Nvidia's Arm-based processor for laptops was unveiled after much waiting at Computex back in June. RTX Spark is Nvidia's first proper go at a consumer chip, combining CPU and GPU, and while it is of course targeted at AI workloads, it's also targeted at gaming. Now, Nvidia has confirmed which will be the first brands of RTX Spark laptop to come to market this fall and which will follow those.

According to Nvidia, "RTX Spark systems will be available this fall from Asus, Dell Technologies, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft Surface and MSI, with models from Acer and Gigabyte to follow."

The initial few aren't a big surprise given these are the exact companies that were announced as partners when RTX Spark was revealed. Of note is Acer and Gigabyte following the initial six, though.

As Chinese news site the Commercial Times points out (via VideoCardz), MSI and Asus will be the first Taiwanese companies to launch Spark lappies. But given it was the Surface Laptop Ultra that RTX Spark was most commonly shown running on at Computex, it'll be surprising if that's not the first one to market.

That being said, I'm looking forward to RTX Spark laptops other than the Surface. Back when it was announced, I reported just how much I liked the look of the thin MSI Prestige N16 Flip AI+.

If laptops as thin as this can really pump out 100 fps at 1440p like Nvidia claims—and our Dave's hands-on experience gaming on RTX Spark certainly does make me hopeful—then getting that kind of power out of such a thin laptop is an exciting prospect. Though I guess that will depend on the TDPs and cooling in question, too.

The other big announcement from Nvidia at SIGGRAPH 2026, at least as far as we gamers are concerned, was a closer look at how DLSS 5 works. For now, the AI filter looks to be controllable with just a couple of sliders, though Nvidia says it's working on building more controls for devs. And I can't deny that cranking up the subsurface scattering on masked-off environmental objects looks pretty damn good to my eyes, even if the controls are limited.

That technology will launch this fall, too, so the end of 2026 might be an interesting time for PC gaming. Setting aside the usual affordability provisos given the current state of the market, of course.

The Steam Deck was once a budget champion, but no longer. Ever since the price hikes earlier this year, Valve's handheld has become difficult to argue for as a value proposition—and according to recent sales estimates by Boiling Steam, it appears that consumers may agree.

The site has attempted to estimate the number of Steam Deck units sold by tracking its position on the Steam Top Sellers listing, and extrapolating data in relation to the entries above and below it (via XDA).

This back-of-the-napkin maths is hardly definitive, but it suggests that when the Steam Deck dropped from around fourth and fifth on the chart position to between tenth and fifteenth after the price adjustments in May of this year, the drop in weekly units sold would equate to roughly 80-82%.

Boiling Steam suggests that a slip to fourteenth on the Top Sellers list from its previous top five position represents a drop in gross revenue of approximately 72%, something the outlet characterises as a "complete collapse in total sales."

Presuming Boiling Steam's earlier estimate of between 11,000 and 18,000 units sold a week pre-price increase is correct, the figures would equate to between 1,400 and 3,000 units sold weekly in mid-2026. "The effect could not be clearer," says the outlet. "A 72% revenue contraction combined with a 54% price increase has completely shut down the demand for the Steam Deck."

Immediately after the price increases, replenished stock was reportedly sold out in North America, so it seems that some well-heeled buyers bit the bullet—at least initially. In fact, it's worth pointing out that regional shortages in Steam Deck supplies may have had their part to play in the Deck's position in the Top Seller rankings, which could skew this data significantly.

There's also a fair amount of guesswork here, as the outlet has made assumptions about the average Steam Deck price across the range for 2025 sales data, and extrapolated estimated weekly revenues for the positioning of the surrounding top-selling games. All of which is to say, a pinch of salt may well be required.

Still, it's been a grim 2026 in general for handheld gaming fans. While there's been plenty to get excited about on the hardware front, including Intel's Panther Lake-based Arc G3 and G3 Extreme offerings and the magnificent MSI Claw 8 EX AI+, the memory crisis-induced pricing has tarnished what was once an excellent entry point into PC gaming.

And the Steam Deck really was the entry point to beat all entry points. The cheaper LCD models have since been retired, the OLED models are hugely expensive given the performance you receive for your cash, and we're left wondering if the form factor will survive as anything other than a niche category for the very well-off.

I recently reported on a $5,299 handheld offering from Ayaneo, a 128 GB beast that I can't possibly see selling in large numbers for that sort of price. But, like Valve and countless other hardware providers, the company has felt the need to increase the pricing to cover memory and storage costs. Never mind global shipping uncertainty and a whole host of other contributing factors.

Those of you who picked up a Steam Deck back when it was cheap are probably feeling pretty pleased with yourselves right now, and rightly so. But, if these estimates are correct, I'd imagine Valve may be beginning to ask itself whether the hassle—combined with dropped sales figures—makes the whole endeavour worth it. And that, for PC gaming on the go, would be a sad state of affairs indeed.

A couple of months ago, Intel announced a couple of new chips for handheld gaming PCs, the Intel Arc G3 and G3 Extreme. It was certainly exciting to have something new on that front, given we've been seeing mostly the same silicon crammed inside such devices for a very long time. But at the time I warned that signs pointed towards yet more prohibitively expensive price tags. And now we're seeing Acer's pricing for its new Predator Atlas 8 handhelds, it's safe to say I was unfortunately right.

As spotted by KitGuru and confirmed by yours truly, the UK pricing for these handhelds, containing new Intel Panther Lake chips and expected to launch in October this year, ranges from £1,000 to £1,500. The cheapest has a regular G3 chip, 16 GB of memory, and a 512 GB SSD. You can up the memory to 24 GB for another £100.

A G3 Extreme version with a 1 TB SSD and 24 GB of memory will be able to be nabbed for £1,300, and bumping that up to 32 GB of RAM will get you up to the top £1,500 price tag.

Converting those figures to dollars, that makes for a handheld that ranges from (roughly) $1,300 to $2,000. Though of course prices don't usually track exchange rates exactly.

Yep, that's pretty expensive. But it's also par for the course for handhelds now, it seems. Our Dave has actually just reviewed an MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM featuring a G3 Extreme chip and that, too is in this ballpark. It's $1,800, a figure I noted as being likely back in May, given currency conversions of EU/AUS retailer listings.

At Computex in June, MSI told us that it was targetting $1,500 for the Claw 8 EX AI+, but that also came with the caveat that was depending on market forces. And those market forces have not been kind, as evidenced by the subsequent price change. Again, not unexpected, but as with memory prices in general, just an unfortunate reality of the industry right now.

To be clear though, the G3 Extreme chip is incredibly performant, with its 12 Xe cores helping the new Claw handheld handily beat others like the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X in the games we tested at 1080p. So it's not quite as bad as paying so much for a non-G3 Extreme handheld. And it's certainly not as expensive as, erm, some options we're seeing surface.

But it's still mighty expensive. When the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X launched we thought that was expensive at $1,000, and now we reckon it's the best handheld gaming PC on the market because all the rest are just so damn expensive. It's a shame, given the handheld market for a while was looking like a decent entry into PC gaming. Now the market is looking more like an ultra-niche luxury one.

The Steam Machine is a pricey piece of hardware. Which is why UK redditor mdumtshali must have been heartbroken (or very annoyed) when theirs was stolen from their doorstep after the Royal Mail dropped it off while they were at work.

The delivery driver sent a picture of the Steam Machine box to prove it had been delivered, and even tried to cover it with a plastic bag (via Notebookcheck). But alas, when mdumtshali returned home, porch pirates (my new favourite term) had already absconded with the ill-fated mini PC.

However, mdumtshali says they eventually contacted Steam Support, which duly agreed to send out a replacement Steam Machine free of charge. "Honestly, kudos to Steam Support," says the redditor. "[I] thought I was going to be out £1000, which I really can't afford."

Steam Support initially asked mdumtshali to check with neighbours to see if the parcel had been taken in, which they duly did to no avail. As the Steam Machine is a high-value item, it's surprising that a signature wasn't required by the Royal Mail for delivery confirmation, which would have likely prevented this whole fiasco in the first place.

Royal Mail Left My Steam Machine Outside from r/steammachine

As Notebookcheck points out, the UK Consumer Rights Act 2015 stipulates that sellers must ensure that items reach buyers, so this is less a case of good-guy Valve and more "Valve follows the rules"—which is still pretty pleasing to see in this "screw-you-got-mine" world of ours.

In other countries, however, the consumer protections aren't quite so clear-cut. Chalk one battered, bruised, and broken point up for this silly little country of mine, and kudos to Steam Support for quickly coming to this redditor's aid in their time of need.

It's clear the new MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM is the best gaming handheld in terms of almost all the metrics that count. It's the most powerful—delivering gaming performance well beyond that of the ROG Xbox Ally X with its AMD-powered Z2 Extreme APU—and it has an absolutely killer battery life, too. But these aren't the only metrics that count. Sure, they're the key ones if we're talking about what it's like to actually live with the MSI Claw 8 etc. but there's a large hurdle to get over before then. And it's a hurdle built out of pure cash.

The Claw 8 etc. is a handheld that's become as much of a casualty of the current memory and hardware crisis as the Steam Machine. To the point where, here at launch it's just looking like a near $2,000 toy for the really rather rich.

And this is a real failing for a handheld gaming PC. These aren't devices that are meant to be your sole machine; they're complementary systems for when you're travelling around, or just want to sit on a sofa instead of at your gaming desk. Which is why the Steam Deck was such a success. It understood the balance of price and performance was vital in this burgeoning market, and that it needed to be something additive to your gaming experience, not exclusory. And other players, such as Asus and Lenovo, were able to use their buying power to keep costs relatively low for their own subsequent devices.

That's all out of the window now, because there is no way to produce an affordable version of a handheld rocking the outstanding Intel Arc G3 Extreme silicon, whatever your buying power is. Which is a huge shame, because it really is the best gaming handheld I've ever spent time with. The chip at its heart is almost the entire reason behind that; because of its mix of extreme power and extreme Panther Lake efficiency it nails what I've always wanted a handheld gaming PC to be.

The level of compromise over the visual quality and frame rate of your games is impressively light, and while range anxiety is not necessarily a solved issue, the Endurance mode battery life is a bit of a revelation. But it's not all about Intel's silicon, because the enhanced MSI Claw design also plays its part. The weight is beautifully distributed, making it feel far lighter than it should, and the extended controller grips make it far more comfortable for a long session.

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ features

The key feature for the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM is its Intel Arc G3 Extreme silicon. This is the first chip from Intel that is explicitly designed for a handheld ecosystem, and the fact that it is denoted as an 'Arc' chip highlights its gaming credentials, and the focus on its integrated GPU. In fact, Intel's Tom Petersen went so far as to pitch his claim to actually call the chip a GPU with an integrated CPU when I spoke to him at Computex earlier in the year.

Though I'm pretty confident his pitch didn't get very far with the Intel leadership.

The integrated graphics are the same as those sitting in the top-end Panther Lake processors, the Arc B390. That's a 12 Xe core chip and one that's impressively capable at 1080p gaming, especially at low wattage levels, but the chip as a whole contains some interesting optimisations dedicated to handheld gaming specifically.

The most obvious is how the split between Performance, Efficient, and Low Power Efficient cores lines up in the new chip spec. Where your standard Core UItra 9 or 7 Panther Lake chip comes with four Cougar Cove Performance cores to give it that extra processing grunt, Intel has cut that in half, with only two Performance cores in the G3 series of chips.

Alongside that pair, are eight Darkmont Efficient cores and a further four Darkmont LP Efficient cores. That then gives you a 14-core processor, so you can have some decent multi-core performance in there without dedicating too much silicon to the highest-performing—and most thirsty—cores Intel has in the whole Panther Lake stack.

And the Darkmont cores are plenty versatile and powerful enough in this form, and not the weakheart cores you might have in your head from the first flush of Intel's big/little core design. This isn't a mobile workstation after all, this is a gaming chip, and everything is focused around that.

To that end the G3 chips come with the latest version of Intel's Intelligent Bias Control software (IBC v3.5). This is a piece of software designed to balance power between CPU and GPU tiles, and here it allows for the complete parking of the more power-hungry Performance cores when the chip is operating at a low power level, below 14 W. It also affects the Windows scheduler and points more work towards the Efficient cores; it's almost the entirely opposite way the original scheduler was designed when Intel first brought the hybrid core layout to the PC.

But, having played with a couple of other Arc G3 Extreme handhelds—the OneXPlayer 3 and the Acer Predator Atlas 8—there is a lot that MSI is bringing to the table here, too. And much of it is a vast improvement over the previous Claw handhelds. MSI has been making Intel-based handheld gaming PCs for a couple generations now and they've been decent, but never class-leading. That's changed here with the Claw 8 EX AI+, where it's focused on nailing the design in terms of ergonomics and the ephemeral feel of a device, as well as supporting the efficient Intel architecture with a fat 77.8 Whr battery.

The flared design of the grips mirrors the Xbox controller and therefore the comfort of the Xbox Ally X, and all the buttons feel far more definite than the slightly woolly, imprecise controls on the previous Claw devices. We also have Hall effect sticks and triggers to give you more accuracy and remove the issue of stick drift over time, too.

The 8-inch IPS-like panel taking up the front of the Claw—and oddly slightly jutting out at the bottom—is a really solid 1920 x 1200 screen. With VRR support, you're getting a refresh rate from 48 - 120 Hz and an impressively bright display, too. It's rated for a typical luminance level of 500 nits, which means you don't have to have it anywhere near 100% to get a very playable level of brightness on the thing.

It's not all on the outside, either. The internals have been given an upgrade, and arguably the most important is the one you'll barely notice. The cooling. MSI has used taller fans in the twin cooling array inside it, and there is an impressive amount of clearance between the outer shell and those li'l spinny things. All told, you're getting an extra 5 W of cooling capacity compared to previous Claw designs, and apparently 9% more airflow.

Combine that with the noted Panther Lake/Arc G3 efficiency, and you get a cooling system that stays mercifully quiet, but still impressively effective when you're really pushing the graphics silicon to its fullest.

Another internal feature that pleases me is the SSD. It's super easy to unscrew and pry the back off the Claw—without breaking the plastic shell—and you're immediately presented with the SSD. This makes it simple to replace or upgrade the standard 1 TB of storage it comes with, but MSI has also ensured compatibility with full-size 2280 SSDs as well as the smaller designs.

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ performance

If you've seen anything of our coverage of Intel's Panther Lake you'll know we're big fans of its gaming performance, and that hasn't changed with my testing of this new MSI Claw and its Arc G3 Extreme processor. In fact, it has only been enhanced because of its effectiveness at low power especially.

Our standard handheld gaming PC benchmarking suite sees the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ topping the table with only one exception, the ageing Horizon Zero Dawn upscaling benchmark, which relies on an older version of AMD's FSR technology. It's an impressive display, with it not being at all close in most games compared with the current pinnacle of AMD's own dedicated handheld silicon, the Ryzen Z2 Extreme in the ROG Xbox Ally X.

Previous

1 / 3

Next

1080p gaming performance

Black Myth Wukong (1080p Medium)Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p Medium)F1 24 (1080p Medium)Horizon Zero Dawn (1080p Original)Metro Exodus Enhanced (1080p High)

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM

33

16

Asus ROG Xbox Ally X

26

19

MSI Claw 8 AI+

20

15

Lenovo Legion Go S

15

11

Black Myth Wukong (1080p Medium) Data

Product	Value
MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM	33 Avg FPS, 16 1% Low FPS
Asus ROG Xbox Ally X	26 Avg FPS, 19 1% Low FPS
MSI Claw 8 AI+	20 Avg FPS, 15 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion Go S	15 Avg FPS, 11 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM

51

33

Asus ROG Xbox Ally X

41

34

MSI Claw 8 AI+

37

31

Lenovo Legion Go S

22

19

Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p Medium) Data

Product	Value
MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM	51 Avg FPS, 33 1% Low FPS
Asus ROG Xbox Ally X	41 Avg FPS, 34 1% Low FPS
MSI Claw 8 AI+	37 Avg FPS, 31 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion Go S	22 Avg FPS, 19 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM

107

64

Asus ROG Xbox Ally X

84

76

MSI Claw 8 AI+

68

59

Lenovo Legion Go S

45

34

F1 24 (1080p Medium) Data

Product	Value
MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM	107 Avg FPS, 64 1% Low FPS
Asus ROG Xbox Ally X	84 Avg FPS, 76 1% Low FPS
MSI Claw 8 AI+	68 Avg FPS, 59 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion Go S	45 Avg FPS, 34 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM

61

32

Asus ROG Xbox Ally X

48

15

MSI Claw 8 AI+

48

11

Lenovo Legion Go S

36

3

Horizon Zero Dawn (1080p Original) Data

Product	Value
MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM	61 Avg FPS, 32 1% Low FPS
Asus ROG Xbox Ally X	48 Avg FPS, 15 1% Low FPS
MSI Claw 8 AI+	48 Avg FPS, 11 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion Go S	36 Avg FPS, 3 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM

41

15

Asus ROG Xbox Ally X

27

15

MSI Claw 8 AI+

25

17

Lenovo Legion Go S

14

8

Metro Exodus Enhanced (1080p High) Data

Product	Value
MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM	41 Avg FPS, 15 1% Low FPS
Asus ROG Xbox Ally X	27 Avg FPS, 15 1% Low FPS
MSI Claw 8 AI+	25 Avg FPS, 17 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion Go S	14 Avg FPS, 8 1% Low FPS

The Arc G3 Extreme chip in the Claw 8 EX AI+ shows how dominant it is over AMD's best handheld chip, and the last generation Intel iGPU in the previous MSI Claw 8 device.

1080p upscaling performance

Black Myth Wukong | Upscaling (1080p Medium)Cyberpunk 2077 | Upscaling (1080p Medium)F1 24 | Upscaling (1080p Medium)Horizon Zero Dawn | Upscaling (1080p Original)

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM

50

28

Asus ROG Xbox Ally X

39

30

MSI Claw 8 AI+

33

25

Lenovo Legion Go S

22

18

Black Myth Wukong | Upscaling (1080p Medium) Data

Product	Value
MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM	50 Avg FPS, 28 1% Low FPS
Asus ROG Xbox Ally X	39 Avg FPS, 30 1% Low FPS
MSI Claw 8 AI+	33 Avg FPS, 25 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion Go S	22 Avg FPS, 18 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM

73

50

Asus ROG Xbox Ally X

53

44

MSI Claw 8 AI+

48

40

Lenovo Legion Go S

29

25

Cyberpunk 2077 | Upscaling (1080p Medium) Data

Product	Value
MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM	73 Avg FPS, 50 1% Low FPS
Asus ROG Xbox Ally X	53 Avg FPS, 44 1% Low FPS
MSI Claw 8 AI+	48 Avg FPS, 40 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion Go S	29 Avg FPS, 25 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM

124

88

Asus ROG Xbox Ally X

97

88

MSI Claw 8 AI+

85

75

Lenovo Legion Go S

57

21

F1 24 | Upscaling (1080p Medium) Data

Product	Value
MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM	124 Avg FPS, 88 1% Low FPS
Asus ROG Xbox Ally X	97 Avg FPS, 88 1% Low FPS
MSI Claw 8 AI+	85 Avg FPS, 75 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion Go S	57 Avg FPS, 21 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM

66

51

Asus ROG Xbox Ally X

70

18

MSI Claw 8 AI+

54

23

Lenovo Legion Go S

51

8

Horizon Zero Dawn | Upscaling (1080p Original) Data

Product	Value
MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM	66 Avg FPS, 51 1% Low FPS
Asus ROG Xbox Ally X	70 Avg FPS, 18 1% Low FPS
MSI Claw 8 AI+	54 Avg FPS, 23 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion Go S	51 Avg FPS, 8 1% Low FPS

The Arc G3 Extreme chip in the Claw 8 EX AI+ shows how dominant it is over AMD's best handheld chip, and the last generation Intel iGPU in the previous MSI Claw 8 device.

