Valve quietly changes Steam Machine's 4K/60fps claim after performance criticism

[Loadedaxe]

I think the issue with the steam machine is that it was designed with the idea hardware would get cheaper overtime, not more expensive. I think that steam enthusiasts were the intended audience and that its original price point was going to make it cheap enough that people with 5090's would look at it and think it's cheap and a cool gimmick that they can stick under their TV. When I'm working on the road I often stream games from my laptop to my steam deck. I had always thought of the steam machine as a videogame streaming box, but the hardware shortage has made it too expensive to be a multi-role machine.

I don't think people with RTX 5090s were really the target audience either. Anyone spending that kind of money on a GPU has probably already built a far more capable SFF PC for the living room, unless they were specifically waiting for this. Even then, the hardware specs made it pretty clear from day one that it wasn't going to compete with a decent gaming PC.

Realistically, I think Valve originally expected this to hit the market at a price that was several hundred dollars lower. Instead, they got caught in the same RAM and SSD pricing mess that hit the rest of the industry. By the time it launched, the hardware was already behind the curve, but I think Valve felt they had to release it anyway, even in limited numbers, rather than risk another "Steam Machine" situation where the project never really materialized.

 

[Rapob]

Outside of stuff manufactured and sitting on shelves since 2025, the steam machine is basically being sold at cost. When it was being developed last year the BoM was probably $550 and could have been sold profitably for $650-700.


No, it won't. Outside of kernel level anti-cheat, nearly everything will run. Developers have to go out of their way to disable linux support. At this point, I see it as no different than console exclusives

Tons of games on Steam won't run in Linux. That is fact. And most that will run, have worse performance or crashes due to Proton. Hence why Steam actively verifies games if they tend to run well, for Steam Deck - The same will be needed for Steam Machine.

Pretty much every new AAA games with multiplayer/COOP have kernel level anticheat and in most cases, zero support on Linux. The multiplayer games that actually runs on Linux, is filled with cheaters as a result. Arc Raiders is a good example. Ran on Linux. Had tons of cheaters. Then developer deployed anti cheat and Linux lost support. Fact. Same with CS, tons of cheaters. Serious and pro players plays on closed servers with ID validation, another fact.

There's a surprising amount of major games you can't play on Valve's Steam Machine - here are eight of the biggest, and why

Valve's Steam Machine faces more problems than a hefty price tag, and it's all to do with cheaters and the lengths companies go to catch them.

www.eurogamer.net

Stop stop acting like Linux is a good alternative to Windows for people who actually builds good gaming machines and want to play entire PC gaming catalog with no issues or loss of performance.

Linux is a huge compromise in terms of gaming. It is like asking for trouble still. Hence why no serious gamers, steamers, pro gamers, runs Linux as primary OS.

Steam has the best Linux support of any launcher, yet 95% of Steam users uses Windows. Most of the people contributing to Linux and MacOS marketshare here, uses Windows on their primary machine anyway.

 

[Rapob]

I don't know if OS is the thing. Been using CachyOS on my main new rig and travel laptop and PCVR works fine, games works fine too. So far I'm pretty happy with Linux and also got a steam machine due to it

Not sure if Linux is to blame. Been using CachyOS for 2 years now on my fresh right for PCVR and other titles (CS2, TF2, Mc, BeatSaber, VrChat) got full AMD system and the drivers are much much better comparing to windows ones. Didn't had yet any issue with compatibility or something so imo the hardware is to blame there.

You mostly play niche games, that is why you don't have much issues.

There's a surprising amount of major games you can't play on Valve's Steam Machine - here are eight of the biggest, and why

Valve's Steam Machine faces more problems than a hefty price tag, and it's all to do with cheaters and the lengths companies go to catch them.

www.eurogamer.net

CS2 is riddled with cheaters, due to Valve want it to work in Linux. This is fact. Cheating in this game is so easy, that serious players don't play on the open servers anymore.

Literally most of the popular shooters and just multiplayer games in general, won't run on Linux. Even Valve acknowledge this. Their biggest problem with SteamOS. Lack of anti cheat support.

 

[Rapob]

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/jfjjH3 , you can buy now much better pc, with 4.5 liters case, for less. You will have nvidia 5060, which is much better than SM and in general a better performance.


I don't think you were around last 5 years. Things are different now, with more or less all single player games working, and multiplayer games working as long as game do not require to expose your ring zero privileges to some big corpos.

I have been using Linux for decades yeah. For servers. Linux is particularly well-suited for server environments. Gaming is still meh. Have also been building high-end gaming PCs for decades and Linux never was any good for this, still is not any good for gaming, unless your demands are low and you accept a vastly smaller game catalog.

