is fundamentally the, you know,
one of the only reasons from my
perspective why I wouldn't move across
fulltime to a Steam to Steam OS for a
gaming box. And there's the small matter
of the fact that they've got like
gigantic market share, right? which you
know if you're not supporting the number
one GPU supplier for the for the PC
market then you know obviously that's
only going to there's a sort of ceiling
based on how far Steam OS can actually
go. So Steam OS receiving proper Nvidia
support is going to be a gamecher for
Steam OS in terms of like expanding its
reach and potentially causing more
problems for Windows, although they're
causing plenty of problems for
themselves and um and basically um the
amount of people who would then be
tempted to either a give it a try or b
just move over full-time to Steam OS, it
suddenly, you know, is is you know
almost an order of magnitude higher the
total addressable marketplace for steam
OS and I think you know that's a logical
route forward and I also think that
Nvidia are probably quite aware of the
dissatisfaction with Windows
>> generally and um seeing the way the wind
is blowing I mean you know at the moment
Linux has got like a poultry market
share in terms of you know even the
steam hardware survey is saying it's
like what three 4%
>> and a key reason of that is probably
going to be that the most gaming GPUs
out there don't properly support Steam
OS. So, you know, it's it's a logical
move for everybody involved really. So,
I'm really excited by this. I think it
could be really cool. I mean, you can
run Bazite now with uh Nvidia GPUs,
right? But um I think there might, you
know, I haven't tried it myself, but I
understand that there are some
roadblocks there. Um, but you know, a
properly invested Valve, a properly ini
invested Nvidia to make this work, I
think it would be absolutely awesome,
right? I think it's the the number one
sort of um route forward for for, you
know, taking Steam OS to the next level,
you know, expand it out not just to
Nvidia, but to Intel as well. Everybody
um could get a really good Steam OS
experience. Um, yeah, that's my thoughts
on that. Okay. Uh, let's move on to the
final question. This one from Darjako in
brackets. Dan, I don't know about
everyone else, but I feel like the
biggest letdown with a Steam Machine is
not the absurd price or the absence of
Gab's cub cubified face on the front.
That That's the stuff of nightmares.
Could you imagine the
>> Jeez, my god. Where's the lunchbox
handle? What's the chance that Valve
realized the errors of their ways and
add it as an optional extra or a
hardware revision? Yeah, I mean I did a
I did a he's alluding to the Gamecube
here and this is the Gabe Cube and uh I
did do a comparison, right? It's in the
video. You did an article about it on
the website where
>> you put the GameCube side by side with
the Gabe Cube and you realize that man,
this is actually a really really cool
little device. Just, you know, I think
your headlines summed it up entirely.
It's just like tiny cubes are cool,
right?
>> Yeah.
>> But uh does does it need a handle?
Yeah, I feel like the the benefit of the
handle is that when you're bringing your
Gamecube to to your friend's house, you
can kind of carry it like this and go,
"Hey guys, I'm here. I got the
Gamecube." And I'm not sure the Steam
Machine is really intended to be used in
the same way. But having said that,
we've seen Valve release a lot of, you
know, 3D files, project files, stuff
that you can use to be able to print out
your own accessories, right? I know for
the plate like on the front that's
definitely something that they've
released uh files for or will be doing
soon. So maybe they're going to go a
little bit further release files for the
entire enclosure and in that case you
could just take out the internals and
then get have your 3D printed
alternative with handle and then you
know jobs are good. So Valve make it
happen.
>> That's what it needs. It needs a handle.
I think I think more generally, you
know, it's just again just sort of going
back to the to the feedback and I can
kind of understand it, right? Because um
uh form factor is quite, you know, in
theory it should be a really easy thing
to express to the audience, right?
Here's this cool little cube, but
actually it's it's quite difficult to
actually sort of say, well, okay, you
know, this machine, it's very very cute.
It's very very tiny. It's got extremely
it's extremely appealing and instead the
focus is elsewhere on performance when
it was you know the the thing is about
the performance side of things. We all
knew what the performance would be
pretty much from when the specs came out
>> because it's existing Radeon and and
Ryzen parts. So we had a kind of idea of
what to expect. Hardware set in stone.
The price is the price and uh I guess
from their perspective it's going to
sell out anyway. just probably wasn't
this sort of massively successful thing
that uh we kind of hoped it would be.
You know, the sort of um aura of a Valve
product.
>> Uh there sort of maybe been a bit of a
it's not quite the same as it was
before. Um anyway, that is our QA on the
Steam Machine. Lots more to come on the
Steam Machine. Um I'm currently looking
at FSR4 running on the Steam Machine,
which is throwing up some very, very
interesting results. In fact, I'm just
going to give you a teaser clip here.
This is Cyberpunk 2077
running on Steam Machine. Um, and it is
the PlayStation 5 performance mode
settings and uh it's FSR4 running at
1620p resolution, but it's dynamic
resolution scaling. It can go down to
like minimum 50% and uh um it it looks
really really cool. It actually runs
very very smoothly at 60 frames per
second. That's um just part of some of
the stuff that I'm doing at the moment
with FSR4 on Steam Machine and more
generally with FSR. Um but that's it.
That's our Q&A show for this week. So
please do like, subscribe, share, all of
that kind of stuff. Uh ring bells for
notifications for you, potential
algorithmic boosts for us and uh DF
support program,
patreon.com/digitalfoundry.
Join us, join our amazing community,
highquality video downloads of
everything we do and um yeah uh lots of
other stuff there. Um, add free website,
add free video downloads, um, uh, access
to the team, all manner of great stuff,
updates of the team. Um, but that's all
from us on this one. Um, thanks for
watching and supporting Digital Foundry,
and we'll see you soon.