Synthetic performance

3DMark Time Spy3DMark StorageFFXIV Shadowbringers

Index score

GPU index score

CPU index score

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM

6499

6091

10487

Asus ROG Xbox Ally X

4033

3663

9462

MSI Claw 8 AI+

4460

4125

8266

Lenovo Legion Go S

2244

2072

4246

3DMark Time Spy Data

Product	Value
MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM	6499 Index score, 6091 GPU index score, 10487 CPU index score
Asus ROG Xbox Ally X	4033 Index score, 3663 GPU index score, 9462 CPU index score
MSI Claw 8 AI+	4460 Index score, 4125 GPU index score, 8266 CPU index score
Lenovo Legion Go S	2244 Index score, 2072 GPU index score, 4246 CPU index score

Index score

Avg bandwidth (MB/s)

Access time (ųs)

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM

2152

366.66

83

Asus ROG Xbox Ally X

1163

199.98

155

MSI Claw 8 AI+

1889

323.51

95

Lenovo Legion Go S

1582

272.24

114

3DMark Storage Data

Product	Value
MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM	2152 Index score, 366.66 Avg bandwidth (MB/s), 83 Access time (ųs)
Asus ROG Xbox Ally X	1163 Index score, 199.98 Avg bandwidth (MB/s), 155 Access time (ųs)
MSI Claw 8 AI+	1889 Index score, 323.51 Avg bandwidth (MB/s), 95 Access time (ųs)
Lenovo Legion Go S	1582 Index score, 272.24 Avg bandwidth (MB/s), 114 Access time (ųs)

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM

10.952

Asus ROG Xbox Ally X

18.91

MSI Claw 8 AI+

15.15

Lenovo Legion Go S

20.56

FFXIV Shadowbringers Data

Product	Value
MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM	10.952
Asus ROG Xbox Ally X	18.91
MSI Claw 8 AI+	15.15
Lenovo Legion Go S	20.56

The Arc G3 Extreme chip in the Claw 8 EX AI+ shows how dominant it is over AMD's best handheld chip, and the last generation Intel iGPU in the previous MSI Claw 8 device.

As soon as you start twiddling the upscaling knobs you're getting to never less than fully playable on all the games in our tests. And that's without even going down the frame generation route. If you find a game, such as Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, which has Intel's own XeSS FG baked into it, you are laughing. It pairs so well with the Arc G3 Extreme chip that Intel believes it should become a vital part of your gaming experience, and I have to agree.

From spending time playing Batman on the device, with multi frame gen enabled, it really does make a huge difference to the smoothness of the game, without hugely impacting the input latency. It's one of those times where I completely forgot what I was testing because all of the tech and frame gen faded into the background as I just spent time playing a great PC game without thinking about anything else.

Thankfully, that's how Intel is talking about frame gen with regards to the G3 Extreme series. It's all about making the experience smoother, not necessarily about winning people over with explicitly higher measured frame rates. That is what frame generation is good for: smoothing out gaming performance, not for giving you a veneer of higher performance.

Previous

1 / 2

Next

Endurance mode performance

Black Myth Wukong | Upscaling (1080p Medium)Cyberpunk 2077 | Upscaling (1080p Medium)F1 24 | Upscaling (1080p Medium)Horizon Zero Dawn | Upscaling (1080p Original)Metro Exodus Enhanced (1080p High)

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM (Endurance mode)

37

29

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM (Default)

50

28

Asus ROG Xbox Ally X (Default)

39

30

Black Myth Wukong | Upscaling (1080p Medium) Data

Product	Value
MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM (Endurance mode)	37 Avg FPS, 29 1% Low FPS
MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM (Default)	50 Avg FPS, 28 1% Low FPS
Asus ROG Xbox Ally X (Default)	39 Avg FPS, 30 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM (Endurance mode)

51

32

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM (Default)

73

50

Asus ROG Xbox Ally X (Default)

53

44

Cyberpunk 2077 | Upscaling (1080p Medium) Data

Product	Value
MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM (Endurance mode)	51 Avg FPS, 32 1% Low FPS
MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM (Default)	73 Avg FPS, 50 1% Low FPS
Asus ROG Xbox Ally X (Default)	53 Avg FPS, 44 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM (Endurance mode)

87

59

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM (Default)

124

88

Asus ROG Xbox Ally X (Default)

97

88

F1 24 | Upscaling (1080p Medium) Data

Product	Value
MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM (Endurance mode)	87 Avg FPS, 59 1% Low FPS
MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM (Default)	124 Avg FPS, 88 1% Low FPS
Asus ROG Xbox Ally X (Default)	97 Avg FPS, 88 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM (Endurance mode)

47

36

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM (Default)

66

51

Asus ROG Xbox Ally X (Default)

70

18

Horizon Zero Dawn | Upscaling (1080p Original) Data

Product	Value
MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM (Endurance mode)	47 Avg FPS, 36 1% Low FPS
MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM (Default)	66 Avg FPS, 51 1% Low FPS
Asus ROG Xbox Ally X (Default)	70 Avg FPS, 18 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM (Endurance mode)

20

15

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM (Default)

41

15

Asus ROG Xbox Ally X (Default)

27

15

Metro Exodus Enhanced (1080p High) Data

Product	Value
MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM (Endurance mode)	20 Avg FPS, 15 1% Low FPS
MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM (Default)	41 Avg FPS, 15 1% Low FPS
Asus ROG Xbox Ally X (Default)	27 Avg FPS, 15 1% Low FPS

With the MSI Claw running in its Endurance mode you are getting impressively close to the full performance of the AMD Z2 Extreme chip in Xbox Ally X.

Battery life

PCMark 10 | Battery life (gaming test)

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM (Endurance mode)

308

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM (Default)

153

Asus ROG Xbox Ally X (Default)

125

MSI Claw 8 AI+ (Default)

129

Lenovo Legion Go S (Default)

126

0100200300400

Battery life (minutes)

PCMark 10 | Battery life (gaming test) Data

Product	Value
MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM (Endurance mode)	308
MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM (Default)	153
Asus ROG Xbox Ally X (Default)	125
MSI Claw 8 AI+ (Default)	129
Lenovo Legion Go S (Default)	126

With Endurance mode you are literally doubling the battery life of the MSI Claw compared with its already impressive standard showing.

But one of the things that really stands out to me is the efficiency of the new Intel silicon when it comes to Endurance mode. When you enable Endurance in the MSI quick settings it turns on efficiency mode, which theoretically locks the frame rate to 30, 40, or 60 fps. Well, I'm not entirely sure about that, given the variety in average fps I've measured in my benchmarking, but it certainly pulls down the peak PL2 performance down to a maximum of 20 W, with PL1 stuck at 15 W.

This effectively doubles the battery life of the device, but delivers gaming performance that, to all practical purposes, feels about the same as you would get from running the Xbox Ally X at its top settings. There are times where the full power of the Z2 Extreme does edge out the 15 - 20 W performance of the MSI Claw, but those aren't all that common.

This performance and efficiency one-two punch is a hell of a double-whammy.

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ value

Value? In the current handheld gaming market, surely you jest? This is where all my positivity about the new Intel Arc G3 series architecture and MSI's re-design of the Claw evaporates up against the molten heat of the memory crisis, because there is no getting away from the fact that we're talking about a gaming handheld that costs $1,800.

As soon as the AI/datacentre market started hoovering up all available DRAM and subsequently NAND memory the writing was on the wall for consumer technology. The laws of supply and demand meant prices were only going to spiral upwards and this has arguably hit the MSI Claw harder than many others.

That's because Panther Lake and the Arc G3 series chips' performance targets were designed around the bandwidth of high-performance LPDDR5X memory. Intel reportedly mandated at least LPDDR5X-7467 for a system to be classed as having either the top B370 or B390 iGPUs, otherwise they would just be noted as 'Intel Graphics'. The G3 Extreme here sits alongside 32 GB of LPDDR5X-8533, which costs a pretty penny and is likely a big reason for the high price of the device itself.

I spoke to Intel's Tom Petersen at Computex earlier this year specifically about whether we'd see any machines using the non-Extreme version of the two G3 chips the company announced, and he was sceptical precisely because of this.

"I don't know the answer to that one," he says. "It's a great question. I think we're in a weird time with the whole DRAM thing going on right now, where the pricing difference between the two chips is small, and small relative to what's going on with DRAM.

"So, if you're going to spend the money on DRAM, why not just get the best one? I think there's some of that going on. As DRAM prices come down and the market starts normalising a little bit, then the differentiation of price that you can get by picking different SKUs will be a more important differentiator than the end user. That's my guess."

Which kinda sucks. The memory just costs far more than the difference between the two G3 processors, making that saving largely irrelevant for anyone looking to try and create a cheaper option.

You only have to look at the Acer Predator Atlas 8, which is also using the G3 series of chips and is releasing a straight Arc G3 version. But that's looking to be priced around $1,500 despite using the cheaper chip. The equivalent Atlas 8 compared to the MSI Claw 8 etc. is running to over $2,000. However you cut it, the mix of CPU and memory silicon is expensive.

So, the price is understandable then, but that doesn't change the fact that at this level it's impossible to recommend the Claw 8 etc. to anyone who makes their purchases with any form of value judgement in mind. If you're just after the best/fastest, and hang the expense, all power to you, but for the rest of us there's little by way of a value proposition here.

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ sound

When it comes to the actual sound reproduction of the speakers in the MSI Claw EX AI+ they're fine. Nothing more, nothing less. Arguably there's not a whole lot you can do with the sort of space you have to jam a set of speakers into, but they still do an admirable job anyway. Though I will say that I'd still advise you to use a set of earbuds or headphones with the device for the best aural experience.

But the other side of this equation is the sound the device's cooling makes when you're pushing the silicon to its limits. And in that I'm far more impressed.

It's not that the device is silent under load—you will still hear those fans when they're really blowing—but the tone is as unobtrusive as they get and the work MSI has done to improve the cooling array of the latest MSI Claw has really paid off. If you're rocking Endurance mode and playing some relatively lightweight games you will barely hear the whoosh of air carrying off the heat from the silicon.

And even if you are hammering the G3 Extreme, I never felt the same sort of loathing I get from a really egregious gaming laptop's turbine roar under gaming loads.

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ thermals

This is an Intel CPU, so when we really put it under sustained load, such as with a ten minute Cinebench 2024 run, then yes, we're going to be hitting high temperatures. But it's also no different to the sorts of temperatures you'll see from AMD's own handheld chips when put under the same processing pressure.

There's a solitary degree in it, which could easily be passed off as variance in testing, but the Arc G3 Extreme in the MSI Claw measured 97 °C as its maximum temperature, while the Ryzen Z2 Extreme in the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X hits 96 °C.

Cooling

Thermal performance

Max CPU temp (°C)

Max CPU package power (W)

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM

97

37

Asus ROG Xbox Ally X

96

55

Lenovo Legion Go S

99.2

38

Thermal performance Data

Product	Value
MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM	97 Max CPU temp (°C), 37 Max CPU package power (W)
Asus ROG Xbox Ally X	96 Max CPU temp (°C), 55 Max CPU package power (W)
Lenovo Legion Go S	99.2 Max CPU temp (°C), 38 Max CPU package power (W)

The thermal performance of the MSI Claw is impressive, however the Xbox Ally X is doing more work with higher power draw.

But at no point do either of these handhelds ever get to the point where they are too hot to touch. The cooling design vents the hot air out of the top of the MSI Claw, while drawing it in from twin fans oriented to pull in from the rear of the device. This means you're never hit by the hot air when you're using it in a normal way, with the screen out in front of you.

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ software

We're still talking about a Windows-based handheld, and even with the Xbox Mode operating to full effect, the MSI Claw remains a device that feels like it's got a bunch of software snakes writhing around under the surface all fighting to control what happens in there. The simple, unified nature of SteamOS is what has drawn people to Valve's Linux-based operating system, and why a bunch of other Linux distributions have co-opted it as the front-end for their own handheld versions.

But Windows is still very much a desktop OS, and one that still has some roots in the aging operating systems of its past that it cannot escape. There are still Windows 2000-era menu systems lurking inside Windows 11 if you look not very hard at all. And even with the Xbox mode layer cleaning things up for handhelds it's still not entirely unified.

Yes, you can have Steam boot into Big Picture mode, but I found Xbox mode seemed to block that from loading immediately after booting. So you're still going to boot into either MSI's own game and system launcher or the Xbox app. Either way is clunky and requires you to jump through a few more hoops, click a few more buttons, to get to the game you want.

Then there's the overlay. Pressing the menu button on the Claw brings up what's essentially the Gamebar menu as an overlay, just like with the Xbox Ally X. Except here, after maybe a one second delay, it will jarringly flick you over to the MSI quick menu. I will say this is probably where you want to land when you hit that button, as it gives you all the necessary control over performance, controls, and recording, but it's not a slick experience.

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ battery life

If gaming performance is the attention grabbing metric for most PC gamers when it comes to handheld PCs, battery life is the one that will have the biggest impact on your overall experience with the device when you get it in your hands.

I was already impressed with the MSI Claw EX AI+ CG3EM when I first ran my battery life benchmarks on its default, AI Engine power mode. This gets you running up to 37 W and I am getting another half an hour of solid gaming time over and above the Xbox Ally X, and that's all while performing at a much higher level.

But the joy for me of the new Arc G3 Extreme chip is its performance when you're not throwing that much power down its throat. Switch on Endurance mode in the MSI quick menu, which puts you in the Efficiency preset in the Intel Graphics Software app, and my measured battery life literally doubles.

Battery life

PCMark 10 | Battery life (gaming test)

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM (Endurance mode)

308

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM (Default)

153

Asus ROG Xbox Ally X (Default)

125

MSI Claw 8 AI+ (Default)

129

Lenovo Legion Go S (Default)

126

Asus ROG Ally X (Default)

128

OneXPlayer OneXFly F1 Pro (Default)

82

0100200300400

Battery life (minutes)

PCMark 10 | Battery life (gaming test) Data

Product	Value
MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM (Endurance mode)	308
MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM (Default)	153
Asus ROG Xbox Ally X (Default)	125
MSI Claw 8 AI+ (Default)	129
Lenovo Legion Go S (Default)	126
Asus ROG Ally X (Default)	128
OneXPlayer OneXFly F1 Pro (Default)	82

We use PCMark's Gaming battery life test, which loops through older 3DMark tests, continually hammering the battery until it gives out and the system goes into shutdown. And with Endurance mode enabled I've seen the Claw go from two and a half hours in that test to over five hours. And, remember, that will give you essentially the same actual gaming performance as the ROG Xbox Ally X across most games I've tested.

Now, that doesn't mean battery life is a solved issue, but this is you playing games without worrying about what that little percentage indicator in the top right of your screen says. And if you're playing something like Olli Olli World or Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders, you can expect to bat well above that five hours average, too.

In fact, Intel actually measured the battery life of the Claw with the classic Team Fortress 2 running on it, and managed to get a healthy 11 hours of game time out of it. Actually, nearer 12. That's more than enough TF2 for anyone.

Ayaneo said it was suspending pre-orders for its Next 2 gaming handheld earlier this year after rising storage costs and the ongoing memory crisis made it "no longer sustainable." Well, it's now listed on Ayaneo's website—with an asking price for the top model of $5,299.

I'll wait for you to pick up your jaw. Back with us? Good. The top-end Ayaneo Next 2 comes with an AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 APU, which is a Strix Halo beastie that's damn expensive no matter the device you find it in.

Storage wise, you get a 2 TB SSD. Sheesh, I know NAND prices are silly right now, but surely a single NVMe drive can't be entirely to blame. As for the RAM? Well it's... oh. Oh I see. The top spec model comes with, brace yourselves, 128 GB of LPDDR5x-8533.

Yep, that would account for the super-silly price tag. I know the the Next 2 is positioning itself to be the handheld to end all handhelds, but 128 GB of RAM? For what, exactly?

It's a Windows-based machine, so I suppose you could get up to some AI-based tomfoolery with it. Other than that, though, I cannot see a world where a 128 GB gaming handheld makes any sense.

Of course, there are cheaper models available. The 64 GB version will run you *gulp* $3,699, whereas the entry level model (and I use the term very loosely) with 32 GB of RAM and 1 TB of storage is a mere $2,999, with shipping said to begin at the end of this month.

No matter which way you look at it, each of these prices is simply too much to pay for most mere mortals. And those with the cash to splash will still likely wince a little at this pricing.

Remember when I said the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X was kinda good value now at $1,000? Yep, that's the world we're living in in 2026, folks. And unfortunately, it's probably only going to get worse from here.

As the AI boom gobbles up graphics cards, SSDs, memory sticks, and more, building a gaming PC has become eye-wateringly expensive (and it's never exactly been cheap). If, like me, you've been holding out in the hope those prices will drop to more sensible levels soon, I'm sorry to say that's looking unlikely.

Earlier this month, research showed that memory prices are predicted to rise sharply between now and 2027, with no reductions expected until 2028. Now, Valve has shared its own view of the hardware market, and it's equally glum. Speaking to Bloomberg's Jason Schreier about the company's long road to the Steam Machine, Valve engineer Yazan Aldehayyat said the company only sees prices going up in the short to medium term:

"Honestly, it's still getting worse," Aldehayyat explained. "Just in case people are not aware. What people are seeing on retail shelves right now, from our observations, is lagging what we're seeing from a bulk supply by at least three to six months."

Oof. Valve also provided some insight into how the memory crises affected the Steam Machine's launch. Unsurprisingly, initial supply of the Steam Machine was impacted by memory availability. "We're basically building everything we can," fellow engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais explained. "We're limited by memory capacity, for sure."

Valve didn't go into detail about how many Steam Machines have been produced or sold up to this point. But according to Bloomberg, Valve does not view the success of the device in terms of raw sales figures. Rather, it's about providing players with a viable option for open-source PC gaming in their living rooms.

"We suspect that the Steam Machine is a really good way to solve a very real problem that people have," Aldehayyat said. "If that's borne out to be true, from our opinion, it's a success."

In addition, Griffais said the memory crisis hasn't altered Valve's plans for the future of the device. "Users are getting their machines," he said. "For a lot of the experience, the work starts. We'll be doing that for years to come."

The memory crisis wasn't the only subject Valve addressed during the chat. The company also discussed why it opted against launching an exclusive game for the Steam Machine. I had vaguely hoped the launch of new Steam hardware might coincide with the reveal of a certain Half-Life sequel, but Valve said that it's much more interested in "having the whole PC catalog" as its "'launch exclusive'".

15 July, 2026: The original Steam Deck launched with an LCD screen back in 2022. Four years later, and Valve is apparently sunsetting replacement parts for this older model. A Redditor reached out to iFixIt to query the availability of a replacement battery for their LCD Steam Deck. Unfortunately, iFixIt responded that it was looking "less and less likely" that it would receive more OEM batteries for this model (via VideoCardz).

Another iFixIt representative chimed in on the comment thread under the Reddit post, writing, "To add clarity: it’s not that we’re choosing to not stock these anymore. Unfortunately, Valve is just starting to sunset these parts. We’re looking at alternatives!"

If the battery in your own LCD Steam Deck looks not long for this world, you're not completely out of luck as iFixIt said it was "actively evaluating aftermarket options." Currently, the company does not have a "confirmed timeline for when either OEM or aftermarket stock would be available" for the LCD model.

iFixIt already sells an aftermarket replacement battery for the Steam Deck OLED. Though this could physically fit inside the LCD Steam Deck shell, the OLED battery isn't really an option for a number of technical reasons.

