The title is a bit misleading, as the article lists diverging analysts’ opinions, ranging from Valve willing to sell at a loss or low margins, to high prices due to RAM and SSD price volatility.
They can’t sell this at a loss, or at least it would be incredibly risky. This is (intentionally) “just a PC”. It ships with SteamOS but you can of course install whatever you want, including windows. If it is (much) cheaper than a roughly equivalent normal PC, companies might just start buying them in bulk but obviously not generating the supporting sales needed.
If they sell it only through Steam as they do with the Steam Deck, companies wouldn’t really be able to buy them in bulk.
I saw in a LTT video that they already claimed they will not be selling this at a loss because they want their hardware division to be self-sustaining.
I heard at one point in time the fastest super computer in the world was a cluster of 900 ps3. It was cheaper then buying a single computer and in the beginning of the ps3 era you could easily format and run Linux on them.
I certainly remember PS2 consoles being used like that. The cell processor was impressive.
They did it with ps3 also although in research to make sure I was no mis-remembering I found out I was wrong. It was 33rd fastest super computer not #1.
I don’t think companies would be able to buy them in bulk, at least not directly.
Valve sells direct to consumer, no retail in the middle, they have their own online storefront (duh).
They’re not going to do a B2B mass order.
If a business wanted to try and stockpile them, for whatever reason, to turn into their own thing… or, to try to cause a price panic / supply shortage…
… they’d have to use/create basically a scalper network of essentially unaffiliated people.
I’m calling $700 US price. Valve’s the only company that can get into the console space with console prices since the real revenue source is the game store they run.
Edit: I slept on it and decided $750 is a safer bet, at least on the base model
The problem is that it makes less sense for them to sell at a loss than for example Xbox or Sony. It’s just a capable PC, corporations could buy hundreds or thousands and they wouldn’t make a cent off of game sales.
It’s not impossible, however, have you seen what corporations buy for their employees? Saving on upfront cost isn’t really part of the equation, it just has to say “dell” and/or “workstation” on it. A large company values long-term support and supply way more than what they’d save by getting a gaming machine.
And besides all that, it’s not like the best selling console of all time didn’t make money because a (objectively large) minority of owners only used it as a DVD player.
Valve sells direct to consumer, not via retail.
They’re not gonna knowingly do a B2B sale.
A business that wanted to swipe them all would have to create or hire a scalper network of seemingly unafilliated buyers, and I am guessing this would be outside of the capability/risk tolerance level of … basically everyone right now, as the economy is imploding Hard.
Why on earth would corporations buy this? Lol
It’s not a console, it’s a general purpose PC
Moore’s Law Is Dead thinks that Valve basically got a bargain bin deal from AMD, who had a bunch of chips they thought were going to be used in a MSFT tablet, but that tablet got cancelled.
So, Valve did some scrapyard engineering, and got a discount on these things that were otherwise never going to be used for anything.
He estimates a total cost to produce of $425, estimates MSRP between $450 to $600, depending on just how hard Valve wants to fuck MSFT with their own leftovers.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=sJI3qTb2ze8
If this ends up being remotely accurate, it would be basically a corporate demolition of Shakespearian quality.
Gabe… Gabe was once a MSFT employee, you see.
A disgruntled former MSFT employee, you might say.
MSFT? Microsoft?
Yes.
Sorry, its either/both their stock ticker, a fairly common way they refer to themselves internally.
I too used to work for Microsoft.
Wooo boy, being one of two people trying to make the multi hundred, maybe over a thousand node, call center / support tree node system work correctly, for the 360, during the ‘red ring of death’ (3RR was the code we used for ‘you are absolutely fucked’)… yeah that was fun.
Sorry but the people getting excited thinking this steam pc is going to do big numbers and hurt MS are delusional. The specs on this thing are worse than the current gen consoles, the base PS5 and the Series X. It is only RDNA 3 so it doesn’t get FSR4 either.
The PS5 and Series X render most games at sub-1080p and then upscale to 4K. This thing is going to have to render at sub 720p and then upscale.
I’m not in the market for the GabeCube but if I were, I’d find a price point of $500-$600 attractive, given it’s mostly just laptop tier hardware. I would prefer it over the current gen of consoles, although I don’t know if there’s gonna be the same level of optimisations for games on this as there is on consoles (most likely not really). It’ll be a ripper emulation box, though.
Upgradability would’ve been nice, too. Soldered in RAM is ok for a hand-held device but for this? Nah mate…no way this thing costs more than 800
At $1,000 that’d be a hard pass for me even though I love Valve, I could easily build something better for less. I seriously doubt that’ll be the price too, it’ll probably around $600-800.
For me it’s either this or Framework Desktop, I’ve got the money, just waiting for the email from Valve telling the final price.
Steam Machine is better for gaming, which is nice
But Framework can do Mac levels of AI work, which is also nice, it’s also not completely useless for games.
I’m ready, but Amd is not. I want 4k 120hz on my TV via Amd videocard. But this stupid hdmi forum is blocking this.
Displayport to HDMI 2.1 adapter?
