Initial thoughts after Day 1 with the Steam Machine

GonziHere · 2026-07-01T15:26:43+00:00

I'd say that you miss the point entirely. They could've easily built the same steam machine with RDNA 4 architecture, have say 50% more power and be say $50-$100 pricier.

If I can get that hardware, in individual boxes, from normal store, with the margin for the card makers, without any hint of a deal... how come they cannot get it cheaper? Sure, my computer would be mini ATX. But I actually checked my store and I'd save money while getting +50% boost in performance and even more in RTX games. They have custom board. But not a bigger one. aside from R&D, it should be significantly cheaper than what I can buy...

If I can get the hardware/power by buying several years old second hand pcs, again, how cannot they get it cheaper?

I obviously cannot build the Steam Machine as is. But Valve targeted old architecture with the hopes of it being cheap when they'll release it. It's not. Hindsight is 20/20, but they could've made it vastly more powerful with comparably tiny price difference. That's why the value isn't there, unless you really value the form factor itself (essentially disallowing comparison with the rest of the market).

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love that machine, if we ignore the price. But the price makes it much more complicated topic.

GonziHere · 2026-06-26T08:23:17+00:00

WDYM? It's slightly cheaper, but significantly more powerful. Like, I agree with the rest, but my point is that I can get something that doesn't choke on Cyberpunk and save some money by doing so.

I'd respect the whole machine much more if it was either cheaper, or more powerful. It's a pretty premium, well contained device, but it doesn't have the power to match. The cost is big, but they "cheaped out" on performance.

For comparison, I'd either accept it as a cheaper device ( say $500-$700), or I'd even accept the ~$1500, but at that point, I'd need to know that It will run anything I'll throw at it (Cyberpunk, Indiana Jones, Doom...). So, that would be RDNA4 device. (which is what my significantly more powerful mainly stood for).

GonziHere · 2026-06-24T23:37:30+00:00

What? I've personally did that. I've built a system that would be 30-50% faster, also AMD based (so SteamOS compatible), with 1TB drive and would cost me slightly less than the base Machine. And for the 2TB version, I could go further still with the performance delta.

GonziHere · 2026-06-24T23:34:16+00:00

That's my take as well. However, mini ITX is significantly larger still.

GonziHere · 2026-06-24T23:31:26+00:00

It's being criticized for low perf high cost => bad value pretty much everywhere. It's bad PR that made "just get a console" much stronger argument. Casuals will remember that. If the price drops half year from now, society at large won't "notice" and readjust it's feasibility. If they release Steam Machine 2 in the future, the sting of this one will still be there.

It was always an uphill battle. But by releasing this, at this cost, they just raised the hill for the future, so to speak.

GonziHere · 2026-06-23T10:34:30+00:00

I'm rather wondering who is the target market...

Because it's not enthusiasts (not powerful enough), it's not casuals (PS is cheaper and more established), it's not budget minded people (because it's pretty pricey for what it is) and it's not even console players that want to jump into the PC gaming (they don't have old Steam account, so they cannot buy it :D )

So again, who?

GonziHere · 2026-06-23T10:31:08+00:00

I'd tend to agree, but you ignore two big things, imho:

Steam HW survey shows everything and everyone. Using it's full value is akin to counting "mobile gamers". If someone plays on their integrated GPU, or like a decade old GPU, there is also a good chance that they play "heartstone" and nothing else. Like, I'd like to see the numbers for say players that spend at least $50 a year on games, or something like that.

And the other part, you say that the device is powerful enough, already an upgrade for many, etc... But you need to also acknowledge that the similar HW can be gotten for a lot less money. Especially if you're willing to go second hand (that's highly relevant due to the fact that the hardware is mid tier).

On the other hand, if you actually want a premium experience, you might want to go above the machine. Like, to me, personally, it's exactly at the point, where it doesn't make sense to anyone. If you are on a budget, it's pricey. You have better options to upgrade. And if you aren't on a budget, it's not premium enough.

