Today (November 13), after V Club officially announced the news of Steam Machine, Shumao Club also immediately got hands-on with this new console and published an article.
Shumaoshe wrote that since the release of Steam Deck in 2022, its ability to run Windows games on Linux and SteamOS has become increasingly mature. So some people began to wonder: Can this handheld ecosystem become a real living room console? Picture this: a reliable and reliable Steam Deck, but with higher performance that can be plugged into a TV or other screen to keep PC games running smoothly in the living room.
That's exactly what Valve is doing with Steam Machine - a PC gaming box designed for living room users. Steam Machine uses fixed hardware specifications and is produced and sold by Valve.Judging from the specifications, its performance is between Xbox Series S and PS5, and overall it is biased towards Sony consoles.
Shumaoshe stated that the Steam Machine, first launched in 2015, failed due to messy configuration and scarcity of Linux games. Ten years later, Valve relaunched the Steam Machine with a single specification, a square chassis, a large radiator, some replaceable parts, and 512GB or 2TB storage. The CPU and GPU were semi-custom designed. The performance was enough to handle most Steam games, but high image quality or ray tracing was still limited. Valve said that this configuration is mainly to control the price while allowing most users to have an upgraded experience.
Valve also provides a developer API that allows games to automatically recognize Steam Machine and adjust settings, just like Steam Deck.May alleviate performance issues.
During the Steam Machine launch event, Shumaoshe tried out "Cyberpunk 2077". In the case of high image quality (light tracing turned off), the FSR technology is turned on, and the frame rate is stable at 60fps; after turning on ray tracing, the frame rate drops to about 30fps. Valve stated that SteamOS will optimize light pursuit acceleration in the future, but it has not yet been implemented.
The new Steam Controller feels comfortable in the hand, and the layout of buttons, joysticks, and touchpad is similar to the Steam Deck.Added "Grip Sense" function, realize gyroscope control switching through hand-held touch. The controller charges and connects wirelessly via a magnetic "Puck" receiver, which supports four controllers at the same time and can wake up the Steam Machine or resume games from sleep mode.
The Steam Machine is similar in size to the Xbox Series Both storage and memory can be upgraded manually.But the operation is a little complicated.
Valve has not yet announced the price, which will directly affect user expectations. Shumaoshe said that if the price is reasonable, Steam Machine has the potential to become a living room PC game console that combines performance and price. However, high-definition ray tracing and future large-scale games may still be limited. The FSR 4 and Steam Machine Verified tags provided by Valve will further optimize the experience, but users still need to rely on Linux browsers for streaming media.
Overall, Steam Machine has great potential for running PC games in the living room, but if it wants to completely replace the console experience, it still needs to wait for actual machine testing and price announcement.