Personally, I’m looking forward to the Steam Machine. I’m not necessarily planning to buy one, though.
I’ve read so much disparaging commentary on the Steam Deck, and yet it’s genuinely been one of my most treasured tech purchases I’ve made in years. Like I literally do not care that it’s “only” 720p. I was able to play games almost the entire 7 hour trip I just took without having to recharge it or plug it in, and the games cost a fraction of what I used to pay for dedicated console games 20 or 30 years ago.
What I’m getting at is all the disparaging commentary on the not even released Steam Machine sounds just as valid (i.e. not at all). No reasonable person is going to buy the Steam Machine expecting cutting edge performance. No reasonable person is expecting this to be the best selling “console” of all time or even this generation. 8GB of graphics RAM could be a problem and so could artificially intelligent robots taking over Earth in 2030, could but almost certainly won’t.
I’m only rocking six gigs in mine for the same range and haven’t felt like it’s getting outdated aside from the fact it doesn’t support rtx or dlss.
Testing shows Valve did their testing already and made a decision based on it.
8GB runs majority of games perfectly fine. We only suddenly “need” more because the “big” games are developed like shit.
We only suddenly “need” more because the “big” games are developed like shit.
Thankfully games give you options. If you want crazy big textures and RT at 4K it’s your choice.
This kind of stuff is added at the expense of optimisations though. The time spent adding support for real time ray tracing could have been spent making the game perform better overall for everyone.
This kind of stuff is added at the expense of optimisations though
You could apply this to a lot of other graphical options. Not bothering with antialiasing other than TAA that’s setup in a dogshit way could free up some time for optimization. It usually doesn’t.
The time spent adding support for RT is extremely low nowadays. e: That’s the whole selling point of lumen for example
And lumen is ass. TAA is ass. All this new technology chasing “realistic lighting” is complete ass because it trades off so much quality. It’s being pushed by NVIDIA because its the only reason they have to sell new GPUs.
Our hardware is ridiculously powerful, but it’s just not harnessed properly.
Lumen wouldn’t be so ass if it didn’t default to shit values. Same with TAA, it’ll still look shit in motion though. Devs seem allergic to exposing frame weights at the very least. Also Lumen is hardware-agnostic, if you’re not using it’s software mode it benefits all cards with the required hardware. Nvidia have their own thing going.
All this new technology chasing “realistic lighting” is complete ass
Hard disagree.
RT can be really nice, I loved it’s look in Control though I was using a patch that tripled the ray count which made it heavy as hell. But for an early RT implementation I can let this slide, especially bc it meshed so well with the art direction.
Also RTGI is amazing when implemented right, look at gta 5 for a good example, it sips power even with most other rt features enablededit:
It’s being pushed by NVIDIA because its the only reason they have to sell new GPUs.
Come on bruh. They could stop selling gaming gpus this second and barely notice. It’s one of the selling features but far from the only reason.
it’ll still look shit in motion though.
Exactly… games are quite often, in motion. I think we should abolish TAA and go back to forward rendering techniques with MSAA, the hardware can do it no problem. But a lot of games now are made with UE5s out of the box settings, which while they might be great for movies and VFX (I don’t know), they are absolutely terrible for games.
RTRT is probably the future yeah, once it’s matured to a point that it runs as aswell as traditional games, it’ll be great. Right now, it can’t and GPUs are more expensive with their “RT” cores. For certain games it can work well like slower story games where you can immerse in the world, but for a lot of other games it’s a pointless loss of performance for details nobody will really notice. But the devs get to slap “ray tracing” in the marketing and can take cash off Nvidia for RTX advertising. The “hype” around it has kind of died down anyway now.
Come on bruh. They could stop selling gaming gpus this second and barely notice. It’s one of the selling features but far from the only reason.
It was hyperbole, they sell them for AI now… aha. My point is that the latest, even last gens, GPUs are so so powerful, yet games seem to get worse and worse performing and in quality (I’m mostly talking big games here, ones you’d expect to built well, the ones chasing graphics). UE5 is normally the culprit. But NVIDIA has clearly switched to selling software updates with their GPUs and marketing that. DLSS etc. I’m obviously talking about their gaming division here in isolation, it’s clear they don’t exactly need gaming sales to survive as a business now.
I’ve nothing against emerging tech, if it’s going to actually give us more performance. The fact new games still struggle to get 240fps on 1080p, raster performance, is insane. I honestly think 4K 120fps should be the baseline performance we should be hitting, raster, without any upscaling, frame gen bullshittery.
