In a somewhat unexpected move, Steam Deck creator Valve has just announced a new Steam Machine, a home console built around SteamOS. This is the famed gaming company's second swing at a home gaming platform, as the first Steam Machine launched in 2015 to poor sales. The console was mostly wiped from Steam's store just a few years later, in 2018.
This previous failure might come as something of a surprise considering the overwhelming success of the Steam Deck, Valve's breakout portable gaming device. The Steam Deck (along with its Steam OLED premium model) can be considered partially responsible for the explosion in portable or hybrid gaming PCs over the past few years—a hardware trend that even Microsoft has begun to partake in via the ROG Xbox Ally, an Xbox-branded handheld. However, the Steam Machine is targeting a notably different hardware category.
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Valve Re-Enters the Home Console Market with a Next-Gen Steam Machine, Coming 2026
The New Steam Machine's Spec Highlights
- CPU: Semi-custom AMD Zen 4 6C / 12T up to 4.8 GHz, 30W TDP
- GPU: Semi-Custom AMD RDNA3 28CUs 2.45GHz max sustained clock, 110W TDP
- Supports 4K gaming at 60 FPS with FSR
- Ray tracing supported
- Over 6x more powerful than Steam Deck
- 16GB DDR5 + 8GB GDDR6 VRAM
- 512 GB & 2 TB SSD models
- micro SD card slot for expanded storage/ portable catalog
- Internal power supply, AC power 110-240V
Valve describes this Steam Machine as being "over 6x more powerful than Steam Deck," with hardware specifications that will allow it to support 4K gaming at 60FPS and ray-tracing. Its semi-custom AMD architecture allows for AMD FSR upscaling, which should hopefully facilitate better graphics and performance. The Steam Machine will not feature DLSS or other upscaling software, at least not in this model. The Steam Deck's dynamic hardware scheduling is one of its greatest tricks, adjusting minimum VRAM for ideal performance and power usage across different games, so it will be interesting to see how these specs are defined in the context of similar computational maneuvers in the Steam Machine.
At the time of writing, Valve has not revealed how much the Steam Machine will cost. Its predecessor was dynamically priced: the entry-level model retailed at $499, while the more advanced, higher-spec versions were as much as $6000. There are currently two variations of the Steam Machine slated for release—a 512GB version and a 2TB version—so consumers can expect some degree of tiered pricing this time around as well. Valve has yet to lock in a firm release date, though it did say that the hardware would ship in "early 2026." The console can be purchased by itself, or bundled with the new Steam Controller.
The game industry has changed quite a bit since 2015, and so has Valve. It has several more years of hardware shipping success under its belt now, which will hopefully translate to a better user experience and better sales. PC gaming also has a much greater mainstream appeal today than it did in the 2010s, courtesy of ever-more ambitious and alluring indies. These factors, combined with improvements made to SteamOS, a major pain point of the original Steam Machine, could help this new product line avoid the pitfalls of its progenitor.
Steam is a digital video game storefront and program developed by Valve that allows gamers to purchase, play, and mod their titles all through one convenient program.
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