Valve’s big hardware push: you asked, we answered.
Valve’s big hardware push: you asked, we answered.
Valve is making a game console that might take on Sony and Microsoft. It’s also making a gaming headset to compete with Meta. These are big, ambitious, and messy efforts, and we have lots of questions. So do you!
We’ve gotten a lot of questions about Valve’s huge 2026 hardware push and entry into the console wars, and we’re compiling the answers we’ve got so far. Some of them are direct answers to your subscriber questions in our AMA; thank you for paying our salaries!
So, let’s start with…
What is a Steam Machine?
The Steam Machine is a specific living room gaming PC coming out in early 2026. It’s not your typical Windows PC. The 6-inch cube is barely bigger than a box of Kleenex (bless you), can come bundled with a wireless controller that connects directly to the box, and runs Windows games on the pick-up-and-play SteamOS. It’s basically a game console.
So the Steam Machine is just a big stationary Steam Deck for the TV?
Basically! Valve says it has six times the performance, will run all the same games, and runs the exact same SteamOS underneath. Valve says you can even pop the microSD card out of your Steam Deck, put it in the Steam Machine, and your games should just work.
I don’t have a box of Kleenex handy. How small is it really?
To be exact, Valve tells us it’s 152mm tall (148mm without feet), 162.4mm deep, and 156mm wide. The Nintendo GameCube is 150mm tall, 161mm deep, and 110mm wide, so they’re pretty close.
Can I call it the GabeCube?
We won’t stop you! Because you can swap out the front plate, there are lots of fun puns to turn into reality, like The Orange Box. Or take Dbrand’s suggestion to make it a Companion Cube.
How much will it cost?
We don’t know. Valve won’t tell us yet.
Wait, Valve announced a console and won’t even say what it costs?
Yeah, Valve says it hasn’t finalized the price. Valve told IGN that it’ll be “as affordable as possible.” Valve told us it’ll be “positioned closer to the entry level of the PC space” and “very competitive with a PC you could build yourself from parts.” And Valve told Tom’s Hardware it’s aiming for “a great value,” but it’s tough to price right now because “the market is kind of weird” and “memory prices are going up like right as we speak.”
Does it come with Half-Life 3?
Do you really think Valve can count to three? As we are writing this, no. But Valve is maybe, kind of, possibly, sort of, potentially hinting that… something… might be revealed soon.
Does it come with a gamepad?
You can save money by buying it without one, but it can also come bundled with this Steam Controller:
What in the Dreamcast is that?
It’s the Steam Controller, and it has its own section, scroll down! Or you can bring your own gamepad.
Is the new Steam box more powerful than a PS5? Why is everyone tweeting “8GB VRAM” like it’s an insult?
Some PC gamers are getting real tired of good GPUs hamstrung by insufficient video memory, and the Steam Machine’s 8GB isn’t a lot for a console that claims it can do 4K! That said, Valve is upfront that you’re only getting 4K after using AMD’s FSR upscaling, and the PS5 has to rely on upscaling techniques too.
We don’t truly know how powerful the Steam Machine is, but both its specs and our early Cyberpunk 2077 test suggest we’re looking at PS5-plus, maybe PS5 Pro graphics. (It has a newer Zen 4 CPU, and the closest AMD GPUs boast a similar number of teraflops to that of the PS5 Pro.)
How upgradable is the Steam Machine?
Not terribly! It’s a proprietary motherboard with a soldered CPU and GPU, so you can’t upgrade those unless Valve offers them as a package deal. But the SSD storage should be easy (M.2 2280 or 2230 sticks are swappable), and it takes standard DDR5 laptop memory modules.
Does it do HDR and VRR? FSR4 and frame gen?
Both the HDMI and DisplayPort offer HDR, but they only support the AMD FreeSync flavor of variable refresh rate (VRR) for smooth gameplay even when your frame rate dips. Valve says it’s “hoping to improve” the FreeSync implementation, too.
