Valve announces new Steam Machine and Steam Controller | Infinium-tech
Valve has announced a trio of new hardware devices within the Steam Hardware family. These new tools build on the success of the platform and Steam Deck, and expand it to a broader audience.
The first major device is the new Steam Machine. The Steam Machine as a concept has existed for a decade through various devices made by other brands but this is the first time Valve is creating one. It’s a compact, cubic device that’s essentially a Steam Deck for the living room TV.
The Steam Machine runs on a semi-custom AMD chip with a 6-core/12-thread CPU based on Zen4 architecture. It can clock up to 4.8GHz and has a TDP of 30W. The CPU seems to be similar to the Ryzen 5 7400F but with a much lower power budget. Matching the CPU is an AMD RDNA3 GPU with 28 compute units. It can clock up to 2.45GHz and has a TDP of 110W. The GPU feels like a cutback version of the Radeon RX 7600, but with 12.5% fewer compute units and, once again, a much smaller power envelope.
Valve is matching that hardware with 16GB of DDR5 system memory and 8GB of GDDR6 video memory. System memory seems fine but we’ve already seen that 8GB of video memory is insufficient in modern titles, even at 1080p. And Valve is promoting it as a 4K machine.
You get some flexibility with storage. Valve is offering 512GB and 2TB configurations, and you can also use a microSD card with the machine. MicroSD cards seem like a strange option until you realize that you can use your existing Steam Deck card here, or vice versa, and not need to reinstall the games already on the card. The SSD can also be replaced with a standard M.2 drive.
Steam Machine 2×2 Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3 with a dedicated antenna for controllers, dedicated 2.4GHz wireless adapter for Steam Controllers, DisplayPort 1.4 for up to 4K 240Hz and HDMI 2.0 with 4K 120Hz output with support for DSC, VRR, HDR, and HDMI CEC, 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports, 2x USB-A Key Will offer. 2.0 port, 1x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port, and Gigabit Ethernet.
There’s a customizable RGB LED strip on the front of the device, which can also display things like your Steam download progress. It also has a removable face plate, which can also be customized.
Like the Steam Deck, the Steam Machine will run on Valve’s famous Linux-based SteamOS, which is now optimized for TVs. Just like Steam Deck, you will be able to download and play most games on Steam through its translation layer. There’s also a KDE Plasma desktop interface if you want to run regular Linux desktop programs.
Valve is also launching a new Steam Controller with the Steam Machine. This would technically be a second generation model, as the first model came out several years earlier, and like the early iterations of the Steam Machine, did not see much success. The new model once again takes inspiration from the Steam Deck and combines some old ideas with new ones.
The design and layout of the new Steam Controller’s joystick and face buttons is similar to that of the Steam Deck. The joysticks utilize Valve’s second generation magnetic technology for improved feel, responsiveness, and reliability. They also have capacitive touch surfaces to enable motion controls. The controller also has HD haptics and 6-axis gyro support.
Below the joystick are two pressure-sensitive trackpads. These work exactly as you’d expect from a trackpad, except there are two of them. You can use these to navigate the SteamOS UI or play games that support mouse input but not controller input. This was a defining feature of the original Steam controller and this new model integrates it into the traditional controller layout rather than making it the main way to play.
There are also buttons on the back of the controller, two on each grip, as well as a capacitive touch surface that can sense when you hold the controller. The back is also where you add the magnetic puck connector, which also acts as a wireless transmitter. There is also a USB-C port for charging using a normal cable.
The Steam Controller comes standard with every Steam Machine. It works seamlessly with the machine using a custom 2.4GHz wireless connection with 8ms full end-to-end latency and 4ms polling rate. Four of these can be connected to the Steam Machine at the same time. You can also use it with a Windows PC over USB or Bluetooth. The battery is designed to last 35+ hours, but it’s not clear whether that’s on a custom wireless connection or a low-power Bluetooth connection.
The company also announced the new Steam Frame. You can read more about this Here,
The Steam Machine and Steam Controller will be available for sale in early 2026. Prices and exact availability information will come later.
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