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Steam Machine |OT| There Are Dozens of Us. Dozens!

Switch should run ok on any mini PC with a 780m
"ok" is subjective. The 780m can run something like vanilla Breath of the Wild at about 35fps, where the Steam Machine can run it at 60fps even with texture mods. Yes, the Switch itself runs it at 30 so technically it can run it as well as the original hardware. But having the Machine's extra performance overhead really helps here.

I can't imagine the SM is going to be great at PS3 emulation either though, maybe it's improved vastly but last I used RPCS3 it hammered my 5800X3D + 3080. PS4 I'd assume just buy the PC/Steam versions and nix the emulation overhead (save Bloodbourne I guess).

But to your point, if you want a 'does great at retro, pretty good at last gen and can kinda keep up with modern AAA' it is a one stop shop.
PS3 emulation has come a LONG way even in the past year as RPCS3 has had some massive performance gains lately. God of War Ascension is considered to still be one of the most demanding games to emulate on the PS3 - here's a video of the Steam Machine running that game



Which can still dip down into the mid-30s without frame generation. Very playable with framegen and capped to 60fps though.

PS4 emulation itself is pretty new, but Bloodborne can play pretty nicely on this



Infamous is kind of the next game ShadPS4 is working on, as it's another console exclusive. Can load most places at a pretty high framerate, but there is still a lot of texture and framerate jank here mostly due to the emulator itself not being capable (ie this is more or less on par with a much more capable PC)



For now, yeah you're better off picking up PC native versions of PS4 games if they're available. But that won't always be the case as PS4 emulation matures over the next few years, the Machine seems pretty capable of handling it.


Again - not saying I would pay the Steam Machine's premium price tag just to use it for emulation, but it's a great bonus that lets me play older games on the same system with the rest of my Steam library.
 
First of all: To the people who have gotten a Steam Machine: congrats and have fun, despite the naysayers.

Didn't know where to post it other than in here. If it isn't wanted, I can move it or delete it, but I'd rather get some input from some more knowledgable folk in here.

I constantly read "lol, Valve... You can build your own steam machine for less, much more powerful" or something along those lines.
So I sat down and - in theory - build my own machine with my limited knowledge. Last time I build a PC was 2012, so I don't really know what I'm doing.

Tools used: ChatGPT to brain storm and get ideas, idealo.de to check prices, google to verify or find other sources.

First build that exceeds the steam machine significantly:

  1. 170,00€ Case: Fractal Design Terra
  2. 670,00€ GPU: RX 7900 XT Sapphire Pulse
  3. 185,00€ CPU: Ryzen 7 7700
  4. 215,00€ MoBo: MSI MPG B650I Edge Wifi
  5. 170,00€ PSU: Corsair SF850
  6. 70,00€ Cooler: Noctua NH-L12S
  7. 150,00€ SSD: 1TB Western Digital Black SN7100
  8. 420,00€ RAM: Crucial Pro OC 32GB Kit DDR5-6000 CL36
That is a 2.050€ build. I could go with a RX7900 GRE which should fit better in the case (the sapphire pulse being the only XT variant that fits) but it's around the same price.


Second build to more reasonably get into Steam Machine territory:

  1. 170,00€ Case: Fractal Design Terra
  2. 500,00€ GPU: RX 7700 XT
  3. 160,00€ CPU: Ryzen 5 7600
  4. 215,00€ MoBo: MSI MPG B650I Edge Wifi
  5. 160,00€ Corsair SF750
  6. 70,00€ Cooler: Noctua NH-L12S
  7. 150,00€ SSD: 1TB Western Digital Black SN7100
  8. 220,00€ RAM: Crucial Pro OC 16GB Kit DDR5-6000 CL36
That is a 1.645€ build

Am I missing something? The case especially presents a challenge that adds a premium due to needing specific Mainboard and PSU units. The RAM atm is just off the charts. ChatGPT lives in the past with 100-150€ cost for 32GB, but after pointing that out, it adjusted its prices.
So where are these people getting the idea from that I can build a small console form factor PC that exceeds the steam machine while costing less?
You can't really build a smaller Formfactor that does more on the AMD side in that price range. Nvidia you can but that just because it exist on laptops. But ofcourse you are looking at driver issues with nvidia so steam os on that until they get those working by well.. some year. Only thing I would suggest is look at the AMD 58003d which uses ddr4 should give you better performance and probably looking at 9700 for you lower price range. Look at pcpartpicker for builds that will be compatible.
 
