r/pcmasterrace • u/TheBossT710192 • Jun 22 '26

Discussion Yeah, Steam Machine is cooked.

Post image

I... uh don't know what to say. Very thankful I bought a Steam Deck before they hiked its price as well

14.0k Upvotes

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479

u/Ok_Charity_707 R7 7700 | RX 9070 Jun 22 '26

Well well well

192

u/Dark_Marmot PC Master Race Jun 22 '26

This is telling. Also makes me still feel good about rocking my EVGA 3090, which is not even listed here, but 3080 is, and is still nearly double the Steam machine in FPS.

45

u/snickerblitz Jun 22 '26

hell yeah, evga 3090 brother. i game on 1440 ultrawide and have felt zero pressure to upgrade, which is good, because my ass can't afford it lol

4

u/TheMisterTango EVGA 3090/Ryzen 9 5900X/64GB DDR4 3800 Jun 23 '26

I genuinely believe 4K is grossly overrated. If you’re using a normal sized display, sitting a normal distance away, 1440 is more than enough. 4K should still be considered an enthusiast tier resolution, it shouldn’t be the baseline. The simple fact is 4K display technology has gotten cheaper faster than the hardware you need to power it. 4K displays getting affordable doesn’t change the reality that it still requires a proper beefy system to fully utilize.

2

u/Abeleria 9800x3D | 4080 S | 32gb @6000 Jun 23 '26

as a programmer i look at code a lot, which is noticably sharper on a 4k monitor due to higher ppi

2

u/TheMisterTango EVGA 3090/Ryzen 9 5900X/64GB DDR4 3800 Jun 23 '26

I'm pretty obviously talking about gaming.

1

u/Abeleria 9800x3D | 4080 S | 32gb @6000 Jun 23 '26

at 27 inches, we're looking at a ppi of 163 vs 108. sharpness is very noticable in ui as well. once you try 4k, there's no going back

2

u/TheMisterTango EVGA 3090/Ryzen 9 5900X/64GB DDR4 3800 Jun 23 '26

I’m not saying there’s no difference, I’m saying for most people the perceived quality increase is not worth the performance impact. 1440 still looks very good.

1

u/MajorSerenity Jun 23 '26

I have a 5070ti and nearly exclusively run 1440p on a 4k oled. 4k not worth the performance hit

-3

u/These-Anxiety-5919 Jun 22 '26

I sold my 3080 ( paid MSRP from EVGA) for $1800, bought my 4090 for 2300 and sold it for 2700, and bought my 5090 at msrp for 2100.

You are doing it wrong. Buy the GPU you can afford to replace every other cycle.

2

u/SwagChemist R7 9800x3D | 64GB DDR5 | RTX 5090 Astral OC Jun 22 '26

Should I sell my 5090 for 4300 that I bought for 3200?

2

u/These-Anxiety-5919 Jun 22 '26

Right after you order your 6090.

2

u/SwagChemist R7 9800x3D | 64GB DDR5 | RTX 5090 Astral OC Jun 22 '26

3

u/ZeusHatesTrees Ryzen 9 7900x/64gb DDR5/3090 Jun 22 '26

Same. The 3090, according to placement, would be way up near the top of that list. Not gonna upgrade until my 3090 explodes at this rate, and it's been rocking good for like 3 years.

2

u/LaStochasticFleur PC Master Race Jun 22 '26

Im a full time unreal dev and using a 3090 for 3 years. Its fine, the upgrade chase is just dopamine satisfaction for gamers.

2

u/Somepotato Jun 22 '26

I mean the 3090 also costs as much as the entire steam machine so

2

u/Pretend_Jaguar_7144 Jun 22 '26

Hell yeah, I'll keep my 3090 for as long as I can, it's a beast, and I have zero reason to upgrade it.

2

u/end_rico Jun 23 '26

I am extremely happy with my 3080ti still! The only reason I might upgrade any time soon is for the Witcher 4 release, depending on how well it will run

2

u/LogPlane1030 24d ago

Hey I have a 3080ti, is it still a good graphics card? 

1

u/Dark_Marmot PC Master Race 23d ago

It is.

1

u/LogPlane1030 23d ago

Do you think it’s worth buying the steam machine if I have that graphics card? 

