Performance benchmarks of the Steam Machine have surfaced online, and they are a bit lower than some gamers were expecting.
Early Benchmarks Reveal Mixed Results
Early performance benchmarks for Valve’s Steam Machine have seemingly surfaced online, and the results are clocking in a little lower than gamers were expecting. Yesterday, X user Olrak29 spotted a couple of listings for Valve Fremont, which is known to be the in-house code word for the Steam Machine.
Geekbench is a benchmarking tool that stress tests both the CPU and GPU to provide arbitrary performance scores, and is usually a good indication of general performance compared to other PC rigs.
It is unclear who uploaded these Geekbench scores to the public website. However, with rumours circulating over the weekend that Steam Machine units are now in the hands of reviewers, it could be a sign that gamers are already testing them in the wild.
The hardware specs appear to match, though, with a custom AMD CPU featuring 6 cores and 12 threads, paired with 16GB of RAM.
Performance Numbers Compared
Until now, Valve has been pretty vague about the upcoming console’s performance. Upon its initial reveal, Valve promised that the Steam Machine would be capable of running games at 4K, 60fps – albeit with the help of some FSR upscaling.
However, these apparent Geekbench scores appear to show that the Steam Machine will be slightly less capable than some fans were hoping. Here are both the single-core and multi-core scores reported in the stress test:
- Single-Core Score: 2334
- Multi-Core Score: 7316
These numbers mean very little by themselves, but when compared to other hardware configurations on the market, a bigger picture emerges. For example, the single-core score is almost double that of the PlayStation 5, with its multi-core score sitting slightly lower.
The more powerful single-core score will likely give the Steam Machine a bit of an edge in CPU-heavy games, putting it on par if not slightly ahead of Sony’s PS5 console.
Looking at the rest of AMD’s CPU line-up, this equates roughly to the AMD Ryzen 5600X, albeit with slightly worse multi-core performance. That CPU launched back in 2020 and can currently be picked up for around £150.
Community Reactions
For some, these early performance indications are worrying – especially given we are expecting the Steam Machine to launch at a price north of $1,000 due to the current climate of the hardware market.
One Reddit comment reads: “Hmmm, not as powerful as I would have hoped. That is still a decent amount under an i5-12400 (in multi core). And that is not a particularly new CPU.” A second adds: “Its an ok score for gaming but about 40% slower than the 7600 which is not great either.”
However, others are more optimistic about the Steam Machine’s potential performance. “Damn that single core score is quite a bit better than my 5700x 3D. I was not expecting that!”
Another Reddit user says: “Still a great setup for what it is, but I think the Steam Machine is going to be a huge hit for people who just want something that works and can play some great looking games.”
What’s Next?
Valve is yet to announce an official release date for the Steam Machine, although it is thought to be gearing up for an announcement next week. We will report back when we know more about the Steam Machine’s release date, price, and performance.