You can no longer buy the more affordable LCD model of the Steam Deck directly from Valve, as these were quietly discontinued last year. That said, sunsetting replacement batteries four years post-release—you know, when a handheld gaming PC is likely to start to show its age with dwindling battery capacity—still doesn't feel fantastic. Such a truncated lifespan for OEM replacement batteries also seriously undermines the longevity of Valve's promises of repairability across its other hardware offerings.

iFixit Customer Support response for LCD Steam Deck batteries from r/SteamDeck

We have reached out to Valve for an official comment, and will update if we hear anything concrete.

So, what can you do? Besides re-visiting Valve's own Steam Deck teardown or reading iFixIt's handy-dandy battery replacement guide in anticipation of aftermarket stock, I would also advise treating your Steam Deck better than I've been treating mine recently.

Admittedly, I've been feeling pretty dour about the whole handheld gaming PC thing lately, but I do still love having the option to take big games on the go. What I love a lot less is just how chunky modern handhelds have to be in order to contain and cool all of their internal hardware. Perhaps I'm just yelling at clouds but if you ask me, the Switch Lite and the PlayStation Portable had the right idea when it came to a portable form factor.

Well, an enterprising modder has apparently heard my cloud-yelling. Developer Yifeng Wang has created OpenStrike, a Counter-Strike clone that apparently enjoys a tiny 12 MB RAM footprint and runs at 60 FPS on Sony's 22-year-old PSP handheld (via Tom's Hardware).

Though described as only being a proof-of-concept, the developer still went incredibly hard on this project; Wang built his own Rust-based 3D engine called Pocket3D, plus a JavaScript engine called PocketJS. We're still a ways off from seeing the OG's buying stages find their way into OpenStrike, but all eight of Counter-Strike's original maps have been tested, and you can try your hand at elimination matches against bots in the current build.

If you're interested in noodling with this project yourself, either on your own original hardware or via an emulator, you can check out the GitHub Distro here. However, you'll need to supply your own copy of the Counter-Strike asset data.

OpenStrike makes the most of some fascinating technical limitations. For instance, the original PlayStation Portable features a teeny-weeny 4.3-inch display with a 480 x 272 resolution. OpenStrike runs at this native resolution at 60 fps thanks to some very neat technical know-how.

For one thing, non-visible areas of the map are still culled via Binary Space Partitioning, rather than a more modern, and potentially hardware intensive, algorithmic solution. For another, graphical assets are pre-processed, baking lightmaps into vertex colors rather than relying on any realtime or on-startup calculation shenanigans. So, no, this is not the most dynamic or shiny these maps have ever looked but it gives the decades old hardware room to catch its breath.

OpenStrike also works on 2011's PS Vita handheld console with native graphics. This slightly more sprightly hardware enjoys a display that is a whole 5-inches big, offering a resolution of 960 x 544. Okay, I admit it—I'll happily take the Steam Deck's 7.4-inch OLED display with its 1280 x 800 resolution over that dinky little canvas. If you're less keen on the whole Sony hardware dimension, you could alternatively take a look at Counter-Strike 1.6 right here in your browser.

Games on Steam have already been enjoying the various shades of the Steam Deck Compatibility check mark for some time now. Well, now you can check a title's compatibility on both the Steam Machine and SteamOS right there on its store page.

A few beats after the Steam Machine's June release, you can now check whether Valve's funky game box is up to the task of playing the depths of your backlog at a glance. On Steam, just click 'learn more' next to the Steam Deck compatibility rating for a brief breakdown of what works and what doesn't across Valve's various hardware and software platforms.

However, not all games enjoy a full Steam Machine compatibility rating; as spotted by Ars Technica, Black Myth: Wukong's compatibility is still listed as unknown, accompanied by a message that says "Valve is still learning" about the 2024 game, and that it doesn't "currently have further information regarding Steam Machine compatibility." In the case of Wukong, this could be because the game is too GPU and/or CPU intensive, causing the title to fail to reach a minimum threshold of, say, FPS while in-play on Valve's game box.

Otherwise, the game is listed as running "successfully on SteamOS". That means you're not limited to the Steam Machine's hardware specs (or indeed its disappointing price point or availability). You could instead opt to enjoy Wukong plus all the benefits of SteamOS on hardier hardware from someone other than Valve, such as the Lenovo Legion Go S.

Swapping to SteamOS on your home machine, for example, can come with its own share of drawbacks, however. For just one thing, Valve's Linux-based OS is known to often not play well with the kernel-level anti-cheat systems you'll increasingly find in competitive games nowadays.

Anyway, Valve is apparently "still learning" about a number of games when it comes to Steam Machine compatibility, including but not limited to Dragon’s Dogma 2, Elden Ring Nightreign, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, and Resident Evil Requiem. That said, a number of games that are just about 'Playable' on Valve's handheld—such as 007: First Light—make the most of the Steam Machine's more powerful hardware and get bumped up to 'Verified'.

Personally, I've been jumping between much less graphically demanding titles. Level-based diorama builder Shanty Town enjoys 'Verified' status on both Steam Deck and Steam Machine, plus SteamOS compatibility. My other favourite this month has been Magical Princess (I feel like the title says it all), which instead enjoys the caveat-laden rating of 'Playable' on both the Steam Deck as well as the Steam Machine due to some text input and button glyph display shenanigans.

For now, you can't filter store results via Steam Machine or SteamOS compatibility, though that feature will likely soon follow. After all, the Great on Frame category was recently introduced, likely heralding the Steam Frame's imminent release. When that VR headset drops, we'll potentially see a similar compatibility category arrive too.

The idea of taking serious hardware horsepower on the go was always the dream of my misspent, console-gaming youth. Don't get me wrong, I've always loved how older handheld systems made a calling card out of their limitations (and in the case of Nintendo, offered a hardware gimmick or gaming experience you couldn't find anywhere else). The fact that now you can play many of the same games on a portable device that you can also play in your gamer den would've blown my younger self's mind.

Unfortunately, the dream-come-true of handheld gaming PCs feels like it is coming to an end.

Our Andy updates our handheld gaming PC deals each week and recently shared a shocking revelation: 'Somehow, the $1,000 Asus ROG Ally Xbox X is the best value gaming handheld I can think of right now.' If you've got the cash then, sure, the Asus ROG Ally Xbox X with its AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme chip, 24 GB of RAM, and 1 TB of onboard SSD storage makes sense for the asking price. But where does that leave you if you're on a much tighter budget?

The memory supply crisis has raised the pricing floor of all handhelds. Case in point, the device that we still rate as the best budget handheld gaming PC is the Steam Deck. The more affordable LCD models were quietly discontinued last year, leaving those looking to buy a Steam Deck new with only the very shiny OLED models to choose from. Years after release, the price for the base 512 GB OLED model has increased from $549 to $789. The 1 TB model has seen an almost 50% price increase, jumping from $649 to $949. The answer, then, to where that leaves the more budget-conscious? Without a paddle.

Despite this price hike (and the handheld's aged internals), both models of the Steam Deck sold out in North America shortly after the increase was announced back in May. The 1 TB model, which is going for £779 where I'm based in the UK, appears to be out of stock again at the time of writing. But I doubt this is a sustainable trend.

Let's zoom out a smidge. I update our best SSD deals every week, so I've not had the luxury of ignoring how storage prices have been climbing since the tail end of last year. Research suggests that memory prices are likely to rise as much as 50% in Q3 alone. Recent analysis by Bernstein suggests prices won't dip until 2028, when major manufacturers are expected to complete a number of capacity-increasing builds.

But here and now in 2026, it's not just gaming PC components that have seen price increases as a result of the memory supply crisis. For example, the Playstation 5 has seen three different price increases over the last six years and now costs a minimum of $650. I've written about it before but, despite buying a launch day PS5, it's becoming increasingly unlikely I'll pick up a PS6 day one. After all, if the PS5 Pro costs $900 today, how much more will the PS6 cost?

Hey, maybe Bernstein's predictions will bear out and hardware pricing will look a lot more sensible by the time Sony's next-gen console drops in 2028 or even 2029. But in the here and now, handheld gaming PCs remain in an arguably much more difficult position within the consumer market.

For those who don't already have a gaming PC, there's little doubt that a $650 base PS5 is going to look like the more economical option (particularly as Sony won't be bringing its handful of exclusives to PC in future, but maybe it's just me mourning the loss of, like, four games). If you already own a gaming PC, you'll likely want to save your pennies for increasingly expensive component upgrades. Where would a handheld feature in either budget?

The data suggests gamers generally are still willing to part with the cash for new hardware—though they aren't necessarily picking up a handheld gaming PC. A recent Circana report shared that the handheld of choice was overwhelmingly the Nintendo Switch 2, with the hybrid console largely credited for a year-over-year hardware spending increase that grew by 69%, climbing to $500 million this past March.

The Switch 2 saw its own price increase announced back in May, so it's worth pondering how much of this recent consumer clamour was motivated by a desire to scoop the console before it became more expensive. Even so, Nintendo's handheld is set to cost $500 from September 1 in the US.

There are plenty of PC gamers who have no interest in what the big N is doing these days, but a broad-view of today's gaming audience suggests a lot of gamers are more platform-agnostic. For instance, a 2023 Comscore report found 76% of gamers play across multiple platforms. Therefore, it's hard to ignore handheld gaming PC's most obvious competitor, even if the Switch 2 is underpowered compared to many of the available portable gaming options.

In short, the most performant handheld gaming PCs ask a price that's far too rich for my blood, and the best budget option is arguably not quite as compelling as Nintendo's offering (even after the price hike comes into effect later this year).

To paraphrase Andy's point, there's a chance gaming handhelds eventually revert to occupying a boutique niche for gamers with especially deep pockets. That's how they were in the before times prior to the Steam Deck's launch, with smaller Chinese outfits, such as OneXPlayer, releasing expensive, weak, poorly optimised devices. That's not really the future I want for handheld gaming PCs, but it's a strong possibility. However, given the state of, well, everything, I find myself taking a bleaker outlook.

In the longer term, it doesn't feel like handheld gaming PCs are the most economical proposition for brands or manufacturers either. For example, back in March Ayaneo suspended pre-orders for its uber-powerful Next 2 gaming handheld after costs approached 'twice the price we originally set'. To be clear, I strongly doubt Valve is going to pack it in with the Steam Deck any time soon. However, smaller companies with a much less diverse portfolio than, say, the company behind one of the largest storefronts for digital games, are likely to struggle.

What seems certain is that prices will continue to rise and meaningful chunks of the devices' audience will be priced out. My concern is that the maths may simply no longer math, and hardware companies will increasingly decide that handheld gaming PCs specifically just aren't worth it. For my wide-eyed younger self, I hope I'm wrong.

When Qualcomm released its first batch of ARM-based Snapdragon X processors two years ago, they worked well enough, but failed to set the PC gaming world on fire. It's not really what they were meant for, and if decades of buying computer parts have taught me one thing, it's never to buy into the first generation of a new product. I still do it, of course, as the Oculus Rift sitting unloved in its box shows, but I'm always left with the feeling that I should know better.

The main downside of the OG Snapdragon, once software compatibility issues were smoothed out, was its GPU. The Adreno cores buried somewhere in the chipset felt underpowered for anything heavier than Stardew Valley, and while DirectX and Vulcan compatibility was high, and driver updates refined the process, some games just didn't work.

With the release of the Snapdragon X2, a few things have changed. The main one is that the CPU package now comes with a lot more processing cores—18 on the Elite Extreme model we've got here—but the GPU is also a lot better. It's now putting out the sort of benchmark results you'd expect from Intel iGPUs, and in some tests can even produce better results than Panther Lake.

The ASUS ZenBook A16 we're looking at here is one of the first Snapdragon X2 laptops on the market. It boasts the Elite Extreme version of the chip, a name that makes you wonder where they're going to go next if they release an even better one. Elite Extreme Pro Max Gold Caviar Truffle Edition, perhaps. This one has 18 cores, and according to CPU-Z 12 of those are Performance cores running at 4.4 GHz, with the other six being Efficient cores running at 3.6 GHz. That's a lot of cores, and with ARM chips' ability to produce exceptional single-core performance (as shown by Apple's M5 last year) I had high hopes for this one.

And I was right. The X2 doesn't hit the same Geekbench 6 heights as the M5, but it's close, and beats the desktop Core Ultra 7 265KF and mighty Ryzen 9 9955HX in the single-core test. It beats those chips in the Geekbench multi-core test too, along with the Core Ultra 9 275HX from the Alienware 16 Area 51, and roughly the same as the 14-core M4 Pro in a 16in MacBook Pro.

The elephant in the room here is Panther Lake, which is going to be appearing in new laptops at the same time as the X2. And in Geekbench, the X2 and Core X9 388H both score over 3,000 points in the single-core test, with the X2 marginally in front, but in multi-core the gap widens, probably because the Intel chip only has four of the full-fat performance cores and 16 in total. It scores 17,924. The X2: 22,785. That's a difference of almost 24%.

Moving over to the Cinebench single-core CPU rendering test, which has been known to bring laptops to their knees and in which 100 is a respectable score, the X2 scores 151. A laptop running the X9 388H scores 130 in this test, and the multi-core rendering workout goes the same way, with the X2's 1391 beating the Panther Lake chip's 1173.

All this is assuming, of course, that the same tests applied to different CPU architectures can be directly compared. Geekbench has been designed for this, though as more of a tool for plotting broad relationships rather than a perfect one-to-one comparison between PCs.

All that single-core performance makes the ZenBook A16 very responsive, and if Microsoft's new Low Latency Profile makes its way to Windows on ARM it should make things even better. The fact that Asus has paired Qualcomm's X2 with 48 GB of fast RAM certainly helps too.

Things are looking quite good for the ARM chip until you remember it still uses an integrated Adreno GPU, and we have yet to see one that's paired with a discrete graphics chip. Still, it's not bad for an iGPU, supporting DX12 Ultimate and Vulkan 1.4, and putting out enough frames to play games in 1080p as long as you don't mind medium to low settings. Cyberpunk 2077 looks surprisingly good on medium, and while there are some shimmering textures in Blackmyth: Wukong, it doesn't struggle too badly as long as you remember to switch FSR upscaling on. Older titles such as Horizon: Zero Dawn look like what they are: PS4 games (albeit ones running at nearly 60 fps in this case, rather than the locked 30 fps of the console version). But it's great to see the Adreno is capable enough to play them as they were originally meant to be seen.

There are still some issues with the occasional game—F1 2024, for example (and this might be a different story with a more up to date release), putting up a notice that it's not compatible with ARM processors. This could also be because it's a fairly new processor at the time of writing, and a few software patches and driver updates will sort it right out.

On the outside, this is an unassuming laptop, though as a 16-incher it has a presence that you just don't find in smaller models. It's a kind of beigy grey, which isn't utterly unpleasant but certainly stands out from all the black and silver casings out there, and is made from Asus' Ceraluminum material that's some sort of unholy amalgam of aluminium and ceramics. It has a matte feel, and makes the A16 extremely light, but it's also stiff enough to handle by the corner without the trackpad becoming non-functional.

That trackpad is a big one, too, smoother than the surrounding casing but the same colour, and a better experience than the keyboard, which doesn't have much travel and is the worst aspect of this particular package. The screen, however, might be one of the best. It's a 2.8k 16:10 OLED, not a touch-sensitive one, with a 120Hz refresh rate. It's sharp, bright (500 nits), colourful and all the things a laptop screen should be. Battery life is exceptional—at least it is if all you're doing is looping a video, at which it kept going for almost 17 hours. Make it work a bit harder and that's going to drop, and there's a fan to keep it cool when it's under load.

So once again, Qualcomm has released a capable chip with a bit of a weak GPU, though it's nowhere near as bad as last time. Asus has then put it into a laptop with an excellent screen, though it is a little bit expensive when you could pick up something with a low-end GeForce chip for less, and have a superior gaming experience.

I can't help thinking though, that if someone could teach the X2 to talk to an RTX card, even as an eGPU, then we could have something truly fearsome on our hands.

You saw it in the Steam Machine reveal, and now it's finally happening: E-Ink faceplates. The twist in this tale though is that Valve isn't the one making it.

Instead, that honour goes to Shenzhen-based peripherals and accessories brand Jsaux. If you want to be near the front of the queue for Color E-Ink, Mono E-Ink, or Color Dot Matrix faceplate, you can drop your email here.

Jsaux also shared a better look at all three designs via X. Beyond that, neither pricing information nor a release date has yet been announced (via The Verge).

Besides the plain black panel that comes standard with every Steam Machine, the 2 TB model also enjoys 'red fabric and solid walnut' faceplates. But despite showing off a bunch of funky options in the run-up to the Steam Machine's launch, Valve has said it doesn't currently have 'any specific plans' to make more.

Instead, Valve plans to release the CAD files for the Steam machine's housing so you can make your own. It has also already released the necessary files for its own internally developed 'inkterface'—though this may still not be the most beginner-friendly project (via Digital Foundry).

Despite Valve's pretty chill approach to DIY hardware customisation, that hasn't stopped some brands from getting ahead of themselves. For example, Dbrand touted a Companion Cube-inspired case for the Steam Machine that it ultimately had to cancel as the company never actually got Valve's permission to make it.

If the memory supply crisis would only ease up, and Valve were able to make its funky game box cheaper, I could be persuaded to have a go at making my own faceplate monstrosity. Now, where did I leave that ancient Decoden kit…?

Honestly, I want to like the Geekom A9 Max, I really do. From a pure design perspective, the hardware, the engineering behind it, the connectivity bundled into this thing, it's on another level. And it's just a bloody pretty thing at that, at least as far as Mini PCs go. You'd think it'd be a shoo-in for our best SFF PC list, without question. But there's a catch, because of course there is.

I may as well rip the band-aid off right now. It's the memory. I can already see the PR team squirming as they read that sentence, and it genuinely does pain me to say it, I promise. Geekom has decided to ship the A9 Max AI with a single stick of 32 GB DDR5 @ 5600 MT/s. And that is a decision that has effectively starved AMD's Radeon 890M of any modicum of the performance it can actually generate. I know this because I have extensively tested this hardware most recently, in Acemagic's Mini PC Retro X5, which, like-for-like, practically has the same spec, bar a smaller SSD, and a slightly older CPU.

The performance impact that this one tiny decision has had on the overall architecture is nuts, and combined with the wildly high price tag being what it is, it's by far the thing that's decimated that review score. If Geekom turned around tomorrow and popped 2x 16 GB sticks in this config instead of this single-channel nonsense, I can happily tell you right now, the score would bounce up by a good 15%, because in almost every other way, the A9 Max is excellent.

And, breathe. I'll get back to that in a minute. Still, for £1,600 in the UK or $1,800 US, it's generally not a bad offering (memory aside). You get that 32 GB RAM capacity, a 2TB Kingston PCIe 4.0 SSD (it's not the best), AMD's Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 CPU, A Radeon 890M iGPU, and a hell of a lot of connectivity.

The chip itself is relatively new on the scene, only really landing with us in January of this year. Though it's effectively a refreshed Strix Point (HX 370 series) chip, still built out of the same silicon architecture as its predecessor. You get those four Zen 5 cores, and eight Zen 5c cores for a fat 12/24 multi-threaded config, and it's all still built on the back of TSMC's 4 nm process as well. What's different? Well… clock speeds have been bumped ever so slightly up (with an extra 100 MHz on boost), oh, and the "biggest" update comes in the form of the NPU, which has seen its performance flick up to 86 TOPS versus its predecessor's 80 (huzzah, our AI datacenter worries are finally solved).