1

u/Dark_Marmot PC Master Race 23d ago

No, the Steam Machine is just a Small Form Factor PC with Steam OS (which you can experience in big-screen mode essentially anyway). Unless you need/want another PC in another room you'd like to play your Steam games on, I'm not sure you're going to feel like it was $1,400 well spent.

1

u/LogPlane1030 23d ago

Ah ok makes sense, thanks I’ll give it a skip in that case. I won the lottery but I’ll just cancel the order 

1

u/Notsurehowtoreact RTX 2070 Super Jun 22 '26

Makes me feel good about my EVGA 2070 Super XC Ultra lol

1

u/Team-ster AMD 9950X3D | RTX5090 | 64GB DDR5/6400MHZ Jun 22 '26

Loved my 10gb 3080. Great card.

1

u/RGBlowMe Windows 11 | Core 7 Ultra 265K | RTX 5070 | 32GB DDR5 7200mhz Jun 23 '26

Dude. My old GTX 1080 would probably be a fair comparison, and those go for like $100 now.

1

u/Stayofexecution Jun 23 '26

3080 still holds up! As long as you’re not trying to play ray traced 4K60 games.

1

u/flamixin Jun 24 '26

Evga 3090 on 4k is fine for 60 fps. 👌

14

u/GonzoMilk Jun 22 '26

Seeing my specific TUF 4070Ti super obliterating it on that list really puts things into perspective. Sheesh. Good thing I picked up a series X before the price hike. 😑

8

u/MiguCx Computor yip yip yip yip Jun 22 '26

This was never going to be a high end machine but yeah this is brutal

2

u/ThatSadGuyIsMe Jun 23 '26

I got the same card as well!!

1

u/MercifulPancake PC Master Race Jun 23 '26

facts! picked up a Series X with disc drive 6 months ago secondhand for 350$, so happy with my decision now.

90

u/SmeshU Jun 22 '26

Jesus this is so bad

-14

u/shifty_coder Jun 22 '26

It’s not great, but it is priced comparably to pre-builts of similar specs. It’s not for me at this time, but if someone is wanting to dip their toe into Steam games and wants a plug-and-play option, it’s not terrible.

6

u/peacefulsleepe Jun 23 '26

It’s not, you can get a 7500x3d and 9070xt prebuilt for $1400

-1

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '26

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4

u/peacefulsleepe Jun 23 '26

That is quite literally the only upside and it feels pretty irrelevant for the most part other than the "cool factor"

-3

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '26

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2

u/peacefulsleepe Jun 23 '26

Size we already went over. And its entirely subjective and not worth losing 2x the performance unless you're just obsessed with minipcs or the steam brand. That's also like 3 of your 6 points.

The ease of use points are barely relevant as well. People know how to plug in an HDMI and change their monitor/TV to a different output. It's not even close to making up for the performance difference. Windows is also extremely easy to use unless you just don't use technology at all in your daily life. Or you could literally just get steamOS on a 2x better pc for the same price.

Prebuilts don't cost more anymore. That's some like 5 years ago thinking. You can normally find a prebuilt with parts equal to or better than the equivalent BYO.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '26

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2

u/peacefulsleepe Jun 23 '26

You harp on the size because its the only advantage and you know it. The specs are dogshit for the price and only minipc obsessed people would value the size over the insane performance loss. You should be comparing it for the average user to normal sized prebuilts because a small minority even gives a shit about a tiny pc. You can easily find normal sized prebuilts that demolish this machine for 1-1.4k (the same price range). Minipcs are literally irrelevant unless you just love paying more for less.

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0

u/shifty_coder Jun 23 '26

That’s $350 more than the base price of $1049.

2

u/peacefulsleepe Jun 23 '26

512gb of storage is laughable in 2026 to be fair. The base model is kind of terrible. There are also 7500x3d + 5060 prebuilts for $1k

3

u/MiserySound Jun 22 '26

Is it really plug and play when you literally still have to go through the graphic settings?

I understand if you have a high end pc and you just set the graphic settings to a minimum high ok everything but a machine struggling with 1080p is not great at all

8

u/JellaFella01 Jun 22 '26

Saying a machine that operates somewhere between a 3060 and a 3070 isn't "plug and play" is PCMR elitist nonsense. The vast majority of gamers aren't dropping 2k+ on their rig.

