So, then, guys, great news. I managed to

get my hands on a new Steam Machine.

Now, I for one love portable little mini

PCs. You know, I'm a big fan of the Mac

mini, but the Steam Machine is something

I've had my eye on, I would say, for at

least the last sort of 6-7 months, ever

since it was announced. But, obviously,

one of the big things that's happened

with the Steam Machine, it got delayed,

and then the price got revealed, and it

was a lot higher than we actually

thought. And I think the big reason for

this is all because of those data

centers building all those AI bits and

pieces. And there's a massive kind of

shortage of RAM, and there's also a

shortage of NAND chips, which has

increased the prices. And we've seen the

likes of this happen to Apple, too, with

the, you know, Mac mini now starts at

$799

US dollars for it, instead of $599 when

it first got released. And, you know, it

does come with 16 GB of RAM. It also

comes with 512 GB of storage now.

Whereas, like, the Steam Machine also

comes with 16 GB of RAM, and also 512 GB

of storage. However, this is the big

cruncher here. This starts at $1,049

US dollars. Now, I am going to throw in

a little caveat there, that this also

does have a dedicated graphics built

into this. This has got 8 GB of

additional kind of RAM just for the

graphics there.

So, I guess in a straight comparison, if

you were to even upgrade your Mac mini

to 24 GB RAM, cuz obviously all of this

paired up together is 24, that this

would be $999 US dollars, this would be

$1,049 US dollars. So, $50 more there.

So, it is similar-ish kind of pricing

what is going on between both these

machines. Now, obviously, I'm going to

say this, the Mac mini on paper is far

more powerful. We know it's got the M4

chip and everything like that. It's been

around for years, and obviously it's

going to be way more powerful. But, the

Steam Machine is still quite good for

what it is. Have a look at these

benchmarks that we've got right here for

Geekbench. We've got a single-core score

of 2,334,

and a multi-core score of 7,392.

But, be aware, this is a six-core setup

here. Now, I know a lot of you guys are

going to say, "This is not even as fast

as say an M1 chip out there, you know,

in multi-core performance." And you are

absolutely right. But, do you remember

that did come with the likes of an

eight-core CPU. This is only a six-core,

you know, CPU that we have here. So,

yeah, there is a difference there

straight away. And before I dive in

deeper talking about the Steam Machine,

what I've got to say here right now is

that Steam Machine is not meant to be

the most all-powerful, almighty kind of

PC out there. It's not meant to be the

best gaming device out there. What this

really is is if you wanted to get into

PC gaming using Steam's library out

there, and just wanted a machine for

your home, or just goes, connects up to

your TV, or to a monitor at home, and

you just want to start playing games

straight away in a small factor form box

with brand new components as well, brand

new machine with a warranty, this is

what the Steam Machine is all about.

Now, we could also go into a whole

debate here that if you bought

pre-owned, second-hand parts, and things

like this, that obviously, yeah, you

could probably out-spec the Steam

Machine. And obviously, this will you

probably get a bit more performance.

But, this is for a new machine out

there. I am going to say this, if you

got yourself a pre-built computer with

similar kind of specs out there, I am

going to say it is a similar kind of

price. At least in the UK, it's like

that on brand new parts. Not literally

going out and buying, say, a graphics

card that came out 2 years ago, was

sitting on the shelf brand new. I'm

talking about the latest and greatest

additions of parts out there, assembling

it, then yeah, it's actually hard to

actually match the price here. So,

moving on from this there, let's talk

about the actual Steam Machine and

everything about it. Let's talk about

the design first of all. So, the design

is pretty cool what you have right here.

It's just kind of like a box, a cube

shape. It reminds me of like an old

Nintendo GameCube, to be honest. Uh but

yeah, it's a great kind of design. It's

not not smallest comparing it to say a

Mac mini, as you can see right here.

Obviously, the Mac Mini is definitely

smaller, but for what it is, it is quite

cool for its actual design. And compared

to say a big PC out there, you know,

it's going to be hard to beat in its

sort of cool form factor and what you

are getting here. Also, the likes of

Valve when they designed the Steam

Machine, they done some really clever

kind of stuff. They've got a massive

heat sink on the inside and a big fan on

the back which keeps everything nice and

cool. And what I would say is during my

time with it, this has been super quiet.

I'd actually say it's probably been

about as loud as the Mac Mini when

that's under pressure. What's quite

unusual for a machine like this.

Normally, if you get a PC, you know,

they go loud unless you're fiddling

around with all the cooling abilities.

