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I know the price for PC parts is terrible these days, but $1049 for a 6-core 16GB RAM, with a 512GB SSD, and no controller, is a terrible value. For reference,
by pseudosavant 4mo ago
I know the price for PC parts is terrible these days, but $1049 for a 6-core 16GB RAM, with a 512GB SSD, and no controller, is a terrible value.
For reference, the PS5 Pro has more than twice the number GPU CUs, an 8-core CPU, a 2TB SSD, a controller, and costs $899.
- mock-possum 4mo agoRight, but it’s a PS5, not a PC - you’re paying less for the privilege of letting Sony 100% control what you use the device for, including not being able to play your own games that you’ve paid for. Try doing that on a PC. Try checking your email on your PS5, or steaming the media of your choice.
- threetonesun 4mo agoSure, I have to use my gaming console as a gaming console, much like I use my smart thermostat as a thermostat and don't check email on it.
- keithxm23 4mo agoAnd all you use your IPhone for is to make phone-calls, right?
- threetonesun 4mo agoYou missed the point. If all I did was make phone calls on a $100 flip phone why would someone saying "oh but the $1000 iPhone can do so much more!" matter to me.
- celsoazevedo 4mo agoBut in this case, they even say: "...and it's a PC Yes, Steam Machine is optimized for gaming, but it's still your PC. Install your own apps, or even another operating system. Who are we to tell you how to use your computer?" It's not just a gaming console.
- threetonesun 4mo agoI know what the Steam Machine is, I'm saying the compromise of the PlayStation being cheaper isn't a compromise because I simply don't care that my game console isn't a PC. I have a PC, and I don't want one connected to my TV anyway. I don't think I'm unusual in that regard and the market of people who want to check their email on their TV is pretty small!
- tvshtr 4mo agoIt's less about "checking your email" and more about ' it's an open system and you can do with it what you want", in whichever domain.
- efskap 4mo agoIt's doesn't have to be non-gaming purposes. Say you want to install something not sold on Steam like I dunno, World of Warcraft, or Minecraft.
- threetonesun 4mo agoTrue! The Steam Deck LCD is a great retro gaming / emulator device and has outclassed many more focused competing devices for a while now.
- Rohansi 4mo agoEven if you only used your Steam Machine to play Steam games it's still probably a better deal. Multiplayer and cloud saves are free so you don't need something like PlayStation Plus. Games are generally cheaper and Steam sales make them even cheaper. You also don't lose access to older games if you get a better system.
- hbn 4mo ago> You also don't lose access to older games if you get a better system. To be fair, all the latest generation consoles are near 100% backwards compatible with their respective last gen. This has historically been more tricky due to architecture changes but it seems like all consoles have converged into more or less bog-standard prebuilt computers so it's less of an ask. But still, I trust my Steam library to last longer than anything I've bought digitally on consoles.
- tvshtr 4mo agoEhh, but on Linux nowadays it's whichever gen, plus modding, multiple frontends and storefronts.
- Zetaphor 4mo agoOn Linux I can play games going back multiple generations as well as emulating other consoles
- LinXitoW 4mo agoI've recently played through all the Dragon Age games on the same PC. A PS5 can only do Inquisition and the best one, Veilguard. Before that, I played Psychonauts 1. We forget how many insanely good, solid games existed even in just the PS3 era.
- hbn 4mo agoI also played through all the Dragon Age games on PC recently! Origins needs a small patch to run on a 64-bit machine and it doesn't scale very well on a 4k monitor without 3rd party software but other than that it's a great show of backwards compatibility. > the best one, Veilguard I assume that's sarcasm or you're the first person I've heard to say that :) Actually the reason I finally played the series is because my buddy worked on Veilguard. I'll give them credit for assembling something as cohesive as it is considering it went from a single player game to a multiplayer game and back to a single player game during development.
- fwip 4mo agoThe PS5 has an internet browser, you can do all that.
- Rohansi 4mo agoNot that it matters as much for a gaming console but the PS5 Pro CPU is definitely the slower one.
- bryanlarsen 4mo agoThe PS5 Pro has 16 GB unified memory, the Steam Machine is 16GB + 8GB. That'll be where some of the price difference comes from. But most likely comes from Sony locking in long term contracts before price insanity.
- pseudosavant 4mo agoUnified memory is a lot more flexible and efficient though. You don't have to have assets loaded in RAM and also VRAM for the CPU/GPU to use them. Don't forget about how much more RAM a general purpose OS like Steam OS can consume versus a gaming specific OS too. The PS5 Pro also has an extra 2GB of DDR5 system RAM too. My old Ryzen 3700X gaming PC has 16GB of RAM and 8GB of VRAM (RTX 2070 Super) and there isn't any game that runs better on it than my Xbox Series X. And the GPU in the Steam Machine is slightly worse than an RTX 2070 Super.