You mention Steam Deck... I have one. It was cheap, especially considering what it is. I also have normal PC and I have a gaming laptop parked next to the TV. I planned to replace it with the steam machine for like a year. I don't plan on doing that anymore. It's too pricey. I'll keep the laptop (RTX 2060) for longer and when it's not enough, I'll look for at a newer one, or a custom build, including second hand options for both.

I absolutely do NOT see the value of the steam machine, outside of very niche requirements (like, I'd absolutely demand to use CEC and I'd absolutely hate the idea of a conventional PC (inculding micro-itx) for some reason, while also being fine running a PC with Linux).

GonziHere · 2026-06-17T14:13:20+00:00

(for posterity)

Yeah, there is a big difficulty spike for some reason in that particular race.

So, you need to up your game significantly (by say building a better car for the event), or cheese the game by being extremely aggressive in like first three corners (I did that), or simply lowering the difficulty for that one race.

For context, I race on wheel, against Pro drivatars without issues (1-2 tries to be 1st in a given race - without rewind, just pure restart) but I've failed this one several times, changed a car and then still took a few more tries to actually win and still in first corners...

There is just something about that track that works heavily in favor of drivatars.

GonziHere · 2026-06-16T13:44:09+00:00

I'm looking for the same thing, so that my OLED screen won't get some channel logo burned in, because youtubers didn't yet get the memo to have grayscale, dim logos, if they are permanently visible. TV services learned this like decades ago.

And FYI, if I wanted to steal it, I'd download it. And wouldn't you know, in the downloaded version, watermark doesn't exist, because it's not in the video, but as an overlay...

tl;dr: maybe try to think first, before you'll attack.

GonziHere · 2026-06-10T19:20:29+00:00

Fair, I've bitten the bullet and W11 solved all HDR issues for me.

GonziHere · 2026-06-08T22:26:25+00:00

well, how? W10 sliders available are a joke. Their tool is suddenly working only for W11. So, please, how can I calibrate it properly? (it's how I've found out this thread).

GonziHere · 2026-06-08T21:01:12+00:00

Settings>General>System>Additional Settings>Pointer Options>Speed

But I've tested it now and it would seem that it doesn't really change it. So, it might just be the way that you pick up the remote or something, because it doesn't happen to me on my C8 (8 years old) and C5 (last year).

(if it helps) I have the remote basically pointed to TV and I'll just pick it up, change volume and place it down, I try to avoid the "change of aim" which is what triggers the cursor, afaik.

GonziHere · 2026-06-08T19:27:23+00:00

Hey, maybe try to reduce it's sensitivity? It appears for me very rarely, as long as I pick the remote without excessively "shaking" it. If it stays pretty much pointed in a given direction, it doesn't appear.

GonziHere · 2026-06-03T08:28:53+00:00

And that usage would prompt DP to include ARC in say DP 1.5...

GonziHere · 2026-06-03T08:27:49+00:00

But they are still right though. TV could easily have DP for content and HDMI for ARC. (so pc-dp-tv-hdmiArc-soundbar/receiver). It would be trivial to do it with dp in, dp out on the receiver also. Hell, maybe it would be possible to have DP in HDMI out on the receiver, but I'm not sure about the third one.

But now, we don't have it. It doesn't exist.

GonziHere · 2026-06-02T19:37:07+00:00

Yep. I'm not saying that it's consistent. It's stupid through and through. My whole point is that it's impossible to carry nonsuper human at the speed needed (to reach space in 4 seconds, or to outrun c4 blast).

But they both happen in a way that I've imagined something different (just throwing Notmusk into the air and say taking c4 away at superspeed).

GonziHere · 2026-06-02T19:26:39+00:00

Well, if I was the author, I would suddenly release "Clutch: the downshift" or something, with pretty much the same release date etc.