Connectivity is wild, too. There's so much here if you're looking for a lightweight workstation that's not brimming with a dedicated GPU and full-fat processor. There's no less than five USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A, two USB 4.0 Type-Cs, twin 2.5 Gbe, along with support for twin HDMI 2.1 ports, as well as the other bells and whistles you'd expect. No Thunderbolt, of course, but you do get WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4.

Alright, I'm going to give you some numbers now, and they're quite clearly bad. But, it's important that we all collectively have context on this before I act like a wailing harpie and impale this memory situation into the dirt with my shiny shiny words (honestly, it's a miracle I get paid for this).

So, we test our SFF PCs (with iGPUs) at 1080p on the medium graphical preset. For this little wee dissection, I'm going to be using that Acemagic X5 I mentioned earlier for comparison. It has the same Radeon GPU, the same memory speed, memory capacity, a better SSD (albeit smaller), and practically the same CPU for what it's worth (technically, the A9 Max has a better chip here). On average, across all our test titles, with and without upscaling, across five separate games, separate engines, separate developers, the A9 Max landed just 23.1 fps. The Retro X5, with its dual-channel memory, 47.6 fps.

Previous

1 / 3

Next

1080p gaming performance

Black Myth Wukong (1080p Medium)Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p Medium)F1 24 (1080p Medium)Horizon Zero Dawn (1080p Original)Metro Exodus Enhanced (1080p High)

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Geekom A9 Max

9

7

Acemagic Retro X5

20

16

Black Myth Wukong (1080p Medium) Data

Product	Value
Geekom A9 Max	9 Avg FPS, 7 1% Low FPS
Acemagic Retro X5	20 Avg FPS, 16 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Geekom A9 Max

22

15

Acemagic Retro X5

38

22

Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p Medium) Data

Product	Value
Geekom A9 Max	22 Avg FPS, 15 1% Low FPS
Acemagic Retro X5	38 Avg FPS, 22 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Geekom A9 Max

30

24

Acemagic Retro X5

73

59

F1 24 (1080p Medium) Data

Product	Value
Geekom A9 Max	30 Avg FPS, 24 1% Low FPS
Acemagic Retro X5	73 Avg FPS, 59 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Geekom A9 Max

23

13

Acemagic Retro X5

43

32

Horizon Zero Dawn (1080p Original) Data

Product	Value
Geekom A9 Max	23 Avg FPS, 13 1% Low FPS
Acemagic Retro X5	43 Avg FPS, 32 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Geekom A9 Max

14

5

Acemagic Retro X5

23

8

Metro Exodus Enhanced (1080p High) Data

Product	Value
Geekom A9 Max	14 Avg FPS, 5 1% Low FPS
Acemagic Retro X5	23 Avg FPS, 8 1% Low FPS

You can clearly see how a memory bandwidth starved iGPU is hobbled by having single channel memory here.

1080p upscaled gaming performance

Black Myth Wukong | Upscaling (1080p Medium)Cyberpunk 2077 | Upscaling (1080p Medium)F1 24 | Upscaling (1080p Medium)Horizon Zero Dawn | Upscaling (1080p Original)

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Geekom A9 Max

14

11

Acemagic Retro X5

30

22

Black Myth Wukong | Upscaling (1080p Medium) Data

Product	Value
Geekom A9 Max	14 Avg FPS, 11 1% Low FPS
Acemagic Retro X5	30 Avg FPS, 22 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Geekom A9 Max

30

20

Acemagic Retro X5

52

27

Cyberpunk 2077 | Upscaling (1080p Medium) Data

Product	Value
Geekom A9 Max	30 Avg FPS, 20 1% Low FPS
Acemagic Retro X5	52 Avg FPS, 27 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Geekom A9 Max

30

26

Acemagic Retro X5

86

75

F1 24 | Upscaling (1080p Medium) Data

Product	Value
Geekom A9 Max	30 Avg FPS, 26 1% Low FPS
Acemagic Retro X5	86 Avg FPS, 75 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Geekom A9 Max

36

21

Acemagic Retro X5

63

44

Horizon Zero Dawn | Upscaling (1080p Original) Data

Product	Value
Geekom A9 Max	36 Avg FPS, 21 1% Low FPS
Acemagic Retro X5	63 Avg FPS, 44 1% Low FPS

The performance gap between the system with dual-channel memory and the one with single-channel memory doesn't get any better with upscaling enabled.

Synthetic gaming performance

3DMark Time Spy3DMark StorageFFXIV Shadowbringers

Index score

GPU index score

CPU index score

Geekom A9 Max

2301

2035

8948

Acemagic Retro X5

3532

3153

11109

3DMark Time Spy Data

Product	Value
Geekom A9 Max	2301 Index score, 2035 GPU index score, 8948 CPU index score
Acemagic Retro X5	3532 Index score, 3153 GPU index score, 11109 CPU index score

Index score

Avg bandwidth (MB/s)

Access time (ųs)

Geekom A9 Max

1306

226.22

139

Acemagic Retro X5

2460

415.65

72

3DMark Storage Data

Product	Value
Geekom A9 Max	1306 Index score, 226.22 Avg bandwidth (MB/s), 139 Access time (ųs)
Acemagic Retro X5	2460 Index score, 415.65 Avg bandwidth (MB/s), 72 Access time (ųs)

Geekom A9 Max

38.96

Acemagic Retro X5

20.45

FFXIV Shadowbringers Data

Product	Value
Geekom A9 Max	38.96
Acemagic Retro X5	20.45

Contrary to what Geekom says, the synthetic performance difference is actually less than real-world in-game benchmarks.

It's not a limitation that sits solely with gaming, either. In 7-Zip, compression and decompression were markedly slower, multi-core performance in CineBench was down too, and the only times it did beat out the HX 370 was in single-threaded tasks, where memory bandwidth is less of a thing. Not exactly a riveting score sheet then. Even 3DMark's Storage benchmark came out significantly slower, which I can't believe even for a second is entirely down to the drive being just that much sloppier than the EXT X200E found in the X5 is.

Previous

1 / 2

Next

Synthetic CPU performance

Cinebench R247-zip

Single-core index score

Multi-core index score

Geekom A9 Max

119

1101

Acemagic Retro X5

107

1169

Cinebench R24 Data

Product	Value
Geekom A9 Max	119 Single-core index score, 1101 Multi-core index score
Acemagic Retro X5	107 Single-core index score, 1169 Multi-core index score

Compression (GIPS)

Decompression (GIPS)

Geekom A9 Max

98.88

130.12

Acemagic Retro X5

110.45

131.4

7-zip Data

Product	Value
Geekom A9 Max	98.88 Compression (GIPS), 130.12 Decompression (GIPS)
Acemagic Retro X5	110.45 Compression (GIPS), 131.4 Decompression (GIPS)

This is likely where Geekom's claims about limited performance difference ring true, as you can see both systems performing well.

Cooling performance

Thermal performance

Max CPU temp (°C)

Max CPU package power (W)

Geekom A9 Max

86

64.98

Acemagic Retro X5

85

69.98

Thermal performance Data

Product	Value
Geekom A9 Max	86 Max CPU temp (°C), 64.98 Max CPU package power (W)
Acemagic Retro X5	85 Max CPU temp (°C), 69.98 Max CPU package power (W)

This is likely where Geekom's claims about limited performance difference ring true, as you can see both systems performing well.

Just to be doubly sure, I re-ran the whole benchmark suite, and triple-checked GPU frequencies, temps and power draw throughout that process too, noting down average frequencies as well (not typically something we report on for these machines). The X5 maxed out at 2,764 MHz and 2,100 MHz on average, at 60 degrees and with 50 W on max draw. The A9, 3,100 MHz at max, 2,300 MHz on average, with a top temp of 63 degrees and 55 W of power usage. By all accounts, then, the GPU itself was running at full tilt, but was just starved of memory bandwidth.

Geekom knows about this, too. In fact, I was pre-briefed that this was a decision it had made in advance. The justification being that it provides end-users with the option to expand their memory solution later down the line with an additional stick of 32 GB. Which, yeah, okay, I don't necessarily disagree with.

Geekom also notes that, actually, the performance drops are only in synthetic benchmarks, and don't affect real-world performance. Which I do disagree with.

You can quite clearly see that this does massively impact real-world results. In fact, more so than in the synthetic tests, by my calculations. What's particularly frustrating about all this is that nowhere on the product pages (at least at time of writing) does it suggest that the A9 Max ships with a single stick. It's all "dual-channel compatible", "up to 128 GB", or "32 GB RAM", "High-speed memory".

It's a difficult thing to just accept, because the truth of it is the A9 Max is an outstanding piece of design. It's cool, quiet, and it's clear that the CPU in particular is seriously potent, particularly in localised AI applications if that's your jam. The sad reality is, we've already seen what this hardware can do; it just came in a beige box at half the price.

There's something almost endlessly endearing about the wee Steam Machine box. It's beautifully designed, beautifully small, and it's a gaming PC that you wouldn't mind sticking in/on whatever furniture your TV sits on. But it's also hard to buy, was manufactured in small numbers, and commands an incredibly high price for a PC with a weak last-gen GPU and single-channel memory.

But, bless 'em, Valve is still trying to carry on as though it's all fine. And to that end, it has now listed the Windows drivers for its Steam Machine so users can easily switch from the installed SteamOS software to Microsoft's more-pervasive operating system. The drivers are all listed on the support pages for Steam Hardware, sitting just underneath the options for the different Steam Deck SKUs.

In the interests of choice and customisation, that's great. Having the option to switch from Linux to a more widely supported OS means that all the games which are blocked from SteamOS (such as most online shooters) are now available to you if you commit the sin of an operating system switch.

Okay, that's maybe a little harsh, but it does feel like one of the boons of the Steam Machine is innate support for SteamOS—something that's still not all that widespread for desktop PCs—making for a particularly ideal living room/TV-connected experience. Though I will say that the Steam Controller itself takes much of the pain out of using Windows from a sofa, which also kinda undermines the SteamOS positivity.

Anyways, if you're one of the (lucky?) few who managed to get hold of a Steam Machine, or at least have a golden ticket for the reservation queue, then you can download the latest Windows drivers ready for a clean install of the MS OS right now.

There are a few caveats, however. The first is that it's a binary choice, as currently there isn't a clean way to dual-boot both SteamOS and Windows on one Steam device. Valve says that it will release an installer with a dual-boot wizard "for SteamOS once it's complete" whenever that is. Though I would say you could easily just add in another Linux OS which will boot into the SteamOS gaming frontend, such as Bazzite or Nobara; that will allow you to dual boot.

You will also need to connect your Steam Machine via Ethernet to enter a Windows product key, as the Wi-Fi drivers don't get installed until later. I'm sure there would actually be a way to install the supplied Wi-Fi drivers during Windows installation, but you could also create your Windows install drive using Rufus and have it create a local account automatically to get around that.

I like handheld gaming PCs. Note that I've carefully used the word "like," rather than love. In all honesty, I wish they were faster. Or more portable. Concessions need to be made if you want to play demanding games on the go, it's true. But, in recent months, it's the price that's really put the tin lid on the whole handheld gaming affair for me.

The Lenovo Legion Go S SteamOS, a handheld we fell in love with last year at its $830 MSRP, is now listed for $1,332. Or how about the MSI Claw 8 AI+, a mega handheld I personally gave a 90% score to (while admitting it was rather expensive) at $900? Now you'll be lucky to find one for under $1,200. Its recently-announced, Panther Lake-powered successor? That'll rack you up $1,799 at pre-order prices.

I know, I know. It's another article from me complaining about pricing, and I realise I probably sound like a stuck record. But I cannot think of a PC gaming hardware category more screwed by the memory crisis than the handheld market right now. I update our handheld gaming PC deals every week, and recently I had to make an admission:

The Asus ROG Xbox Ally X, a machine we rightly criticised for having a "super-high price tag" on its release just eight months ago, is now what I'd call the best value proposition on the market. For one thousand smackeroonies. A cool grand. Serious cash.

That's the price of a budget, yet soul-affirming, weeklong beachside holiday for two. And yet, if I were to recommend you buy any gaming handheld under today's ridiculous pricing conditions, it'd be this one.

It's properly fast, for a start. With an AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme APU furnished with RDNA 3.5 graphics tech and 24 GB of LPDDR5x-8000, it's got a specs sheet that allows it to monster pretty much every other handheld we've ever tested.

You get a 1 TB SSD as well, which should allow room for plenty of modern games. There's also the ROG Xbox Ally (non-X) to consider at $600, but the Ryzen Z2 A chip at its core feels a little underpowered—although it's still worth some thought at that price.

Compare and contrast either with the Steam Deck OLED, which now runs you $949 for the 1 TB model. Sure, it's got a nicer screen. But the now-aging internals simply don't make any sense for this sort of money. A bit like the Steam Machine, now I come to think of it—although I digress.

Plus, the ROG Xbox Ally Xs Windows Xbox full screen experience (what a horrible mash-up of terms) is pretty darn good. It's no SteamOS, but it's nevertheless a pretty seamless way of interacting with the system via the medium of thumbsticks. And Steam's Big Picture Mode is still an option for sorting through your games library, of course.

It's quiet, comfortable, and—again I can't believe I'm saying this—reasonably priced given what you receive compared to the competition. Somehow, the Xbox handheld has managed to place itself within the market at the right price, at almost the right time.

Which makes me wonder how much longer it'll be before that MSRP jumps. Given the state of *gestures wildly* everything else in the consumer electronics industry right now, I'd imagine that within the next few months, this column will become defunct.

I'm kind of astonished that the ROG Xbox Ally X is still sitting at its $1,000 MSRP as we speak, and something deep in my bones tells me that won't be the case for much longer.

This isn't a call to action, I should stress. Honestly, if I was curious about buying a gaming handheld right now and already owned a PC, I would probably save my money instead.

But if you're dead set on buying a portable gaming machine to shove in your shoulder bag for your next flight, this is the one that makes the most sense in the current market.

And that's a wild state of affairs. With reports indicating that the memory crisis, and the associated tech price increases will continue (and likely worsen) throughout 2027, and possibly 2028 as well, I genuinely can't fathom what sort of price/performance metrics I'll be using to write handheld reviews over the next couple of years.

How do I score what are essentially hobbyist devices, pleasurable adult frivolities, when they all command such eye-popping amounts of cash? How do I square any real concept of "value" with devices that I know damn well would cost much, much less, if it wasn't for AI holding us all over a barrel?

Gaming is already an expensive hobby. Even more so when you want handheld convenience combined with high performance. But pricing seems to be rising at such a rapid rate, I wonder whether handhelds will survive as anything other than boutique devices for the very well-heeled.

They're very difficult to wholeheartedly recommend in 2026, I'll tell you that much for free.

Despite its high price and somewhat disappointing gaming chops, Valve's Steam Machine appears to be selling well, with lots of buyers showing off their new purchase on social media. And in what seems to be the first published instance, the consumer coverage also includes a console-like Red Ring Line of Death.

Well, the Steam Machine was pretty cool for the 20 minutes that it worked from r/steammachine

Reddit user me_hill posted a thread on how they were enjoying playing No Man's Sky on their new Steam Machine, but got an RLoD after applying a software update. Just as with the Xbox 360's notorious Red Ring of Death, Valve uses the LEDs on the front panel to indicate the operational status of its little PC box.

Anything white or blue is fine and dandy, but if it's red, then something's not right. In me_hill's case, half a line of slowing pulse red LEDs points to a GPU failure. Hopefully, since this occurred after a software update, it's not an actual hardware bail-out, but rather something not booting correctly and then reporting the error.

That's not to say that the Steam Machine is going to be immune to hardware failures, because the mass production of any product is going to result in something initially passing quality checks, but popping its clogs later down the line.

And the Steam Machine uses a lot of mass-produced stuff, despite claiming to have 'semi-custom' chips from AMD. The CPU and GPU might be unique to Valve's box of underwhelm in terms of production code, but the chips themselves are physically no different to the Ryzen 5 7540U and Radeon RX 7600M.

The Redditor has indicated that they've contacted Valve for support, so hopefully there's a solution for them. If not, then at least they've got something that can do a passing impression of KITT or a Cylon Centurion. Just a completely mute impression. And one that's cost them $1,000.

Previously serving as the president of SIE Worldwide Studios for Sony and then becoming the head of PlayStation Indies in 2019, Shuhei Yoshida retired last year. He has since taken to giving industry analysis over on X. With the Steam Machine and its mighty price tag serving as a big discussion point, Yoshida has had a couple of hours with the machine. So far, he doesn't seem mighty impressed.

Yoshida recently said on X, "3D performance is just…meh", going on to add, "The system recommends to default to 1080p—am I going back to PS4 days?"

This middling performance is something our Andy said of the device in his review. We saw performance sitting at significantly less than even comparably priced mini PCs, with the Atomman G1 Pro handily beating it. The Steam Machine's RDNA 3-era graphics hardware seems to particularly struggle with ray tracing, but it's not particularly pretty across the board when you consider the price.

Yoshida is critical of this, saying, "But the price was very unfriendly. Hard to recommend to people unless for research." He also finds that games take a "loooooooong" time to boot.

Yoshida also had thoughts to share on the new Steam Controller. Though he likes the notion of having touchpads in a controller, he does complain that they are very "touchy" and hard to use.

He also finds the sticks are looser than he'd like. Assuming the ex-PlayStation head of indies likes the PS5 controller, these two complaints make some sense to me. I lament the lack of stick drift protection in the DualSense, but they do have tactile, snappy sticks, and the touchpad is pretty out of the way (unless you play with a claw grip like I do).

Still, not all is bad, according to Yoshida. The ex-Sony president likes SteamOS as a UI, enjoys that you can turn on the system through nothing but the Steam Controller, and he praises the changeable face plate. He also enjoys the boot-up videos. Ultimately, he says, "It allows me to play Steam games on my living room TV, which is a reason enough to keep it."

Yoshida does clarify he has only gotten a few hours with it so far, but I suspect his observations will be fairly common for Steam Machine owners, considering our own testing. It's a pricey and underpowered device. Yoshida does offer one bit of praise to finish out his thoughts, though: "The small form factor and quietness is super good."

Categorically, I cannot afford to buy my own Steam Machine. Much to my chagrin, the most basic 512 GB model still costs $1,049. Even Valve's own engineers wish their game box was cheaper. Thankfully, a French retailer is stepping in to try and do what even Valve could not: offer a compact PC for very slightly less than a grand.

LDLC has unveiled its own compact gaming PC, even going as far as to initially dub it the 'Stim Machine.' The retailer has since dropped this name in favour of the less ire-tempting 'LDLC PC box' (via VideoCardz). Though no longer available to buy, the 500 GB model used standard PC components and went for €1,000 as a kit you would need to assemble yourself.

A pre-built model was also briefly available. This went for €1,040, a price point directly comparable to how much the Steam Machine is selling for in Europe. The compact desktop even came with a tutorial on how to install SteamOS, though obviously that's not a hoop you would have to jump through to get the Steam Machine up and running.

So, what was the 'Stim Machine' offering beyond a potentially sub-1,000 euro price tag with some assembly required? For a start, the specs sheet includes a more recent RDNA 4 GPU in the cheap and (mostly) cheerful AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT. This GPU has a few extra compute units (and a much newer architecture) compared to the Steam Machine's semi-custom RDNA 3 card.

The LDLC PC Box has a Ryzen 5 8400F processor, whereas Valve's offering enjoys a similar, semi-custom AMD Zen 4 6C / 12T chip. So far, so comparable. Thanks to its standard Mini-ITX motherboard, the LDLC PC Box also has 16 GB of upgradeable DDR5 memory, as well as 500 GB of NVMe storage with two additional SATA slots on top. The Steam Machine also features a single 512 GB internal SSD, plus a MicroSD slot.

