Even Valve is Disappointed - Steam Machine Review — Summary & Key Points
TL;DR
Linus Tech Tips reviews Valve's Steam Machine and finds it underwhelming despite its polished SteamOS. While the living room integration and suspend-resume features are excellent, the hardware struggles to hit 4K 60 FPS on modern titles, performing closer to a mid-range PC than a next-gen console. At $1,050 for the base model, it offers poor value compared to a PlayStation 5, making it a niche enthusiast product rather than a mainstream hit.
Key Quotes
"It's not magically going to get way faster."
The list
SteamOS and Proton
SteamOS with Proton allows Windows games to run without drivers or command lines. The suspend-resume feature takes only 5 seconds, and HDMI CEC enables seamless living room control.
Hardware Specs
The machine uses a semi-custom Zen 4 CPU and 16GB of DDR5 memory, but the GPU is a 7600M laptop chip.
Performance Reality
The hardware fails to meet Valve's 4K 60 FPS claims. Shadow of the Tomb Raider hit 120 FPS, but newer titles like Doom: Dark Ages averaged 40-50 FPS at 4K. Ray tracing is unusable, averaging 15 FPS in Cyberpunk.
Price and Value
The 512GB model costs $1,050 and the 2TB model $1,350, plus $69 for the controller. This is too expensive given the PS5 offers better performance for $600.
Repairability and Peripherals
The machine is fully repairable with iFixit guides, allowing RAM and SSD upgrades, and supports any peripheral.
Verdict
It is a niche enthusiast product rather than a mainstream console replacement.
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