Comment on Steam Machine – Powerful Enough?
Regrettable_incident@lemmy.world 1 week ago
My main issue is how much power it needs. Due to my living situation, I’ll be able to run it only if it needs 1000w or less. I doubt it would be feasible to replace the power supply with something that takes 12v DC. We’ll see. I’m doing okay with my steam deck anyway.
CafeFrog@lemmy.cafe 1 week ago
I think you may have an unrealistic idea of how much power low or mid-range gaming PC’s use. Only at the very top-end of PC’s with extreme overclocked components pushed to the limit would you come near 1000w (a $3000 Nvidia GTX 5090 graphics card can use 575w, as an example).
The Steam Machine uses effectively a laptop CPU (35W TDP) that’ll likely use 50 to 65w max, and the GPU is also a beefed up laptop GPU with a 110W TDP (it’ll probably peak at 140 to 150w, I’m guessing).
Overall it’ll probably idle at 10 or 15w, and likely use around 70w under average gaming, or 150 to 200w when pushed hard.
The Steamdeck is certainly still more power efficient, and if you find that it’s powerful enough for the games you play, there’s not much reason to consider getting anything else. But the Steamdeck will be pretty power efficient for a desktop. It kinda has to be, since it only has a single fan for cooling.
Regrettable_incident@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Well that’s great news, thanks. Yeah most of my system is 12v, running off a big ole lithium battery which is charged by solar panels. I can do 220v via a 1000w inverter, sounds like this could run a steam machine. Food for thought! Though I’m kinda interested in the steam frame too, waiting to see what the prices are like.
Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 1 week ago
The funny thing is, those power bricks you plug into the AC outlet convert that back to DC and various voltages (including 12v).
I’ve wondered for a while if we’ll start seeing more DC input electronics designed for setups like yours because there’s efficiency losses for both the DC -> AC step and the AC -> DC step.
Regrettable_incident@lemmy.world 1 week ago
I hope so, it would be very convenient. I know there are a fair few 12v and 24v monitors around, I’ve been looking.