Valve’s official answer on FSR: “Steam Machine supports the AMD technologies that AMD supports on RDNA3 hardware, including FSR 3 and frame gen.” It’s a Navi 33 GPU, so a version of FSR 4 might be technically possible…
Can it play Fortnite? Will it play [INSERT GAME HERE]?
Linux can now play almost any Windows game, many of them better than Windows. But the main exceptions are big multiplayer games so lucrative that their publishers insist on powerful anti-cheat systems that don’t allow Linux because the fear currently outweighs the Linux opportunity.
That means multiplayer games like Fortnite, Call of Duty, PUBG, Battlefield 6, Apex Legends, GTA Online, Valorant, Destiny 2, Roblox, and sports games like EA FC all won’t work on SteamOS.
“We hope that the launch of Machine will change the equation around anti-cheat support and increase its support,” Valve told Eurogamer. Sounds like Valve is just crossing its fingers.
Can I put Windows on it to play those games?
Valve won’t stop you! It’ll even help by making Windows drivers available at its website (not through Windows Update). Just know its track record of Windows support for SteamOS hardware isn’t great, and we think we’re still waiting for Valve’s own dual-boot solution.
If this runs Linux, how is it playing Windows games?
Short version: it tricks Windows games into thinking they’re running on Windows.
For the long version, here’s Valve software engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais:
You’re going to be playing it through Proton, which is essentially a distribution of Wine, bundled with everything you would need to run any sort of game that’s made for Windows.
The game itself is a Windows executable, right? At a core level, the Linux operating system does not even know how to load the program, and so, instead of invoking it through the OS, you invoke it through Proton, which is going to do the first step of setting up the address space, loading the segments of code into memory. The code coming from the app is all x86, and so Proton is a facilitator. It puts the code of the existing code of the app in a format and a layout that the Linux OS can understand and then starts executing that code.
Whenever that game code makes an API call for something it was built against in its original development environment, either just a core C runtime library or higher-level APIs like DirectX or DirectSound, or USB enumeration or input — whenever the game calls those functions, those functions exist in Proton’s code, and it’s going to be Proton implementing that and giving you results. Or giving the game a result based on the Linux OS, as opposed to the other environment that the game was designed for.
Wait a second. Didn’t Valve do this already?
This isn’t actually the first Steam Machine! The original from 2013 never went on sale but was meant to show third-party manufacturers the way; those third-party efforts (like the Alienware Steam Machine) flopped, and Valve seemingly abandoned the idea in 2015.
So what makes Valve think it’ll work this time around?
Valve learned its lesson with the Steam Deck handheld, which the company built itself and uses a compatibility layer to make Windows games play great on the Linux-based SteamOS, and the device didn’t flop. Now it’s bringing everything it learned to a box for your TV.
Are we getting third-party Steam Machines again?
Maybe! Valve’s Pierre-Loup Griffais tells us Valve is “excited to partner” with companies on Steam Machines like it did with Lenovo on a SteamOS handheld. “I think the first step is for us to ship what we have, and it will maybe show the way. Then it’s all based on the conversations we have after that.”
Okay, so just how flexible is this new Steam Machine? Does it run Discord for chatting, OBS for streaming? What about Netflix and other streaming apps?
Yes, yes, and yes. It’s a PC with an optional desktop mode, and you can find a whole app catalog there. Steam carries OBS Studio for livestreaming, too.
And since it’s a SteamOS device like the Steam Deck, you’ll almost certainly be able to use one of the many available web browsers (Chrome, Firefox, etc.) to launch streaming services, then turn them into more easily accessible web apps.
They may not look their best on a 4K TV, though. Even on a Windows PC, many streaming apps don’t offer the same quality 4K HDR Dolby streams they do on even a cheap streaming stick.
What about other game stores like Epic, GOG, Battle.net? Can I stream games from GeForce Now and Xbox Cloud?