Regardless, fuck HDMI
I tried… it didn’t work…
I have one working from cablematters. It’s slightly finicky (maybe driver issues) but supports HDR, vrr, and 4k@120hz.
Could you sent me the exact product?
And on Amazon; don’t think it’s widely available anywhere else, unfortunately.
Ignore any commentary about Windows support, because unless something has changed recently, it has poor support on Windows and is missing most features. I have heard mixed things about whether it only supports Freesync on Linux rather than Freesync or VRR. Since my TV supports both and there doesn’t appear to be a way to reliably differentiate between the two, I can’t confirm either way.
I found it here as well in a local Amazon store luckily: https://www.amazon.nl/Cable-Matters-Unidirectionele-8K-kabeladapter-ondersteuning/dp/B08XFSLWQF
Thanks! I ordered it right away and will test it soon on my TV. I will also first check for firmware updates, since people saying to do first a firmware update.
since people saying to do first a firmware update.
I’d probably test it out first as it may already have newer firmware, and it gives you a baseline if anything gets better (or worse) after the update. I’ll add that Plasma 6 had the best support last time I checked, so test that if you have issues.
Is it an HDMI issue or an AMD issue? Given Nvidia have no issues, I’d call it an AMD issue.
Its HDMI forum issue. Because AMD want to implement in their Linux drivers (which are open-source). But HDMI forum do not want them to become open source, see related issue: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/amd/-/issues/1417
In fact, AMD already invested several months in fully testing and developing 4k 120Hz. Its possible, but the HDMI forum people are blocking this, because the HDMI forum has the latest saying… Its all about money this world. And the HDMI forum is evil.
So it’s…….an AMD issue.
You know. Never mind.
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.
Higher RAM price is irrelevant as it acts on the whole market, it’s not a disadvantage specific to the Steam Machine
It may act on the whole market, but it doesn’t have the same impact on every OEM.
It’s a bigger issue for Valve than the console competition, who have established supply chains potentially with fixed prices for certain terms or at least more significant volume discounts, and proprietary compatibility hurdles binding their customers, so they can sell hardware at a loss if they want to.
If Valve sells the computers at a loss they run the risk of people buying them for other uses, without generating corresponding Steam profits.
No way in hell. For $1,000 I’ll just build one myself.
It has a midrange graphics card, it can’t cost more than 5 or 6 hundred
If this post is intended as discussion material; No, not as long that I have my stationary computer that fills my gaming needs.
Dude the switch 2 is $500. Having a general purpose computer that hooks just as easily to your TV as a gaming console for double that price is perfectly fine IMO.
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.
There are two red flags on the new Steam Machine — the fact that it still includes USB-A ports and the 8GB of VRAM. Anything under 12GB is a major problem in 2025. While there are adapters for USB, I hope they offer a version that includes 12GB or 16GB VRAM.
I was pricing out an entry level gaming PC for one of the grandkids for Christmas and the price of parts has gone mad. It’s even worse if you want to make a smaller ITX build. How does less material and complexity translate to higher costs? And storage and memory are ridiculous. With a few small upgrades, even at $1,000 these would be a steal. It’s a shame they won’t ship before the holidays.
So right now, we’re discussing Steam Decks with some third party docks and accessories so they can be used like a PC. I can’t find anything better.
the fact that it still includes USB-A ports
Why complain about this? This is a good thing. Most people have USB-A peripherals and the majority of new keyboards and mice even in 2025 still rely on it. Game controllers too: Switch 2 Pro, Xbox Elite 2, 8bitdo wireless controllers, and many others all include a USB A to C cable (cables with USB-C on both ends can be used too but need to be bought separately) for charging and optional wired play, and all modern wired-only controllers use a USB-A cable. Far better for the device to offer USB-A ports than force most users to buy USB-A adapters.
This system does have one USB-C port on the back, though it would be better if it had one on the front too in addition to the USB-A ones.
the fact that it still includes USB-A ports
Majority of peripherals still use USB-A.
Anything under 12GB is a major problem in 2025.
That’s hilarious considering the GabeCube’s config is based off of the most common hardware config according to Steam data. If I remember right, it’s slightly better than that common config.
It’s not a device for 4k/144Hz gaming.
It’s even worse if you want to make a smaller ITX build. How does less material and complexity translate to higher costs?
More difficult manufacturing process, and lower overall sales (which means higher per-unit production costs).
So right now, we’re discussing Steam Decks with some third party docks and accessories so they can be used like a PC. I can’t find anything better.
Unless you’re full-on anti-Windows, look into the ROG Ally. A friend of mine got one and is super happy with it.
It’s not a device for 4K/144Hz gaming
Someone should tell Valve that then, cause they’re advertising it as 4K60, which it has no hope of hitting.
Umm… Do you not understand the difference between “144” and “60”?
Do you not understand what I said?
They’re calling it a 4K60 machine and it has no hope of doing that either.
We’ll see what the benchmarks show.
I guess, but that’s like saying we have to wait for the benchmarks before we can tell if the 6060 can do 4K120hz with path tracing. We know it can’t, but if you want to get your hopes up then be my guest, you’ll just be very disappointed.
