A young man is looking thoughtful while holding a controller

Is the Steam Machine Worth It?

Written by: Beth, Contributing Writer for Coolection

Published on August 7, 2026

Time to read 7 min

When the Steam Machine was announced on November 12, 2025, alongside several other Valve hardware products, there was a lot of hype from the gaming community. Despite the failures of the original Steam Machine back in 2015, PC gamers have still been hungry for a solution to playing their steam libraries on the big screen. In addition to that, the Steam Deck was an excellent preview of just how well the Steam OS worked. The idea of having a piece of hardware that could work like a regular desktop, play your steam library on TVs, was small enough to be portable, would run Steam OS (so you can ditch clunky Windows), and was powerful enough to game in 4k 60fps was incredibly appealing. But the fall of 2025 wasn't the prime time to be announcing hardware.

The Impacts on the Steam Machine

Two types of PC hardware were going through explosive price hikes: RAM and storage. In the time between September and November of 2025, DDR5 RAM saw increases over 50%, and even DDR4 was hit by increases from 40-70% (tech2geek, 2025). SSDs saw price hikes anywhere from 20-65% during Q4 of 2025 (storagediskprices, 2026). These are critical pieces when building a PC, a console, a phone, and more.

The Impact of AI

So what happened around September 2025 to make market pricing so volatile? AI data centers. Running the data centers necessary for the demands of gen AI tools and LLMs means providing those centers with a lot of power: GPUs, RAM, and storage. We entered the classic "supply and demand" scenario, where the demand is outpacing the supply, and consumers are getting left behind while tech giants ramp up their purchasing of these types of hardware. Cloud service providers like Google and Amazon are making up 61% of enterprise NAND purchases (storagediskprices, 2026).

Manufacturers are prioritizing profit, meaning that the big companies are getting dibs on RAM and storage. Once they've picked the supply almost dry, there's still mid-sized and small businesses that need hardware for their operations. By the time you get to the average individual consumer, there's not much left. It used to be that, if you were tech savvy enough to build yourself a PC, you could save a decent amount of money by doing that versus purchasing a prefabricated PC. This difference only really comes into play now if you're using old parts, and even then you will run into price hikes and shortages.

Shortages = Delays

When Steam made its announcement, it had some plans in mind on the release of the hardware, when they would announce pricing - the typical things you would anticipate from a company making an announcement like this. The intention was to release the Steam Machine in Q1 of 2026 and to have pricing announced prior to release. In early February, Valve had to admit that things weren't going as planned. The launch was delayed, and the pricing couldn't yet be determined due to the volatility of the PC parts market. Perhaps Valve hadn't chosen the best time to launch a gaming PC.

The Sting of Disappointment

Despite the struggles that RAM and storage shortages and pricing have been causing, Valve continued forward in its plans to get the Steam Machine into the hands of gamers in 2026. In late June, we finally got an announcement regarding pricing, and boy was there some sticker shock.

Four options were announced: two without controllers, and two with. The 512GB model without a controller would be $1,049, and the 2TB model without a controller would be $1,349 (pcgamer, 2026). With a controller, the 512GB model would be $1,128, and the 2TB model would be $1,428 (pcgamer, 2026). These are not easy prices to swallow, especially when gamers are simultaneously dealing with the price hikes of games. The price already felt like a slap, but when you factor in that you have to pay extra for a single controller, it stings all the more.

There are considerations to make when trying to judge the pricing as fair or inflated, but it should be noted that Valve admitted the pricing is higher than they desired (pcgamer, 2026). The most obvious is, of course, the impact of RAM and storage pricing and availability. Valve is not immune to this. Another is the specs of the PC. Do the parts reflect the price? The CPU is a semi-custom AMD Zen 4 6C up to 4.8 GHz, the GPU is a semi-custom AMD RDNA3 28CUs, up to 2.45 GHz, it has 16GB of DDR5 RAM plus 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM, and either 512GB or 2TB of NVMe SSD storage (thegamepost, 2026). Valve advertised the system as being 4k 60fps capable (with FSR upscaling). Did it live up to those expectations in testing? Another thing to think about is the pricing of comparable desktop PCs. In other words, could you build a PC as powerful - or more powerful - than the Steam Machine for about the same price?