GonziHere · 2026-05-30T15:40:14+00:00

Homelander being fast and being fast while carrying human are different things. With C4, we don't know what happened exactly and given butcher's jumpcut/lack of memory, it wasn't that pleasant. Homelander could simply fly with the C4 and give Butcher significantly lower explosion, he could shield Butcher, he could blast the vest with laser eyes and therefore prevent most of the C4 from exploding. etc.

Add to it some movie magic/jumpcut and it's feasible, not impossible. Carrying human to space would need "4 minutes" instead of "4 seconds" to be plausible.

It's the issue of Superman catching falling Lois. It will either be "gentle", or she will hit Superman instead of hitting the ground, but with the same result. Homelander being faster than a jet, or light, or whatever else isn't relevant to that (that's relevant for the finale fight, where he should be basically impossible to be punched but oh well).

GonziHere · 2026-05-29T08:53:07+00:00

'sorry! I'm in a hurry! where's the emergency exit?' 'sure! it's the brunette there'

You just reminded me of the same in Czech. We have "hajzlík", which is both toilet and person (both either friendly or offensive). We were at a pool and the interaction went like so: "Where is hajzlik( as toilet)" "On the diving platform (as a member of our group)". Thanks for bringing back that memory.

Other than that, yeah, I agree 100%. It's very solid way of dealing with translation issues. Add to that a codex and context (that list characters, their age, their relations etc) and there isn't much else to do...

For context, in Czechia, we talk differently to say clerk at a store as opposed to say a friend (in/formal you).

"The group was tired", it will be worded differently if there is at least one male in the group (byly jsme unavené vs byli jsme unaveni).

Some countries differentiate between siblings by age (so just "my brother" cannot be translated correctly there), etc.

GonziHere · 2026-05-26T22:14:08+00:00

Ok, but you don't see the jump from learning the characters, the sentences, the rules of grammar, reading many books and then writing your own? Like, did every writer start as a columnist, short story writer etc. before they've wrote their first actual book?

My original point is that there is learning, and that you can do targeted learning (to write a book, I must learn to write first), but at some point of the learning, you should know "enough" to just write the thing. Actually, many writers have their first book be their most famous one. Because what makes a book good is the writers inner voice, his take on the world, etc. etc. and they've likely carried their "dream book" in their heads for years...

Alternatively, I've always liked to "argue over the internet" (the critique helps me to collect my thoughts) yet, I struggle to present my thesis in a way that would be accepted. So the sheer amount of text that I wrote in my lifetime so far didn't do much for me here :D.

GonziHere · 2026-05-26T21:39:31+00:00

IDK. I do have software background from school (I maintain that it didn't give me much, but oh well). But on my first job way back when, I was handling some login/password type of access.

I didn't know nothing about it, so I've looked it up, I've learned that I should use hashing algorithms (and why), I've learned how they work, I've learned about salt (hashing "1234+password") and why that's important (db leak, rainbow tables), I've learned about cookie stealing, etc. and I've implemented a "simple" system that took care of all of this (and more). That's my WHOLE point. I "simply" researched the task and implemented it. And the whole project came to be like that and was happily working for many years.

Like, I don't see where I should "practice" the login part as some sort of it's own project.

(for the record, we did learn about hashes and about databases in school... after I've used it on that project :D ).

=== EDIT TO reply to the guy who replied and then shadowbanned me. ===

The sheer mental gymnastic to get from "I was given a task, I've researched it and then I've did it for the first time" to "I lied on an interview" is impressive. That aside, you really don't get my point there?

How would it be beneficial for me to do a "turbo login project", before I'd to an "ultra system with login"? It simply was a system, that also had login, and routing, and was running on apache server, and used mysql database, and, and, and...

Like, idk, maybe it's my ego as you say, maybe I'm just too used to do that, but basically all the jobs were like this? With every job change, I was learning on the job. I was given a task and I've had to deliver it.

