melfie

Exactly. $500: worth it. $800: now you’re in an awkward middle ground. You can pay half of that for a mini PC with a 780M that has double the GPU power of a Steam Deck or pay a bit more to get a decent machine that can really do 4K on high or ultra.

I feel like this kind of thing can create a “Great Filter” situation. Tech seems to work well and most babies are genetically engineered now, but wait, why is everyone dying off before 30? Nope, it’s not the genetic engineering, and anyone who says that is a tinfoil hat wearer. Just look at all of these studies funded by big corporations and captured government agencies who have financial interests in its success—you’re not one of those anti-science idiots are you? Ok, actually, the data is in and it is the genetic engineering. Humanity is dying off, not reproducing fast enough, and will be extinct soon, but it made a bunch of billionaires even richer, so all good, right?

This article is quite correct. I ended up liking the idea so well that I just got an off brand mini PC with a Ryzen 7 8745HS for $380. The Steam Machine is likely to be like $800 and have a GPU that is 2-3x faster, but possibly a weaker CPU with 6 instead of 8 Zen 4 cores.

Either way, I couldn’t see paying double for couch gaming with half-assed 4k when 1080p upscaled looks fine to my eyes from the couch and a little more money than the Steam Machine would buy a 5080 to replace my aging 3070 and do real 4k / VR on ultra with raytracing that looks great up-close. Unless Valve comes in at like $500 for the Steam Machine, it’ll be sitting in this awkward middle ground where it’s fairly pricey, yet underpowered.

When I first glanced at the title, I got excited because I saw Steam Machine and $500. 😔

I think you’re right. You can already get cheap mini PCs in the 300s with a 780M that has double the graphical power of a Steam Deck. I doubt Valve is going to double or triple that for $500.

You can already get a decent generic brand mini gaming PC for like $380 with a Ryzen 7 7840HS, which has a 780M that is twice as powerful as the Steam Deck’s GPU and a significantly faster CPU. I have my doubts that Valve can pull off making a mini PC 2x as powerful as that for like $500. I’m guessing it’ll probably be more like $700-$800.

I like the idea of the Steam Machine, but it won’t be worth it to me at that price for a HTPC and PC games I’d be playing on the couch. A cheaper mini PC sounds like a better fit.

I found this mini PC for $360 with a 780M, so 12 RDNA 3 CUs compared to Steam Machine’s 28. If Steam Machine is priced proportionally, it would be in the $800s. A 780M is about twice as powerful as the Steam Deck’s GPU. If I knew for sure the Steam Machine weren’t going to have 2-3x the power for only $200ish more, I’d buy something like this right now, because I’m mainly looking for a HTPC that can play couch-friendly games on a TV better than the Deck, which this type of machine accomplishes.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CB32HKC5/?psc=1

Edit:

As an aside, I recently experimented with Pegasus Frontend launching VacuumTube and the Jellyfin desktop client, and while the UX is not quite as refined as Android TV, I think I’m happy enough with it to switch to Linux on a mini PC while I wait for Plasma Bigscreen.

Here’s a gaming laptop for $700 that I think is similarly powered, except it also has a screen, keyboard, a trackpad and a Windows 11 license that probably represent like $200 of that. I’ll probably pick up a SM if it’s around $500 for the base model, but otherwise, I’ll probably build something instead.

https://www.newegg.com/msi-thin-a15-15-6-geforce-rtx-4060-laptop-gpu-amd-ryzen-5-7535hs-16gb-memory-512-gb-nvme-ssd/p/N82E16834156873

Agreed, but if it’s like $500, then it’ll make a nice addition to the living room for couch co-op games with the kids and possibly serve as a decent HTPC. 4K technically isn’t false advertising, but let’s be real, this is made for 1080p to be upscaled to 4K where most people won’t notice from the couch. Anyone who wants 4K on a monitor up close with 60 fps on ultra is not the target market and is instead looking for a PC where the GPU alone costs double what a Steam Machine costs.

I have no problem with people who contribute a lot of value to society being proportionally rewarded. However, having a net worth in the billions is just plain ludicrous, especially since the billionaires aren’t the ones creating all the value, they’re just controlling it. For example, did Gabe invent everything that makes Valve as successful as it is, or was most of it designed and developed by engineers who are paid a fraction of what he is paid? Even if most of Valve’s IP started with Gabe and other engineers were doing the grunt work to “make it so”, that still shouldn’t mean that society allows this one man to control billions worth of our societal resources.

I believe the cost of Meta devices is also subsidized by surveillance capitalism, so if this costs more, doesn’t spy on you, and lets you do whatever you want with your own hardware, then it’s worth voting with your wallet. If Valve somehow is able to price this similarly to a Quest 3 while having better specs and without exploiting their customers like Meta does, then all hail the great and mighty Gabe.

I’ve been contemplating Steam Game Mode in Bazzite on a HTPC as a potential replacement for Android TV, and this might fit the bill nicely, in addition to supporting living room gaming of course. I bet this would run Jellyfin and VacuumTube quite nicely with a USB remote control. A Nvidia Shield from 2019 is still $200, so if Valve prices this similarly to a PS5, it’d certainly be a compelling option.