You can't have much experience with high-end gaming PCs and newer AAA games if you think Linux is good for gaming... There is a reason why no serious players use Linux.

No official game support.
No official driver support.

That is why. Read any game requirements - says Windows needed. Intel, AMD, Nvidia, has no focus on Linux in the consumer space either. 99% or more buying NEW HARDWARE, uses Windows.

The only reason more and more games work on Linux today, is due to Proton, which is just a comp. layer. Performance is mostly lost due to this, not gained. 10-25% performance decrease just by using Proton. API calls, overhead, fails. Is normal.

Games crash more on Linux as a result. API calls translated wrong, sound issues, etc. Even save games can fckup vastly more easy in Linux. Some games won't even save properly or crash when you try to save. Search, people have tons of issues with Linux gaming. Hence why forums exist for this kind of troubleshooting. Troubleshooting that is needed, due to the game not officially supports Linux.

Look at Steam HW Survey and you will see that pretty much no-one uses Linux for gaming. Read reviews on new games, where specs/OS is now shown, shows everyone uses Windows.

You can ramble all day about how good Linux is for gaming, yet 99.9% of PC gamers runs Windows. New games are made for Windows. Linux is no focus at all.

The few people who contributed to Linux marketshare on Steam, has in 9 out of 10 cases, a primary build that runs Windows.

Steam Deck is weak AF. Old games and indies is what most people are playing on this. Had one. Sold it, weak and boring and I submitted my specs to Steam HW Survey on this device too. My Privary build runs tweaked and optimized Windows 11 with 9800X3D with PBO/UV, 32GB 6400 at CL28 at 1:1 with a RTX 4090 with OC and UV while using 1440p OLED at 480 Hz and an Ultrawide 3440x1440 at 360 Hz OLED.

Top tier gaming specs. Something you "Linux gamers" can only dream about which is why you think "Linux is good for gaming". You don't know how games actucally can look and run on high-end hardware.

 

[dangh]

I have been using Linux for decades yeah. For servers. Linux is particularly well-suited for server environments. Gaming is still meh. Have also been building high-end gaming PCs for decades and Linux never was any good for this, still is not any good for gaming, unless your demands are low and you accept a vastly smaller game catalog.

You can't have much experience with high-end gaming PCs and newer AAA games if you think Linux is good for gaming... There is a reason why no serious players use Linux.

No official game support.
No official driver support.

That is why. Read any game requirements - says Windows needed. Intel, AMD, Nvidia, has no focus on Linux in the consumer space either. 99% or more buying NEW HARDWARE, uses Windows.

The only reason more and more games work on Linux today, is due to Proton, which is just a comp. layer. Performance is mostly lost due to this, not gained. 10-25% performance decrease just by using Proton. API calls, overhead, fails. Is normal.

Games crash more on Linux as a result. API calls translated wrong, sound issues, etc. Even save games can fckup vastly more easy in Linux. Some games won't even save properly or crash when you try to save. Search, people have tons of issues with Linux gaming. Hence why forums exist for this kind of troubleshooting. Troubleshooting that is needed, due to the game not officially supports Linux.

Look at Steam HW Survey and you will see that pretty much no-one uses Linux for gaming. Read reviews on new games, where specs/OS is now shown, shows everyone uses Windows.

You can ramble all day about how good Linux is for gaming, yet 99.9% of PC gamers runs Windows. New games are made for Windows. Linux is no focus at all.

The few people who contributed to Linux marketshare on Steam, has in 9 out of 10 cases, a primary build that runs Windows.

Steam Deck is weak AF. Old games and indies is what most people are playing on this. Had one. Sold it, weak and boring and I submitted my specs to Steam HW Survey on this device too. My Privary build runs tweaked and optimized Windows 11 with 9800X3D with PBO/UV, 32GB 6400 at CL28 at 1:1 with a RTX 4090 with OC and UV while using 1440p OLED at 480 Hz and an Ultrawide 3440x1440 at 360 Hz OLED.

Top tier gaming specs. Something you "Linux gamers" can only dream about which is why you think "Linux is good for gaming". You don't know how games actucally can look and run on high-end hardware.

That's a lot of rambling with a lot of assumption and no real knowledge Steam deck is a relatively weak handheld. Not because it runs Linux, but because it is an old construction. It works even worse on windows. Whats more, any other, modern handheld, works better on Linux than on Windows. So sure, your experience with Steam Deck wasn't good, but this isn't OS related.
Now, not sure where you seen the numbers on performance decrease using proton. Surely not on your pc, right?
All else is as well some urban legends. Games crashing? Sure, 5 rears ago. Does it crashes more than on Windows? Where do you got those metrics from? From what I see, many nvidia or AMD drivers release brings tons of issues, sometimes with hardware bricking, so... yeah, sure.
All other stuff is incorrect either, amd and intel directly updates Linux open source drivers, games works on Linux because of WINE, which Proton just extends and is optional, many publishers support Linux releases directly, and so on. But not let facts distract you

"Search, people have tons of issues with Linux gaming.Hence why forums exist for this kind of troubleshooting"
... lol?. Oh, absolutely there are no forums for Windows issues, because there never were any, only posts on forums on windows are about how beautiful it is'!!!11 hahaahahhaa

And I don't know how games run on the high end hardware? I guess 9800x3d, 9070 xt nitro, 5k2k oled is not enough to test it properly ;D good story bro.

