To say that Valve’s newest hardware reveal looks promising – and more than a little threatening if you’re Sony or Microsoft – would be an understatement. However, as is always the case, price remains a stickler, and aside from better distribution, there are no details on how much the new Steam Frame or Steam Machine will cost.
That being said, Valve hardware engine Yazan Aldehayyat did promise the latter would be a “really competitive price” compared to building a PC with “similar features and performance.”
“If you’re trying to make a PC that has similar features and similar performance, I think the Steam Machine is going to be a really competitive price to that and provide really good value to it,” he told IGN. “The affordability piece you mentioned is one of the reasons why we think a Steam Machine makes a lot of sense right now.”
“So it’s just something that we thought about every time we made a hardware decision, a feature decision, is to make sure that we keep it as approachable, as affordable as possible.”
If it wants to position itself as a viable PC that also doubles up as a living room gaming device, then appealing to a wide audience is necessary. Of course, given Steam’s prominence and the success of the Steam Deck, Valve could maybe get away with charging a bit more.
The Steam Machine features a semi-custom six-core AMD Zen 4 CPU with 12 threads and up to 4.8 GHz alongside 16 GB DDR5 RAM. Its RDNA3 GPU is also semi-custom, with a 2.45 GHz max sustain clock speed, 8 GB GDDR6 VRAM, and 28 Compute Units. And while pricing remains unknown, the model with the 512 GB NVMe SSD should be significantly cheaper than the one with 2 TB.
The Steam Machine, Steam Frame and new Steam Controller all launch together in early 2026.
This sounds like an interesting development from Valve! It’s great to see more options in the gaming hardware market, especially with competitive pricing. Looking forward to seeing how it performs against custom builds.
Absolutely, it is an exciting time for gamers! With Valve’s entry into the hardware market, it could really shake up the competition and possibly lead to better pricing and performance across the board. I’m curious to see how it will influence the DIY PC building community as well.
open up new possibilities for game performance and accessibility. Plus, it might drive down prices in the gaming hardware market overall, which would be great for everyone. It’ll be interesting to see how developers adapt to this new platform as well!
Absolutely, the Steam Machine could really shake up the market! If more companies follow Valve’s lead, we might see even more innovative designs that cater to different gaming styles. It’s exciting to think about how this could enhance both performance and user experience in the long run.