While achieving such comparable specs for less than a grand is impressive, that's still a whole lot of Euros for a relatively low amount of gaming horsepower (thanks, memory supply crisis). In other words, even if LDLC's PC Box was still available to buy and I was based in France, it's still a little rich for my blood. Ah well, I'll just hit repeat on Daft Punk's 2005 banger—that's almost just as good, right?

Arm chips are making increasing inroads into the realm of PC gaming. Valve is already all over the chip architecture, and is planning to launch an Arm-specific version of SteamOS alongside its Snapdragon-based VR headset, the Steam Frame, later this year. But what about the Steam Machine?

We asked Valve engineers Yazan Aldehayyat and Pierre-Loup Griffais whether Arm was in consideration for the Steam Machine 2. "Definitely, yeah," Pierre-Loup answered, "[In addition to our work on] things like FEX, we're just trying to be able to support everything, right?"

For those unfamiliar, FEX is a translation layer that allows games built for x86 architecture to run on Arm chips, similar to how Proton gets games made for Windows to run on Linux. Pierre-Loup adds, "If we have more options to pick from, and if users have more options to pick from [...] to play all the latest games in their back catalog library, they'll have a better outcome in terms of finding something that is cheaper for the horsepower that they need."

Arm chips are an enticing alternative to x86 CPUs for gaming PCs specifically. So, we may see something of a chip architecture slap fight before long (especially after Nvidia went all-in on a custom Arm architecture for their RTX Spark lineup). Many game developers are also already working on Arm game ports, and wholly Arm-native versions; our Dave was especially impressed to see an Arm-native version of Alan Wake 2 running on a pre-release model of Microsoft's Surface Laptop Ultra earlier this year.

On the subject of the Steam Machine and potential follow-ups in an Arm-based future, Pierre-Loup says, "When we're designing a system like that, we're just like users: Picking parts, trying to figure out what makes sense. So for us, yeah, things like FEX and the work that we've done on SteamOS and Proton are more like catalysts to get to a better outcome in terms of price performance, and all that—for sure, we would consider any platform."

Mind you, don't expect an Arm-based follow up any time soon. Though Valve has said that the Steam Machine won't have "as long of a timeframe" as the Steam Deck, new models are constrained by "a matter of when it makes sense to [upgrade], at what price point, at what time, on what games are available."

The memory supply crisis has had a significant impact on more things than the game box's price, with Valve even unsure whether it was gonna have any Steam Machines to sell at the start of 2026. Bearing in mind the RAMpocalypse likely won't ease until maybe 2028, we're unlikely to see a sequel any time before then.

Cards on the table, the first thing that piqued my interest about the Steam Machine's initial reveal were the interchangeable faceplates. After all, I am but a simple hardware creature with a penchant for the aesthetic. Unfortunately, Valve has no plans to release a whole slew of custom plates for their tiny game box.

We caught up with Valve engineers Yazan Aldehayyat and Pierre-Loup Griffais to talk all things Steam Machine, including customisation options. "Right now the two plates that come with the two terabyte SKU are what we're doing," Pierre-Loup explains, "And we don't really have any specific plans around what else [we might do]."

The 2TB Steam Machine comes with the 'red fabric and solid walnut' faceplates but, just because Valve has no plans to make more, that doesn't mean fresh faceplates are no-go from other sources, though. "We want to make sure that third parties can do everything they need to there, and that people tinkering at home can also do that," Pierre-Loup adds, "So, like usual, we'll be releasing all the CAD [3D files] and the dimensions for the outside, the attachment points for the magnets and the sizing of all that so that folks can make their own stuff."

Valve has already released the new Steam Controller's CAD files for easier customisation, though at time of writing we're still waiting on these files for the Steam Machine. That hasn't stopped some from taking matters into their own hands though.

Perhaps most notably, peripheral and accessory maker Dbrand teased custom Companion Cube housing for the Steam Machine last year. Unfortunately, they've had to start issuing refunds since the game box's release as it turns out the company had never actually got Valve's permission to make it.

To be clear, this was a third-party customisation being sold commercially, hence why Valve asked for it to be taken down. Fresh faceplates made for fun and not profit are unlikely to attract the same ire. So, yes, if you wanted to make your own Companion Cube inspired housing, you could—you just couldn't sell it like Dbrand attempted to.

I'm no 3D modelling wiz, so a single swappable faceplate appeals more to me anyway. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to gather a bunch of cute Decoden bits, clear my schedule, and make my Steam Machine look like a tasty little snack (complete with fake whipped cream, my temps be damned).

Hardware development, much like games, is all about iteration. So, it's fair to say we wouldn't have the Steam Machine without the Steam Deck. We recently spoke to Valve engineers Yazan Aldehayyat and Pierre-Loup Griffais, and asked them whether they felt Valve's ongoing work on the Steam Deck meant there'd be less to fix with the Steam Machine.

"Oh, for sure, yeah." said Pierre-Loup. He goes on to acknowledge that the Steam Machine required a lot of focus on specific aspects Valve didn't have to worry about for the Steam Deck—things like the "discrete GPU, VRAM management, ray tracing performance, all this stuff."

But those unique features aside, the foundation of the two platforms is very similar. He says, "The other 99% of the work [on the Steam Machine was] already done in a sense."

Yazan also highlights that the way many people were already using their Steam Decks presented a compelling use case for the Steam Machine. "People were using their Steam Deck docked to their TV, and they're having a great experience without us doing any specific work," He says, "So, it was almost proven before we even started working on it in some ways."

Though our Wes rated the Steam Deck when it debuted back in 2022, the handheld gaming PC didn't enjoy the smoothest launch due to stock issues. The platform itself also had its share of teething troubles, including but not limited to a whiny fan, stick drift caused by a software problem, and a buggy dock. Valve continues to support the device and these kinks, plus a number of other quirks, have all been significantly ironed out. In other words, much of the foundation was already laid for whatever Valve would do next.

"We tend to want to work like that—incremental steps that always add up. When we worked on Steam Input, and just input stuff in general, the [original] Steam Controller, we were solving and kinda thinking around a lot of the same issues that we were trying to solve with Seam Deck," Pierre-Loup adds, "And we just kinda kept working on the same thing, just adding a little bit to it every time, right? It was very incremental and I think we're still working towards more increments, towards completing the experience overall."

None of that is to say it's been clear skies for the Steam Machine. For one thing, Valve feared stock issues would strike again at the start of this year. The impacts of the memory supply crisis on the Steam Machine cannot be understated, with 'Making it cheaper' sitting top of the list of things the engineers wish they could change about the hardware.

Getting back to Valve's further iterations, what can we expect from a Steam Machine sequel? According to Pierre-Loup and Yazan, the Steam Machine won't have as long of a timeframe as the Steam Deck, but new models are 'just a matter of when it makes sense.' In other words, with no end in sight for the RAMpocalypse until maybe 2028, don't expect to see a Steam Machine 2 (or a Steam Deck followup for that matter) any time soon.

I've wanted to revisit Dragon Age: Origins on PC for years. I played the PS3 version back in 2009, which isn't as bad as people say it is, though it does lack the PC version's tactical view and, of course, mod support.

Origins has been on my wishlist for well over a decade, but I finally scooped it up during the current Steam Summer sale. It's a negligible $3 for the Ultimate Edition, which bundles in the Awakening expansion and a bunch of other stuff (there's no Standard Edition on Steam anyway). I probably would have gotten around to revisiting Origins earlier had it not been for the Steam Deck 'Unsupported' badge warning me off.

There's a decent enough reason for this, I suppose: when I bit the bullet and downloaded Origins on my Deck, the first thing I saw was a very unpromising, antiquated 4:3 game launcher. After I tinkered with the graphics settings here, I had no option to save my changes and back out. In other words, pending the results of any troubleshooting, I needed to make do with a 800x600 display, with graphics detail set to low.

But wait! Origins isn't one of those long-in-the-tooth PC games that makes you back out to its launcher to change graphics settings. From the game itself I was able to change the resolution to the Deck's native 1280x800, and turn graphics and texture detail up to "very high". At those settings I'm getting an unwaveringly locked 60 fps, though if you must have 90 fps you can do that too, though it's not as consistent.

The next obstacle is the fact that Dragon Age: Origins for PC doesn't have gamepad support like its console versions obviously have. Thankfully, there's an amazing Community Layout for that. Khar's Dragon Age: Origins marries the immersive control of a third-person action game while retaining the essential mouse controls. Movement is mapped to the left stick, while the mouse pointer is mapped to the right track pad (it's also mapped to the right stick but that feels really bad). As I'm moving around I can use the mouse pointer to activate objects, trigger conversations, or make selections from the hot bar at the bottom of the screen.

The only problem I've found with this config is that, for some reason, it maps quick load to L4. I was accidentally pressing this instead of L5 (which serves as a right mouse click) and that is obviously problematic. So to be safe, I changed it to open the map instead, and then mapped quick save to to upper D-pad button.

I've been loving my return to Origins, and despite the 'Unsupported' badge it's absolutely perfect on Steam Deck. It takes far less tinkering than some 'Playable' games I've booted. Who knows, now I may even get around to playing Dragon Age 2. That one's meant to be good, right?

If you signed up for a spot in the Steam Machine reservation queue, you might want to take a quick look at your email, because the notices for those who made it into the first wave—and those who did not—have been sent.

I did not personally order a Steam Machine for several reasons, which in truth can be boiled down to one reason:

Instead, I heard about the email sendout from Game Awards host Geoff Keighley, who apparently took the shotgun approach to the lottery and came out of it with a reservation for a 512GB model.

Videogame deals poster Wario64, who also claimed a golden ticket, took note of an added bonus: Buying one will net you a veritable butt-ton of Steam Summer Sale trading cards.

Buying a Steam Machine can earn you at least 105 Summer Sale 2026 Trading Cards during the Summer Sale.

— @wario64.bsky.social (@wario64.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-06-26T20:56:05.574Z

randomized lotteryAs explained by PC Gamer hardware hero Jacob Ridley, Valve opted against a first-come, first-served approach to selling the Steam Machine, and instead went with a randomized lottery: Everybody who wants one puts their name in the metaphorical hat, and from there a random selection of potential buyers are selected and notified.

I say "potential" because those whose names are drawn have three days to complete the purchase after the unit they were selected for is available—if they don't, their reservation will be cancelled and the next person in the queue will get the shot instead.

• We're keeping track of all the Amazon Prime Day PC gaming deals here

That provides a very small sliver of hope for those who missed the bus: As others on social media have shared, those folks received an email saying, "As we work our way through the reservation queue, some customers may cancel their reservations. If that happens, you may be moved into the reservation queue, and you'll be notified by email that you have a reservation after all."

Valve said when it announced the randomized reservations to "limit resellers," because as we've seen in the past, when high-demand hardware shows up, scalpers are never far behind. And yes, it's happening here too: Valve may have limited resellers but it hasn't eliminated them completely, and listings for preorder access are already appearing on sites like eBay, with obscenely inflated prices attached.

You do you, but me? I think I'd rather just wait.

I'll be honest, my Steam Deck is still trucking along just fine, even with four years of light between today and its 2022 release date. Nevertheless, there are more than a few people who'd quite like a Steam Deck 2 (though, uh, even they are probably prepared to wait for prices to become sane). It's been a while, after all.

Well, perhaps some good news, then: in our chat with Valve engineers Pierre-Loup Griffais and Yazan Aldehayyat, the pair said that the Steam Machine is a bit of a different beast. "I don't think we're thinking about [the Steam Machine] with quite as long of a timeframe as something like the Steam Deck," said Griffais.

• We're keeping track of all the Amazon Prime Day PC gaming deals here

"The Steam Deck, by its nature, needs a little bit more of a fixed performance target for both developers and users to make sense of, 'What can I play on this?' and not have that picture change once every year, every two years," said Griffais. "Whereas the Steam Machine is very much in line with gaming PCs. There's a big gradient of it: low-end CPUs, high-end CPUs and GPUs—Steam Machine is somewhere on that gradient, right? So I think it's a little bit less important to have a fixed performance target for, like, five years for a product like that."

So, there you have it, right? Steam Machine 2 imminent, perhaps releasing concurrently with Steam Machine 3? Well, not quite. While Valve doesn't think the Steam Machine needs to hew to Steam Deck timeframes, that doesn't mean it's diving right into a second iteration.

"At the same time," continued Griffais, "we don't really have immediate plans to be like, 'In N years we'll have a different performance target,' or something. We're actually really curious to see how things pan out… there's a lot of questions about the new systems generation, how that's gonna roll out, how games are gonna adapt." In other words, Valve is paying attention to how console manufacturers and other tech firms are handling the transition to a new generation in our current, RAM-crisis-afflicted world.

Aldehayyat was quick to point out that the next iteration of Steam Machine hardware isn't right around the corner, either, and that's partially just a reflection of PC gamers' modern habits. "I think we're seeing a natural slowdown of the upgrade cycle for gaming PCs," said Aldehayyat, "so in some ways that probably means that the Steam Machine is a viable product for longer than you would have expected if it was launching 10 years ago." That means the Machine as-is "probably has more longevity… it's gonna basically be in line with typical PC upgrade cycles and what people typically do.

"It's just a matter of when it makes sense to [upgrade], at what price point, at what time, on what games are available. Like if a bunch of new games come out on Steam that require more performance, that would probably make us wanna upgrade the Steam Machine faster." Alright, guess we're waiting for Cyberpunk 2 then.

It is a singularly bad time to purchase computer parts or release a computer product. The RAM crisis has made memory and storage costs astronomical, and the most recent indignity it's inflicted around our neck of the woods is the price of the Steam Machine—a box whose min-spec edition will still set you back $1,049. Valve itself wishes it was cheaper.

But I guess even an expensive box is better than no box at all, which—to hear Valve tell it—may have been a possibility. When we sat down and chatted with Valve engineers Yazan Aldehayyat and Pierre-Loup Griffais, we got to chatting about how the company's overall stock of Steam Machines is looking as it gears up to ship them. The answer? Less than there would be in a pre-RAM-crisis world, but way better than the beginning of the year, when Valve wasn't certain it would have any Steam Machines at all.

• We're keeping track of all the Amazon Prime Day PC gaming deals here

Griffais said the stock of Steam Machines is "a little bit less" than it would have been pre-crisis, but that Valve's built up "a sizable amount compared to what it initially looked like. Things looked really dire at the beginning of the year. We weren't sure if there was gonna be anything at all."

Compared to that, I suppose any number of boxes seems good, and heck, securing supply even in non-apocalyptic circumstances is hard: "I wanna emphasise that, even under the best of circumstances, getting enough quantity for day one is always hard-slash-impossible, I think," said Aldehayyat. "From our perspective, we still got to a pretty good place," said Griffais.

"Typically what happens with a product like this, is the day one demand is going to be a big, big percentage of the year one demand," Griffais continued. "You just cannot have your factory building for six months… there's always gonna be some gap between supply and demand the first couple of days, couple of weeks." Thus, the Steam Machine reservation system that has been running since last Monday, which lets people enter themselves into a queue which is set to be all shaken up today, ideally achieving a modicum of fairness in distribution.

"I'm really proud of where we're at in terms of, like, our sourcing guys did a great job. I think the quantities we have are really good given the circumstances, and our hope is to kinda catch up to demand as quickly as possible," said Griffais. It's certainly better than nothing.

Valve has a new cube coming out, and boy is it pricey. The Steam Machine finally broke cover last Monday, revealing that its absolute cheapest model would still set you back $1,049—for which you can thank the RAM crisis. It caused some consternation, with a lot of people who might have thought themselves day-one buyers balking at the sum. Well, Valve balked too.

PCG sat down and chatted with Valve engineers Yazan Aldehayyat and Pierre-Loup Griffais ahead of last Monday's reveals and, yep, they're not happy about the price either. We asked the pair, if they could snap their fingers and magically change one thing about the Steam Machine, what would it be? Their answer was quick: the price.

• We're keeping track of all the Amazon Prime Day PC gaming deals here

"Make it cheaper," laughed Aldehayyat, in response to the question. "Yeah, I mean, that's an easy one," agreed Griffais. But it sounds like Valve went through the wringer when it came to negotiating memory and storage for the Steam Machine. "Things that, two years or a year ago—commodity things—you would just say, 'Yeah, I need that much,' and you just pay the normal price for it and it's all good. Now you have to negotiate really hard just to secure a few thousand."

As for the hardware? Valve's pretty chuffed with it, sounds like. "It's kind of perfect for what I need because we've shaped it like that, right?" said Griffais, though Aldehayyat added "We're open for feedback. I think we're pretty biassed, obviously."

Oh, there was one thing: "We always want more ports," said Griffais. "People want more ports. The thing would be full of ports on all the sides if we listened to everyone." Mark it down, folks: Steam Machine 2 to feature a trypophobic mess of ports on all available surfaces.

Anyway, the result of Valve's hardware travails is that a min-spec Steam Machine costs $1,049. And Valve says it's not gonna subsidise the cost owing to its "religious" refusal to "build a more closed system." On the plus side, you could always turn your own PC into a Steam Machine, provided you're using an AMD GPU. As of SteamOS 3.8, Valve has given its official blessing to SteamOS installs on non-Valve hardware.

Mostly what I do here at PC Gamer is wait for my colleagues to post about their tech issues in Slack and tell them to install Linux in response. Webcam broken? Linux. Frame drops? Linux. Distant relationship with your father? Linux can fix that. I am unfathomably, incandescently popular and no one wants me to be quiet.

A common response to my implorations goes something like this: "I'm waiting for SteamOS." Well, stop waiting for SteamOS. SteamOS is here. Amid the hubbub of yesterday's Steam Machine hardware announcements, Valve slipped in a surreptitious little software note too: as of SteamOS 3.8, you can now officially stick Valve's Linux distro on whatever hardware you want, with the caveat that it's gotta be running an AMD GPU, at least for now.

• We're keeping track of all the Amazon Prime Day PC gaming deals here

This was not, to be clear, a rank impossibility before yesterday. In fact, our Dave James stuck an older version of SteamOS onto a Framework laptop last year. But now you've got Valve's actual, official blessing, and hopefully a slightly easier time of it.

The notice was tucked in at the end of the Steam Machine's FAQ, where Valve writes, "we are continuing to work toward enabling SteamOS to be used on more hardware than just ours. In fact, with the newly-released SteamOS 3.8, you can run the same code and operating system as Steam Machine on your own living-room PC using whatever PC parts you want… Right now, only AMD GPUs are supported, but we're working on expanding support for the future." Valve's working on support for additional GPUs, though, but I suspect we might have a while to wait.

As any Nvidia owner on Linux (hello, that is me) will know, team green drivers can be a bit of a faff. Where pretty much every AMD owner on Linux will default to using the very good, open-source Mesa drivers—you usually don't even have to do anything; they'll just install by default—Nvidia's driver situation for its modern cards is a hybrid of open-source and proprietary tech. While there are totally open-source Nvidia drivers out there—the Nouveau project—they're not up to snuff for games.

The short and tall of which is that I and my RTX 4080 are gonna have to wait to take SteamOS for a test run (you can always install Bazzite, with its out-of-the-box Nvidia support, for a similar experience), but hey—if you're an AMD user, you can check out Valve's guide to installing SteamOS right now, and embrace the sunlit uplands of Linux on the desktop.