If it’s like Steam Deck, the Heroic Games Launcher and Lutris can let you more easily access games from other stores on your Steam Deck, though you have to do a bit of work to get them set up.
Same deal with game streaming. You’ll have to do a little legwork to get them set up in Game Mode alongside your other Steam games. Oh, and you should be able to stream games from your PS5 to the Steam Machine with Chiaki.
Can I install game mods? Could I use it as a Plex server?
It’s doable, including in Bethesda games like Skyrim and Fallout. Just don’t always expect it to be easy. And it looks like Plex has a service for Arch Linux, which underpins SteamOS and thus the Steam Machine, but we’ve never tried it!
That sounds great. So I can replace my gaming PC with a Steam Machine?
Probably not for the latest AAA releases on high settings. And unless you dual-boot into Windows, you can’t play a bunch of the biggest multiplayer games because their anti-cheat software doesn’t work on Linux. But if your gaming PC is getting old and you’re good with PS5-level performance…
I can work with that. What’s there to be worried about?
It might cost way too much — people are still used to spending $500 or less on the console beneath their TV! It also just might not work as well as a Steam Deck crossed with a PlayStation. We’ve only used it briefly, we don’t know exactly how capable the hardware is yet, and compatibility layers make it less of a sure thing than a PS5, which has games specifically made for it.
That said, we were pretty impressed during our initial hands-on, especially with the new Steam Controller.
What is a Steam Controller?
It’s Valve’s new controller, and some of us might be a teensy bit impressed with it.
What’s so impressive?
This one might soon rule the roost where PCs are concerned. It now feels like a traditional gamepad in the hands — unlike the original Steam Controller — but with all the extra inputs and unprecedented customizability of the Steam Deck’s integrated gamepad. It has new TMR joysticks and capacitive sensors in the grips, a D-pad, four face buttons, two bumpers, two triggers, four back buttons, four menu buttons, a gyro, and two touchpads for replicating a mouse or trackball or for simultaneous two-thumb typing.
Will I have to replace this controller in a year because the sticks start to drift?
Probably not! Valve is using custom drift-resistant TMR (tunneling magnetoresistance) joysticks in the controllers. Magnetic joysticks like these are getting more common in aftermarket pads, but Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft haven’t made the switch yet.
I can’t get over the touchpads. Why are they tilted? They look uncomfortable.
They might be! We only got to try the new controller for a few minutes. But we’re fans so far, and Valve says people preferred it this way. You don’t hold a gamepad the way you do a wide Steam Deck, do you?
What about the grip sensors, what will those do?
“Grip Sense” tells when you’re fully gripping it, and you can use that as a virtual on/off button to do whatever you want in games. A Valve employee wanted it for easier gyro aiming: just grip the controller to activate, no need to move your thumb off the face buttons or joysticks. It could be handy for fine-tuned aiming in FPS games.
How do I charge the controller?
The controller comes with a puck that doubles as a charging station and a low-latency access point for up to four gamepads. Just slide the puck under the controller, and it will magnetically snap into place for charging.
It’s called the “Steam Controller Puck,” but a Valve employee said that internally, it was called the “chongle,” so do with that what you will.
Does it have a headphone jack? I like the one on the DualSense and Xbox controllers.
No, unfortunately. “We just didn’t feel like it was necessary,” hardware engineer Steve Cardinali tells us.
How many Steam Controllers can you connect to the Steam Machine?
You can connect up to four to the computer’s internal antenna, which is dedicated to Steam Controllers. Each extra puck supports four more pads. Valve’s engineers told us they tried 16 controllers, though that isn’t officially supported.
Can I use my own controller with the Steam Machine? Which ones? What about keyboard and mouse?
Keyboard, mouse, your PS5 DualSense or Switch Pro Controller, practically any Bluetooth gamepad, and even some racing wheels should work! Steam Input natively supports many of their extra buttons and gyros, and will let you remap and assign macros on just about anything. Even the Google Stadia controller is supported. The Xbox One controller may not work, though. Valve tells us it’s still figuring out how to support the Xbox One wireless adapter for Windows.