- Rohansi 4mo ago> You don't have to have assets loaded in RAM and also VRAM for the CPU/GPU to use them. You typically don't want to do this anyway in games. You're probably doing something wrong if you're reading textures/meshes on both the CPU and GPU. > Don't forget about how much more RAM a general purpose OS like Steam OS can consume versus a gaming specific OS too. SteamOS is meant to be a gaming specific OS first. It has a desktop environment but none of that loads unless you switch to desktop mode. That's just taking up some disk space while you play games.
- Forgeties79 4mo ago>SteamOS is meant to be a gaming specific OS first. It has a desktop environment but none of that loads unless you switch to desktop mode. I think it's fair for some of us to consider the resource usage of a core feature and not really accept "just don't use desktop mode" as a viable suggestion. Especially if half the pitch is "it's a mobile PC." You can't use many of the features it's capable of in gaming mode.
- 4mo ago
- legitster 4mo agoDifferent value props. The target audience for this already has an extensive Steam catalogue. To buy a PS5 Pro is going to require re-buying all of your games for it. Also, you can build a decent PC for $1049, but getting it into a decent form/noise factor is going to ratchet that price up. Add in the proprietary CEC stuff that Valve has done for it and it's not as terrible as it seems.
- reddalo 4mo ago>To buy a PS5 Pro is going to require re-buying all of your games for it. Even if I didn't have a Steam Library, I wouldn't buy the PS5 anyway: no Steam Sales there. And Steam Sales are a godsend.
- nxc18 4mo agoConsole stores also have sales. Often with pretty huge discounts. I just bought a bunch of games on Xbox in the 1-5 dollar range. I see similar sales on PS5 all the time.
- fossilwater 4mo agoHonestly, these days, Steam, PS and Xbox game sales prices are pretty much in the same level now. Ten years ago it was very different. Recently I was thinking whether to buy Resident Evil 4 on Steam or on PS (had the same price 9,99€). Got it on Steam in the end. Though, Steam still wins on regional pricing as they support more local currencies. Only the Nintendo store have games priced usually a bit higher.
- green7ea 4mo agoThe sales are a nice thing but for me the biggest benefit of Steam is knowing that I can use my games library on other/future devices. My games have been working on my desktop from 10 years ago, the SteamDeck, my laptop and likely any future computer I buy that runs Linux.
- pseudosavant 4mo agoA slow gaming PC that is small and can turn on my TV is still... a slow gaming PC. And one of the main PC benefits, upgradeability is non-existent for the parts that matter (e.g. GPU, VRAM, etc).
- izacus 4mo ago> For reference, the PS5 Pro has more than twice the number GPU CUs, an 8-core CPU, a 2TB SSD, a controller, and costs $899. Will it run my Steam library of games or do I need to also pay 5000$ again with inflated prices?
- pseudosavant 4mo agoThe irony there is that the Steam Machine can't actually run the full Steam library since most games aren't made for Linux. Most run on it via Proton, many even run well, but it is very far from "all the games play without issues". Can you imagine if the PlayStation Store sold games on the PS5 that you couldn't play there because they were actually Windows games?
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- taffydavid 4mo agoSince it's not locked down I assume you could install windows on it
- tvshtr 4mo agoyou don't even have to, you can do a single GPU passthrough to VM and integrate it seamlessly.
- Gigachad 4mo agoSteam clearly shows a badge showing if it runs on Linux. You can filter out stuff that won’t run.
- pseudosavant 4mo agoJust filter out: Fortnite, Roblox, GTA Online, Call of Duty, Destiny, Valorant, PUBG, etc... It isn't a short list of AAA games that don't run on SteamOS.
- koolala 4mo agoFor reference compare it to a PC.
- seanalltogether 4mo agoIf Valve wants users to compare the Steam Machine to a PC, then it's going to be outdated in 6 months.
- koolala 4mo agoI wish PCs were still advancing that fast...
- IshKebab 4mo agoDude still thinks it's 2003.
- pseudosavant 4mo agoIt is already outdated I think? 8GB of VRAM, and CPU and mobile GPU from 3+ years ago. Nobody would build a gaming PC right now with a GPU that anemic and 8GB of VRAM.
- Gigachad 4mo agoNo one would build a gaming pc right now at all.
- fooqux 4mo agoAnd yet my steam deck still plays everything I throw at it. Could I find a Crysis-type game that was basically designed as a GPU torture device that it would struggle with? Obviously. Is there a resolution difference? Yes. But there are a lot of games coming out only asking for moderate specs.