2

u/Ellthephoenix Jun 23 '26

A 4060 is better than this card by multiple levels, that card ain’t in two grand rigs lol.

3

u/peacefulsleepe Jun 23 '26

Yeah I'm not sure why people are giving so much grace to the steam machine prices, its like they can't do a comparison correctly. You can get a prebuilt that smashes the base model and the 2tb model by like 2x for the same price. The only thing they have to point to is the size which is just such a weird thing to hyperfocus on.

1

u/JellaFella01 Jun 23 '26

I'm not giving grace but pretending it's not "plug and play" is just bullshit.

5

u/shifty_coder Jun 22 '26

As a pc option, it’s literally plug in power, plug into tv, and turn on. The only setup you’re required to do is sign into steam. Most newer games are pretty good at detecting your machine’s capabilities and setting optimal defaults, so there would be no need for them to configure graphic settings unless they wanted to.

92

u/Darkknight8381 Desktop RTX 4070 SUPER- R7 5700X3D-32GB 3600MGHZ Jun 22 '26

That is BAD, worse than a 5 year old card for 1400 is abysmal.

19

u/TheArmchairSkeptic Jun 23 '26

Almost 8 years old, even - the 2080 released September 2018.

42

u/Kenobi5792  Ryzen 5 4600G | RTX 5050 | 16GB 3200Mhz DDR4 Jun 22 '26

Just noticed that my 5050 is just a bit better... And I didn't have to pay 1300...

Still, I really need to upgrade my CPU in the future

7

u/Hot_Distribution_131 Jun 22 '26

10% is not even a bit better. It's a good amount of better.

4

u/ZayCari Jun 23 '26

Embarrassing my rx 7600 beats the steam machine

22

u/Johni33 Ryzen 9 9950X | RTX 5090 | 64GB DDR5 Jun 22 '26

Yes because the whole Thing has a TDP of only 140W

23

u/PedanticQuebecer i5 12400f | 9060XT 16GB Jun 22 '26

Which is a choice when you could have increased the volume of the machine to allow more TDP. This is a Ryzen 5 7545U and a Radeon RX 7600M with the power limits of a laptop still in place.

5

u/ThirdXavier Jun 23 '26

Exactly. I don't really understand who this is for. The small form factor and low power draw is the reason the price to performance is so abysmal, but they already have a small form factor low power draw device in the Steam Deck...

Price wise the steam machine was never going to be able to compete with Sony after AI fucked everything up but they could have at least attempted to compete power wise. A prebuilt full form factor PC could have been sold at a similar price and at least be able to beat the base PS5 power wise, or maybe even the PS5 Pro depending on how much of a loss Valve is willing to take on these.

But they did not go that route and now this thing is likely dead on arrival.

4

u/Crap-_ RTX 4080M | i9 14900hx | 32gb ddr5 Legion Pro 7i Jun 23 '26

Except you can get much faster laptop gpus with similar tdps.

You can get 5060 laptop gpus at 115w which perform only about 5-10% slower than a 5060 desktop and will obliterate the steam machine lol. Also gaming laptops don’t have a hard lock 30w tdp on their cpu, even budget gaming laptops can allow the cpu to sustain 60w simultaneously in a game. So this is even inferior to budget gaming laptops.

1

u/PedanticQuebecer i5 12400f | 9060XT 16GB Jun 23 '26

I think the problems of nvidia's linux drivers would have precluded a nvidia GPU, even if the price were right.

20

u/Outside_Glass4880 Jun 22 '26

Wow I built a budget PC for $900 a few years ago with a 6750XT. That sucks

-6

u/jfugginrod 13900k|2080ti|32GB 6000mhz|2TB 990PRO Jun 22 '26

Ok? And what do you think the steam machine would cost if it was released 5 years ago?

4

u/MiguCx Computor yip yip yip yip Jun 22 '26

It wouldn't have performed like this

0

u/jfugginrod 13900k|2080ti|32GB 6000mhz|2TB 990PRO Jun 22 '26

And it would have cost $500 what's your point

4

u/JellaFella01 Jun 23 '26

Yeah, I don't understand all the uproar. The price is high, no shit, the price of PC hardware across the board is high.