Things are simple: Linux just works. Gaming on Linux just works. You got a different experience? no, you just rambling without touching.

 

[Rapob]

That's a lot of rambling with a lot of assumption and no real knowledge Steam deck is a relatively weak handheld. Not because it runs Linux, but because it is an old construction. It works even worse on windows. Whats more, any other, modern handheld, works better on Linux than on Windows. So sure, your experience with Steam Deck wasn't good, but this isn't OS related.
Now, not sure where you seen the numbers on performance decrease using proton. Surely not on your pc, right?
All else is as well some urban legends. Games crashing? Sure, 5 rears ago. Does it crashes more than on Windows? Where do you got those metrics from? From what I see, many nvidia or AMD drivers release brings tons of issues, sometimes with hardware bricking, so... yeah, sure.
All other stuff is incorrect either, amd and intel directly updates Linux open source drivers, games works on Linux because of WINE, which Proton just extends and is optional, many publishers support Linux releases directly, and so on. But not let facts distract you

And I don't know how games run on the high end hardware? I guess 9800x3d, 9070 xt nitro, 5k2k oled is not enough to test it properly ;D good story bro.

Things are simple: Linux just works. Gaming on Linux just works. You got a different experience? no, you just rambling without touching.

No real knowledge, haha. Can't stop laughing. I have 20 years of Linux experience. 10 year working with Linux clusters, debian, arch from scratch etc.

Servers is what Linux excels at. Gaming has never been Linux strongpoint. Just because it got slightly better in the last 5 years, does not mean its good. From useless to mediocre overall.

Linux gaming just works? Ah, I see:

There's a surprising amount of major games you can't play on Valve's Steam Machine - here are eight of the biggest, and why

Valve's Steam Machine faces more problems than a hefty price tag, and it's all to do with cheaters and the lengths companies go to catch them.

www.eurogamer.net

It just works... If you accept a miniscule game catalog, where you say goodbye to most multiplayer games.

There is a reason 95% of Steam users runs Windows.

9070 XT is not high-end, it's mid-end. AMD left high-end GPU market officially when Radeon 9000 launched. Nothing high-end about a small GPU, using a small bus, with 16GB of dated GDDR6 RAM. My 4 year old RTX 4090 literally stomps it. AMD has nothing that even comes close. Sadly. RDNA 5 or should I say UDNA, will probably be out next year. Then we will see how much AMD cares for PC gamers. Radeon 9000 is a joke. Just like RTX 5000 is just a stop gap generation, because Nvidia faced no threat from AMD anyway.

Linux gaming... Can't stop laughing. Not even AMD cares about making Linux drivers for consumer hardware. Adrenaline has no Linux support.

I smell casual gamer.

 

[Loadedaxe]

No real knowledge, haha. Can't stop laughing. I have 20 years of Linux experience. 10 year working with Linux clusters, debian, arch from scratch etc.

Servers is what Linux excels at. Gaming has never been Linux strongpoint. Just because it got slightly better in the last 5 years, does not mean its good. From useless to mediocre overall.

Linux gaming just works? Ah, I see:

There's a surprising amount of major games you can't play on Valve's Steam Machine - here are eight of the biggest, and why

Valve's Steam Machine faces more problems than a hefty price tag, and it's all to do with cheaters and the lengths companies go to catch them.

www.eurogamer.net

It just works... If you accept a miniscule game catalog, where you say goodbye to most multiplayer games.

There is a reason 95% of Steam users runs Windows.

9070 XT is not high-end, it's mid-end. AMD left high-end GPU market officially when Radeon 9000 launched. Nothing high-end about a small GPU, using a small bus, with 16GB of dated GDDR6 RAM. My 4 year old RTX 4090 literally stomps it. AMD has nothing that even comes close. Sadly. RDNA 5 or should I say UDNA, will probably be out next year. Then we will see how much AMD cares for PC gamers. Radeon 9000 is a joke. Just like RTX 5000 is just a stop gap generation, because Nvidia faced no threat from AMD anyway.

Linux gaming... Can't stop laughing. Not even AMD cares about making Linux drivers for consumer hardware. Adrenaline has no Linux support.

