Steam Machine Upgrades!

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]The Steam Machines potential price was always the biggest point of discussion when talking about the Steam Machine ever since its announcement. There has been some interesting hysteria in regards to the price though. Are we just worrying over nothing?

[00:00:18]If you're watching this video, then good news. I've ordered my Steam Controller.

[00:00:21]In fact, I got the email on Monday. Now, back to the Steam Machine. How much would you pay for the Steam Machine?

[00:00:28]What's your upper limit? I think most people would tune out of the Steam Machine as soon as it hits a thousand dollars. While yes, this is technically a gaming PC in almost every facet, and yes, most gaming PCs are over a thousand dollars. The truth is, I don't see anyone really buying the Steam Machine for over a thousand dollars. But do we really know if it's over a thousand dollars? Well, some people in the leaking community have suggested that thanks to the existence of a comma in the quotes anyways, a comma specifically for dividing like thousands of dollars, stuff like that, you know. You know how numbers look. Yeah, that kind of comma.

[00:01:09]People have started taking that as evidence that the Steam Machine will be at least a thousand dollars, if not more.

[00:01:16]And I don't necessarily agree with it.

[00:01:18]Now, yes, of course, I don't think the Steam Machine is going to be cheap. As much as I'd like it to be five hundred dollars, and as much as as much as I'd like to believe Moore's Law is dead, that it'll be five hundred dollars or like six-fifty, I don't know if I could see it being that way. I think the most realistic guess for me is probably like seven hundred or seven-fifty.

[00:01:40]But a thousand dollars, I think would be way too much. And I think Valve would be making a huge mistake in letting the Steam Machine die at a thousand dollars.

[00:01:48]Now, personally, I don't think the Steam Machine is going to be a thousand dollars because that's just kind of ridiculous. Especially given that next generation consoles are around the corner. And unless those next gen consoles are significantly more expensive than, you know, this current generation consoles, it's going to be hard to justify buying a Steam Machine for $1,000 and then getting a much more powerful PlayStation 6 or Xbox Project Helix or whatever. Yes, we don't know the price of these consoles and some rumors suggest that the Project Helix console is going to be even more expensive. But could Sony really get away with raising the price of the base PlayStation 6, especially when people know there's going to be a PS6 Pro like three or four years down the line? But even so, I don't see the PlayStation 6 exceeding $1,000.

[00:02:41]But if the Steam Machine were truly $1,000, then it would be in a weird no man's land position.

[00:02:47]It would be more expensive than next generation consoles, yet weaker than those same next gen consoles. And most PC gaming enthusiasts already have really powerful PCs and they game at their desk anyways. So, they really wouldn't have any need for a Steam Machine, not to mention plenty of people have already built their own Steam Machines. You can very easily build one with all AMD parts and a case. And, you know, [music] just install like Bazzite or CashierOS or whatever. You can do it, people have done it and paired with a Steam Controller, you basically have the whole thing. I guess the only thing you're really missing is HDMI CEC cuz there aren't too many great options for that, which really drives home another point. At what point could you not just like build your own Steam Machine? If it ends up being more expensive than the equivalent PC, then why not just build the equivalent PC? But how can Valve lower the price of the Steam Machine and make it affordable for people? Well, assuming memory and RAM prices aren't going to go down in a timely fashion, I think the only real option Valve would have is to effectively subsidize the Steam Machine.

[00:03:54]I am familiar with the idea that Valve really doesn't want to subsidize the hardware. I know that they don't want to do that. I know that they reportedly did not do that for the Steam Deck, but they're different times, you know, the Steam Deck was like 4 years ago at this point. But I think Valve really should consider it. I mean, the truth is that the Steam Machine really is just a gateway into Steam itself. It's important to recognize that Valve's cash cow is not one specific hardware product, but Steam itself and ultimately the Steam Machine is yet another vehicle into Steam. So, I think Valve really should subsidize it. And if you like this video or any other video I've done, please like, subscribe, and share with all of your friends. And in the meantime, though, if you want more content, want to check out Off The Console, it's a podcast featuring Gardner Bryant and Games Revealed and I.