This is a good thing…
Not for people buying Steam machines, but developers now have an incentive to optimize instead telling people to upgrade their PC. “Steam machine verified” is going to equate to more sales.
This. Games used to be programmed to squeeze everything out of the machine, without requiring more upgrades. They also focused on gameplay rather than aesthetics. Tetris was simple as fuck, and people still play that damn game. Games don’t need 4k textures taking up 1tb of their drives (but as Pokemon proves, 480 is too low as well). I purposely look for the repacks of games, or the mods that alter the requirements. I don’t run my car at a constant 8000rpms, and I don’t need my machine running that way either. I buy 4 to 5 years later than newest gen whenever I upgrade, too, because I don’t need it. I play to have fun, not drool over fps, or resolution, or realism. I am playing a game to escape reality, not recreate the one I’m already living (yeah, I play fantasy games, or scifi)
They must be scared writing hit pieces on it before it’s even available
The specs are available though aren’t they?
Specs aren’t everything and don’t tell a whole story.
I think they do tell the specific story of how much RAM is in there though don’t they?
Sure? Where are you going with this?
I’m saying that it’s a legitimate thing to report on and question because it’s not information we don’t have. They are arguing that the reporting is attacking something based on assumptions, but it’s not assumptions it’s facts we know. Seems perfectly reasonable question to ask.
The assumption is not that it has 8GB of RAM. The assumption is that 8GB of RAM is a “problem”.
That’s not an assumption, that’s a fact. As any honest person who games these days will tell you. Also they’re not assuming they’re explaining their reasoning and argument it’s pretty clearly.
And I’m pretty sure they’ll test it before releasing. I’ve heard steam has a rather large library of games to try.
If people wanted a high-end couch gaming PC they would just build or buy that.
This is supposed to be comparable to the current-generation consoles and it seems to be right there.
I’m just hoping it paves the way for a public release of Steam OS that I can install on my own hardware (I’m aware of Bazzite, etc.).
I’d have absolutely no reason to run Windows any longer, despite the fact my gaming PC does nothing but boot directly to Steam Big Picture mode.
Unfortunately I think Nvidia will continue to make this difficult.
I’m just hoping it paves the way for a public release of Steam OS that I can install on my own hardware (I’m aware of Bazzite, etc.).
But y tho.
SteamOS is always going to be mostly single purpose. It’s going to be Vanilla Arch with their Steam Client and Gamescope compositor.
Bazzite is still gaming-focused but also functionality extends beyond the basics.
SteamOS is always going to be mostly single purpose. It’s going to be Vanilla Arch with their Steam Client and Gamescope compositor.
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It literally originally started as an OS for everything, not purpose built for a single device. See: The original Steam Machines.
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Valve has already said that the current iteration of SteamOS would become available to install on any machine eventually.
It literally originally started as an OS for everything
[citation needed]
Valve has already said that the current iteration of SteamOS would become available to install on any machine eventually.
I don’t know what that has to do with what I said.
[citation needed]
Were you not alive in 2013 when the first SteamOS released?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SteamOS
I don’t know what that has to do with what I said.
Did you forget what you wrote in your previous comment? This should be obvious af if you’re not trolling.
Were you not alive in 2013 when the first SteamOS released?
I was and I’m fairly confident it was never marketed as an “OS for everything”, not 10 years ago, not today, and not anywhere in between, but I’m open to being proven wrong.
I did not forget what I said, it is not “obvious af”, I am not trolling, and I understand English. I didn’t say anything that related to or contradicted your statement. Would you care to explain or will you just continue insulting me?
I was and I’m fairly confident it was never marketed as an “OS for everything”, not 10 years ago, not today, and not anywhere in between, but I’m open to being proven wrong.
Are you so pedantic you think when I say everything, I mean literally everything and not just, you know, a computer in general? It was built and marketed as a general OS with a focus on gaming, but also just as good for productivity.
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I get your point but my gaming PC is specifically for gaming. If I could make it “dumber” with a more console-like experience that’d be a win for me.
For productivity I have a MacBook that I’m quite fond of along with a nice desk and docking setup if that’s what I feel like. That isn’t going away.
If you get Bazzite handheld option, it is functionally and visually indistinguishable from SteamOS. I’ve been using it on my living room gaming PC for years.
I would imagine third parties going into making steam consoles. Something like what Android is at the moment.
They said “I can install on my own hardware”, and specifically mentioned Bazzite.