I smell casual gamer.

I agree with a lot of what you're saying, but I also think you're overstating it.

Windows is still the best gaming platform if your goal is maximum compatibility with the least amount of hassle. That's especially true if you play competitive multiplayer games that rely on kernel level anti cheat. Linux still has work to do there, 100%.

Where I disagree is treating Linux gaming today like it's the same as it was during the original Steam Machine era. Proton, Vulkan, and the Steam Deck have completely changed the landscape. There are thousands of games that run well on Linux now. It's not perfect, but calling it "useless to mediocre" ignores how much progress has been made.

I also don't think it's fair to say AMD doesn't care about Linux because Adrenalin isn't available. Adrenalin is Windows software. On Linux, AMD's support comes through the AMDGPU driver and Mesa, which AMD actively contributes to. It's a different approach for sure, but not a lack of support.

As for the RX 9070 XT, comparing it to a 4090 doesn't automatically make it a mid range card. The 4090 was the flagship GPU of its generation. The 9070 XT isn't competing for the halo crown, but it's still a high performance GPU for the consumer market.

So I actually agree with some of your overall point ... if someone wants to play every game without worrying about compatibility, Windows is still the better choice. But saying Linux gaming is still basically a joke feels like an argument that's stuck in the Steam Machine days rather than where Linux gaming is today.

I think your argument would carry a lot more weight if you presented it more maturely. You clearly have experience, but comments like "I smell casual gamer" and repeatedly laughing at people don't strengthen your position...they distract from it. People are much more likely to take your opinion seriously when it's backed by facts rather than personal jabs.

 

[Rapob]

I agree with a lot of what you're saying, but I also think you're overstating it.

Windows is still the best gaming platform if your goal is maximum compatibility with the least amount of hassle. That's especially true if you play competitive multiplayer games that rely on kernel level anti cheat. Linux still has work to do there, 100%.

Where I disagree is treating Linux gaming today like it's the same as it was during the original Steam Machine era. Proton, Vulkan, and the Steam Deck have completely changed the landscape. There are thousands of games that run well on Linux now. It's not perfect, but calling it "useless to mediocre" ignores how much progress has been made.

I also don't think it's fair to say AMD doesn't care about Linux because Adrenalin isn't available. Adrenalin is Windows software. On Linux, AMD's support comes through the AMDGPU driver and Mesa, which AMD actively contributes to. It's a different approach for sure, but not a lack of support.

As for the RX 9070 XT, comparing it to a 4090 doesn't automatically make it a mid range card. The 4090 was the flagship GPU of its generation. The 9070 XT isn't competing for the halo crown, but it's still a high performance GPU for the consumer market.

So I actually agree with some of your overall point ... if someone wants to play every game without worrying about compatibility, Windows is still the better choice. But saying Linux gaming is still basically a joke feels like an argument that's stuck in the Steam Machine days rather than where Linux gaming is today.

I think your argument would carry a lot more weight if you presented it more maturely. You clearly have experience, but comments like "I smell casual gamer" and repeatedly laughing at people don't strengthen your position...they distract from it. People are much more likely to take your opinion seriously when it's backed by facts rather than personal jabs.

Steam Deck sold 4 million units in 4 years.
Nintendo sold close 200 million Switch handhelds in twice that period.

I have a Steam Deck OLED. It was fun to emulate old games, PC/Amiga/C64 or old consoles, but it was god awful slow in newer games. Literally useless here.

High-end RDNA 4 was cancelled. 9070 XT was the result. Mid-end offering.
Speaking about 5K2K and then mentioning 9070 XT makes no sense. That GPU will buckle unless heavy upscaling is used and FSR is inferior to DLSS, both in terms of visuals and game support. Nvidia wins easily on frame generation too.

Literally no-one builds a top tier gaming PC, and then installs Linux as the sole OS. People are not that stupid. Some use dual boot, sure but Linux as the sole OS for gaming. Nah, absolutely No unless you are extremely casual or plays old games or single player only.

If you could combine Linux marketshare on Steam with the Specs on the you would see that low-end hardware (APUs, Laptops, Steam Deck) accounts for pretty much the entire marketshare.

Read any game review on Steam. Specs are listed now. Everyone with high-end specs uses Windows. Pretty much every single user review says Windows. Linux has miniscule marketshare when we talk gaming.

Linux is sadly still a fragmented mess, with pretty much zero focus from game developers or hardware makers.

Proton is a compatibility layer that lets Windows games run on Linux. Performance is mostly lost doing this, very rarely gained. 10-25% performance on average is lost. Why is Proton needed? Because the games are made for Windows. Hence why game requirements says Windows is needed. Linux is not a focus at all from game developers, because 99.99% of the sales, happens on Windows.