This AMD mini PC surpasses Valve’s Steam Machine, but it comes with a significantly higher price tag.

      Valve's choice to officially back SteamOS 3.8 on standard gaming PCs has paved the way for a new type of Steam Machines, eliminating the necessity for gamers to purchase Valve's own hardware. Recent benchmarks from YouTuber ETA Prime indicate that a high-end AMD-powered mini PC can surpass the performance of Valve's forthcoming Steam Machine by a significant margin. The catch? It is also priced several times higher.

      The tests underscore both the versatility of SteamOS and the increasing popularity of AMD's latest integrated graphics, yet they prompt a crucial question: how much additional performance is actually worth the extra cost?

      SteamOS is not confined to Valve’s hardware

      With the introduction of SteamOS 3.8, Valve has made its Linux-based gaming operating system accessible on compatible desktop PCs, especially those utilizing AMD components. Although Nvidia support is still being developed, SteamOS now enables users to construct their own console-like gaming PCs without depending on Valve's proprietary hardware.

      ETA Prime recently showcased this potential by installing SteamOS 3.8.14 on a mini PC equipped with AMD’s Ryzen AI Max+ 395 processor. This chip incorporates 16 Zen 5 CPU cores, 32 threads, and an integrated Radeon 8060S GPU with 40 RDNA 3.5 compute units, making it significantly more powerful than the semi-custom AMD processor found in Valve’s Steam Machine, which reportedly features a 6-core Zen 4 CPU and an RDNA 3 GPU with 28 compute units.

      To enhance graphics performance, ETA Prime allocated 96GB of the system's shared memory as VRAM, leaving 31GB for system memory. The performance benefits were clear across various titles tested with native rendering and no upscaling. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the Ryzen-based system achieved an average of 138 FPS at 1080p compared to 118 FPS on the Steam Machine. At 1440p, it reached 103 FPS over 86 FPS, and at 4K, it delivered 62 FPS, surpassing Valve’s hardware by 41 percent.

      This trend continued in Cyberpunk 2077, where the mini PC averaged 84 FPS at 1080p, 52 FPS at 1440p, and 27 FPS at 4K, while the Steam Machine recorded 74 FPS, 45 FPS, and 18 FPS, respectively. Similar enhancements were noted in Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, with the AMD system showing 72 FPS at 1080p, 56 FPS at 1440p, and 32 FPS at 4K, consistently edging out Valve’s hardware.

      However, these performance improvements come at a hefty cost

      The setup featured in the demonstration is priced around $3,999, in contrast to the Steam Machine's starting price of $1,049. Justifying an almost $3,000 premium for frame-rate enhancements of 15 to 50 percent will likely be difficult for most consumers.

      AMD Mini PC ETA Prime

      There are more economical options available. Systems like the GMKtec EVO-X2 AI Mini PC, which also utilizes the Ryzen AI Max+ 395, can be acquired for about $1,999. While this model comes with 64GB of LPDDR5X memory, which restricts users from allocating the same 96GB of VRAM that ETA Prime tested, this limitation is not expected to significantly affect gaming performance. Even the most powerful consumer graphics cards today seldom require more than 32GB of VRAM.

      Ultimately, the benchmark emphasizes the broader implications of SteamOS 3.8. Valve is no longer compelling gamers to invest in a Steam Machine—they now only need compatible hardware. As SteamOS evolves and hardware support broadens, particularly concerning Nvidia GPUs, gamers may find themselves with greatly enhanced options for building their own console-like gaming PCs without being tied to a single manufacturer.