Comment on Steam Machine
Harbinger01173430@lemmy.world 3 days ago
I still don’t get why didn’t they just use an ITX motherboard with a Ryzen 7600 and a Rx 7600 in an ITX case and called it steam machine instead.
Less resources for engineering the thing that could’ve been sued for software development.
I imagine that’s because that’s what they tried back in 2015 with the Alienware steam machine.
Because they were forced to do the work of making a custom cpu for the handheld, now they have the contracts and relationships to tailor a CPU for their 2026 machine. But you can tell they still want it to be primarily a PC because they only “lightly modified” it.
Couldn’t they just make sure their software worked properly in the CPU/GPU combo of their choice?
After investigating various releases, I suspect that that) slightly modified likely mostly means ‘directly welded to the motherboard instead of socketed’ and it is otherwise probably mostly stock.
I imagine the direct welding is a cost-saving measure to make the product more competitive with consoles.
Given that they announced that the recovery image should now work with a wide variety of systems and that they have stated in multiple places that they plan to eventually release a general version of the OS, they’ve done the work of making it compatible with mostly all AMD stuff. My bet is they’re also working with Nvidia and and their driver support is the holdup.
They have said in interviews that the main reason they made it was to respond to the fact that the majority of steam deck owners keep it docked to a TV most of the time. It is meant to be a living room appliance with all the sound and heat dissipation issues related.
It’s smaller than an Xbox and barely larger than a GameCube. According to the reviewers that saw it, it is also much quieter and smaller than the smallest ITX case, while also being six times more powerful than the deck. It’s targeting a very specific audience that just wants a plug and play gaming experience and don’t want the hassle of PC building.
Rooster326@programming.dev 3 days ago
Is it less resources though? At that level to buy consumer grade?
I mean you can literally build your own steam machine with that. You can install the os into any PC. That’s the ultimate goal I imagine.
Harbinger01173430@lemmy.world 3 days ago
I mean, they could’ve used all that engineering budget that was used in the design of the device for something like, enhancing proton
dustyData@lemmy.world 3 days ago
That’s not how engineering works.
Harbinger01173430@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Trust me I know. I am en engineer XD I just don’t remember most of what I learned in university, just the necessary stuff for work
Rooster326@programming.dev 3 days ago
Trust me they are improving proton all on their own. Proton let’s them sell games. That is how they make money