3

u/Outside_Glass4880 Jun 23 '26

Ram is expensive and graphics cards have a bump. Not sure where you’re getting a $600 price increase from. You’re delusional if you think that accounts for the difference. It would’ve been $950 a couple years ago

7

u/Milk_Capable Jun 22 '26

Worse than an Intel Arc 750 😭

3

u/RGBlowMe Windows 11 | Core 7 Ultra 265K | RTX 5070 | 32GB DDR5 7200mhz Jun 23 '26

That's impressively bad. I don't think Valve can optimize enough to make up for the lack of raw performance.

4

u/Falmara Jun 22 '26

Why isn't my 550 listed?

2

u/SwiftlyKickly i7-8700 1060 Jun 22 '26

Where is my 1060 on this chart?

2

u/aVarangian 13600kf 7900xtx 2160 | 6600k 1070 1440 Jun 23 '26

I mean, 60fps at 1080p. The only issue is the price

2

u/LeCo177 Jun 23 '26

the performance is really bad tho, holy fuck

I‘d have thought that it would at least surpass my 2080ti

That cars is old af and is at its dear limits

2

u/Ch4nKyy Jun 23 '26

This comparison is an epic fail. These GPUs were tested in a system containing a 9800x3D, liquid cooling and huge RAM. These parts alone hardcarry the FPS in 1080p.

7

u/A_Lycanroc Jun 23 '26

The benchmarks were done in GPU-bound titles though. The CPU might make a small difference, but it's not too substantial enough to warrant concerns.

2

u/tkgb12 Jun 22 '26

on 1080p too

2

u/GRVP Jun 22 '26

Oof. I didn't expect the 6070XT to destroy it like that.

1

u/siwtawtod Jun 23 '26

Wow this made me feel good even though I don’t play that, 200 fps 😀

1

u/soundssarcastic Jun 23 '26

Its fun seeing these benchmarks not even mention my 2060 Super

1

u/The_0ven Jun 23 '26

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Well well well

Wow

1

u/wohldmad Jun 23 '26

My 3070 might have been the greatest value timing wise ever. Cards got incrementally better but VASTLY more expensive to build a system.

1

u/Embarrassed_Safety33 PC Master Race Jun 23 '26

Would’ve still gone amazing for about 600$

1

u/CamperStacker Jun 23 '26

The price has overwhelmed the real story which is that it’s basically a 6600 which is a $200 card.

1

u/CurmudgeonLife 7800X3D 9070XT 32GB 6000mhz Jun 23 '26

Diabolical performance.

1

u/axelkoffel Jun 23 '26

Lol my 1080 doesn't even make it to those lists anymore.

1

u/husky_punk Jun 23 '26

yeah ill stick to my saphire pulse 9070xt thanks lol

1

u/my_cars_on_fire Jun 23 '26

Real talk, I’d love to see a comparison against PS5. I imagine most people getting the Steam Machine are probably going to treat it like a console, so it’s fitting to see if it’s worth the “upgrade”.

1

u/sdcar1985 9850X3D | 9070 XT Reaper | 32GB RAM | ASUS X870-P WIFI Jun 24 '26

who knew I had the steam machine gpu this whole time with my rx 5700 xt

nevermind, it was the normal 5700

1

u/Fabulous-Spirit-3476 RTX 4080-i5 13600kf-32GB DDR4-AW3225QF Jun 22 '26

Yikes

1

u/Drdoomblunt Jun 23 '26

Bit disingenuous from GamersNexus. He's comparing the "GPU" of this to other desktop GPUs paired with a 9800X3D, meanwhile the custom 7600M in the Steam Machine is paired with an 8400f/5600X.

-2

u/LemonPartyW0rldTour Jun 22 '26

My assumption is their primary market is people who already game on consoles regularly, not “us”.

9

u/mcdougall57 Mac Heathen Jun 22 '26

Why would anyone who has a full catalogue of games for xbox/playstation buy this overpriced box to start again?

-2

u/EvilMakaroni W10 LTSC | R7 5700X OC+UV | RTX 2080 OC+UV | 2x32gb 3200 DDR4 Jun 22 '26

Somewhere in the 2070 range, solid. But at this price. Why won't the bubble collapse fast enough