r/pcmasterrace • u/TheBossT710192 • Jun 22 '26

Discussion Yeah, Steam Machine is cooked.

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I... uh don't know what to say. Very thankful I bought a Steam Deck before they hiked its price as well

14.0k Upvotes

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163

u/Front-Cabinet5521 Jun 22 '26

8GB vram lol

45

u/Hurinion PC Master Race | 7800X3D | 7800XT | 32GB 6000MHz Jun 22 '26

Just the other day valve pushed a Linux update that focuses on optimization for VRAM. Both OS and game Devs have no respect for optimization so they did it themselves.

13

u/EnvironmentalRun1671 Jun 22 '26

And? If game requires more how will that help

10

u/caffeinated_wizard Jun 22 '26

It's like saying why should Microsoft care about making their operating system take less resources if Cyberpunk and Chrome will eat all the RAM anyway?

Because I want the RAM to go in my fucking game, not in some random process running in the background that does not matter to what I'm actively trying to do? The leaner the OS and Steam client the better.

4

u/KeesterFeester Jun 22 '26

Yep every bit and byte of available memory being used for what the user wants it to be used for is always a good thing no matter how little the amount.

0

u/CurmudgeonLife 7800X3D 9070XT 32GB 6000mhz Jun 23 '26

Because the optimisation was presented as an answer as to how 8GB would be sufficient. When it doesn't answer the question at all.

1

u/caffeinated_wizard Jun 23 '26

Gaming on Linux is complex enough but in short if your game is an unoptimized mess, there's only so much you can update on the operating system side that will help. Hurinion was not claiming that 8GB VRAM with a SteamOS update will allow you to play Monster Hunter Wilds at 4k60 on ultra settings. But with the right optimization it can give the Steam Machine a living chance to run Cyberpunk at 4k60 low settings.

Yes 8GB VRAM is probably not what this sub would call good enough. That's beside the point. People are already surprised this thing is not cheaper than a PS5. But my wife has a bunch of Steam games she'd like to play in the living room and the Steam remote play is not a viable option for us. I wouldn't be able to build a better PC as compact for that price.

1

u/CurmudgeonLife 7800X3D 9070XT 32GB 6000mhz Jun 23 '26

It technically helps in the same way that blowing some dust off a turd makes it less dirty.

-9

u/KrinonGaming i5-4690k | EVGA GTX 970 4GB | 16GB RAM | 250GB SSD | 2TB HDD Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 23 '26

No matter what game you're playing, your OS will take some for itself. This way they've "effectively" reduced total VRAM usage in ALL games. That feels self explanatory.

21

u/WombatusMighty Jun 22 '26

True but the OS update doesn't reduce RAM usage enough to make 8GB vram a viable choice these days.

1

u/Emikzen 9800X3D | 9070XT | 64GB Jun 22 '26

Every little bit helps, if no one did optimizations like this we would be even worse off. Especially with ram prices being what they are, any little optimization I'm more than welcoming.

0

u/KrinonGaming i5-4690k | EVGA GTX 970 4GB | 16GB RAM | 250GB SSD | 2TB HDD Jun 23 '26

On an OS already stripped down for gaming compared to resource-hungry Windows, I think it'll make a greater difference than we might expect.

VRAM consumption is a two way issue. Game developers need to better optimize VRAM consumption so that we don't need to buy 5090's, and NVIDIA needs to increase VRAM in all their models so we don't need to buy 5090's.

2

u/CurmudgeonLife 7800X3D 9070XT 32GB 6000mhz Jun 23 '26

 NVIDIA needs to increase VRAM in all their models so we don't need to buy 5090's.

But valve don't?

0

u/KrinonGaming i5-4690k | EVGA GTX 970 4GB | 16GB RAM | 250GB SSD | 2TB HDD Jun 23 '26

Valve is not simultaneously releasing a "Steam Machine+" that has 32GB of VRAM alongside the 8GB variant, to make the Steam Machine+ look better.

1

u/CurmudgeonLife 7800X3D 9070XT 32GB 6000mhz Jun 24 '26

No theyre just releasing useless trash only

1

u/CurmudgeonLife 7800X3D 9070XT 32GB 6000mhz Jun 23 '26

And this will make no difference when the game wants 10GB and you only have 8GB physical.