But out of the box, you know, it works

really, really well. So, yeah, I think

it's really good effort there for Valve

on its actual design. We do also have a

number of ports on the front. We've got

two USB 3.2 ports on the front. We've

also on the rear here got a couple more

of them, USB-C. We've also got a display

port. And we've also got a HDMI 2.0

port, not a 2.1, 2.0. If you're deadly

honest, this machine is never going to

be up to 8K. So, yeah, kind of see why

it's got that. It's also got CEC as

well. So, this basically allows you

that, you know, if you turned on your

actual console, turned on your actual

TV, they can control each other which is

quite useful to have, too. So, yeah,

this is really, really awesome. And then

obviously, the actual Steam main

interface, the operating system, this is

something what I love. Probably the star

of the show in my opinion. I absolutely

love the Steam operating system. If

you've had a Steam Deck in the past and

things like this, you will know how good

this is. You can actually run Windows

applications as it were, Windows games

using the new Proton here. And

basically, Proton basically does that

kind of lot of middle level here to

exchange kind of dot EXE files into

playable on Linux, what this is running

on. So, this is really, really awesome.

And obviously, Steam and Valve have

perfected this over the years. And you

know, with the Steam Deck as well, it's

got really, really great now. And what I

absolutely love about this interface is

how easy and clean it is. It's not like

Windows and trashy. It does give me kind

of a nostalgia of a proper console

without too many menus. It's just easy

and just ready to go. No weird pop-ups,

nothing strange, no weird can I borrow

your data for this or anything like

that. It's absolutely fantastic. But the

big question you guys want to know is

what about gaming and benchmarks? What

kind of performance can we actually get

out of this? Now, Steam said when they

first announced this you'd be able to do

4K gaming. Now they kind of tweak that

and now say it's up to 4K gaming. Some

games can do that, you know, if you turn

on things like FSR, frame generation,

and things like this. And especially

it's got AMD chip in it, it only works

with FSR really. You could use the Intel

XESS if you wanted to, but obviously I'd

probably use FSR. But what I would say

with that for my testing and things like

this, I would say 4K can work, but it

would have to work on quite a lot of

older games. It would not actually work

on the newest and greatest games. And I

would certainly say for the next say

three or four years when new games

coming out, nah, you wouldn't be able

probably play 4K and obviously get say

60 plus frames per second. And just take

a look right here, you know, obviously

I've been playing Cyberpunk here and I

did some tests for you. Have a look at

this chart right here of the results.

And you can see just playing here, you

know, just with native, no frame

generation, no scaling, no nothing,

we've got 1080p. We're getting 71 frames

per second. That was pretty good. Then

at 1440p, you know, this was quite good

too. This is 47 frames per second. But

4K it just fell on its face. It was 17

frames per second. It was not playable

whatsoever.

However though, what you could do is

that like I said, you could turn on the

likes of FSR. And obviously this is the

scaling. This was actually on

performance mode. And you can see here

the difference what we are getting. We

can see that in 1080p it was 105 frames

per second. It was brilliant at this.

1440p 75 frames per second, more than

playable. And then at 4K you were

getting 32 frames per second. What is

playable? I would say that. But

obviously yeah, not probably the best

one. Like I kind of like um Steam or

Valve actually recommended that it could

actually just really do this well at 60

frames per second. And you can even see

that hey, at the bottom result, this it

was FSR for performance. So, this is 50%

scaling plus frame generation, too. And

we only get 53 frames per second on

average. We're not even getting 60 here.

And with that, I'd say as well as don't

forget the likes of Cyberpunk's been out

now almost 6 years this year later on

this year. I can't believe it. It's been

6 years. And yeah, it is still quite a

demanding game, but yeah, it can't still

do 60 frames per second fully on the

Steam machine. But never mind, let's

move on to the next game. And that was

Black Myth: Wukong. And again, I did

some testing here and obviously ran the

benchmarks. And let's have a look at the

results that we got right here then in

the charts. And you can see at 1080p, it

was really great what we got. We got,

you know, 68 frames per second. 1440p,

43 frames per second, still pretty good.

Uh 4K, no. 22 frames per second, it was

nowhere good. But what I would say is if

you decided to scale it down in, you

know, upscaling performance here, 50%

mode, you know, performance, you did get

57 frames per second. It was close to

60, so it was still very good there.

This one actually did work. But there

again, if you did turn on frame

generation, it did actually change this

a fair bit. You actually got 81 frames

per second, what was really good to see.

But obviously, you had to have

everything switched on, performance mode

switched on, you name it, to actually

get this kind of result. But what if we

try something a little bit older? What

if we try something like Red Dead

Redemption 2? I did the same thing

again, did some benchmarks, and let's

have a look at the results that we got

right here. And at 1080p, we got 98

frames per second, what was absolutely

amazing, definitely playable. 1440p, 78.

And then 4K, you know, we got 43 frames

per second here, what was absolutely

amazing. Now, because of this, I did

decide not to bother with frame

generation, but just to show you here

with FSR our

at 1440p, you could get 98 frames per

second, the same as 1080p. It was really

great there. But then at 4K, you got 61

frames per second. So, finally a game

that actually does go over 60 frames per

second. On average, this was really,

really great to see. And it was one of

the best performing games on the Steam

Machine that I tested here. But then,

let's switch over to something even more

newer. Let's switch to a racing game.

And I'm going to try out Forza Horizon

6. I love the Forza Horizon games. And

let's have a look at the newest one in

Japan. So, let's have a look at the

results we got right here. Well, at

1080p, more than playable. We got 70

frames per second. 1440p, 57. 4K, 37.

Still playable, but obviously nowhere

near that 60 frames per second target.

But, if you turn on FSR performance mode

here with the scaling, you can see we

actually got 61 frames per second. It

wasn't actually that a lot more.

Remember we had 57 before. So, this was

a bit weird to see this. And the same

with 4K as well. Um we got 45 frames per

second instead of 37. So, just a little

increase there. It wasn't actually the

biggest here. I was actually kind of a

bit disappointed. Maybe there needs to

be some more optimizations with this

game. And obviously running it on the

Steam Machine cuz it's such a new game.

Who knows? But obviously it is playable.

But if I was to play it, I'd play it at

1440p, I would say. And I decided to

test it out with Anno 117 Pax Romana.

And obviously this is a great game to be

playing, you know, in the Roman kind of

Empire. But what I would say is this

game fell flat on its face, as you can

see from the results right here. At

1080p, we could only get 31 frames per

second at native. 1440p, 25. You know,

you could just about play this. Not very

well, though. And at 4K, it was 17

frames per second. It was not good at

all. But then even turning on FSR

performance 50% scaling, 42 frames per

second at 1080p. Again, that's good and

it can play. 1440p, uh we got 33. Again,

that is playable. but 4K, no. It was 26

frames per second. You could play this,

but personally, if you got into a big

battle, or you know, lots of things on

the screen, it's not going to fare out

well at 4K whatsoever. But then after

this, I decided to do it one last game,

and that was a Borderlands 3. And have a

look at the scores that we got right

here. At 1080p, we got 86 frames per

second. 1440p, we got 55. And at 4K, we

got 29 frames per second. All of them

are playable, but personally, I'd be

picking 1440p. But obviously, if you

turn FSR performance at 50% scaling,

that does super well. We got, you know,

119 frames per second, and then we got

106, and then even 84 at 4K, which is

more than playable with FSR switched on.

So definitely 4K, but obviously, this is

an older game to run here. So I think

what we can see from this is that

obviously, yeah, it can play some games

at 4K, but like I said, they have to be

older games out there. But it does worry

me a little bit for the future, that

obviously, for 4K games, you probably

won't be able to do that. It'll be 1080p

or 1440p, probably even in 3 years,

it'll only be 1080p kind of games. And I

think one of the big limitations for

this, the reason why it can't be pushed

further, is mainly because of the 8 GB

of RAM that's inside with this card,

right here. So 8 GB of RAM, you know,

the likes of Nvidia said so, like the

5060, and even promote the 5060 with 8

GB of RAM is meant to be for 1080p,

really. Maybe some 1440p. And you can

try out 4K with turning on, you know,

DLSS, or with an Nvidia card, and

obviously, some frame generation. You

can do, you know, up to like three or

whatever, five times frame generation

now with it. And yeah, I get that. But

obviously, it's not a true sort of

thing, and you do get some sort of

stumbles along the way. And it seems

this is very kind of similar for that.

It is a baseline dedicated GPU inside of

it. It's like the equivalent of a 5060

inside of this machine. But obviously,

frame generation is not as much as a

5060 out there. You know, you can do

like three or five times. You can only

go up to like say two times with FSR

here with this. But overall though, like

I said, definitely 1080p, 1440p,

yeah, you can get some good results with

the Steam Machine. But what I would say

is what I'm most impressed about is

obviously Steam OS. Now, for one thing,

I am a person who's not a big fan of

Windows. So, don't get me wrong, I'm a

fan of all kind of tech out there, but

you know, the thing is with Windows,

with all its pop-ups and everything at

the moment, pulling out all your RAM and

you know, just using unnecessary data,

this machine is far better, or I'd say

Steam OS is far better. And I know a lot

of people are building their own Steam

Machines now, cuz Steam OS now has

become as it were open source as it

were. It's now free to download by

anybody. Yeah, Steam has made it

available there, and you can put it on

any machine out there. Obviously, it has

to be mainly compatible with AMD, but

obviously there are other alternatives

as well. There's also things like

Bazzite, for example, something very

similar. And then obviously that also is

very similar to the way how Steam OS

works right now, too. But what I would

be saying, my two kind of favorite kind

of computer operating systems right now

is definitely going to be macOS and also

the likes of Steam OS or Bazzite right

now. So, I am really loving it for that

experience, definitely, than Windows.

Could you imagine putting Windows on

this and playing games? It would just be

awful. You could have just imagined

that. It'd be a waste of space and time

to actually make this with Windows. But

on that note then guys, what do you

think of the Steam Machine? And what do

you think of Steam OS? Is this something

that you would look into yourself? Well,

let me know in the comments below. On

that note as well guys, it's time to

wrap up the video too. So, if you have

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bell. Until next time guys, I'll see you

really soon. Take care. Bye-bye.