The Steam Machine is finally here, with pre-orders now live, so long as you can get lucky in the reservation system lottery that is. And, honestly, we're kinda underwhelmed with the thing, beautiful wee companion cube though it is. Though that's more the fault of the AI apocalypse hoovering up all the memory and making the price of the Steam Machine utterly prohibitive for the entry level PC gamers it was originally aimed at. But Valve is still committed to improving the system, and has announced ahead of launch it is working directly with AMD to bring FSR 4 support in for the Steam Machine and its RDNA 3-powered GPU.

"We’ve been working with AMD on FSR 4 support for Steam Machine," we're told by Valve, "and can confirm that it will be coming soon."

Unfortunately that's all it's saying in regards to an actual release date, but then AMD itself has been rather cagey about when it's going to be getting FSR 4 support opened up beyond the original RDNA 4 target GPUs. Back in May AMD said it would be bringing FSR 4's machine learning-based upscaling to RX 7000-series graphics cards in July, but notably said during Computex that no decision had been made about whether it would be opened up to the RDNA 3.5 GPUs housed in its Ryzen AI Max APUs or the chips powering the latest AMD-powered gaming handhelds.

Which seems to suggest that July launch date is very much just for the RX 7000-series graphics cards alone and not a blanket level of support for the RDNA 3 architecture and above. That would also explain why Valve would have to be working directly with AMD to ensure its semi-custom 28 CU RDNA 3 GPU is going to get support for the improved upscaler in FSR 4.

"We can’t say more about timing," Valve notes, "but are excited for you to test it on your Steam Machine press units once it’s available. It should offer a significant improvement in upscaling graphical quality."

While the improvement in upscaling quality will definitely be a benefit for the Steam Machine, it's a double-edged sword of a feature. The Steam Machine's relatively weak GPU component needs upscaling and frame generation to be able to cope with modern games at decent graphics presets and at the sort of resolutions you'll want to see on a modern TV in your living room. So, chances are almost every game you play on the Steam Machine will want to be using upscaling.

That means it's a win that you'll get the best image quality AMD can muster for that upscaling experience. However, the machine-learning model of the improved FSR 4 upscaler is more performance intensive, especially for hardware that it was not initially designed for, namely RDNA 4 GPUs. And when performance is at a premium with the Steam Machine, that little bit extra hardware overhead for FSR 4 could mean that it's not an automatic on for some users, and could just be another balancing act owners are going to have to juggle with their new PC console.

The other thing to note is that FSR 4 support is not natively enabled in a whole lot of games right now. The list of supporting titles for FSR Redstone (inc FSR 4, AKA FSR Upscaling) looks extensive on first glance, but only around 20-odd have it natively built in; all the other games on the list need to have it enabled via the Adrenalin Driver software. How those games can get FSR 4 enabled in SteamOS is going to be interesting to see, if it happens at all.

Valve has announced the price of a Steam Machine, its new SteamOS-powered gaming PC. There are a few options available—two storage capacities and with/without a Steam Controller—and if you're still interested after seeing the price, you can sign up for a chance to buy one from today.

• 512 GB: $1,049 USD / 1,509 CAD / 1,039 EUR / 879 GBP / 1,609 AUD / 4,389 PLN
• 2 TB: $1,349 USD / 1,919 CAD / 1,359 EUR / 1,149 GBP / 2,109 AUD / 5,739 PLN

• 512 GB w/ Controller: $1,128 USD / 1,628 CAD / 1,108 EUR / 938 GBP / 1,728 AUD / 4,698 PLN
• 2 TB w/ Controller: $1,428 USD / 2,038 CAD / 1,428 EUR / 1,208 GBP / 2,228 AUD / 6,048 PLN

Both 2 TB models come with two additional faceplates, red fabric and solid walnut, which are attached with magnets. Though you could as easily make your own, as Valve tells us it will be releasing the CAD files.

The bundle with a Steam Controller is better value than buying one separately: it costs $99 on its own, but adds only $79 here. Not to mention availability of the Steam Controller is shaky, and you may end up having to wait until 2027 to purchase one individually.

Availability for the Steam Machine is also likely to be quite poor. Due to the ongoing memory crisis, Valve admits that some components it had originally intended to use in the PC have increased in price. Furthermore, some were altogether unavailable to purchase "at any price".

"More than anything else, this impacted our launch quantity," Valve says.

To deal with this limited launch quantity and to avoid a system which "tends to reward bots", Valve is rolling out a randomised reservation system for the Steam Machine. Similar to those for the Steam Deck and Steam Controller, wherein a user registers their interest in the product to purchase at a later date, where the Steam Machine reservations differ is in how the queue is formed.

Here's Valve's explanation:

• Starting right now, you can sign up for the Steam Machine model/bundle you're interested in
• If you're busy now, no problem: You can sign up anytime before Thursday June 25th at 10 a.m. Pacific.
• At that time, we will close signups and do a one-time randomization to determine the reservation order

After that one-time randomisation, Valve will let you know whether you successfully reserved a unit or were put into the waitlist for further units down the line. Valve hopes to have got through the reservation queue by the end of the year, which means those on the waitlist may be waiting a very long time indeed, likely into 2027 and beyond.

Valve explains that it felt it had a "good understanding" of how costs might change over time when it first started sourcing parts in 2023. This all changed with the memory crisis.

"Over the past year or so, that has changed quickly and significantly, most visibly for RAM and storage components," Valve says. "There are a variety of reasons, all of which are affecting hardware products everywhere. The overall effect is that our original goal for the price of Steam Machine is no longer viable. So the prices we're sharing today reflect the state of the world for manufacturing; or, more accurately, it reflects the price the components as we've secured them over the past 6 months."

It's that final line that gives me pause. Most PC gamers will likely have experienced price hikes for components and systems over the past eight months or so, especially with RAM but increasingly SSDs, too. Manufacturers have since warned of further sticker shock to come, as stockpiles of components dwindle and they are forced to buy new parts at further inflated prices. If Valve is delivering a price that's based on stock over the past six months, should the next six months be any worse, I think this leaves the door open to a price rise later on.

Valve recently increased the price of the Steam Deck due to increased component costs and 'global logistical challenges'.

We've heard mixed reports on RAM and SSD availability. There's been some suggestion that RAM prices may have levelled off since earlier in the year, but SSDs are still going up, but also reports from those in the know that prices are likely still to rise yet.

Valve also explains why it isn't "subsidizing" the price of the Steam Machine, ie putting some of that sweet, sweet Steam cash into making an affordable PC—profits be damned. The company's answer, it's not what PC gaming is about.

"When companies sell their hardware under cost for competitive advantage, or buy exclusive content for it, they're doing that to build a more closed system, one where you don't get to choose what software you want to use.

"We don't want that for PC hardware, and we don't think you should want it either. You shouldn't feel like you have to buy Valve hardware; you should be able to view it as just one option alongside all the devices for playing games, and select the one that makes sense for you."

For now, your best shot at a Steam Machine in 2026 is to sign up for that reservation system before June 25. Then cross your fingers and toes for an email landing you in the right queue and not on the waitlist.

It's finally here. The much-anticipated Steam Machine, a mini gaming PC designed for your living room, is in my possession—and it's a lovely device to behold. It's sleek, futuristic, and very, very Valve. I've been testing it thoroughly over the past week, and I'm sure you're anxious to know the results. Have all my mini gaming PC Christmases come at once?

Well, not quite. Because while Valve's attempt to bring PC gaming to your TV—and thereby the masses—has plenty of admirable qualities, it's got one giant caveat hanging over it: The price.

The 2 TB, Steam Controller-included Steam Machine bundle in my possession costs $1,428 (£1,208 / AU$2,228). The controller-less 2 TB variant is $1,349 (£1,149 / AU$2,109), while the 512 GB version, again without controller, is $1,049 (£879 / AU$1,609). Add a controller to the 512 GB variant, and you're looking at $1,128 (£938 / AU$1,728).

Much has been made over the Steam Machine's delayed launch and increased price tag, brought on by the ongoing memory crisis crippling the consumer electronics market right now. But holy moly, that's a lot of money for a mini gaming PC. Especially one with internals that, in 2026, feel underpowered before it's even officially released.

The RDNA 3-based GPU inside the Steam Machine has left me feeling, if I'm honest, rather deflated. It's certainly possible to drop the settings, bump up the upscaling, and squeak some smooth gaming performance out of the little black box. But the drawbacks feel like a step too far when you're paying this sort of cash.

The idea might be to bring the PC gaming experience to your living room, but if that experience includes smooth frame rates in demanding games, you're going to have to make some major compromises. And, because of its Linux origins, it hasn't been a flawless experience getting some of those games to run properly to begin with, either.

I want to get excited about the Steam Machine, I really do. It's a fascinating piece of design, and an admirable attempt to bring PC gaming from your desktop to your couch in one bite of the cherry. But like so much hardware these days, it's been hampered with a price tag that, given what you actually receive, feels like far too much to pay.

Steam Machine features

The Steam Machine is, by default, a black cube. Measuring 15.2 x 15.6 x 16.2 cm, its top is a touch smaller than a handspan. Or mine, at the very least. Underneath the removable magnetic front face plate (two extras are included in the box with the 2 TB bundle) is a small panel consisting of a power button on the right hand side, two USB 3.0 Type-A ports, and a microSD card slot.

Above them lies an RGB strip, which by default lights up in blue while you're gaming or downloading, and turns off at idle. Around the back are two USB 2.0 Type-A ports, a single USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port rated to 10 Gbps, and a 1 Gbps ethernet connection. For display options, you've got a choice of a DisplayPort 1.4 connection, or an HDMI 2.0 port.

And of course, it can be bundled with a Steam Controller, which is a sizable symmetrical-style unit with twin TMR thumbsticks, eight face buttons, four rear grip buttons, two trackpads, haptic rumble, gyro controls, and a 35+ hour battery life. It's perhaps not the prettiest of objects, but as our Jacob found in his review, it sure is comfortable. Useful, too.

On the outside, the Steam Machine is a very unassuming little device, which is certainly by design. It's the internals, however, where things get really interesting.

Under the hood lies a semi-custom AMD Zen 4 CPU with six cores and 12 threads, alongside 16 GB of system RAM. The GPU is also a semi-custom AMD RDNA 3 job, with 8 GB of dedicated GDDR6 VRAM, 28 compute units, a sustained max clock speed of 2.45 GHz, and a 110 W TGP.

Being a semi-custom GPU, it's difficult to make a direct comparison with existing RDNA 3 graphics cards—although the budget RX 7600 XT from the same generation features 32 compute units and a similar game clock speed.

The Steam Machine comes in two different storage flavours: 512 GB and 2 TB. I've got the 2 TB model, which provides plenty of storage for many, many games. Should you opt for the 512 GB variant, you'll want to keep an eye on install sizes.

Speaking of games, the Steam Machine makes use of SteamOS 3, an Arch-based Linux implementation with the KDE Plasma interface, allowing you to directly interface with your Steam library and the storefront. Steam Deck users will be very familiar with this design, although there are of course more options to tweak in the settings menus for the Steam Machine itself. More on that later.

For connecting to the outside world, beyond the already-mentioned ethernet port you also get a 2x2 Wi-Fi 6E connection and Bluetooth 5.3 support. The Steam Controller connects via an integrated 2.4 GHz wireless adapter, although requires the included puck or cable to be used for pairing on initial setup.

It's pretty impressive to think of the sheer amount of hardware and connectivity options Valve has crammed inside such a relatively small chassis design. Especially when you consider that, in terms of cooling, air is moved by a single 120 mm fan around the back.

As our Jacob found when he held a caseless prototype model, inside is a substantial heatsink which obscures the motherboard almost entirely, distributing heat away from all of the internal components.

Overall, the Steam Machine feels… solid. More solid than I was expecting, actually, despite its reasonable 2.6 kg weight. Given the form factor, you could easily shove it in a decently sized backpack to take around a friend's house. Although the design here is definitely specced to fit within an under-TV living room unit—where it'll live, faceless and mysterious, next to your other consoles and set-top boxes.

Steam Machine performance

And so we reach the first major sticking point. The Steam Machine 2 TB bundle is, in essence, a $1,428 mini gaming PC. As a result, it's only fair the little black cube goes up against our gaming PC benchmark suite in competition with similarly-priced machines.

Put aside the tidy form factor, the SteamOS experience, and the delightful "Valve-ness" of the thing for a second. If you're buying one of these, you're going to want your games to run well, and for it to deliver comparable performance to a gaming PC you could have spent your cash on instead.

And I'm not going to sugar-coat it—the benchmarking results are a little ugly.

Gaming benchmarks

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (1440p Ultra)Cyberpunk 2077 (1440p RT Medium)Cyberpunk 2077 (Quality upscaling, 1440p RT Medium)Baldur's Gate 3 (1440p Ultra)Black Myth: Wukong (1440p Very High)Black Myth: Wukong (Quality upscaling, 1440p Very High)Metro Exodus: Enhanced Edition (1440p Ultra)

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Steam Machine

21

17

AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX

44

38

Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F

33

25

Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K

28

24

015304560

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (1440p Ultra) Data

Product	Value
Steam Machine	21 Avg FPS, 17 1% Low FPS
AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX	44 Avg FPS, 38 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F	33 Avg FPS, 25 1% Low FPS
Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K	28 Avg FPS, 24 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Steam Machine

16

12

AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX

32

26

Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F

24

19

Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K

26

23

010203040

Cyberpunk 2077 (1440p RT Medium) Data

Product	Value
Steam Machine	16 Avg FPS, 12 1% Low FPS
AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX	32 Avg FPS, 26 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F	24 Avg FPS, 19 1% Low FPS
Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K	26 Avg FPS, 23 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Steam Machine

28

20

AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX

86

69

Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F

60

49

Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K

81

74

0255075100

Cyberpunk 2077 (Quality upscaling, 1440p RT Medium) Data

Product	Value
Steam Machine	28 Avg FPS, 20 1% Low FPS
AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX	86 Avg FPS, 69 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F	60 Avg FPS, 49 1% Low FPS
Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K	81 Avg FPS, 74 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Steam Machine

46

26

AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX

59

42

Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F

60

40

Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K

57

24

015304560

Baldur's Gate 3 (1440p Ultra) Data

Product	Value
Steam Machine	46 Avg FPS, 26 1% Low FPS
AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX	59 Avg FPS, 42 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F	60 Avg FPS, 40 1% Low FPS
Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K	57 Avg FPS, 24 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Steam Machine

20

16

AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX

26

20

Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F

23

17

Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K

17

13

07.51522.530

Black Myth: Wukong (1440p Very High) Data

Product	Value
Steam Machine	20 Avg FPS, 16 1% Low FPS
AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX	26 Avg FPS, 20 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F	23 Avg FPS, 17 1% Low FPS
Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K	17 Avg FPS, 13 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Steam Machine

31

26

AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX

37

33

Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F

48

42

Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K

27

17

015304560

Black Myth: Wukong (Quality upscaling, 1440p Very High) Data

Product	Value
Steam Machine	31 Avg FPS, 26 1% Low FPS
AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX	37 Avg FPS, 33 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F	48 Avg FPS, 42 1% Low FPS
Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K	27 Avg FPS, 17 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Steam Machine

45

30

AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX

52

36

Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F

53

36

Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K

50

31

015304560

Metro Exodus: Enhanced Edition (1440p Ultra) Data

Product	Value
Steam Machine	45 Avg FPS, 30 1% Low FPS
AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX	52 Avg FPS, 36 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F	53 Avg FPS, 36 1% Low FPS
Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K	50 Avg FPS, 31 1% Low FPS

Yes, that's a 28 fps average result in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1440p Medium RT, with Quality FSR enabled, no frame gen. RDNA 3-era graphics hardware usually struggles with ray tracing, and the Steam Machine's 28 CU semi-custom GPU is no exception.

It's particularly shocking when you compare it with the AtomMan G1 Pro, an RTX 5060-equipped (albeit with 1 TB of storage) mini PC currently available for around $10 more, which manages 58 extra frames on average at the same settings.

Similarly, the Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora benchmark gives the Steam Machine some serious trouble, resulting in a 21 fps average at Ultra settings. Compare that with the G1 Pro, which churns out over double the frame rate. In fact, even the RTX 4060-equipped Lenovo Legion Tower 5i manages a respectable 33 fps result at the same settings, which goes to show roughly where we're at.

That's not to say the Steam Machine gets completely trounced in every benchmark. It beats one of our custom, Intel Arc B570-equipped PC builds in Black Myth Wukong, both with and without upscaling. If we were to build that PC today, it would be slightly more expensive than the Steam Machine 2 TB bundle—mostly due to the beefy Core Ultra 265K CPU and pricey RAM.

Still, you could save some money with a weaker CPU and (slightly) cheaper RAM, and get very similar gaming performance. Again, the RTX 4060, Intel Core i5 14400F-toting Legion Tower 5i powers ahead of the Steam Machine in Black Myth (with upscaling enabled) quite convincingly. That's a budget gaming PC with last-generation components, no two ways about it. And it's got the little Steam Machine thoroughly licked across almost all of my benchmarks.

Steam Machine real-world testing

It's important to remember that the Steam Machine is designed for your living room TV, which these days is likely to be a 4K-native model. So, putting our comparative benchmarks aside for a second, I decided to jump into three relatively demanding (and very popular) PC games at 4K resolution, and see how far I had to drop the settings to get a mostly-solid 60 fps.

In the case of Cyberpunk 2077, I managed to get a 58-61 fps average by dropping the settings to Medium (no ray tracing), bumping FSR into its Performance mode, and enabling 2x frame generation. That means the base frame rate is still trundling away at somewhere around the 30 fps mark, even with the upscaler working at its hardest.

Which means added latency, and some messy visuals. It's not a straight-up bad experience at these settings, but you can definitely see the FSR/frame gen combo struggling with details and fast movement on a regular basis. Could I play Cyberpunk 2077 like this? Sure, I guess. Would I feel good about it, having dropped $1,000+ on a new piece of hardware? Hmm. Pass, I think.

In the case of the newly-released (and fairly well-optimised) Forza Horizon 6, you can forget ray tracing if you want 60 fps at 4K. At this point, that's probably no surprise. However, you can just about keep things smooth with a combo of FSR Performance and High settings.

There's the occasional dip into the low 50s in downtown Tokyo, but it's plenty playable. Cutscene characters look a bit fuzzy, though, and given that frame gen in this game is an Nvidia-only option, you'll need to drop things further if you want higher/more consistent frames.

And then there's Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Night. At Medium settings, with FSR set to Performance and with frame generation enabled, you can indeed live your best Batman life at 4K 60 fps. Just about. Again, there's the odd dip, and the base frame rate is pretty low, so the extra latency is definitely palpable.

And again, FSR in all its older iterations looks rough around the edges at Performance settings. Valve says it's working on FSR 4 support for the Steam Machine, but for now, older FSR is what you get as an AMD-specific option.

You might be finding this all a bit obvious. The Steam Machine isn't particularly powerful, so why would I expect high resolution and 60+ frames from my tiny under-TV box? Well, Valve said as much when it first unveiled the Steam Machine last year, stating that 4K60 in your Steam games was its benchmark. And 4K TVs are pretty much the standard at this point. While you can drop the res below native, you're really not going to want to if image quality is a concern.

And as for smooth frame rates? It's sort of PC gaming's thing, man. Especially when you're spending proper PC gaming money.

Can the Valve box deliver in the demanding stuff? Sometimes. As long as you're prepared to make some pretty major compromises in the upscaling, frame generation, and settings departments.

Steam Machine software

First time setup involves attaching the included power cable (and the rather meagre 1.8 metre HDMI cable), booting up the box, and connecting the Steam Controller via the wireless puck. After entering your Wi-Fi details and your Steam account login (and adjusting your screen scaling, which I'll go into below) you're then presented with the SteamOS interface, after any incidental updates.

