Nine days and over 60 games: an honest verdict on Steam Machine

The dream of a computer that behaves like a console in the living room has been pursued by Valve for years. How close the Steam Machine is to this dream is nicely demonstrated by one of the most useful recent tests — nine days and over 60 games played by a Redditor who calls himself Unscientific Testing Guy. And his conclusion is actually as honest as his nickname sounds: mostly great, but not entirely without a “but.”

SteamOS is the star of the evening

SteamOS received the most praise. Its interface feels simple and console-like, but both gaming and desktop modes maintain the flexibility you’re used to with a PC. The most telling detail? The tester’s non-tech-savvy wife was able to navigate the system without problems — and this is precisely the goal a console must meet. Incidentally, this is why mini PCs with SteamOS are starting to make sense: anyone who appreciates the Steam Machine concept but wants different hardware suddenly has an attractive alternative.

Performance surprised, 4K reportedly overrated

Performance was also a pleasant surprise. According to the tester, the remake of Resident Evil 4 didn’t feel compromised, even when running at a lower resolution and with moderate details. His observation about the image is interesting — he reportedly barely notices the difference between 1440p, 1620p, and 1800p from a normal viewing distance from the TV, and therefore straight up called native 4K overrated. Out of more than sixty games, only two caused problems: Borderlands 4 and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor could not be run satisfactorily even after extensive tweaking. Otherwise, the machine scores points for its compact size, practically silent operation, and an interface that feels snappier than on the Steam Deck — and it can even run games from a fast SD card without noticeably longer loading times.

But it’s still a PC

And now for the honest other side. The biggest flaw is the graphics presets, which are often poorly chosen — some older games launch at strange resolutions, while more demanding titles might only run around 20 FPS on default settings. Before one fine-tunes everything, they’ll spend more time with sliders than they’d expect from a “console.” Furthermore, the illusion is shattered by third-party launchers: games like Jedi: Survivor or Assassin’s Creed Valhalla require additional software, logins, and clunky windows that constantly remind you that beneath the polished SteamOS beats an ordinary PC. And beware of multiplayer — due to unsupported anti-cheat, you won’t be able to play games like Apex Legends, Call of Duty, or Marathon.

The summary is cleverly simple: as a living room gaming PC, the Steam Machine is exciting, but as a carefree console, not quite yet. The community largely agrees — the main debate is about 4K, where many players insist that the difference is visible in modern AAA games. Which, after all, is a dispute best decided by each individual on their own TV.

Would you swap your console for a PC with SteamOS, or do you prefer to play without tweaking settings?

Source: Reddit, Notebookcheck