The recently announced Steam Machine is equal to or better than around 70% of “what people have at home”, according to Valve engineer, Yazan Aldehayyat.
In an interview with Adam Savage’s Tested on YouTube, Valve engineer Yazan Aldehayyat offered a detailed look at the recently announced Steam Machine and Steam Controller 2. He talked about shaping the project through lessons learned from the first Steam Controller and the success of the Steam Deck, saying Valve finally has “all the software and the hardware bits to make that vision a reality.”
Valve looked at the Steam Hardware Survey to understand what performance tier most players come to expect. “The Steam Machine is equal or better than 70% of what people have at home,” said Aldehayyat. This statistic helped Valve come up with a hardware configuration powerful enough to run the entire Steam library without forcing users to worry about compatibility or performance ceilings.
At the heart of the new Steam Machine is a semi-custom AMD SoC, pairing a 28-CU RDNA3 discrete GPU (running at 2.4–2.5 GHz, 110–130W) with a six-core Zen 4 CPU in the 30W TDP range. Additionally, it includes 16GB of DDR5 SODIMM RAM and 8GB VRAM. The goal, Aldehayyat says, is delivering a “really great 4K 60 [fps]” experience using FSR upscaling while keeping the device affordable enough to serve as an entry-level gaming PC. The hardware supports user-replaceable 2280 SSDs (512GB or 2TB models will be available). Much of the I/O uses modular daughterboards, and Valve plans to release 3D-printable front-panel files to encourage community customization.
Despite its horsepower, the Steam Machine is also engineered for near-silent idle usage. While Valve isn’t ready to share precise power-draw numbers, Aldehayyat says the box achieves “best-in-class” idle consumption, staying cool, quiet, and always ready for background tasks like downloads. A new download encoding scheme on Steam reduces CPU load dramatically, which further helps the device in staying efficient.