Anyone who's used a Steam Deck (or indeed, the Steam interface in general) will feel like they're in familiar territory here. A press of the central Steam Controller button opens up a side menu to access your Library or the storefront itself, while also providing a litany of options menus. More still can be accessed with the three-dot button at the bottom of the input device.

One slight hang-up I experienced involved connecting the Steam Controller to the Steam Machine itself, so I could ditch the wireless puck. The menu system is a little obtuse, as the settings appear to want you to shutdown the controller while connected to the puck, boot it up, disconnect it, and then hold down a combination of buttons and bumpers to pair it with the internal connection while booting it up again. A three finger job.

I think. It took a few goes, and I'm not quite sure which combination I used to eventually cause it to pair. In fact, if I had one overall critique of the Steam Machine software experience, it's that the option menus often feel overly complicated.

Some are simple toggles, others are drop down menus, some are sliders, some are in strange orders, some are accessed with one button, some another… it's all a bit much when you're trying to lie back on the couch and game.

The onboarding process has other quirks, too. This could be user error, but on first setup I adjusted the scaling to fit my particular (ancient) 1080p TV, which the Steam Machine merrily ignored once I was booted into the OS itself. This led to much head-scratching as I figured out how to adjust it again from within the slightly unclear (and now poorly scaled) menu options.

Switching over to my 4K monitor, SteamOS seemed to recognise the native resolution immediately, and displayed the appropriately-scaled menus. I then jumped into several games, only to find the resolution maxed out at 1080p. According to Valve, this 1080p default is deliberate Steam Machine behaviour, designed "to ensure a good gameplay experience out of the box."

Though I thought this was supposed to be a 4K-ready device?

After some hunting around in the SteamOS menus, I discovered a secondary resolution option under the Advanced Display settings that was set to "default" in a dropdown menu. Adjusting this manually to the native resolution of my 4K screen allowed me to select higher resolutions in games. It had me stumped for a good 10 minutes or so, though, as the main resolution scaling settings didn't do the trick.

I've had the odd game-specific issue, too. Baldur's Gate 3, for example, repeatedly crashed on boot—until some searching revealed a similar issue with the Steam Deck. The fix is to enable a Proton experimental setting in the Compatibility menu, which handily works for the Steam Machine, too.

So, does Valve's new box provide a seamless PC gaming experience? Well it hasn't for me, I have to say. And while this sort of tweakery is common for those of us who do battle with the PC gaming gods—especially those of us who run Linux operating systems on the regular—I had hoped for a smoother ride from a living room-first machine. Valve says it's working on various aspects of the interface for a better experience, but for now, it definitely feels like a work in progress.

Steam Machine aesthetics

Opinions will vary here, but I'm a big fan of the Steam Machine's design. There's something high-tech, slightly ominous, and very Valve about the aesthetic. It looks and feels like an ancient artifact you'd find in a sci-fi shooter, some sort of key that unlocks a machine designed to bring about the end of the universe. I'm riffing here, but if you pick up one for yourself, you'll see what I mean.

Should the all-black, all-knowing cube design not be to your tastes, there's always the option to swap out the faceplates. These are attached with small magnets at all four corners to the front of the chassis, and pull themselves into place with a meaty thock.

Something I accidentally discovered is that, such is the force of the magnets, you can stack two together at once, although a single plate locks smoothly in line with the front I/O panel below. My top-end 2 TB Steam Machine bundle includes two extra plates, one covered in red fabric, and the other with a wood finish.

Tapping my finger against the latter, it appears to be an actual piece of tree—rather than a cheap walnut-style veneer. Very nice indeed, if you're into that sort of thing.

My main point, however, is just how unassuming the Steam Machine looks when tucked among my other set-top boxes and routers, even with a jazzy face plate attached. It looks like it'll blend in just about anywhere, and the front LED strip can be configured in a multitude of ways. You can set it to pulse through the RGB spectrum to deliver a gaming PC-like aesthetic, or you can turn it off entirely, among other options.

At which point, you may end up forgetting you've got a Steam Machine under your TV at all. It's well-sized enough that I don't think anyone will have a problem integrating it into their setup with ease.

As for the controller? Well, it's a sizable beast, that's for sure. Still, with an all-black, relatively muted design, I don't think your average non-gamer would notice much of a difference between this and a standard Xbox controller unless they picked one up.

Temperatures and noise

The Steam Machine is quiet. I mean, really, really quiet. The single, geometry-optimised 120 mm fan at the back does an admirable job of moving large amounts of air at whisper-like levels, so much so that I don't think you'd notice it at full pelt over any other ambient noise.

Temperatures

Gaming TemperaturesIdle temperatures

Avg CPU Temp (°C)

Max CPU Temp (°C)

Avg GPU Temp (°C)

Max GPU Temp (°C)

Steam Machine

68

74

65

69

AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX

89

91

77

67

Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F

64

76

67

71

Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K

57

81

66

71

0255075100

Gaming Temperatures Data

Product	Value
Steam Machine	68 Avg CPU Temp (°C), 74 Max CPU Temp (°C), 65 Avg GPU Temp (°C), 69 Max GPU Temp (°C)
AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX	89 Avg CPU Temp (°C), 91 Max CPU Temp (°C), 77 Avg GPU Temp (°C), 67 Max GPU Temp (°C)
Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F	64 Avg CPU Temp (°C), 76 Max CPU Temp (°C), 67 Avg GPU Temp (°C), 71 Max GPU Temp (°C)
Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K	57 Avg CPU Temp (°C), 81 Max CPU Temp (°C), 66 Avg GPU Temp (°C), 71 Max GPU Temp (°C)

CPU (°C)

GPU (°C)

Steam Machine

38

41

AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX

51

38

Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F

29

30

Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K

37

46

015304560

Idle temperatures Data

Product	Value
Steam Machine	38 CPU (°C), 41 GPU (°C)
AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX	51 CPU (°C), 38 GPU (°C)
Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F	29 CPU (°C), 30 GPU (°C)
Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K	37 CPU (°C), 46 GPU (°C)

It runs relatively cool, too. Certainly much cooler than the AtomMan G1 Pro when you crank it up to its top whack, which is significantly noisier, too. Valve has clearly prioritised refinement when it comes to both the Steam Machine's size and sound, which is a good instinct to follow when it comes to a living room-friendly box.

Steam Machine value

When the Steam Machine was first announced, we on the PC Gamer hardware team took a look at the specs and all came to the same rough conclusion. It's relatively low-powered, it's designed for your living room, and it's gunning for a position next to your other consoles. Therefore, it'll have to be reasonably priced.

That was in the before times, of course. Back when cheap memory modules were abundant, and the idea of a $550-$600 base-level Steam Machine seemed quite possible. Then the AI server market hoovered up all the manufacturing capacity, the consumer market got stuffed, and we've been living in a world of ridiculous pricing ever since.

Given all this, on the surface, the $1,049 Steam Machine 512 GB seems almost reasonable. Let's put it this way, it's not as highly-priced as we feared, given everything that's going on at the moment and the recent price hike of the Steam Deck. But the unfortunate truth is that budget gaming PCs—while being much larger, noisier, and more unwieldy than Valve's magic box—can still be found for the same sort of figure.

A perusal of our cheap gaming PC deals page reveals several 1 TB-equipped, RTX 5060-toting models for under $1,000. And, as I've shown with the AtomMan G1 Pro, anything with Nvidia's current-gen budget card is likely to give the Steam Machine a good thrashing in the performance stakes.

Speaking of which, the AtomMan machine can be found (at the time of writing) for $1,439 at Amazon. That's pretty pricey for a mini PC, but it does come with a beastly laptop CPU, said RTX 5060, and 32 GB of RAM. You only get a 1 TB SSD, it's true. And like the PCs above, it doesn't have an included controller, nor a couch-native SteamOS interface.

But it's only $11 more than the top-spec Steam Machine 2 TB. And Steam Big Picture mode in Windows works great for gaming on your TV. As for the controller? A suitable model doesn't cost a whole lot extra (particularly if you go for something budget-yet-brilliant, like the GameSir Nova Lite).

I just can't square the Steam Machine's performance with any idea of consumer value. I really can't. The first question you need to ask yourself as a hardware reviewer is this: Would I buy one?

And despite the little black box's lovely design, excellent controller, and sheer curiosity value, the answer is no. Not when I can still pick up a regular gaming PC for the equivalent cash, with much better overall gaming performance.

Because, when it comes to the PC gaming experience, I think you should ask yourself what it means to you. To me, it means better graphics than consoles. It means higher frame rates. It means flexibility, and it means spending more money in return for a better experience when I actually play the games.

Having a neat little PC gaming box tucked away underneath your TV is all well and good, on paper. But when it feels underpowered (and internally outdated) right out of the gate, while still costing north of a grand for the base-level model? I'm simply not sure it makes much sense.

I've just finished reviewing the Steam Machine, Valve's TV-friendly gaming PC for the masses. I think that was the initial idea, at least. Unfortunately, Valve's magic box has, thanks to the memory crisis, ended up with a price tag that simply doesn't add up.

For those who haven't heard, the base-level, 512 GB, non-Steam Controller-including Steam Machine retails for $1,049. Add a controller into the mix, and it comes in at $1,128. Back when we first took a whirl at predicting Steam Machine pricing, our average guess was around $525 for the base model.

Oh, how wrong we were. To be fair to myself, Valve, and my hardware team colleagues, this was back in November of last year. The pre-RAMpocalypse times, as we now call them. Before the AI server market swallowed memory module manufacturing capacity, and consumer electronics began to climb rapidly in price.

We adjusted our guesses more recently, and actually came kind of close, for the most part.

Still, the final pricing has me all hot and bothered, even if it's not far off what we eventually predicted. Because the Steam Machine, thanks to some lower-spec internal components now sold for high prices, represents poor value—and I feel like it deserves more than that.

And I haven't even got to the 2 TB model I reviewed yet, which is $1,349 without a controller, and a wallet-trembling $1,428 with one. That's a huge sum of money for a machine that struggles against budget gaming PCs, some of which come from the previous generation.

Gaming benchmarks

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (1440p Ultra)Cyberpunk 2077 (1440p RT Medium)Cyberpunk 2077 (Quality upscaling, 1440p RT Medium)Baldur's Gate 3 (1440p Ultra)Black Myth: Wukong (1440p Very High)Black Myth: Wukong (Quality upscaling, 1440p Very High)Metro Exodus: Enhanced Edition (1440p Ultra)

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Steam Machine

21

17

AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX

44

38

Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F

33

25

Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K

28

24

015304560

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (1440p Ultra) Data

Product	Value
Steam Machine	21 Avg FPS, 17 1% Low FPS
AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX	44 Avg FPS, 38 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F	33 Avg FPS, 25 1% Low FPS
Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K	28 Avg FPS, 24 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Steam Machine

16

12

AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX

32

26

Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F

24

19

Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K

26

23

010203040

Cyberpunk 2077 (1440p RT Medium) Data

Product	Value
Steam Machine	16 Avg FPS, 12 1% Low FPS
AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX	32 Avg FPS, 26 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F	24 Avg FPS, 19 1% Low FPS
Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K	26 Avg FPS, 23 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Steam Machine

28

20

AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX

86

69

Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F

60

49

Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K

81

74

0255075100

Cyberpunk 2077 (Quality upscaling, 1440p RT Medium) Data

Product	Value
Steam Machine	28 Avg FPS, 20 1% Low FPS
AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX	86 Avg FPS, 69 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F	60 Avg FPS, 49 1% Low FPS
Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K	81 Avg FPS, 74 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Steam Machine

46

26

AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX

59

42

Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F

60

40

Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K

57

24

015304560

Baldur's Gate 3 (1440p Ultra) Data

Product	Value
Steam Machine	46 Avg FPS, 26 1% Low FPS
AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX	59 Avg FPS, 42 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F	60 Avg FPS, 40 1% Low FPS
Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K	57 Avg FPS, 24 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Steam Machine

20

16

AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX

26

20

Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F

23

17

Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K

17

13

07.51522.530

Black Myth: Wukong (1440p Very High) Data

Product	Value
Steam Machine	20 Avg FPS, 16 1% Low FPS
AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX	26 Avg FPS, 20 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F	23 Avg FPS, 17 1% Low FPS
Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K	17 Avg FPS, 13 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Steam Machine

31

26

AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX

37

33

Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F

48

42

Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K

27

17

015304560

Black Myth: Wukong (Quality upscaling, 1440p Very High) Data

Product	Value
Steam Machine	31 Avg FPS, 26 1% Low FPS
AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX	37 Avg FPS, 33 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F	48 Avg FPS, 42 1% Low FPS
Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K	27 Avg FPS, 17 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Steam Machine

45

30

AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX

52

36

Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F

53

36

Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K

50

31

015304560

Metro Exodus: Enhanced Edition (1440p Ultra) Data

Product	Value
Steam Machine	45 Avg FPS, 30 1% Low FPS
AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX	52 Avg FPS, 36 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F	53 Avg FPS, 36 1% Low FPS
Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K	50 Avg FPS, 31 1% Low FPS

It's not like the Steam Machine makes up for its shortcomings with a completely smooth user experience, either. It feels, at the time of writing, a little half-baked. I still found myself hunting through the settings menus to configure it properly on my home TV. I still had to enable compatibility game settings to get past some Linux… quirks.

It's got crunch, in places where, for the money, I'd hoped it would be more refined. It's virtually a premium product now, after all. But it doesn't quite feel like it in terms of the overall user experience. And it doesn't run demanding games like it, either.

In many ways, this isn't Valve's fault. The Steam Machine's diminutive, RDNA 3-graphics powered specs sheet clearly indicates that it should have been affordable, and was designed with a lesser price in mind. It should have been a lightweight, somewhat-entry-level machine that lives underneath your TV, capable of running indie games with little issue, and demanding ones if you were prepared to make significant compromises. For reasonable money.

I'd be pretty keen on it then, even with its flaws. Something deep within my heart wanted another Steam Deck-like PC gaming hardware moment. A budget machine with just enough go (and just enough convenience) to make it attractive. Another entry point into this expensive hobby of ours. A people's champion.

But no, it's got RAM modules. And an SSD. And therefore, it needs to be much pricier now than it was supposed to be when it was first specced out, if Valve is to make any money on it at all.

As a hardware reviewer, my job is to provide consumer advice. There's no point in recommending that you, the reader, buy something simply because it's interesting—without taking into account the value you get for your money. And at this price, the value proposition simply doesn't add up.

In some sense, I don't think my take on all this really matters. The Steam Machine will sell, I'd put good money on that. There are enough well-heeled enthusiasts out there to swallow up whatever launch stock Valve has on offer, even if it ends up being more of an executive-level desk toy than the great equaliser the rest of us might have hoped for.

It won't be a catastrophic failure for Valve, of that I'm fairly certain. But, given all of the above, the Steam Machine has, to my mind, become a damning representation of where we are in regards to PC gaming hardware in 2026.

We now live in a world where we're paying serious sums for meagre specs. And given that the memory crisis is expected to rumble on (and perhaps even worsen) into 2027 and beyond, this may be just the beginning of our woes.

I hate that. I hate that the AI-demand behemoth is pricing out average gamers from reasonably priced hardware, and reasonable hardware upgrades. I hate that I'm forced to give an interesting, if flawed, machine a lower score because it simply doesn't make any value-based sense—whereas for the right price, it just might.

Valve has worked really hard on the Steam Machine, and that's obvious to see. Even if it does feel underpowered, and a little rough around the software edges. But when all's said and done, I simply wouldn't spend this much money on one. And that, as much I wish it wasn't the case, is the truth.

You can now sign up for a chance to buy a Steam Machine. Yes, a mere chance, not a preorder, as Valve is doing something different with the launch of its Linux-powered cube. Rather than forming an orderly queue, it's taking names, throwing them in a hat, and drawing them out at random to decide who gets a reservation and who gets lumped on the waitlist.

The Steam Machine starts at $1,049 for the 512 GB model, and if you're still interested in purchasing one after hearing the price, you're going to want to take heed of the new reservation process. It's different to what Valve has done in the past, and for good reason.

"In an effort to improve the purchase experience and limit resellers, we're implementing a reservation system," Valve says.

• Starting right now, you can sign up for the Steam Machine model/bundle you're interested in.
• If you're busy now, no problem: You can sign up anytime before Thursday June 25th at 10 a.m. Pacific.
• At that time, we will close signups and do a one-time randomization to determine the reservation order.

"Based on the reservation order, you will receive an email on June 25th indicating one of two things:"

• You've been added to the reservation queue and a Steam Machine has been reserved in your name.
• You've been added to the waitlist and we'll let you know when more units become available.

In theory, this deters bots from hammering the reservations faster than any real human and securing units for resellers to sell at inflated prices. It also means that it's become a lottery for all involved.

By signing up on June 25, you give yourself the best chance of purchasing one before the end of the year. Those lucky enough to make it into the reservation queue will begin receiving emails asking them to make their purchase from June 29.

If you miss this date, you'll be added to the back of the waitlist and presumably in for a long wait.

Valve has said it intends to get through the reservation queue by the end of 2026. That means those on the waitlist are unlikely to be able to purchase a Steam Machine before 2027—unless people drop out of the queue without purchasing one, in which case the offer extends to whomever is next in line. Those offered a unit will have 72 hours from receiving their notification email to checkout before Valve passes it onto the next person in the queue.

What you need

To make your initial sign up, you have to have a few things in order:

• a Steam account in good standing
• made a purchase on Steam prior to April 27, 2026.

There's also a limit of one per household. Valve says it will check payment information, shipping address, and other information to remove duplicate entries. So if you're in shared accommodation with a bunch of fellow PC gamers, looks like you'll have to share your Steam Machine, too.

Each region has its own sign-up list. These are North America, United Kingdom, European Union, and Australia, which Valve is organising directly. Valve's official distributor, Komodo, will be dealing with orders in Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

So, why the new system? Why not just do what it did with the Steam Deck and have a first-come, first-serve system?

Valve says it's both because of resellers and lower availability than it would have liked for components used in the Steam Machine.

"Over the past year or so, that has changed quickly and significantly, most visibly for RAM and storage components… the overall effect is that our original goal for the price of Steam Machine is no longer viable," Valve says in an FAQ.

"Price wasn't the only thing impacted by all of this: availability was as well. We found we couldn't source some of our components at all, at any price. More than anything else, this impacted our launch quantity."

We've heard this before: memory chips are a precious commodity right now and they're being sucked out of the market before ever reaching us consumers by big businesses with even bigger bank accounts. Even the biggest companies are feeling the heat. Valve is no small fry, but it's nowhere close to the size of OEMs like Dell, HP, or similar. Everyone's scrambling for whatever the major memory manufacturers can give them, which isn't enough.

When a manufacturer is this honest about availability concerns from the get-go, that usually means things really are tough out there. This launch is going to be a very long, drawn out affair from the sounds of things. Make sure you're there before June 25 for the best chance at a Linux console this year, or be prepared to be patient. Heck, as Valve points out in its FAQ, you could always build your own Steam Machine with SteamOS 3.8 as a shortcut.

Good luck.

After a standard spell in beta, the latest iteration of SteamOS—Valve's Arch-based Linux distro for use on Steam Deck, Steam Machine, and Steam Frame—has hit the big three-eight. Or, well, three-point-eight. SteamOS 3.8 is out, is what I'm saying, and if you turn your face to the wind and inhale, you can detect the first notes of upcoming hardware.

Specifically, the Steam Machine, for which SteamOS 3.8 brings "initial support," as well as support for waking a SteamOS device from sleep via a connected Steam Controller. Alas, no word on the Steam Frame in these patch notes, but consider me as eager as ever to get my hands on Valve's living room box, presuming the RAM crisis has not made it cost $5,000 dollars.

