Last week we analyzed Valve’s announcement of their forthcoming SteamOS, Steam Machines, and Steam Controller. There are still a lot of unknowns, but today Valve released the details for their prototype Steam Machine. When the actual Steam Machines begin shipping next year, it will be up to various system builders to decide exactly what configurations they want to ship, but the prototype system will give us a good idea of what to expect in terms of pricing and performance. Here’s what Valve will be shipping to the 300 beta testers in the next month or two – and note that there are going to be multiple CPU and GPU configurations:

Valve Steam Machine Prototype Specifications
Processors< Intel Core i7-4770 (4x3.5-3.9GHz, 8MB L3, 22nm, 84W)
Intel Core i5-4570 (4x3.2-3.6GHz, 6MB L3, 22nm, 84W)
Intel Core i3 (Not specified – i3-4130, i3-4330, or i3-4340?)
Motherboard Unknown
Memory 2x8GB DDR3-1600
3GB (?) GDDR5 (GPU)
Graphics GeForce GTX Titan (2688 CUDA cores, 837-876MHz, 6GHz GDDR5)
GeForce GTX 780 (2304 CUDA cores, 863-900MHz, 6GHz GDDR5)
GeForce GTX 760 (1152 CUDA cores, 980-1033MHz, 6GHz GDDR5)
GeForce GTX 660 (960 CUDA cores, 980-1033MHz, 6GHz GDDR5)
Storage 1TB/8GB SSHD
Power Supply 450W 80 Plus Gold

Valve is covering a decent range of performance, from basic Core i3 processors up through the latest Haswell i5-4570 and i7-4770. Valve doesn’t specify the model of the Core i3 CPU, but assuming they’re using the same platform in all prototypes it stands to reason that it will be one of the i3 Haswell models listed in the table above. The only differences between the i3-4130 and i3-4340 are the clock speed (3.4 to 3.6GHz) and the iGPU (the 4310 has HD 4400 while the other two have HD 4600, but since they use GT2 and the max clock is 1.15GHz I’m not sure why Intel uses different model numbers). Unlike the i5 and i7, the Core i3 is also dual-core, so on titles that successfully leverage multiple threads (beyond two), it may be a bit slower.

The bigger differences come on the GPU side of things. At the top of the ladder sits NVIDIA’s Titan GPUs, which is more horsepower than the vast majority of gaming PCs out there and arguably overkill. Even the GTX 780 is more than most of our readers likely have, but the GTX 760 and GTX 660 are far more reasonable. Valve also lists 3GB of VRAM for the GPUs, but Titan normally has 6GB while the other GPUs have 2GB-4GB; either Valve is getting a custom Titan, or more likely it's "3GB+" and they're going with the 3GB GTX 660/760. Assuming all cards will be at least 3GB, that's a bold move as well, as it enables developers targeting Steam Machines to plan on having more VRAM than many typical desktop cards currenlty in the wild.

It’s worth pointing out that NVIDIA gets a universal pick over AMD GPUs, at least for now, but we’ll have to see if Radeon GPUs make it into shipping Steam Machines. NVIDIA has traditionally had better binary drivers for Linux, but with Valve now pushing the OS that could change. It's a bit early to declare any winner in the GPU (or CPU) areas for the Steam Machines, as the prototype is simply one possible set of hardware.

Let’s quickly talk about pricing. Note that Valve’s statement mentions, “The hardware specs of [the retail Steam Machines] will differ, in many cases substantially, from our prototype.” There will be some Steam Machines likely priced close to $500, while others will probably cost $2000 or more. There’s a lot of wiggle room, but with a basic case and H81 motherboard the Core i3 + GTX 660 Steam Machine has a hardware cost of approximately $675 retail. Just the CPU and GPU alone at the high-end will set you back $1300+, with the total cost coming in around $1650. Ouch. And that’s not including a controller of any form.