- cainxinth 4mo agoSM: AMD Zen 4 6C / 12T PC: AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 4.7 GHz 6-Core ($170) - SM: AMD RDNA3 28CUs 8 GB PC: AMD Radeon RX 7600 8 GB ($280) - SM: 16GB DDR5 PC: 2 x 8 GB DDR5-5600 CL40 ($225) - SM: 512GB NVMe SSD PC: Samsung 870 Evo 500 GB 2.5" SSD ($283) - Other parts the PC will need: - CPU Cooler ($18) - Motherboard ($100) - Case ($60) - PSU ($60) - SM: $1,049 PC: $1,196
- littlecranky67 4mo agoWell, and you pay 120$/year for the privilege to play games online on that PS5. That is one of the reasons SONY can subsidize the PS5 unit price and sell under cost. Valve is not in that position, because people would buy it as office PC replacement.
- balls187 4mo agoValve very much is in the position to subsidize the costs; they charge 30% royalty per game sold. Valve often boasts that they have a very high Rev / Employee number.
- IshKebab 4mo agoYeah but then people would buy them for non-gaming use. Remember the PS2 supercomputers?
- Telaneo 4mo ago*PS3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_3_cluster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_3_cluster
- IshKebab 4mo agoFrom that very page... > The National Center for Supercomputing Applications had already built a cluster based on the PlayStation 2.
- Telaneo 4mo agoI haven't heard of any others, and your comment said 'supercomputers'. Not to mention that the NSCA was just throwing spaghetti at the wall to see if it would prove useful when it came to the PS2,[0] and their setup never worked reliably.[1] The PS3 had several supercomputers made independently.[1][2][3] [0] https://www.ncsa.illinois.edu/2003/05/27/playing-the-supercomputer-game/ https://www.ncsa.illinois.edu/2003/05/27/playing-the-superco... [1] https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/ps3-supercomputer.html https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/ps3-supercompu... [2] https://web.uri.edu/gravity/ps3/ https://web.uri.edu/gravity/ps3/ [3] https://www.beyond3d.com/content/news/701 https://www.beyond3d.com/content/news/701
- sowbug 4mo agoIt makes more sense to focus on its value as a console platform than its price as a PC. The lower the price, the more boxes sell, hopefully making the platform large enough for publishers to target. The higher the price, the better specs the box can afford, increasing the platform's longevity. The hidden value you don't see in the specs is that publishers will target this platform specifically for a certain amount of time.
- mwkaufma 4mo agoPS5 sells at a loss & makes up the difference collecting rent on a closed system. With Steam you're buying an open system.
- smith7018 4mo agoDoes Valve take a cut of software sales on Steam? If so, why do we expect Sony to sell its consoles at a loss, while not holding the same expectation for Valve?
- Narishma 4mo agoValve cannot do that because they can't guarantee that people buying the Steam Machine will even use it for gaming.
- smith7018 4mo agoIsn’t it just a mid-range PC for ~$1,100? Why would someone buy that just to use it like a regular PC and not use Steam? That just seems strange. I’m sure there are also many PS5 owners that bought the console but only got one or two games before the console collected dust.
- Zetaphor 4mo agoPiracy and alternative storefronts don't exist on PS5. I could buy a steam machine and then exclusively buy my games from EA. They're also not charging you for the multiplayer access
- Narishma 4mo agoWell, it would be cheaper if it was subsidized and would become more interesting for uses other than gaming.
- njovin 4mo agoI would guess that users of the Steam machine would mostly be as locked-in to Steam purchases as PS5 users are to PS Store purchases. I stopped PC gaming about a decade ago and my current daily driver is a Macbook. I periodically play games on my a PS5 or XBOX, but there are a ton of great games on my Steam wishlist. I feel like I'm the exact target market for this (although I'm not going to buy at this price point at this time). I don't want to bother with Windows and would love a 'console' allowing me to play most Steam games without a lot of hassle.
- cowpig 4mo agoCan I serve my media library off of my NAS with the PS5? I am legit asking because I just got on the list hoping to use this thing as my home entertainment system
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- tianreyma 4mo agoNot sure if anything has changed but back when I had one the only thing I found that was supported was Plex
- fsadsadsdasdas 4mo ago[flagged]
- doom2 4mo ago> For reference, the PS5 Pro has more than twice the number GPU CUs, an 8-core CPU, a 2TB SSD, a controller, and costs $899. PS5 Pro had a launch price of $700, which already felt steep. How is $900 not even worse value? Even if it's "better" than the Steam Machine, let's not pretend that it's actually a good value for the hardware.
- kats 4mo agoBut a person can't really use their PS5 as a home PC.