Valve Introduces Steam Machine, Steam Frame, Steam Controller - Gabe Cube

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Agreed. The first steam machine failed but it’s a different situation this time. It can actually run most games now. My pipe dream is that it performs comparably to the next xbox so games like Battlefield actually have to start supporting linux or risk losing a noticeable audience slice, basically volunteering to be exclusive with none of the benefits.
I heard all the technical reasons why they can’t or won’t and i literally don’t care. These companies have more money and manpower than a human can comprehend. They can figure it out.
Hmm, the next xbox won't be subsidized by Microsoft and it's supposed to be for a "premium" audience according to Sarah Bond. But, it will be running on a form of windows and will likely be so bad in actual real world performance and have a ton of issues at launch like the RROD that Steam will look much more favorable as a result. And, this is assuming that things won't even go further south for Xbox which is what will happen. Normies don't want to suffer through a windows PC update when they're in the middle of a kill streak, and we know how Indian infested Microsoft is; an avalanche of errors is inevitable.
 
Normies don't want to suffer through a windows PC update when they're in the middle of a kill streak, and we know how Indian infested Microsoft is; an avalanche of errors is inevitable.
Normies also don't tend to go with PC's for gaming because it takes a little bit of know-how in how to set it up and get going, even if it's a prebuilt. Microsoft's worry with the Steam Machine isn't Windows 11 being shit, and it's not like it's gotten so shit it's literally unusable, that's all people exaggerating shit to have a reason to complain. PC's will still have Windows users, and Windows users will use Steam, so both Microsoft and Valve will be happy, little difference there. The one in ten thousand PC gamers that'll switch to Linux won't matter to Microsoft since Windows isn't just a gaming OS contrary to popular belief, all the corporate users and preinstalled instances on laptops will chug along just fine. Ideally everyone would take this distinction and memorize it before running their mouth about how Valve will destroy Windows to not sound like mouthbreathing mongoloids, that's not what Valve is competing against and was never planning to, SteamOS is just a side effect of Valve realizing their entire business is tied to Microsoft via Windows, not Valve declaring war against Microsoft.

The real turmoil for Microsoft is the entire Xbox division that doesn't know what the fuck they're doing at this point. That's where Steam Machine can actually fuck Microsoft over. Xbox consoles aren't selling, and yet they keep bumping their prices up. They're planning to ditch consoles altogether. The fucking PS5 is selling better than Xbox consoles. And now Valve is coming out with something that can play the vast majority of Windows games (as long as you're not a competishit player, and those are in the hundreds of millions and all using Windows but at the same time they don't play on consoles so not really a concern here) without much hassle since the Steam Machine will act as a launchpad for Steam Big Picture and that's a solid console-like experience. You'll be able to sit your ass down, grab a controller and play. And Microsoft won't see a penny out of this, the "console" will be Valve's and so will be the game store.

The Xbox division is already circling the drain and constantly shooting themselves in the foot, and now Valve is basically threatening their business hard. Then again, it's so pathetic that there's not much to compete against. Chances are the GabeCube will eat Xbox alive but will still be second place to the PlayStation, as that still remains a genuine console worth a shit when you're looking for something to buy and play.
 
Wccftech: Valve’s New Steam Machine Packs Just 8 GB VRAM — Is That Enough for Today’s AAA Games, or Is This a Bold Bluff? (archive)

Some comments I saw on Wccfkek, including the emerging talking point that the Steam Machine has less "VRAM" than the Nintendo Switch 2:

switch-machine-vram.webp
 
8gb can go far when you don't have 16 chrome tabs plus discord in the background and the idle 1gb windows uses
GPU seems to be equivalent to a 7600M (same amount of CUs and vram). As for the CPU it looks similar to a 7640U.

I've played a bunch of games on that CPU, on a 2K monitor it is definitely playable, as long as you lower the settings. With a more sensible resolution and beefier GPU, stuff should be running quite well.
 
GPU seems to be equivalent to a 7600M (same amount of CUs and vram). As for the CPU it looks similar to a 7640U.
If the GPU has a 110W TDP, it can probably clock higher than the 7600M laptops.

Edit: 7600M has TDP configurable from 50-90W according to Notebookcheck, with a 2070 MHz "game clock" "most likely" at the max 90W configuration. I didn't realize Valve already specified a clock speed: "2.45GHz max sustained clock, 110W TDP".

The CPU is very likely to be a "Phoenix2" variant such as the AMD Ryzen 5 7545U, with 2x Zen 4 cores, and 4x Zen 4c cores that clock at up to 3.5 GHz instead of 4.9 GHz. This is unlikely to hurt gaming performance much, since most games are dumping most of their work onto a couple of cores.
 
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8gb can go far when you don't have 16 chrome tabs plus discord in the background and the idle 1gb windows uses
'Cept the Steam Machine has 16GB of RAM, the 8GB is the GPU's VRAM.

Also if you install Debian with nothing but X11, i3 and Pipewire that already runs into 1GB of idle RAM use. A fully fledged Linux distro and a debloated Windows installation run in the same 2-3GB of idle RAM usage ballpark. The Windows XP days of low idle OS RAM usage are long gone, and no amount of Linux vooodoo magic will make it possible for you to ressurect a 15 year old Pentium laptop as a web browser, because Linux got bloated as well, down to the kernel as per Linus' own words.
 
'Cept the Steam Machine has 16GB of RAM, the 8GB is the GPU's VRAM.

