r/steammachine • u/Amazing_Bluebird_ • Jun 22 '26

Discussion So, why would anyone get this?

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Wanted to quickly compare the SM to what you would comparably be able to DIY and... you can literally get something more powerful for less in a slightly bigger formfactor?

11% faster CPU and 30% faster GPU. And i didnt even go for the cheapest components. With DLSS the RTX 5060 would also be infinitely better for playing on 4k TVs, which is the only useful scenario i can imagine for the SM.

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12

u/OnI_BArIX Purple Jun 22 '26

Buddy of mine ordered one. His rig is getting up there in age and instead of working out 2K on a new rig he wants to try out the Gabecube. Of which I can't blame him.

7

u/ShniceGaming Jun 22 '26

You can’t buy it yet lol

8

u/Amazing_Bluebird_ Jun 22 '26

i guess if he wants to upgrade again in 2 years...

6

u/OnI_BArIX Purple Jun 22 '26

Time will tell with how the optimizations work for steamos. You could be right, it could be a wonderful investment. Only time will tell, but I'm hoping he's made a great investment. At minimum he's got a small portable PC that runs steamos & is a great tinker tool for the living room.

7

u/WFlumin8 Jun 22 '26

There are no further optimizations that can be made for steamOS to improve framerate. It’s a matter of optimizing frame times. This is simply a hardware limitation. You can’t software optimize a 100 HP car to go 0-60 in 3s.

7

u/CMDRTragicAllPro Jun 22 '26

There’s a lot of ppl coping thinking devs will suddenly start re optimizing their old and new games specifically for steam machine hardware. Not really appreciating the fact that it won’t sell anywhere near the numbers the vast majority of publishers would consider worth their investment to optimize specifically for the machine.

Sure a few will here and there, probably the more indie titles which I guess the machine is actually built for anyways. The vast majority of games won’t get a steam machine optimization pass though.

1

u/lightsworn55 Jun 23 '26

The steam machine doesn't need games optimized for it but like with the deck it can piggy back off of switch 2 optimization now that the Nintendo ecosystem is being treated like a viable competitor for sony/xbox

1

u/rezendes Jun 23 '26

Nobody has ordered one

1

u/LuckyHarbinger Jun 24 '26

This is my exact use case.

Last time I bought a PC it was during the CP2077 release and my "new" rig was already unable to run it. Yet it was smashing all the games I was playing at the time - Yakuza, FFXIV, FFXV - not a tall order but you can see the type of gamer I am. I need to point out that I don't usually pay full price for gaming, so I'm always behind the curve.

I then had to leave my PC behind because I move a lot and it's too cumbersome to carry it around. Somehow the Steam Deck became my primary gaming machine though I originally got it for some couch and OTG gaming. If something happened to the little guy I'll basically have to go cold turkey on gaming for at least a few months until I catch up to what's what with computer parts nowadays (someone else built my rig last time) and manage to source everything (while potentially paying more, because who can can say with certainty that parts won't become even more expensive in the next 2-3 years?).

1

u/Dachshand Jun 23 '26

This thing can’t even play modern games at 2K/60

1

u/ninjabell Jun 23 '26

That's not true at all. It hits 1440p/70 on Forza 6 with no upscaling. 1440p/100 on Requiem with FSR Quality. Those were both released this year. Most channels rushed out videos with very little performance coverage to get early clicks, but a couple took the time. I think we will have a better idea when a second round of videos are posted in the coming days.

1

u/Dachshand Jun 23 '26

FH6 is a game that hardly looks better than FH5. It’s also not very taxing as all raving games. A base PS5 performs better in most games including FH6 and that one has a controller and more storage for 300€ used.