You're not missing anything at all. Guilty_AI Guilty_AI has challenged some folks on here that say "you can build something much more powerful and cheaper". They reply back with builds that simply can't do it. And nothing comes close to the form factor, feature set, or plug and play ease of use.
To be pragmatic, it is tecnically possible to build something of same performance for cheaper, however A) it wont be that much cheaper, maybe $50 for the base model to $100 for the more expensive 2tb one, and B) You'll only get such price by ordering different parts from different suppliers, after hunting down for discounted parts, maybe cutting some corners.

Basically, the SM cost more or less exactly what you'd expect any hardware seller to price it at, perhaps even on the cheaper side. The only way this'd be that absurdly expensive machine some people try to labl it at would be if we werent on a hardware crisis or if they're comparing it to consoles (which is retarded)
 
I am having a weird issue periodically - a green screen of death of sorts. I can be playing a game, surfing the store, using desktop mode, doesn't matter. Suddenly the screen will turn completely green and the system locks up. Sometimes I can continue to hear SFX for 10 seconds or so. Sometimes it will automatically restart itself after 30 or so seconds, but other times it hangs there seemingly forever (never tested more than a minute or two though) and I have to manually power off with the button on the face of the machine.

Can't figure out why this would be or what could be causing it since it seems to happen in a variety of conditions. Any thoughts?
 
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I am having a weird issue periodically - a green screen of death of sorts. I can be playing a game, surfing the store, using desktop mode, doesn't matter. Suddenly the screen will turn completely green and the system locks up. Sometimes I can continue to hear SFX for 10 seconds or so. Sometimes it will automatically restart itself after 30 or so seconds, but other times it hangs there seemingly forever (never tested more than a minute or two though) and I have to manually power off with the button on the face of the machine.

Can't figure out why this would be or what could be causing it since it seems to happen in a variety of conditions. Any thoughts?
This sounds like an issue with the GPU overheating :(

Do you have it in a cabinet or someplace where it's airflow might be constrained? If it's got good ventilation then unfortunately it seems like you might need to open a ticket with Valve.

EDIT: here is a reddit post that sounds kinda like what you're describing. Multiple people saying it happened to them but stopped when they did a full reboot.

 
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This sounds like an issue with the GPU overheating :(

Do you have it in a cabinet or someplace where it's airflow might be constrained? If it's got good ventilation then unfortunately it seems like you might need to open a ticket with Valve.

EDIT: here is a reddit post that sounds kinda like what you're describing. Multiple people saying it happened to them but stopped when they did a full reboot.


Hmm that does sound like it. But half the time it happened I've just been browsing the store or desktop! And it's in a really open area on a wood shelf with no back or even sides. There's a Switch dock near it but it's some distance. Strange, definitely shouldn't be overheating for any reason. Will keep an eye on it.
 
Hmm that does sound like it. But half the time it happened I've just been browsing the store or desktop! And it's in a really open area on a wood shelf with no back or even sides. There's a Switch dock near it but it's some distance. Strange, definitely shouldn't be overheating for any reason. Will keep an eye on it.
Oh man, hope a full reboot fixes it or it kinda just irons itself out. Sorry to hear about it :messenger_anguished:
 
If it keeps happening, you could also try doing a full reset, or even a full factory image reinstallation


I did this once on the Deck when I was having some pretty severe performance issues and it worked great. Obviously not going to fix anything if it's a faulty GPU or cooling unit, but at least it's something to try...
 
If it keeps happening, you could also try doing a full reset, or even a full factory image reinstallation


I did this once on the Deck when I was having some pretty severe performance issues and it worked great. Obviously not going to fix anything if it's a faulty GPU or cooling unit, but at least it's something to try...
Will start keeping the performance metric tab up and keep an eye on info there.

Though it's been on last hour or two now going fine so far.
 