Obviously the hardware manufacturers aren’t going to be paying retail prices for bulk orders, but even so there’s a long way to go before Valve’s Steam Machines would be even close to the pricing of the PS4 ($400) and Xbox One ($500). Okay, maybe the Xbox One is at least in reach, but only for the least expensive prototype Valve is sending out.

For what’s essentially a full-blown gaming PC, $600 is reasonable, but we have yet to see what the actual SteamOS experience will be like. There are rumors Valve will be building off Ubuntu (nothing confirmed that I know of), and just having a Linux kernel means it’s possible to run other Linux applications. Add a keyboard and mouse and if you’re willing to learn a new OS you should be able to do just about anything you need.

As noted in our original analysis, the bigger obstacle to overcome is the lack of native versions of so many games. Streaming means you would have to have a second Windows gaming PC elsewhere in the house, and if you already have that I’m not sure even a $400 Steam Machine would be all that big a draw – you could just connect your Windows PC to the HDTV at that point. Still, we haven’t been able to actually try out SteamOS yet, so we’ll withhold any judgment until it starts shipping.

Source: Steam Universe Group

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  • tnypxl - Monday, October 7, 2013 - link

    AMD working with Intel and Nvidia would only weaken their market share against those competitors. Granted it would make sense to combine efforts at improving or establishing a new standard, but that's a difficult proposition for a company that seems to be forever in a state of catching up.
  • Brutalizer - Saturday, October 5, 2013 - link

    As I have understood it, Mantle is basically the same API as used in the Xbox One. So, developers optimizing and learning the ins and outs of Xbone, will find it is the same API as Mantle. This makes it easy to port games from/to Windows (Mantle) and to Xbone. I also suspect that the API used in PS4 is similar to Xbone. If this is true, it will be easy to port between Windows, Xbone and PS4! That is a huge win. If Xbone and PS4 takes off, then Mantle will live (because it is the same API). If they fail, then Mantle will fail.
  • Krysto - Saturday, October 5, 2013 - link

    God, hearing people say Xbone (how gross) makes me want to punch them in the face.

    With that out of the way, yes, it's one of the many reasons going with AMD+Mantle would've been a much smarter choice by Valve, since all the games optimized to the metal for Xbox One and PS4 will get pretty much the same level of performance on an AMD Steam Machine, too.
  • Death666Angel - Saturday, October 5, 2013 - link

    XBone.
  • tuxfool - Saturday, October 5, 2013 - link

    Deal with it. Maybe you should have a less dirty mind? I see it as a perfectly valid abbreviation for the console. MS shouldn't have chosen such a bad name for their console...
  • FearfulSPARTAN - Saturday, October 5, 2013 - link

    I prefer x1, but everyone apears to have adopted xbone...
  • JlHADJOE - Saturday, October 5, 2013 - link

    Xbone!
  • JeffFlanagan - Sunday, October 6, 2013 - link

    I agree that it's gross, but it's what Microsoft had coming for letting their marketing guys attempt to have the console be known as "The One." They should have know what would happen when people who dislike MS had their fun with the name.
  • Voldenuit - Friday, October 4, 2013 - link

    "Streaming means you would have to have a second gaming PC elsewhere in the house"

    Actually, I would personally amend that to:

    "Streaming means you would have to have a second g̶a̶m̶i̶n̶g̶ PC elsewhere in the house"

    since the beauty of streaming is that you could use a "thin" client such as a laptop, netbook or nettop, or reuse an old PC whose specs are no longer good enough to run modern games on.
  • inighthawki - Friday, October 4, 2013 - link

    I am under the impression that the streaming is TO the steamOS, not FROM it. It is used to stream Windows games because Linux cannot run them natively. For this, you DO need a second gaming PC. It seems like a waste of money to invest so heavily in the steam box hardware when almost all of the AAA titles you'd play currently don't support it. I hope they would support dual booting the steam box into windows so you can actually do something with it :)

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