Hands-on with the new Steam Machine, Valve’s square shot at SteamOS PC redemption

Box of tricks

Remember Steam Machines? Valve do, and they’re making a new one. The circa-2026 Steam Machine (it’s out early next year, date and prices TBC) seeks to cleanse the bad juju of that previous attempt at bringing SteamOS mini-PCs to the masses, bringing together a decade's worth of hardware and software improvements – including some lessons learned from the far more successful Steam Deck.

Speaking of, when I visited Valve last month to try the Steam Machine for myself – along with the matching new Steam Controller and Steam Frame VR headset – I repeatedly heard it pitched as an upgrade for Deck owners who plant their handheld in a docking station and use it as a living room PC. Also like the Deck, there's only one, entirely Valve-made design, ditching the partner-manufacturer model that produced a sometimes confusing multitude of different Machines back in 2015. Well, at the very least, that’ll make previewing it a lot easier.

First, the hard stuff. Inside this matte plastic cube is a 6-core, AMD Zen 4 CPU, paired with a separate, semi-custom AMD RDNA 3 GPU packing 8GB of VRAM and FreeSync Premium support. 16GB of laptop-style DDR5 RAM comes as standard, and with a dash of screwdrivering – Valve aren’t as cautious about opening up the Steam Machine as they were with the Deck – that can be upgraded by hand. As can the SSD, which offers 512GB or 2TB options to start with; by default, it’s a dinky M.2 2230 drive, but that can be switched out for a more desktop-grade M.2 2280 SSD if you're willing to make the change yourself.

A microSD card slot sits on the front, so expandable storage from a Steam Deck or Steam Deck can slip in there for instant game library transfers. It only meets the same UHS-I speed standard as the Deck’s slot, though, so newer, faster microSD Express cards won’t see any benefit. It also accompanies what, at first glance, seems like a uncharacteristically unambitious range of physical connections: just two full-size USB3 ports on the front and two USB2s on the back, along with just one USB-C port, Ethernet, HDMI 2.0, power input (the PSU is internal, so there’s no inline brick) and a dated DisplayPort 1.4 output.

Wireless connectivity is more impressive: on top of a dedicated, built-in 2.4GHz receiver for the revamped Steam Controller, the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi 6E antennae have been separated, potentially making for more reliable performance than the Steam Deck’s combined unit. The HDMI port, in fairness to the wired contingent, also works with HDMI-CEC, so the Steam Machine will be able to speak to other pieces of home cinema kit (like soundbars) and wake up sleeping TVs.

Between this and the modest port count, it does look like the Steam Machine is happy to stay in its lane as a sofa-operated PC, rather than attempting to usurp anyone’s dedicated gaming desktop. And to make sure it can keep up with big tellies, Valve say it’s "six times more powerful" than the Steam Deck.

What does the combined heft of a Deck sextet look like? In Cyberpunk 2077, running at 4K, it’s a surprisingly stable 60fps, albeit with the caveat of that using FSR 3 upscaling on Performance mode with Medium quality settings. But, also: basic ray tracing, something the Deck can’t even think about enabling outside of very specific games.

The next game I tested, Black Myth: Wukong, is best run with its own RT effects switched off. Still, it also averaged around 60fps on otherwise similar settings: Performance-level FSR 3 upscaling to 4K, plus the Medium quality preset. And, in an almost unnerving repeat performance, Silent Hill f ran close enough to a solid 60fps (with most drops owed to Unreal Engine 5’s signature stuttering) on the Performance-level graphics settings and, once again, FSR 3 running on Performance mode.

I’ve since tried these Cyberpunk 2077 and Silent Hill f settings on the RPS test rig back home, and the (reasonably modern) graphics card that seems to most closely match the Steam Machine’s AMD chip is the Nvidia RTX 4060. This averaged 72fps in Cyberpunk’s benchmark tool but ran much closer to 60fps when driving around Night City’s busier streets, while Silent Hill f actually averaged slightly lower at 55fps – though this felt more consistent and less prone to stutters.

I wouldn’t get too hung up on desktop hardware comparisons right now as there are other variables at play, be they our test rig’s CPU and RAM advantages, SteamOS vs Windows differences, or indeed, Valve’s assertion that they’re still working on performance (especially ray tracing) ahead of the Steam Machine’s launch next year. But for the right price, this could end up as a decently nippy little games box, even if more demanding stuff – Assassin’s Creed Shadows, say, or STALKER 2 – might require bumping down to 1440p or 1080p.

The Steam Machine can’t get too haughty about outperforming a docked Deck, either, as it essentially owes the handheld for its operating system. This is, almost entirely, SteamOS as we know it from Valve’s portable: snappy, easily navigable while collapsed sideways on the sofa, and natively bundling in useful tricks like quick suspend/resume and Steam cloud saves. It can also update games in a low-power standby games too, just like modern consoles (and, per a recent update, the Steam Deck itself).

Most importantly, in the years since Steam Machines first appeared, SteamOS has blown apart its game compatibility barriers like Semtex on a Japanese hotel door. Far from relying on tailor-made Linux ports like those 2015 models did, the Steam Machine will be able to exploit Valve and Codeweavers’ Proton compatibility software to seamlessly run huge swathes of the entire Steam catalogue. Not to mention games exclusive to non-Steam launchers that can be sneakily installed through SteamOS’ Desktop Mode. Not everything designed for Windows will make the cut, but the new Steam Machine will release with thousands more playable games than the originals, avoiding a problem that Valve themselves admit killed the old Machines’ chances.

In terms of customisation and tinkering potential, this also feels like Valve’s most PC-ish piece of hardware yet. You are stuck with the CPU and GPU – they’re integrated with the cooling unit that lifts outwards to access the memory – but then the RAM and SSD are both easily accessible, and both within a far less fragile design than that of the Deck. It’s also possible to play around with the addressable RGB strip on the Machine’s front and, if you’re particularly keen on interior computing design, replace the black front panel with custom plates, like the wood or Team Fortress 2 designs you see in the pictures above. Valve are unsure if they’ll sell these covers themselves, though they will be releasing CAD models for the whole device, so I’d expect a blooming economy of replacement parts on Etsy and the like.

Obviously, it’s not as fully modular as a traditional PC, and again, I can’t see this Steam Machine replacing anyone’s full-blooded desktop rig. Yet it already looks like a more viable part-time/living room ‘puter than the first Machines ever were, even if arguably the biggest reason for that – the massively expanded choice of games – isn’t directly related to the hardware improvements.

Valve will need to nail the pricing, mind. As spry as it is versus a docked Steam Deck, its Medium-quality performance zone and basic physical connectivity really should be reflected in the cost. Hopefully there’s one other lesson that the Steam Machine can learn from its handheld cousin: the simple, timeless appeal of undercutting the competition.