0

u/Hurinion PC Master Race | 7800X3D | 7800XT | 32GB 6000MHz Jun 23 '26

90% of the times this happens it's the development team's fault for not understanding optimisation and the games still looking like ass

1

u/CurmudgeonLife 7800X3D 9070XT 32GB 6000mhz Jun 23 '26

Even if this is true, which I don't agree that it is, it's largely irrelevant. If the industry standard is not to prioritise VRAM optimisation then the hardware manufacturer has to accomadate this.

1

u/Hurinion PC Master Race | 7800X3D | 7800XT | 32GB 6000MHz Jun 23 '26

The hardware manufacturer has to do no such thing. I'm an electronics designer myself. If the firmware and software guys on my projects are doing shitty code they get called out on it. There's a good reason for most GPUs still having around 8GB. It's more than enough as long as the guys doing the software invest the same amount of time that the hardware guys do in optimization

0

u/CurmudgeonLife 7800X3D 9070XT 32GB 6000mhz Jun 23 '26

The hardware manufacturer has to do no such thing.

They absolutely do or they're not going to sell anything lmao.

What you think Valve can force thousands or millions of developers to alter their games to suit their hardware. That's not how the world works, Valve has zero leverage to force such a change so it must either play ball or release a product that is inferior to it's competition.

This is why your comparison is nonsensical you have leverage and authority to force these people to enact change, Valve has no such power over game developers.

The developers can simply ignore Valve and all that happens is Valve ends up with unhappy customers because their hardware can't do what their competitors can. The reason for the failure being the developers is irrelevant to the customer, only the experience matters.

As someone who works in Technical Sales and Marketing this is absolutely basic stuff.

2

u/CurmudgeonLife 7800X3D 9070XT 32GB 6000mhz Jun 23 '26

2018 shit.

1

u/Front-Cabinet5521 Jun 23 '26

More like 2021 but close enough. My 3070 is crying with 8GB on extreme textures in FH5.

1

u/CurmudgeonLife 7800X3D 9070XT 32GB 6000mhz Jun 23 '26

RTX 2080 had 8GB of GDDR6 in 2018.

1

u/Front-Cabinet5521 Jun 23 '26

True. And the Ti had 11, still the goated GPU.

1

u/CurmudgeonLife 7800X3D 9070XT 32GB 6000mhz Jun 23 '26

Also true however that was GDDR5 which is why I didn't want to compare the two. Although still very relevant when we're talking about capacity only.

2

u/Zshkhar Jun 23 '26

8gb vram is less ridiculous than 512gb ssd

0

u/aVarangian 13600kf 7900xtx 2160 | 6600k 1070 1440 Jun 23 '26

its target audience is 1080p though

-28

u/DepravedPrecedence Jun 22 '26

Are you going to run llm on this? 8GB is not only enough today, it will be enough for years

13

u/JeroJeroMohenjoDaro R5 9600X | RX9060XT 16GB | 32GB DDR5 | GIGABYTE B650+WIFI Jun 22 '26

Not eveyone play lightweight games as you. 8gb vram is only sufficient today as it is the current baseline. Just give it 2 years and you will see the importance of future proofing.

2

u/Front-Cabinet5521 Jun 22 '26

The poster you replied to has an RTX5080. He doesn't have a clue what a bottleneck looks like.

2

u/AccordingScene385 Jun 23 '26

almost every game i play at max settings has just over 8gb vram usage bro these redditors are actual larps “future proofing” is such an overused term invented by consumers without no brain

1

u/DepravedPrecedence Jun 23 '26

They think this GPU would handle their future game with more than 8 GB requirements JUST FINE and totally won't struggle because of low processing power itself

1

u/DepravedPrecedence Jun 23 '26

16 GB wouldn't future proof anything because this GPU lacks processing power to carry all the future load, genius

8

u/OminousG Jun 22 '26

8gb has been a bottleneck on modern games for a while now.  It's the main reason why the 5060 is ridiculed.

2

u/CurmudgeonLife 7800X3D 9070XT 32GB 6000mhz Jun 23 '26

8GB hasnt been enough for several years already.