This AMD mini PC outperforms Valve’s Steam Machine, although it is significantly pricier.

      Valve's choice to officially endorse SteamOS 3.8 on standard gaming PCs has paved the way for a new generation of Steam Machines, allowing gamers to avoid purchasing Valve's proprietary hardware. A recent test by YouTuber ETA Prime indicates that a high-end AMD-powered mini PC can surpass the performance of Valve’s forthcoming Steam Machine by a significant margin, but the drawback is that it comes at a much higher cost.

      The testing underscores the versatility of SteamOS and the increasing allure of AMD’s latest integrated graphics, while simultaneously raising a pertinent question: how much additional performance is genuinely worth the extra cost?

      SteamOS demonstrates it isn't confined to Valve’s devices.

      With the launch of SteamOS 3.8, Valve has extended its Linux-based gaming operating system to compatible desktop PCs, especially those using AMD hardware. While Nvidia support is still in development, SteamOS now enables users to construct their own console-like gaming PCs without depending on Valve’s official hardware.

      ETA Prime recently showcased this potential by installing SteamOS 3.8.14 on a mini PC featuring AMD’s Ryzen AI Max+ 395 processor. This chip includes 16 Zen 5 CPU cores, 32 threads, and an integrated Radeon 8060S GPU with 40 RDNA 3.5 compute units, offering significantly greater power than the semi-custom AMD processor found in Valve’s Steam Machine, which is reported to include a 6-core Zen 4 CPU and an RDNA 3 GPU with 28 compute units.

      To enhance graphics performance, ETA Prime designated 96GB of the system’s shared memory for VRAM, leaving 31GB for system memory. The performance improvements were clear across various titles tested using native rendering without upscaling. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the Ryzen-powered system achieved an average of 138 FPS at 1080p, compared to 118 FPS on the Steam Machine. At 1440p, it reached 103 FPS against 86 FPS, and at 4K, it hit 62 FPS, outshining Valve’s hardware by 41 percent.

      The trend continued in Cyberpunk 2077, where the mini PC recorded an average of 84 FPS at 1080p, 52 FPS at 1440p, and 27 FPS at 4K, in contrast to the Steam Machine's 74 FPS, 45 FPS, and 18 FPS respectively. Similar advancements were noted in Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, with the AMD system providing 72 FPS at 1080p, 56 FPS at 1440p, and 32 FPS at 4K, consistently surpassing Valve’s hardware.

      However, these performance advancements come with a hefty price tag.

      The setup used in the demonstration is priced at approximately $3,999, while the Steam Machine starts at $1,049. Justifying an extra nearly $3,000 for frame-rate enhancements ranging from 15 to 50 percent will be challenging for most purchasers.

      There is a more feasible alternative available. Systems like the GMKtec EVO-X2 AI Mini PC, which also utilizes the Ryzen AI Max+ 395, can be found for about $1,999. This model includes 64GB of LPDDR5X memory, which prevents users from allocating the same 96GB of VRAM utilized in ETA Prime’s tests, but this limitation is unlikely to significantly affect gaming performance. Even the most powerful consumer graphics cards today rarely need more than 32GB of VRAM.

      Ultimately, the benchmark underscores the broader implications of SteamOS 3.8. Valve is no longer compelling gamers to purchase a Steam Machine—they simply require compatible hardware. As SteamOS evolves and hardware support broadens, especially for Nvidia GPUs, gamers will likely have far more options for constructing their own console-like gaming PCs without being confined to a single manufacturer.