The Steam Machine is better than 70% of current PCs and can play all games, according to a Valve Engineer. Read on to learn more about the upcoming console’s performance and its positioning in the market.
Steam Machine Performance Details and Highlights
Focusing On Performance and Affordability
Valve’s upcoming console, the Steam Machine, focuses on performance and affordability among all things. During an episode of Adam Savage’s Tested podcast on November 14, Valve Engineer Yazan Aldehayyat shared more details about the upcoming release of the company’s console, the Steam Machine.
According to him, the Steam Machine’s semi-custom AMD RDNA 3 GPU is powerful enough to play all games from the Steam Library. He explained, "Like that was really important to us. We want it to be a pretty simple experience. You don't have to worry about, ‘Oh, I play these games. I don't know if it has enough performance to play these games’. So, like that was the first hurdle, is like we need to make sure that there's enough performance that you don't have to worry about that."
Another aspect of the hardware they focused on is its affordability, as Aldehayyat noted that the hardware’s pricing affects the Steam Machine’s performance level. Although Valve has yet to reveal the device’s price, the engineer emphasized that they are taking into account its affordability and said, "We understand that affordability is really important, right? It definitely plays a huge factor into what performance level we're trying to target. We kind of use those two directions to triangulate what we think makes the most sense."
Better Than 70% of Current PCs
Aldehayyat claimed that the Steam Machine is better than "70%" of what current Steam users have at home. He stated, "Another thing that we actually looked at is just the Steam hardware survey. That just gives us a good benchmark of where people's home devices are at in terms of performance"
Online analysts and Reddit users generally rank the Steam Machine's graphics performance near the RX 7600 or the RTX 3060/4060 tier. As these cards are the most utilized GPUs according to the October 2025 Steam Hardware and Software Survey, this analysis supports Aldehayyat's claim about the device's market positioning.
Low Power Consumption
Aside from its performance, Aldehayyat also highlighted the Steam Machine’s low power consumption. While the engineer did not give any specific numbers, he claimed that the idle power consumption is "the best-in-class."
Furthermore, although the device is meant to remain constantly powered on in the consumer's living room, Valve focused on a stealth design. "You will never notice that it's on. There's going to be no fan, no noise, nothing like that," said Aldehayyat, emphasizing the lack of fan noise or other disturbances.
Additionally, he noted that the Steam Machine's idle processes, such as game updates and software downloads, have been significantly improved compared to the Steam Deck. Since the handheld console was limited by battery life, the always-plugged-in Steam Machine can run these tasks constantly at a low power consumption.
The developers are also implementing a new encoding scheme for Steam game downloads that will further improve these processes by reducing the CPU load on users' PCs during decompression and downloading.
Alongside the Steam Machine, Valve is set to release two other hardware products in 2026: a new Steam Controller and the Steam Frame. All of these devices will be fully compatible with one another, including the existing Steam Deck.
Source:
Hands-On: Valve Steam Controller 2 and Steam Machine!
Steam Hardware & Software Survey: October 2025
r/Steam What do you guys think is the GPU equivalent of the Steam Machine?
the price will be around $900 to $1200, that's my take tbh