Steam Machine: Price reportedly at the level of a comparable PC
Valve combines PC features with console convenience in the Steam Machine. The price remains undisclosed – but there are at least a few hints.
(Image: Valve)
400 Euros? 600 Euros? Even more? There's lively discussion online about the price of the upcoming Steam Machine. Valve has announced its PC-console hybrid without revealing a price point. Because the device is largely unique, there are few points of comparison, and evaluating the Steam machines is difficult without knowing the price-performance ratio.
In conversation with The Verge, Valve has at least dropped hints about the possible price point: “The price of the Steam Machine is comparable to a PC with similar specifications,” Valve told the US tech magazine. Designer Pierre-Loup Griffais adds: “We want to position them closer to the entry-level PC segment, but also make them very competitive against a PC that you could build yourself from individual components.”
PC prices are high
From this, one could draw numerous conclusions—most of them rather sobering. Because PCs are pricier, even if you build them yourself from individual components. The GPU of the Steam Machine corresponds to a slightly scaled-down Radeon RX 7600 from AMD, which costs between 200 and 250 euros. Added to this is a “semi-custom” Zen 4 chip from AMD with 6 cores and 12 threads and a clock speed of 4.8 GHz, for which the desktop equivalent would cost about 150 to 200 Euros.
One should not neglect the 16 GByte of RAM, which is currently particularly expensive, as well as other components such as the power supply, motherboard, and case. Anyone who wants to build such a PC will ultimately hardly get away with less than 600 Euros; most pre-built PCs offered with comparable components cost around 800 Euros. Valve would get the components cheaper, but would also have to pay for production and assembly.
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Consoles might have a performance advantage
In this regard, the Steam Machine has to compete not only with PCs but also with consoles—after all, the small cube is explicitly intended to be placed under the TV. The nominal specifications of Valve's Linux computer are slightly lower than those of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. Both consoles can be purchased for around 500 euros, sometimes even for 400 euros. With a price point of 600 to 800 euros, the Steam Machine would therefore be left behind in terms of price and performance—at least if the data sheet reflects the actual performance.
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However, the flexibility of the Linux cube could compensate, as it could also be used as a conventional PC and has more functions. Furthermore, games are cheaper on PC than on console, and many gamers have already built up a large Steam library. Nevertheless, a performance deficit would probably be difficult to justify despite a price increase of several hundred Euros.
Only 8 GByte of video memory
In addition, there is a potential bottleneck in the Steam Machine's hardware: it only has 8 GByte of video memory. For some modern games, this is only sufficient for medium texture settings at best and could cause blockbuster games to look worse on the Steam Deck than on the console.
Whether Valve will be more successful with the new Steam Machine than with its failed first attempt therefore largely depends on the pricing of the Linux computer. When Valve plans to announce it is still open, the release is planned for early 2026.
(dahe)