What is a Steam Frame?
Valve’s new SteamOS VR headset is designed to play both flat-screen and VR games. It’s a standalone headset with an Arm chip, like the Meta Quest, and it can play Windows games locally or off a microSD card because Valve now has an emulator for Windows on Arm, too.
It can also stream your games from a nearby PC with very low latency using a dedicated wireless adapter and eye-tracking cameras.
Why does that matter for the Steam Machine?
If you have a Steam Machine and a Steam Frame, you can plug the Steam Frame’s wireless adapter into your Steam Machine to stream the games from it. They’ll look a lot better than if you ran them on the Frame directly. Or you could just use a normal PC, like Valve did for our demos.
Wait, it’s tracking my eyes? That sounds creepy.
Yeah, it’s watching your eyes move, checking their position between 80 and 125 times every second. And somehow we totally forgot to ask Valve whether it’s keeping track of what you look at.
Straight to jail, Sean and Jay, straight to jail. You’ll ask Valve for us now, right?
We just did, and we’ll let you know if we hear anything. And Valve is using it for something cool! The eye-tracking unlocks “foveated streaming,” which puts the highest-fidelity bits right in front of your eyes while lowering the resolution in your peripheral vision.
Is there something special about the controllers?
The controllers for Valve’s previous headset, the Index, were fun, but they were also bulky and didn’t have everything you might need to play flat-screen games.
The Frame’s new controllers, on the other hand, are two small wands packed with all the buttons and inputs required for both flat-screen games and VR games. AB and XY, triggers and bumpers. The Quest’s wands don’t have those extra inputs.
Why do you keep talking about flat-screen games for a VR headset?
Valve’s pitch is every game in your Steam library — VR or flat-screen, locally or streamed — will work on this lightweight headset, no cord required.
But you should know that the performance of a couple flat Windows games running locally on the headset — Hollow Knight: Silksong and Hades II — was a little choppy.
Uh-oh. Do you know why?
Valve told us after our demos that what we saw was a bug, and that it hadn’t yet fully implemented a shader pre-caching system that could have smoothed things out. So it’s possible the shipping product will perform better. We’ll have to test.
But issues with Windows games on Arm aren’t that surprising. Sean has messed around with Silksong on a phone, and while it worked, it wasn’t perfect. The processing power on the Frame is limited, too — it’s an older smartphone chip, but with a lot more power and cooling than you get in a phone.
Valve plans to have a Verified program for games it expects to run well on the Frame, so we hope that checkmark will be an indicator of good performance.
Why use Arm for the Frame at all if there are extra hurdles to jump through?
Battery and heat! “We chose Arm for Steam Frame for its power efficiency and low heat generation — especially important for a headset,” Valve hardware and software engineer Jeremy Selan tells us. The battery here is way smaller than in a Steam Deck, though, if you’re wondering how long it’ll play Windows games. Like half the size. 21.6 watt-hours.
What’s the battery life?
Not six hours of Hades II, because we asked and Valve said no. Valve told Digital Foundry to expect one to four hours of gameplay depending on settings; it told Gamers Nexus it currently consumes up to 7 watts streaming and 20 watts playing local games, which works out to about three hours and one hour minimum runtime, respectively. Valve says it’s still optimizing, and the rear USB-C port is in a great spot to plug in an external battery.
So pack a battery for flights… Wait, can I use it on a plane at all?
Selan says yes:
Yes, we’ve played Frame on a plane from takeoff to landing without tracking issues. The onboard cameras work in tandem with the motion sensors in the headset to offset any external motion experienced when in a vehicle.
How about in bed?
Selan once more:
A bunch of us play this way. The game theater screen in VR is repositionable and resizable, and you can move it to be on your ceiling if you prefer.
Is it comfortable to wear?
We’ll have to test more, but it’s smaller and lighter than the Quest 3 with a plush and more balanced head strap right out of the box. It felt pretty great in a brief demo.
