Reviews Gaming Valve Steam Machine review: This would've been perfect five years ago The Steam Machine isn't worth the price that Valve is asking. By Jessica Conditt July 8, 2026 3:00 pm EST Engadget RATING : 6.5 / 10 Pros Puts Steam in your living room Very quiet Gives the Steam Controller a home Cons Too expensive Underpowered compared with current consoles/PCs No upgrade path Existential gaming issues When I appeared on the Engadget Podcast last week , I casually compared the Steam Machine to the Steam Deck, essentially calling my review unit a beefed-up version of Valve's handheld. Now that I've spent a few more days with the box in my living room, and Valve has rolled out additional updates, I'm willing to admit that was a too-harsh comparison. In truth and totality, I'd compare the $1,049 Steam Machine to an entry-level ninth generation console, or perhaps a decent gaming PC back in 2021. As a contemporary living room console, the Steam Machine is fine. It's not quite good and it's not particularly impressive, but it will be able to run most games at reasonable framerates and resolutions.

The Steam Machine is powered by semi-custom AMD hardware, much like the PS5 and Xbox Series consoles or, of course, the Steam Deck. It has a Zen 4 CPU with six cores, an RDNA3 GPU with 28 CUs, 16GB of RAM and 8GB of VRAM. It runs SteamOS, though you're free to install Windows if a game you want to play requires it . Though its hardware setup is different from Sony's console, its raw ability to push pixels falls just short of a PS5's.

Source: https://www.engadget.com/2210832/valve-steam-machine-review/