After nearly two weeks of testing, Digital Foundry has released a detailed evaluation report of Steam Machine. Valve's new console has received high praise for its design and workmanship, but its pricing has generated as much discussion as the hardware performance itself.
Reviewers noted that the Steam Machine made a great first impression. It's compact, nearly silent, and significantly smaller than most gaming PCs. In terms of appearance, some reviewers compared it to an "enlarged version of the Nintendo GameCube". Another plus is the replaceable magnetic panel, which users can easily replace with customized panels from third-party manufacturers in the future.
Steam Machine is equipped with AMD's semi-custom solution: six-core Zen 4 architecture CPU and RDNA 3 architecture GPU, with performance between Radeon RX 6600 and RX 7600. Test results show that its overall performance is close to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. However, in some games, Sony's PS5 can still maintain certain advantages due to its higher memory bandwidth.
SteamOS has received unanimous praise from reviewers. The interface is smooth, responsive, and the system is extremely stable. Digital Foundry believes that the software part remains one of the core strengths of the Valve platform.
However, the biggest obstacle for most potential buyers is undoubtedly the price. The basic version of Steam Machine (512GB SSD) is priced at US$1,049 (approximately RMB 7,560), while the top version (2TB SSD + Steam Controller) is as high as US$1,428 (approximately RMB 10,300). Faced with such pricing, many users are likely to consider purchasing branded machines with the same performance or assembling their own PCs.
Digital Foundry's final conclusion is that SteamMachine has not brought about a technical breakthrough, and its performance is in line with expectations. It was praised for its design, compactness and ease of use, but its high price made it more of a product for hardcore gamers than a mass consumer product.
Some comparison screenshots:
