There’s a new block on the block, or at the least there will likely be quickly. The Steam Machine, Valve’s new cuboid mini gaming PC disguised as a sport console is coming early subsequent 12 months. And that’s thrilling! I imply, when was the final time anyone had a shot at squeezing into this market lorded over by Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo for greater than twenty years? And the way will it fare, particularly, towards the PlayStation 5?
I want I might say that is a simple alternative, but it surely’s simply not. The Steam Machine will include all the full richness of the Steam sport library, and it’ll have sure capabilities past what Sony gives for the PS5 – it’s a full-on Linux pc, in spite of everything. But it’s doubtless that the PS5 would be the cheaper, extra performant machine, and can proceed to be dwelling to some big exclusives, or video games that run higher just because builders know precisely what {hardware} they’re making them for. Optimization issues!
However the alternative isn’t nearly specs and value. The gaming trade is in flux: each month brings extra high-profile sport trade layoffs; costs have shot up in response to President Trump’s tariffs; and 2025 has seen a lot of high-profile cancellations in sequence like Good Darkish and Kingdom Hearts. Choosing a sport console, now greater than ever, is a guess that it’ll provide you with causes to maintain coming again to it. Sadly, there aren’t many people that may simply purchase each console we wish and pay hire – so hopefully I can assist you determine: must you purchase a PS5 or a Steam Machine?
Specs and Efficiency
We received’t know the way properly the Steam Machine really runs till we’ve gotten to place it via its paces, partly due to its customized chipset. However we will certain guess based mostly on what Valve has revealed up to now, in addition to on our personal time spent with the {hardware} when it was introduced.
At roughly six inches cubed, issues are cramped contained in the Steam Machine. Below its black plastic facade is a assortment of excellent, however largely laptop-friendly elements. The corporate has been cautious to not body it as a sizzling rod, making clear, for example, that it’ll be counting on upscaling to hit its 4K decision targets. As IGN has written earlier than, the Steam Machine’s customized RDNA 3 GPU is about on par with a cellular RX 7600. For the CPU, Valve went with a barely older 6-core Zen 4 chip.
what’s even older? The PS5’s elements. However age is simply a quantity, and also you’ll discover extra compute within the PS5’s 8-core Zen 2 CPU and its RDNA 2 GPU than what the 5-year-newer Steam Machine gives. We’ll see how the 2 stack up when the Steam Machine’s GPU truly hits our take a look at bench, however it might be shocking if it was a good match.
The numbers solely inform a part of the story. Bear in mind, the Steam Machine is console-shaped, however so far as your video games are involved, it’s nonetheless simply one other gaming PC. Little or no, if something, that runs on it can have been created with its particular {hardware} in thoughts. In the meantime, PS5 sport builders may have recognized precisely what {hardware} they’re programming for (PS5 Professional however). That doesn’t imply each PS5 sport is completely optimized – but it surely does imply it’s a little extra more likely to have great-looking AAA video games, even because it continues to age.
It’s potential, if the Steam Machine sells properly sufficient, that some builders will begin to make video games with Valve’s {hardware} in thoughts, however I wouldn’t rely on that taking place ceaselessly, if in any respect. Heck, even on the PS5 it may really feel like builders acquired about 80 p.c of the best way there earlier than studio execs referred to as it good, launched the sport, and laid off the workforce that made it.
Now, all of that stated, will video games look unhealthy on the Steam Machine? Oh my, no; there’s loads of debate over simply how properly it’ll carry out. Simply don’t anticipate its video games to be absolutely the cream of the crop.
Winner: PS5
Library and Options
Deciding will likely be tough should you’re taking a look at what truly runs on these consoles. The PS5 can solely play video games one era again, not counting older remasters and the like. In the meantime, the Steam Machine will likely be filled with a long time of digital video games, through Steam, proper at launch. You would possibly have already got a big library at your disposal! That’s a big benefit that may’t be overstated.
However what about these candy PlayStation 5 ‘sclusies? Sony hasn’t fairly adopted Microsoft down its magnanimous path of creating its unique video games multiplatform, so the PS5 is the one approach you’ll play titles like Ghost of Yotei or Demise Stranding 2: On the Seaside. With greater than 80 million PS5s offered, there’s no assure that the corporate will veer meaningfully from that technique. Then once more, some video games have jumped to different platforms, just like the Spider-Man video games; and the record of remaining exclusives isn’t long at all.