[00:04:42]Of course, occasionally you'll see some guests as well. So, be sure to check us out when you can. Links in the description down below. On the topic of the Steam Machine, let's talk about some updates that will greatly benefit the Steam Machine. First and foremost is HDMI 2.1. Now, on Valve's official website, the Steam Machine supports HDMI 2.0. The hardware is supposed to support HDMI 2.1, but due to weird licensing issues with the HDMI forum, it's limited to HDMI 2.0 currently. But AMD recently posted HDMI 2.1 kernel drivers to Linux. But what does HDMI 2.1 even have over 2.0? Mostly data throughput. And you need that for like high resolution, high refresh rate displays. You know, like a nice 4K 120 Hz OLED panel, something like that. Now, the Steam Machine is supposed to support that, but with a technology that ultimately does compress the image a little bit. But with full true HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, this compression may not be necessary anymore. Another major update isn't strictly Steam Machine or even Steam OS related, but it's generally AMD hardware related. FSR 4 is coming to older AMD GPUs. How old you might be asking? Think RDNA 3, which is coincidentally what the Steam Machines got. That said, FSR 4 is based on AI upscaling rather than what they used for FSR 1 through 3. And if I had to be honest, it looks a lot better than it used to, and I'd even say it looks comparable to the DLSS. Truth be told, as for FSR 4's frame generation, I really don't care about that. I would never use frame generation simply because it makes the game feel worse. It may look a little smoother, but input latency is everything when it comes to games. And on a slightly unrelated note, Steam updated some of their user tags, and I kind of want to rant about some of them.

[00:06:38]Bullet Heaven, aka the opposite of bullet hell, primarily exists because, you know, Vampire Survivors-likes have been polluting the bullet hell genre, as well as somehow the beat-'em-up genre, too. Those are two genres I really like to look forward to during the Next Fest, but all I see were freaking Vampire Survivors-likes in those two genres, which really sucks.

[00:06:59]Most of the new tags are thematic, like wuxia or samurai or espionage or cults or poker. That's interesting. But arguably the most questionable addition is capybaras, because I've only ever heard of one game on Steam that has a capybara theme. [music] Is there this crazy world of capybara games in existence I've never heard of on Steam?

[00:07:25]Huh, maybe I'd have to explore some more. There are some removals as well, some of which do make sense, but others are questionable and even saddening for some people.

[00:07:34]Namely things like Game Maker or RPG Maker being removed. It does kind of fit the ethos, though, as they're supposed to be removing things that have IP attached to them. Like RPG Maker is owned by a company. It's not just some genre of game. It's a literal product that they sell.

[00:07:53]And also Game Maker is also an IP as well. You know, you know, they removed Dungeons & Dragons, they removed Games Workshop.

[00:08:01]They removed um a couple of other things. Warhammer 40K, that had its own tag. That's kind of silly. I've seen people get upset over the removal of the NSFW tag. But like there's a whole category of those types of games on Steam totally separate from this. Like we don't need an NSFW tag as well. That's kind of redundant, isn't it? And finally, some other changes to existing tags. I mean, I don't know what more to say about this besides it's an update. It certainly is an update. It's an update to some tags.

[00:08:34]Some people have gotten really upset.

[00:08:36]But at the same time, though, Valve has outlined a pretty reasonable reason as to why some of these tags were removed.

[00:08:42]So like it's not entirely unreasonable for Valve to ultimately remove the RPG Maker tag, you know? If you like this video, please press the like button and check out our other videos. And if you like those other videos as well, be sure to press the subscribe button and share the good gospel of High-Tech Lowlife with your friends. Furthermore, we have a community Discord for enlightened individuals such as you. And if you wish to further support High-Tech Lowlife, be sure to check out our Patreon page.

[00:09:08]Link's in the description.