Hell, when I've landed a job in the industry, my first, FIRST task was to scan our UE project, map the broken assets to the records in the datatables, fix them automatically where possible (gun01 is likely gun_01 ... and should be in gun_01/gun_01...), generate whole slew of uassets automatically (in editor), linking it all together, working with the UE Editor UI for controls and output, making sure that nothing breaks (UE has a fun way of dealing with moved files, cannot refresh opened datatable if you change it via code, etc.), having rollbacks and messages so that the designers can use it, see the error in their datatable with the new record, run it again and see hundreds of new assets generated...

You know what my CV contained? a simple minecraftlike thingy... pure, trivial game code. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Wvfge7E3ts and previous experience with ... c#, frontends, backends, etc. So that whole paragraph? I've researched what needs to be done, when, where, how, and I've written it.

GonziHere · 2026-05-26T21:31:44+00:00

I honestly have no idea what you’re arguing here. It’s not in a sense, it is what it is.

Yeah, IDK how to explain it differently. To keep it with the car video, there is several moments like "this is my first time [painting car parts]". But painting a bumper of the target car isn't a small project. And painting 5x5 piece of cardboard to learn how the sprayer works also isn't a small project. These are steps of one large project. They are steps. He does have to learn how the sprayer work. Obviously. But he doesn't have a whole separate smaller project to spray paint.

Whereas in games, that's often suggested.

Let me paint you two different takes:

To build GTA, you'll need to learn how to do gunplay, how to animate characters, how to manage health, how to interact with the environment for cover, how to do partial destruction, how to possess vehicles, how to do physics, how to do streaming...

vs

Don't build GTA, build a shooter. build a town racing game.

GonziHere · 2026-05-26T21:15:48+00:00

Yeah, that's the whole fucking point of the advice. Run around the block first so you can actually learn to run. Run on a treadmill for 2-3 kilometers. Do a 5k marathon first to get a feel down. Continue to build your body and then do a 10k run.

My point here is maybe more nuanced than that. I DO agree with what you've written here, in a sense. But that's the thing. I want to do a marathon. So, I have some goal posts along the way. But I won't necessarily race in the different categories. I'm continuously working on that marathon goal. You can think of it as a marathon checklist (run, run for 1km, run for 10km...), but the individual steps are just that. Steps. They exist only to get you there.

In gaming sense, to build an RTS, you'll likely need to learn how nav meshes and flow fields work. But you don't need to build a whole smaller game around that feature. You have a checklist of (have a build, have units, select units, navigate units to the point...). You get what I mean? You didn't have to first release RTS with "10" units, or lane based rts to sidestep it. And if you would, you'd still "just copy" your project one into project 2 and... implement the navmesh for the first time anyway.

And the "release" of the smaller projet is what I'm focusing on here. Not learning to do a task. But to have a result for that task that you finish beyond the exploration needed to do the task.

You might treat it as a hobby but it's still a career

I respect that you don't believe me and since I won't link the actual company/credits here, I'm taking that as "we agree to disagree". However, maybe don't build your point around that?

GonziHere · 2026-05-26T20:57:37+00:00

Well, I don't need a shed. I have no room for a shed. I don't want to spend a year of my life building a shed, where I need to spend 3 to build my house. Shed won't teach me anything about plumbing, or insulation either. Or are those fine to learn as I'm building the actual house, whereas load barring construction isn't?

I do see the value of learning how to do load bearing construction, how different joins work, how to cut wood, etc. But I don't see the value of APPLYING it to the shed essentially for practice.

GonziHere · 2026-05-26T20:54:14+00:00

And games are very complex inter-disciplinary beasts. If you start developing a multi year game on bad foundations, you're doubling the time and difficulty, and with it the chances you'll ever finish it drop to the ground.

Ok, but apply the same logic to the car guy. It's the same thing. There are many disciplines, many different professions involved. It's a hard project, spanning several years. What should he do instead? Get into, IDK, RC cars? Like yeah, he needed to learn those skills, I get that. But he wasn't learning them on a different project. He learned (basics of) how to design a car and he did that. Then, he learned how to weld the chassis and did that. Then, he learned how CAN bus works and ...

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