Will start keeping the performance metric tab up and keep an eye on info there.

Though it's been on last hour or two now going fine so far.
Welp. Daughter was playing "Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog" and was literally at the end stretch of the game.. and GSOD. She was really surprisingly into it - and never once saved the game. Lol. No auto save. Poof. 2.3 hrs and Steam ate it.

Now I'm starting to worry - maybe my GPU is faulty? Definitely not a taxing game and 70 degrees in here.
 
70 degrees in here.
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Welp. Daughter was playing "Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog" and was literally at the end stretch of the game.. and GSOD. She was really surprisingly into it - and never once saved the game. Lol. No auto save. Poof. 2.3 hrs and Steam ate it.

Now I'm starting to worry - maybe my GPU is faulty? Definitely not a taxing game and 70 degrees in here.
Oh man, that's concerning.

You'll be covered with Valve for a year, at least. Might be time to open a ticket? Hopefully their support is good for hardware.

I don't usually buy extended warranties, but I did a 3 year Squaretrade for this one, given its custom form factor. I tend to keep my hardware for a while, these days.
 
Finally got my shipping notice and tracking says it should be delivered tomorrow. Looks like another work from home day for me; I'll miss the office AC, but the Steam Machine is good consolation.
 
Some sort of local co-op / beat em up sale happening






Big Cats GIF by NETFLIX
 
Streets of Rage 4 & Absolum are awesome, made me like these kind of games again.

Wish it was easier to get people together to play on the same TV though like the good old days.
Yeah, online gaming just isn't the same. It's fine from time to time but it's nothing like couch Co-op or multiplayer. When that left my spirit for it left at the same time.
 
Yeah, online gaming just isn't the same. It's fine from time to time but it's nothing like couch Co-op or multiplayer. When that left my spirit for it left at the same time.
I'm very lucky that my wife is a good sport and will play some games couch co-op with me.

We picked up 8bitdo arcade sticks last Christmas and they've been a blast to play these games with. The Absolum demo was so much fun. I really gotta pick it up.

Marvel Cosmic Invasion is fantastic. Love the variety in the characters. It's high quality stuff.

I'm ashamed to admit that I actually haven't played Streets of Rage 4 😳 I don't know why. I've owned it for years. I know it's amazing, but just never got around to it.
 
Streets of Rage 4 & Absolum are awesome, made me like these kind of games again.

Wish it was easier to get people together to play on the same TV though like the good old days.
I mentioned earlier in this thread, but I was looking for several of these games to play with my son before he leaves the country next month. We played Absolum on the Switch (was awesome) and we've played through Streets of Rage 4 several times. Gonna pick up the Marvel game though, thanks to DarkShadowXI DarkShadowXI hyping it. The package with the DLC is like $21.
 
I'm very lucky that my wife is a good sport and will play some games couch co-op with me.

We picked up 8bitdo arcade sticks last Christmas and they've been a blast to play these games with. The Absolum demo was so much fun. I really gotta pick it up.

Marvel Cosmic Invasion is fantastic. Love the variety in the characters. It's high quality stuff.

I'm ashamed to admit that I actually haven't played Streets of Rage 4 😳 I don't know why. I've owned it for years. I know it's amazing, but just never got around to it.
I played way too much Absolum. Fantastic game. The Streets of Rage series is legendary and the latest one lives up to the name. Based on my handle here, I may be biased.
 
Yeah, online gaming just isn't the same. It's fine from time to time but it's nothing like couch Co-op or multiplayer. When that left my spirit for it left at the same time.
Yep, anytime I can make couch co-op/multiplayer happen, it's always better than doing voip online. Miss doing LAN parties too :(

I mentioned earlier in this thread, but I was looking for several of these games to play with my son before he leaves the country next month. We played Absolum on the Switch (was awesome) and we've played through Streets of Rage 4 several times. Gonna pick up the Marvel game though, thanks to DarkShadowXI DarkShadowXI hyping it. The package with the DLC is like $21.
I tried the demo for the Marvel game, and might get at some point when I can get people together to play it. I remember the days playing the X-men arcade game at my local bowling alley.