There’s additionally approachability to think about: the PS5 is a sport console, via and thru. Whenever you need to play a sport on it, you purchase the sport, load it, and, typically talking, play it – as long as it doesn’t require you to log into an account earlier than you possibly can play. (He wrote, whereas trying askance at Star Wars Outlaws.) That’s largely the way it works with SteamOS, too, however you’ll nonetheless need to fiddle with settings in some video games, significantly these Valve hasn’t already given a Steam Machine verified badge.
There’s additionally a very actual distinction to think about when it comes to bodily measurement and {hardware} options. The Steam Machine is tiny, like a Very Critical tackle the GameCube (a GabeCube, you would possibly say), whereas the PS5 is a behemoth that appears a bit like a black-and-white vampire when it’s sitting upright. Simply discovering someplace to place the dang factor is a actual problem. However on the flipside, you may get a PS5 with a disc drive, that means you possibly can fill your cabinets with bodily sport circumstances if that’s your factor. (No judgement, pal, I was you.) Certain, Valve might have caught a disc drive on prime of the Steam Machine, however in a world the place bodily PC video games have all however vanished, what would have been the purpose? To play Blu-ray motion pictures? Truly, that might be rad.
Exterior of their video games libraries, measurement, and plug-and-playability, the PS5 and Steam Machine are virtually bizarro variations of one another. Each techniques have contact pad options on their controllers, and each have a handheld story to inform, through the sport streaming-only PS Portal and the standalone (but additionally streaming-capable) Steam Deck. The latter is a standalone system that begins at $400, the PS Portal solely streams video games and is half the worth. That’s to not point out VR – a comparable dynamic performs out between the Steam Body and PSVR 2.
Winner: Tie
Worth
Worth is the place the PS5’s largest benefit might lie. Even after tariff-induced value hikes, it begins at $499 for the digital version, which is less expensive than the $700-$800 that the Steam Machine might value. The identical goes for the $200 PS Portal and $400 Steam Deck, or the $400 PSVR 2 and the Steam Body, which might simply value $500 or extra.
However there’s extra to think about, like the scale of your Steam library and the depth of your restraint. For those who’ve already acquired sufficient appropriate video games, you possibly can simply get a Steam Machine, then keep away from shopping for any new video games for a whereas to let your pockets cool off. In the meantime, the PS5 is proscribed to its personal library, plus PS4 video games and remakes of older titles. Even in case you have a wholesome PS4 library, the PS5’s id is all wrapped up in what a energy plant it’s. You’ll need some new video games that present that off. And it doesn’t take a lot – one Ghost of Yotei right here and a Demise Stranding 2 there – earlier than the worth differential begins to develop into a wash.
Assuming a $700 Steam Machine value level, the calculus swings a bit again towards Sony should you purchase a disc version. Plenty of PS5 video games have come out within the 5 years for the reason that console landed, and you may get some nice secondhand exhausting copy offers on a number of the finest PS5 video games on the market. If Valve simply says “to hell with it” and costs $500, although? The Steam Machine is virtually a no-brainer from a value perspective. However that’s in all probability not going to occur.
There’s a lot of “if this, then that” that goes into whether or not the PS5 is a higher deal than the Steam Machine, so for proper now, this one is a tie that might tip both approach relying on how a lot Valve asks for its new gaming PC.
Winner: Tie
The Winner Is… the PS5 (For Now)
Sony will get the sting right here, however simply barely. It’s a extra highly effective system for one factor, and as this console era wanes, it can in all probability age higher than the Steam Machine, at the least in terms of AAA video games, purely due to console optimization – when builders know the {hardware} they’re aiming for, their video games are likely to play and look higher.
However the delta between the efficiency of the Steam Machine and the PS5 continues to be unknown at this level. And even when it’s about the place we predict it’s, it is probably not a significant distinction for all however essentially the most pixel-peeping amongst us. The remainder received’t discover a distinction except you stick visuals from each techniques proper in entrance of them. And even then, most received’t care.
In each different space, the 2 consoles come up about even, though that is determined by sure issues. You probably have a big and rising Steam library already, then the Steam Machine may very well be the plain alternative, even when Valve costs $200 extra for it than Sony does for the PS5. In case your Steam library is missing or nonexistant, the PS5 is likely to be the higher bang on your buck.
Wes is a freelance author (Freelance Wes, they name him) who has lined expertise, gaming, and leisure steadily since 2020 at Gizmodo, Tom’s {Hardware}, Hardcore Gamer, and most not too long ago, The Verge. Inside him there are two wolves: one which thinks it would not be so unhealthy to start out gathering sport consoles once more, and the opposite who additionally thinks this, however extra strongly.