How about with glasses?
Our friend Scott Stein at CNET writes:
There’s support for prescription lens inserts, but my high index option wasn’t available at the demo, so I had to squeeze my glasses in. They fit, but just barely.
Do the vents smell as good as the Steam Deck’s?
Sorry, too busy tasting Switch 2 cartridges to check.
If it’s Arm, can I play Android games on it too?
That’s the plan! Developers will be able to publish the Android APKs on Steam, and Valve will send Steam Frame devkits to some of those developers.
Is it more powerful than a Quest 3?
It should be, based on the raw specs.
Does the Frame have any other cool tricks?
We love modular gear as a general rule. Did we mention the Frame is modular?
Modular. The “frame” and “lenses” come apart. The headband, speakers, and battery detach from the core compute module of the Frame. And on that core module, right above where your nose is, there’s an expansion slot for extra cameras to slot in.
Will Valve sell other headbands I can slot in instead?
Not Valve, at least to start, but you can expect other companies or regular people to cook up their own ideas. From Selan:
We will be sharing specs and external CAD to enable folks to make accessories for the front expansion port (like an extra camera) and alternate head straps. For companies who wish to sell Steam Frame accessories for these ports with our official partner branding, there will be a partner program.
Why would I want an extra camera?
Valve cut corners on its passthrough cameras to bring the price down, it claims, so you can’t see the real world in color through it like Meta’s latest headsets.
What about other XR stuff? Can I run multiple apps, pin them to different places in my home, and expect them to stay?
Selan isn’t promising a rich catalog of apps yet, but some of this, yes. “You’ll be able to bring up a browser, have floating windows, all of the multitasking environments you’d expect.” Room setup and multiple windows are “on the list” for launch. He didn’t address pinning specifically.
How does the Steam Frame’s pixel density compare to other headsets?
The Samsung Galaxy XR is 4K per eye, with incredibly clear visuals. We can read a phone pretty easily through the headset, as long as it’s not too close to the headset’s cameras.
This is 2K per eye, a lot closer to the Meta Quest 3, where it’s good enough to make out a phone, but grainy.
Charging headsets is a pain. Will Valve sell a dock for the Frame?
We have nothing to announce, but we’ll be sharing external CAD, if others wish to make docks (similar to Steam Deck).
Is the streaming adapter just for the headset, or can I use it to stream games from PC to other gadgets?
Just for the headset for now. Selan again:
In terms of using a dedicated Wi-Fi adapter for a direct connection between an untethered device and the PC, we are excited about that potential but have nothing to announce at this time.
Do I need fast USB ports for the 6GHz adapter?
The adapter “works great” over USB2 and USB3, Selan says.
Why not make the headset even lighter by making a battery or compute puck?
“We explored many different options and decided on the built-in battery for simplicity, weight balancing, and ease of use,” Selan says. “External compute via puck is interesting, but being able to leverage your existing PC’s compute is such a compelling experience that we chose to prioritize wireless streaming technologies instead.”
I saw pictures of the Controller and Frame with clear shells that I desperately want. Is Valve going to sell those?
It’s not planning to, but you can admire them in our photo gallery!
Will Valve sell replacement parts for the Steam Frame and Steam Machine like with the Steam Deck, and if so, when?
Selan and hardware engineer Yazan Aldehayyat told us, for both products respectively, that Valve plans to have replacement parts available.
Linus Tech Tips got slightly more context: “While Valve hasn’t actually told iFixit that this product is coming yet, they did say that they’re hoping to continue their partnership that they’ve had on the Steam Deck making replacement parts available for end users.”
Also, the Steam Controller’s battery is user-replaceable and pops right out.
I saw a picture of a Steam Machine with an e-paper screen. How about that?
Sadly, Valve won’t sell it. “The e-paper faceplate will not be available for sale,” Aldehayyat tells us. “That was a (very cool) mod that one of our engineers made internally during development.” We want it, too.