Since I've had fun with driving wheels and flight sticks in the last year, I'm thinking of picking up an arcade stick if I figure out a decently priced one that's good value.
 
First Impressions
  • The console itself feels really great. It's dense in a Series X or Xbox One X sort of way and I like that.
  • Setup was very easy but that was expected since setting up a Steam Deck is cake.
  • I did have a very annoying issue where the device would constantly say "steam machine is working on reconnecting to steam servers". I moved it over to my desk to connect to ethernet to download games and it stopped but happened again back on wifi despite showing as connected with full bars. It eventually just stopped so idk what happened there.
  • Unfortunately I don't have a ton of more demanding games because I've been buying most of those on PS5 Pro but I did download RE9 and Pragmatic (played both on PS but got them for free with my monitor and from buying my girl a GPU for her birthday). RE9 looked pretty good and ran well but Pragmatic ran like absolute garbage and I'm not sure why. I even put it on 1080p performance preset.

Ugly as sin and I wouldn't give dBrand any money, but

Those are some of the ugliest skins I've ever seen lol. The retro one is fine but the rest are gross outside of just plain white.
 
Those are some of the ugliest skins I've ever seen lol. The retro one is fine but the rest are gross outside of just plain white.
You don't want your Steam Machine to look like a basketball?

Basketbox.webp
 
First Impressions
  • The console itself feels really great. It's dense in a Series X or Xbox One X sort of way and I like that.
  • Setup was very easy but that was expected since setting up a Steam Deck is cake.
  • I did have a very annoying issue where the device would constantly say "steam machine is working on reconnecting to steam servers". I moved it over to my desk to connect to ethernet to download games and it stopped but happened again back on wifi despite showing as connected with full bars. It eventually just stopped so idk what happened there.
  • Unfortunately I don't have a ton of more demanding games because I've been buying most of those on PS5 Pro but I did download RE9 and Pragmatic (played both on PS but got them for free with my monitor and from buying my girl a GPU for her birthday). RE9 looked pretty good and ran well but Pragmatic ran like absolute garbage and I'm not sure why. I even put it on 1080p performance preset.
It's built pretty solid! Yeah Pragmata is going to take some tweaking. I had it running decently with that balanced preset. I can check my settings again and see how it runs. I wonder if we can get FSR 4.1 running with that game, too?

That's an odd connection issue, hmm. I'm hardwired in, but when I was briefly on WiFi, it seemed to be okay. Hopefully it was just a one-off :)
 
It's built pretty solid! Yeah Pragmata is going to take some tweaking. I had it running decently with that balanced preset. I can check my settings again and see how it runs. I wonder if we can get FSR 4.1 running with that game, too?

That's an odd connection issue, hmm. I'm hardwired in, but when I was briefly on WiFi, it seemed to be okay. Hopefully it was just a one-off :)
The Wi-Fi issue just randomly fixed itself so I'm not sure what the issue actually was.

I have another issue and maybe I'm just doing something wrong. I can't get the controller to connect to the internal puck and the one that comes in the box.

I had the controller connected to the SM and then connected the puck to my main PC. When I pair it to my main PC it overrides my Steam Machine instead of pairing a new puck. I check it on my steam machine and it shows the controller is connected to the right puck slot then I connect it back to my pc and it connects to my right puck instead of a new slot. Booting the controller up using L1 or R1 doesn't make any difference at all.
 
The Wi-Fi issue just randomly fixed itself so I'm not sure what the issue actually was.
I had kind of the opposite issue when I first hooked mine up. I had a wired connection, but for some reason it wasn't able to use that to connect to Steam. Turning on the wifi and connecting that way worked. After about 10 minutes it kind of fixed itself and I could go back to downloading stuff on the wired connection.
 
I feel like I'm complaining a lot but I've also noticed that HDMI-CEC is not working but that seems to be common as I've watched multiple reviews that mentioned it.

I had kind of the opposite issue when I first hooked mine up. I had a wired connection, but for some reason it wasn't able to use that to connect to Steam. Turning on the wifi and connecting that way worked. After about 10 minutes it kind of fixed itself and I could go back to downloading stuff on the wired connection.
Weird. It hasn't done it once since so I guess it just fixed itself.
 