Testing from Linus Media Group showed some very mixed results, with newer titles not meeting the 4k 60fps (with FSR) claim, unless the graphical settings were low and the FSR was set to ultra performance. Some older games, like Shadow of the Tomb Raider, performed great at 4k with over 120fps. But let's keep in mind that the game came out in 2018. Doom the Dark Ages, released in 2025, couldn't reach 60fps even when on its lowest graphical preset.

So if the Steam Machine can't reliably reach 4k 60fps (with FSR), doesn't come with a controller, and doesn't cost all that much less than a good midrange prefab gaming desktop pc, can you really justify the cost?

A screenshot of a Steam early access game

Screenshot from Steam

What About Steam OS?

We've taken a peak at the specs and performance, and considered the impact from shortages and price hikes, as well as the lack of an included controller, and the fact that there are other options out there for not much more, but we haven't talked about the OS - Steam OS, to be exact.

For those unfamiliar with it, Steam OS is built from Linux, meaning it is not part of Windows or Mac. Steam OS has actually been around for a long time - since 2013. The earlier versions of Steam OS had some growing pains that prevented it from gaining much popularity. However, with the release of Steam OS 3.0 as the system for the Steam Deck, interest started growing (wikipedia). Gamers liked the simple, clean set up. But there was still something missing: 3.0 was not made to be installed on other systems. It was not made for personal desktop PCs.

The Steam Machine was of course going to use Steam OS, and the appeal of that alone shouldn't be downplayed. The frustrations with Windows as an OS have been growing, especially since the release of Windows 11. Mac is preferred by some, but it's also common knowledge that Macs are not the best option for gaming. Linux has many options, and gaming has become much more accessible on it over the years, but it often has a learning curve to it that is too steep for the average gamer. Steam OS is Linux based, but it is beginner friendly, utilizes familiar layouts, and ditches a lot of the unnecessary bloat and complexities of Windows. For some, having a desktop with Steam OS on it will be enough to justify the cost of the Steam Machine, especially for those who don't build their own PCs.

In addition to the Steam Machine releasing, Valve made another announcement: they are making Steam OS available to anyone running AMD hardware. Technically, there have been ways to do this, but nothing as straight forward and beginner friendly as Valve just handing it over. Now it is ready to install on desktop PCs, just as you would with Windows. In addition to that, Valve has also announced that it is working with Nvidia so that those using Nvidia GPUs can also get Steam OS.

Rushed and Rash, or Sneaky and Smart?

When I first heard about Valve charging forward with the Steam Machine despite the chaotic state of RAM and storage, I thought they were being foolish. Why were they rushing forward with releasing this hardware when it was clear that pricing would be impacted, as well as availability, and in turn would cause consumer disappointment and pushback? Surely they were being rash in their decision making. I've since changed my mind.

Learning about the plans for Steam OS really changed my considerations for the Steam Machine. I still believe that the pricing is high for what it is, but I think Valve's decision to go through with it's release despite volatile market conditions is almost exclusively due to Steam OS. The PC gaming population has never been more ready to ditch Windows.

It's a smart marketing move when you really consider it. Release a desktop PC running Steam OS that will attract PC gamers who aren't comfortable building their own desktops, as well as console gamers who want to expand into PC gaming but wanted to continue playing on the big screen as well as have a simple solution. Then, for the many gamers who will be frustrated by the pricing and will continue to build their own desktops, give them the ultimate prize - free and easy access to the Steam OS. Valve is slowly solidifying itself as the ultimate gaming PC experience. They have already dominated the gaming platform market, leaving services like Epic and GOG in their dust, and now they are coming for Windows. Releasing the Steam Machine with unfavorable pricing and mediocre specs meant taking some heat, but if it's part of a bigger plan, it could be well worth it.

To directly address the question of "is the steam machine worth it?", we have to determine who it is directed at. For the average PC gamer? Probably not. For Valve? It seems very likely.