I've registered for my Steam Machine pre-order, but now I'm not so sure – here's why I'm reconsidering my options

Steam Machine with wood face plate — (Image credit: Valve)

Quick Summary

The Steam Machine has now launched and the pre-order process has started, but is it worth the money?

One aspect is certainly worrying – the RAM.

As I predicted at the end of last week (and reiterated yesterday) Valve finally launched its Steam Machine yesterday, announcing pricing, full specifications, and the pre-order process.

And as with many others, I expect, the moment the page went live I jumped at the chance to register my interest in purchasing one. Now though, I'm not so sure.

The price is obviously a barrier. Starting at £879 / $1,049 for the 512GB model without a Steam Controller makes it considerably more expensive than the more powerful PS5 Pro. And if I needed a Steam Controller too (I already have one), that'd be £938 / $1,128.

Steam Machine specs issue

There are some red flags when it comes to the Steam Machine's specifications, which don't really match the original promise of 4K 60fps gaming. But according to several online reviews that have appeared already (such as from Digital Foundry) it's still possible to eke decent 1440p performance out of the PC console in AAA games.

The "semi-custom" AMD Zen 4 6-core / 12-teraflop CPU and AMD RDNA 3 GPU with 28 compute units seem decent enough, even though the latter is effectively a cut back version of the three year-old Radeon 7600 graphics card with 8GB of VRAM.

Where it gets more concerning is when you consider the on-board RAM. While it sports 16GB of DDR5 RAM, Valve has opted for a single stick solution, rather than dual. This is something I've seen a lot during RAMageddon, especially from mini PC manufacturers and it truly throttles performance.

For example, I built my own Steam Machine alternative months ago, from a Geekom A7 Max mini PC with 16GB of internal RAM. That too shipped with a single stick of DDR5 (5600MHz) and it struggled. I ended up adding an extra stick, increasing the graphics rendering performance by up to 80%.

But even when I tested it with two 8GB sticks instead, I was getting anywhere up to 20% more performance from the same amount and type of RAM.

It seems Steam Machine reviewers are seeing this in tests. It is underperforming in comparison with equivalent machines running the Radeon 7600 GPU.

One solution is to split or add to the RAM, which is something I might end up doing as I do have spares, but it's hardly the plug and play experience a console is designed for. And if I'm tearing it apart to add my own SSD and RAM, why not build my own Steam Machine (again).

After all, while I've been using the third-party Linux alternative Bazzite on my Geekom and AceMagic mini PC builds, Valve will soon launch Steam OS for all PC types so you can do it on your own.

It's certainly food for thought.

Steam Machine alternatives

That being said, I do love the design of the Steam Machine, and once FSR 4 arrives on it, higher performance will be possible.

I've also recently converted a Geekom A9 Max to a Steam Machine-alike, with its more powerful, AI-supported internal processing and GPU and am getting 1440p gaming out of it, but it isn't quite the same. Oh, and it's also well over £1K.

You could build a small form factor PC from scratch, of course, and even with component shortages, you might manage it for less than the 2TB Steam Machine, but that's hardly the point. In that respect, the Steam Machine isn't for you.

It's a games console, not a gaming PC replacement. It's designed to sit under a TV, not a monitor. It's really a PC for those who don't like PCs. And that's why I might hold onto my slot in Valve's lottery, after all.

Either that or just switch on my PS5 Pro and enjoy that instead.

Rik is T3’s news editor, which means he looks after the news team and the up-to-the-minute coverage of all the hottest gadgets and products you’ll definitely want to read about. And, with more than 35 years of experience in tech and entertainment journalism, including editing and writing for numerous websites, magazines, and newspapers, he’s always got an eye on the next big thing.

Rik also has extensive knowledge of AV, TV streaming and smart home kit, plus just about everything to do with games since the late 80s. Prior to T3, he spent 13 years at Pocket-lint heading up its news team, and was a TV producer and presenter on such shows as Channel 4's GamesMaster, plus Sky's Games World, Game Over, and Virtual World of Sport.