Also if you install Debian with nothing but X11, i3 and Pipewire that already runs into 1GB of idle RAM use. A fully fledged Linux distro and a debloated Windows installation run in the same 2-3GB of idle RAM usage ballpark. The Windows XP days of low idle OS RAM usage are long gone, and no amount of Linux vooodoo magic will make it possible for you to ressurect a 15 year old Pentium laptop as a web browser, because Linux got bloated as well, down to the kernel as per Linus' own words.
I'm talking about VRAM
 
I'm talking about VRAM
Ah, my bad. Though I wonder how much better your average desktop Linux idle VRAM use is since for me Windows eats about 850MB on desktop without the web browser or any other windows open, and it still needs to load the desktop widgets I use for system monitoring including VRAM use so it could probably go lower. Though I'm sure SteamOS will pull off some tricks to unload everything but the game from the GPU memory to conserve the VRAM more. Still, wonder how low you can go since there will always be some idle usage. 200MB? 100?
 
Ah, my bad. Though I wonder how much better your average desktop Linux idle VRAM use is since for me Windows eats about 850MB on desktop without the web browser or any other windows open, and it still needs to load the desktop widgets I use for system monitoring including VRAM use so it could probably go lower. Though I'm sure SteamOS will pull off some tricks to unload everything but the game from the GPU memory to conserve the VRAM more. Still, wonder how low you can go since there will always be some idle usage. 200MB? 100?
Shouldn't it be lower? I have Win10 on UHD 630 reporting 0.3 GB usage with a bunch of browser windows open. Skyrocketed to 0.5 GB when I cycled through stuff, then back down to 0.3-0.4.
 
Honestly, the specs are fine for an initial product that they're trying to keep the price down on. It won't be "future-proof" but it's likely going to be a $500-$600 box that plays everything out currently and will likely be good until the end of the decade given how sticky console generations have become.

Buying an 8GB GPU as an enthusiast DIYer is a bad decision since you can often avoid this by just spending an additional $50, but if you're buying a disposable cost-cut box (that's using cheap, repurposed laptop components to get those savings) to use for low-intensity gaming then it's whatever.

If it's even moderately successful, I expect a "pro" refresh to be a fast follow since they don't have the usual power and/or thermal constraints that have kept the Steam Deck successor from materializing.
 
Wccftech: Valve’s New Steam Machine Packs Just 8 GB VRAM — Is That Enough for Today’s AAA Games, or Is This a Bold Bluff? (archive)

Some comments I saw on Wccfkek, including the emerging talking point that the Steam Machine has less "VRAM" than the Nintendo Switch 2:

View attachment 8173965
Nintendrones really are something else. Both Switches are shitboxes, basically fat oversized GameBoys.
Here's what I love about it.

How long have Nintendrones been bragging about how their consoles being under powered doesn't matter? Since the Wii at least. And now suddenly it's all about power.
 
Shouldn't it be lower? I have Win10 on UHD 630 reporting 0.3 GB usage with a bunch of browser windows open. Skyrocketed to 0.5 GB when I cycled through stuff, then back down to 0.3-0.4.
First of all: two monitors. One 1440p and one 1080p.
Second of all: Rainmeter widgets I use to look at the VRAM usage. In total it's 9 widgets, so 9 windows to be rendered.

Still, not 1GB idle. Maybe if it's a fresh Win11 install, sure. Then again, it's not like you can compare Windows to Linux in this matter when depending on the distro it can do better or worse than bloated and unbloated Windows. Apples and oranges. Even if you were to use 0MB of VRAM idle, 8GB of VRAM is too little for modern unoptimized AAA slop, so here's hoping that with Valve pushing a neatly polished device that targets the average Steam Survey spec, it'll kick all those lazy publishers and devs to give two shits about their product for once.
Both Switches are shitboxes
You mean they are ShitCubes.
You know why?
1763296708334.png
BECAUSE THEY'RE A PIECE OF FUCKING SHIT
 
The Steam Frame seems the most exciting to me. I heard it's easily moddable and it's likely going to be a very good investment as a result. Hopefully it's affordable.
For the expansion port under the noseguard, not sure if its USB-C, a proprietary connector or something else. It would be practical to put a slim cable for DIY extensions instead of routing it from the back. Dual USB-C on the back would be a good compromise.

Since it most likely does PCIe 1x, I'm wondering how long will it take for someone to run Windows 11 on ARM and a RX 9070 XT. The real question isnt if you can, but rather should you do it. The answer will always be "Fuck you pussy, I'm Gabe fucking Newell".
 
Hot take:


I like this Steam Controller fella.

Though now I see him in the controller itself.
1763340040426.png
The sticks are the eyes. The touchpads are the cheeks. The options button between them is the mouth. The bumpers are the eyebrows.
 
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Hot take:
c1681913cdc2a50471c14a7587acf701.webm

I like this Steam Controller fella.

Though now I see him in the controller itself.
View attachment 8178760
The sticks are the eyes. The touchpads are the cheeks. The options button between them is the mouth. The bumpers are the eyebrows.


Umm, I'm undecided on the Steam controller until they reveal if it's trans. I can't make a decision to but a new product until they unveil its complete sexuality lore.
 
Umm, I'm undecided on the Steam controller until they reveal if it's trans. I can't make a decision to but a new product until they unveil its complete sexuality lore.
We get it, you hate fun, you don't play games and all you can do is bitch about identity politics.
/v/tards
It doesn't make you cool or unique.
 
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