Weird. It hasn't done it once since so I guess it just fixed itself.
Same here, I've swapped it between wired and wireless several times since but it's been fine with either after that initial boot up. I assumed it was just a random bug I had but maybe it's more widespread.
 
I feel like I'm complaining a lot but I've also noticed that HDMI-CEC is not working but that seems to be common as I've watched multiple reviews that mentioned it.
My HDMI-CEC has been a bit wonky, too.

I did a full power cycle on my LG OLED (unplugged the TV and held the power button down for 30 seconds) and that helped, but it doesn't seem to work 100% of the time.
 
I game fairly close to this spec neighborhood anyway, but it's good to see people enjoying the actual Machine more than they did the pre-release graphs. Racking my brain here and I think the Oblivion Remaster is the only game I just could not get happy with the performance/settings with. The fact it was dog ugly while running like shit probably made me give up on it pretty quickly though. This is on a 6750xt. But I have a 1080p monitor and don't use any type of FSR. As long as Dawnwalker doesn't have some junky forced RT, I think we're good for the rest of the year at least.
 
I've been really enjoying this guy. I played some LEGO Batman earlier and it looked amazing and ran really well. Unfortunately I bought AC4 on PlayStation, Battlefield got updated, and Halo comes out tomorrow so I may not get much playtime the next couple days.
 
My weekend project this weekend is crawling under the house to run a wired connection from my office to the living room. Partially because I want lower latency for streaming, and partially so that my downloads on the Machine can go faster. Bonus points since this will also give me a wired connection on my Nvidia Shield, PS5, etc.

Been planning to do this for ages but the Machine finally tipped the scales.
 
I've been really enjoying this guy. I played some LEGO Batman earlier and it looked amazing and ran really well. Unfortunately I bought AC4 on PlayStation, Battlefield got updated, and Halo comes out tomorrow so I may not get much playtime the next couple days.
Glad you're enjoying it! LEGO Batman is a blast on it. I'm tempted to pick up Halo tomorrow, as well. It'll be tough to hold out after seeing the OT pick up.

My weekend project this weekend is crawling under the house to run a wired connection from my office to the living room. Partially because I want lower latency for streaming, and partially so that my downloads on the Machine can go faster. Bonus points since this will also give me a wired connection on my Nvidia Shield, PS5, etc.

Been planning to do this for ages but the Machine finally tipped the scales.
That'll be a fantastic upgrade for everything! Hope it all works out, man!

I'll be upgrading the NVMe in the Machine to 2TB this weekend and will try messing around with emulation :messenger_grinning: I should dial in my router settings to improve streaming, too.

I'm 20 hours into Trails in the Sky. Hoping to make a big dent in that, as well. I'm on Chapter 3 already.
 
I received my Steam Machine yesterday. I've been under the weather some, so haven't spent a lot of time with it, but so far it's handled everything I've tried on it at 60+ fps at 1440p and a bit of settings tweaking. Pretty happy so far.

I figured I would like to pick up a second 16gb RAM stick for it for a future upgrade before prices go up again. I ran the console command to get the specs of what's installed, and whereas I've seen most people have SK Hynix, mine is Kingston. When looking up the Kingston, there weren't many hits and the prices were way higher than the SK Hynix ones I'd been looking at before. For those who know, is it okay to mix manufacturers or do you have to keep them the same?
 
That'll be a fantastic upgrade for everything! Hope it all works out, man!

I'll be upgrading the NVMe in the Machine to 2TB this weekend and will try messing around with emulation :messenger_grinning: I should dial in my router settings to improve streaming, too.

I'm 20 hours into Trails in the Sky. Hoping to make a big dent in that, as well. I'm on Chapter 3 already.
Bought some new switches as well so I'll have 2.5Gbps interlinks between. Sadly the Ethernet port on the Machine isn't 2.5G. Oh well, at least it'll still run full speed if I'm downloading something while streaming a 4K movie on the Shield.

Awesome progress you're making on TitS! After chapter 3 is when things really start heating up. In fact, I'd say chapter 3 is probably the weakest overall of the entire arc.
 
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