Valve's Steam Machine aims to bring a PC-like gaming experience to the living room, with specifications designed to compete with entry-level gaming PCs and current-generation consoles. The device offers both 512GB and 2TB NVMe SSD storage options, available standalone or bundled with the Steam Controller. Its physical dimensions are 156mm wide, 152mm high, and 162mm deep, with a weight of 2.6 kg.
Steam Machine on a desk.
Under the hood, the Steam Machine features a semi-custom AMD Zen 4 CPU capable of reaching up to 4.8GHz with a 30W TDP, paired with a semi-custom AMD RDNA 3 GPU. This GPU boasts 28 Compute Units, a sustained clock speed of 2.45GHz, a 110W TDP, and 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM. Valve states this configuration is six times more powerful than the Steam Deck and supports 4K gaming at 60fps with FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR), along with ray tracing capabilities. The system includes 16GB of DDR5 RAM, with the 8GB GDDR6 VRAM dedicated to the GPU. Storage is further expandable via 2230/2280 NVMe SSD slots and a MicroSD card slot.
The internal power supply operates on 110V/240V AC. Connectivity options include a DisplayPort 1.4 output capable of up to 4K at 240Hz or 8K at 60Hz, supporting HDR and FreeSync, as well as daisy-chaining. An HDMI 2.0 port is also available, supporting up to 4K at 120Hz with HDR, FreeSync, and CEC. A gigabit ethernet port is included for wired network connections. For peripherals and accessories, the Steam Machine offers a 10Gbps USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port, four USB-A ports (two front USB 3 and two rear USB 2), and a dedicated Bluetooth antenna. Wireless connectivity is handled by 2x2 Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3.
The operating system is SteamOS 3, which is based on Arch Linux and utilizes the KDE Plasma desktop environment. The device also features a distinctive LED strip composed of 17 individually addressable RGB LEDs for system status indication and customization. Beyond its gaming functions, the Steam Machine is designed to work with other controllers, accessories, and PC peripherals, and can be woken up using the Steam Controller. Its software capabilities allow for the installation of third-party platforms like Epic Games or GOG, enabling users to customize the software environment. However, games that employ anti-cheat software requiring kernel-level access are not compatible with the Steam Machine.