But this is a pretty big release even excluding the GabeCube stuff. I'll stick the full patch notes down below, but there are a number of tweaks and new features that leap out to me as a longtime Deck user. Chief among them is that yer Deck now defaults to Wayland rather than X11 in desktop mode.

Those are two different display servers for Linux desktops—the gubbins that make your GUI function when you're not working straight in the virtual console like god intended. To cut to the chase: X11 is the old one (and as such, tends to have greater compatibility and work better for some particular tasks, at least for now) and Wayland is the new one (though it's been out in some form for nearly 20 years)—it's more secure and generally a bit more dextrous for most tasks.

So swapping to Wayland-by-default means that SteamOS has reduced "several cases of reduced performance in Desktop Mode compared to Game Mode" on your Steam Deck, desktop mode also has better scaling on TVs, support for external HDR displays, and support for VRR displays. The kind of stuff you might care about if you were making an OS for a device that's expected to live underneath people's TVs.

There are also new BIOSes for the LCD and OLED Decks, which will be installed as part of the general 3.8 update when you run it. The LCD one, sorry to say, isn't too exciting, save that it adds preliminary support for device hibernation. OLED, though? Valve's updated the Deck so that the charging LED now respects your device charging settings. If you set your Deck to top out at 80% charge for battery health reasons, then the LED will turn green—meaning fully charged—when it reaches that point, rather than remaining standard 'charging' white for eternity.

All good stuff, then. Here are the full patch notes for your perusal.

General

• Updated Arch system base
• Initial support for upcoming Steam Machine hardware
• Added support for waking from sleep via connected Steam Controller
• Substantially improved speed of future OS updates on high-speed connections
• Improved support for screen casting in Game Mode (e.g. OBS/Discord)
• Fixed dropdown menus not appearing in some games
• Fixed excessive trackpad sensitivity on certain early Steam Deck LCD models
• Improved support for games that attempt to open PDF files in external viewers
• Fixed an issue where video output could become frozen while using Remote Play
• Fixed a possible session crash when using Game Recording with certain "Maximum video height" settings
• Fixed an issue affecting certain titles (such as "SpongeBob SquarePants: Titans of the Tide") where the game window could have an incorrect position
• Fixed closing certain titles (such as "STAR WARS Jedi: Survivor™" and Starfield) resulting in a session crash
• Improved support for certain USB racing wheels and USB devices that boot in a non-standard mode
  • Frequently these are devices that appear as USB storage devices with a driver installer, and must be switched to their normal mode by the OS
• Steam Deck controller firmware updates now display update progress on the splash screen
• Fixes issue on specific Steam Deck revisions where firmware updates could render the left controller inoperative for that session
• Numerous stability and security updates

Display / Performance

• Updated graphics driver with performance and stability fixes
• Added preliminary support for HDMI VRR for devices with native HDMI output
• Fixed an issue where "Allow Tearing" wouldn't have the intended effect in certain configurations
• Improved VRR frame pacing
• Fixed FSR badge remaining off in the performance overlay, even if it was actually active
• Fixed a case where per-app performance settings would intermittently fail to apply when launching a game
• Added missing graphics features needed for titles such as "Crimson Desert"
• Fixed an issue on certain TCL TVs where the display may remain blank using the Steam Deck Dock when VRR is enabled (requires a Dock firmware update)

Bluetooth / WiFi

• Fixed a case where WiFi performance could become degraded until the device was put to sleep or manually reconnected
• Re-re-enable Bluetooth Wake for Steam Deck LCD
  • Fix for more spurious wake issues that were present in earlier attempts

Audio

• Detect HDMI channel count and expose surround configuration if available
• Add a setting to allow using Bluetooth headset mics (Bluetooth playback quality will be worse while capture is active)
• Restore internal audio device on reboot if set to "Off" in desktop mode
• Increase suspend timeout for HDMI devices so initial audio isn't cut off after a few seconds of inactivity
• Fixed a bug with switching input devices when a wired headset is plugged in
• Fixed an issue where audio underruns could be experienced after sleep/resume
• Fixed a bug on Steam Deck OLED where rebooting would occasionally cause a loss of speaker output until rebooted again
• Fixed a case where FPS limits would fail to apply when downscaling games from a higher resolution

Accessibility

• Added an option to force mono audio output

Desktop Mode

• KDE Plasma updated to version 6.4.3 from 6.2.5, and now uses wayland by default

  • Fixes several cases of reduced performance in Desktop Mode compared to Game Mode

  • Improved support for rotated displays

  • Better scale factor out of the box on TVs

  • Adds support for external HDR displays

  • Adds support for VRR displays

  • Adds support per-display scale factor

  • For more information, see Plasma release announcements

  • https://kde.org/announcements/plasma/6/6.3.0/

  • https://kde.org/announcements/plasma/6/6.4.0/

• Keyboard layout and language are now obeying Game Mode settings

• Improved windowing behavior for games running in Proton

• Fixed a bug in Desktop Mode causing previously open applications to not be remembered when using the 'Return to Gaming Mode' shortcut to logout

• Fixes for experimental nested desktop mode

• Fixed Desktop Mode night color settings inappropriately remaining active when switching back to Game Mode

System Firmware

• Includes Steam Deck LCD BIOS v133

  • Security updates

  • Added "Memory Power Down" setup option

  • Preliminary support for hibernation

• Includes Steam Deck OLED BIOS v114

  • Security updates

  • Charging LED now changes color when charge limit is reached, rather than only at 100%

Non-Deck

• Improved compatibility with recent Intel and AMD platforms

• Greatly improved video memory management on discrete GPU platforms

• Fixed a compatibility issue with the SteamOS chainloader that could cause a boot failure on some desktop systems with recent UEFI firmware

• Power button short and long presses now supported across a wide variety of devices

• Improved controller support for OneXPlayer F1 series, GPD Win 5, GPD Win Mini, Anbernic Win600, OrangePi NEO, and Lenovo Legion Go

• Added controller support for OneXPlayer X1 series and Lenovo Legion Go 2

• Added system and controller firmware update support for the Lenovo Legion Go 2

• Added preliminary charge limiting support for Legion Go, Legion Go S, and Legion Go 2 - currently only accessible in Desktop Mode

• Added controller RGB LED color settings for the Lenovo Legion Go 2

• Added controller, TDP control, and speaker audio support for the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally series

• Reduced handheld controller input latency from 5-8ms to 100-500us

• Night mode, color vibrance, and color temperature sliders in Steam now work on Z2E and later AMD APUs

• Seamless boot fixes for Z2E and later AMD APUs

• Automatically handle internally rotated display for some third-party handhelds

• Improved motion control support for handhelds with BMI260 IMUs

• SD card reliability improvements for some third-party handhelds, including ASUS ROG Xbox Ally, Legion Go 1, Legion Go S, Legion Go 2, and MSI Claw

• Fixed washed out colors for Zotac and OneXPlayer handhelds with OLED

• Fixed some GPU hangs on Phoenix APU devices (Tales of Arise, Octopath Traveler II)

• Fixed ASUS ROG Ally power consumption from fingerprint reader while shut down

• Fixed trackpad losing functionality after sleep/resume on the Legion Go

• Fixed spurious wake-ups when using a Logitech Bolt receiver

• Add controller support for MSI Claw devices (A1M, 7 AI+ A2VM, 8 AI+ A2VM, A8 BZ2EM)

• Add controller support for OneXPlayer APEX and X1 series.

• Improved gyro response for devices that use AccelGyro3D (Legion Go 1, Claw A1M)

• Fixed a system crash on international Asus ROG Xbox Ally models

• Fix Bluetooth not working on some Intel handhelds

• Add initial firmware for upcoming Intel handhelds

Developer

• Desktop Mode now uses Wayland by default

  • X11 support may still be selected via Steam developer settings, or via `steamosctl`

• Updated Linux kernel to 6.16

• Steam now uses steamos-manager to query available desktop sessions and trigger desktop session switching

• Added support for setting the desktop password in developer settings

• Initial support for running as a Virtual Machine guest (virtio guest drivers)

• Added support for third-party devices to trigger the SteamOS boot menu via EFI variable

• Added `custom-update` verb to `atomupd-manager` for easier testing of specific builds

• System reports now include more audio debug information

• Initial support for LAVD CPU scheduler via `steamosctl set-cpu-scheduler lavd`

SteamOS, once the purview of the Steam Deck alone, eventually opened itself to other handhelds. Officially that extends only to the the Legion Go S, but beta versions of the operating system have since supported the Asus ROG Xbox Ally and "Other AMD powered handhelds."

The key term there being 'AMD', because until very recently, SteamOS had only supported handhelds running an AMD processor. Now, though, a new SteamOS beta seems to have added support for Intel and one YouTuber has got it up and running on an MSI Claw (via VideoCardz).

The 3.8.7 beta lists "Improved compatibility with recent Intel and AMD platforms" and, more conspicuously, controller support for MSI Claw devices and "SD card readability improvements" for the same. Excluding a recent deviation, the MSI Claw is of course an Intel-based handheld.

This, on its own, doesn't imply that Intel-based handhelds will actually run SteamOS well and have games playable on the platform. But thankfully ETA Prime on YouTube has actually tested it out using a Claw 8 AI+ with a Lunar Lake CPU, the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V.

They struggle to bring up the menu with the left-side button, meaning they have to go into desktop/mouse mode to do so, and they also note an inability to adjust TDP, meaning a third-party plugin is required to do so.

Apart from this, everything seems to work just fine, although games will need some optimisation, as ETA PRIME says Cyberpunk, for instance, does run better on Windows on the handheld.

We should remember this is only a beta, but it's a promising look at what's to come. I doubt Valve would be working on it if it didn't plan on getting the release out there officially for Intel handhelds.

It's certainly a good time for Valve to be working on adding Intel support to SteamOS, not least because of MSI's upcoming Panther Lake-powered Claw 8 EX AI+. That handheld certainly impressed our Dave when he tried it, and in the beta notes Valve does mention new "initial firmware for upcoming Intel handhelds", so it's exciting news on that front, too.

Well, assuming anyone will be able to afford the new Claw in the first place, that is—pricing isn't looking pretty.

I'm very intrigued by the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+. For one, I enjoyed my time with the previous iteration, the MSI Claw 8 AI+ A2VM. For a second, it's got Intel's new Arc G3 Extreme processor nestled inside. And for a third, our Dave got his hands on one at Computex, and said it "feels like the standard all new handheld gaming PCs will be judged by."

Exciting stuff. Except MSI has now listed its new mega handheld for pre-order, at the low low price of... $1,799? Holy moly, that's an expensive slice of portable gaming hardware (via Wccftech).

To be quite honest, it's not an entirely surprising figure. Earlier leaks indicated the MSRP would be well north of $1,500, and a 32 GB/1 TB handheld with a brand spanking new (and presumably very performant, given my testing of the Arc B390) Panther Lake-based chip was always going to make for a pricey machine.

Still, it didn't stop me from sucking air through my teeth when I spotted the listing earlier today. However, if you're really desperate for one, you could potentially save some cash at other retailers.

Best Buy also has a listing for the new handheld at $1,700, although as it's currently unavailable, that could well go up by the time it's actually in stock and ready to ship.

But honestly, this seems to be the pricing world we live in now when it comes to high-powered handhelds. Our best handheld gaming PC, the Lenovo Legion Go S SteamOS, used to be a regular feature on our deals pages for around $750 to $800. Now you'll find it listed for north of $1,500 at most retailers that still stock it.

As our Jacob Fox recently opined, handhelds have quickly reached a point where the average gamer will struggle to afford one, and the new Panther Lake offerings are expected to be very expensive across the board. At least looking in comparison to the pre-memory/everything else crisis pricing models.

It seems like only yesterday we were complaining that the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X had a ludicrous price tag at $1,000. As that MSRP is currently holding, it's actually starting to look like a genuine value proposition less than a year after its launch. Especially when a Steam Deck OLED 1 TB with an ageing APU now costs a mere $50 less.

As convenient as handheld gaming PCs are, I'm really struggling to come to terms with these prices in regards to buying advice. While true portability and the option of playing your PC games comfortably in bed is a wonderful thing, it sure does come with a hefty premium these days.

Still, here's hoping the new Claw is as good as our early impressions suggest. It'll have to work pretty hard to justify this sort of cash, I can tell you that much for free.

To showcase the introduction of neural rendering technologies in its next-gen mobile GPU architecture, Arm has teamed up with game studio Sumo Digital and recently dropped a short video of it in action. With ray-traced graphics, AI-denoising, and frame generation, the demo suggests that there's a better home for the tech than a humble phone: handheld gaming PCs.

Using Unreal Engine 5.6, along with its Megalights feature, Neural Dawn will eventually be released as a complete, albeit very short, game later this year. But 120 minutes of gameplay is fine when you consider that it's really just an interactive tech demo, showing what Arm's neural rendering is capable of more than anything else.

Specifically, it's highlighting two things: Neural Super Sampling and Denoising (NSSD), and Neural Frame Rate Upscaling (NFRU). The former is Arm's equivalent to Nvidia's DLSS Ray Reconstruction, and the latter is akin to DLSS Frame Generation.

Of course, we've had this tech on gaming PCs for a few years now, with frame gen first appearing with DLSS 3 in 2022, and ray reconstruction following it in 2023's DLSS 3.5 update. Getting all this onto a phone is certainly impressive and should help such devices run even more complex graphics in the future.

But I wonder if this isn't the best platform for it all, given the increased attention that Windows on Arm has been receiving of late. It could be argued that handheld gaming PCs would actually be better served by switching to mobile phone hardware, rather than using laptop-based APUs.

After all, high-end phones sport displays that make those in the best handheld PC's look basic in comparison, so it's not like mobile GPUs aren't capable of handling the resolutions that the ROG Xbox Ally X or Legion Go S use. In a larger form factor, phone processors can run at higher frequencies for longer, as demonstrated by the Apple MacBook Neo, which is essentially an iPhone 16 Pro in a laptop shell.

Nvidia might not be interested in stepping into the handheld market just yet, but Intel certainly is, so perhaps there is scope for an enterprising portable PC vendor to try something different and go 100% Arm, rather than sticking to one of AMD's much-favoured APUs or Intel's new chip.

However, I suspect hardware isn't the barrier to this transition ever happening, but rather having game developers fully onboard with coding for yet another set of rendering technologies. After all, AMD's FSR 4 isn't supported anywhere near as much as Nvidia's DLSS 4 is, and when it comes to Intel's XeSS, it's almost like developers have never even heard of it.

It would be great to have a handheld gaming PC that's not just super-powerful, but also highly power-efficient, using hardware that's truly designed to be mobile. Unfortunately, for as long as the RAMpocalypse continues to rage, the economy of such a venture wouldn't make sense, and until it's all over and things go back to normal (assuming they ever will), it'll be a long time before we see a 100% Arm handheld PC throwing ray-traced graphics all over the place.

Neighbour shot my PC through the wall from r/pcmasterrace

It's not every day you hear about a PC incidentally saving someone's life. It's even rarer that you hear about a dog shooting a gun. Somehow, this morning on the PCMR Subreddit, one user shared their own harrowing experience, which is a horrid mix of the two.

User angelbabyzz took to the Subreddit to share a picture of their PC, with a bullet hole shot clean through their motherboard (and to add even more horror, straight through their RAM too). In the middle of the night, they were woken up by a gunshot and pieces of tempered glass hitting their face. The tempered glass side panel of their PC was now scattered all over their room having been shattered by a bullet.

Their teary-eyed neighbour came to check on them, "in a complete mess sobbing and shaking and terrified that she had hurt someone" and claiming their dog had somehow accidentally discharged her gun. That shot had passed through the wall and hit the PC in the redditor's room. "The police said that the PC changed the trajectory of the bullet," writes the OP, "and it would have hit me while I was sleeping if the PC hadn’t been there."

It reportedly took three days to clean up all of the glass, and though they are both hoping the neighbour's insurance will cover the PC, the neighbour has agreed to cover the price of the rig if not.

There's naturally a lot of scepticism in the original thread about whether the dog actually caused the discharge of the gun, with the top comment claiming it's a new version of the "dog ate my homework" excuse. Logistically, the thought of a paw somehow getting into the trigger certainly gives pause (paws?) for thought, and if the firearm is faulty enough to go off without touching the trigger, that rings even louder alarm bells. It certainly suggests the gun's safety mechanism was off or not working, either way.

The redditor says, "While I’m not sure about the dog story, it’s very clear from how she responded at the time that it was an accident. She was more messed up about it than I was and could barely speak from crying so hard and her whole body was shaking, and she just kept apologising over and over."

The redditor also claims that they feel the neighbour has paid "her dues" with a criminal charge, confiscation of her gun, the cost of replacing everything, and the constant apologies.

The redditor hopes to rebuild their PC but the memory in their machine has likely risen in price over time, so here's hoping they're still able to get a similarly powerful rig that doesn't cost the earth. But, a gun going off and through a wall with no death or injury is just short of a miracle, even if the memory crisis will make replacing the PC much harder.

We managed to get hands-on experience with Framework's new "MacBook Pro for Linux users" just last week, and we were mighty impressed with it. If you, too, were impressed and placed your preorders for its June release, I have some bad news. It's now going to be released one month later.

In an email sent to PC Gamer and those who have preordered the device, Framework says it has discovered two issues that have made the company push back the release from late June to late July.

The first issue is with the haptic touchpad. Supposedly, Framework engineers spotted a bug with the touchpad where it would "rarely" reset itself after repeated clicking. An investigation discovered that this is partly caused by an electrical issue in the PCB, so now Framework are awaiting the testing period of the new PCB to make sure it is ready to ship en masse.

The second issue is with the display. Framework says that the 13.5-inch 2880x1920 custom display ran into a bug with the current panel, which took a firmware update to solve. Should you want to buy the display by itself, that has also been delayed until July.

One thing that hasn't been delayed is the 13 Pro Mainboard shipments. You can still buy both the Ultra Series 3 and Ryzen AI 300 variants, and if you already have a preorder, you can expect that to arrive by June. Unfortunately, though, Framework clarifies that press reviews of the laptop will go live in July, so those who have preordered mainboards won't be able to catch full reviews before it's in their hands.

The Framework 13 Pro can be selected from Framework with either Windows or Linux, is designed to give strong battery life, has a full CNC aluminium chassis, and has a "power-optimised" display with touch support. The haptic trackpad, as we were told last week, is supposedly a bridge gap for Mac users looking to make the swap. Our Dave said, "They [Mac users] want to be able to touch any part of the trackpad to actuate a click and that's exactly what the new trackpad enables."

Notably, the Linux pre-loaded version of the laptop was actually outselling the Windows configuration when we spoke to CEO Nirav Patel last week. On one hand, that's a good sign of how far Linux has come recently. On the other hand, Framework devices do tend to be a bit more involved due to their breadth of customisation options, so the ultra casual Windows users might not have the 'Framework MacBook Pro' on their wishlist.

We'll have to get even more hands-on time with the 13 Pro to see if the wait and cost are worth it, but we've certainly been pretty into what we've seen so far.

One concept was continually repeated by Nvidia at Computex 2026, and it's this idea of "reinventing the PC." The phrase has been used in reference to the company's RTX Spark SoC—powering "the world’s first Windows PCs purpose-built for personal agents"—and from a hardware perspective, it's an interesting bit of kit.

However, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang went further into the "reinvention" of the PC at a Q&A session later in the show. "Your personal computer is really the world's largest edge device, and it's 40 years old," said the Nvidia chief. "And [it] has to be reinvented for agentic systems…. just like we have to reinvent the car."

Huang then used an example of modern autonomous cars as edge devices, while satellites "put intelligence in the sky." Later, the Nvidia chief had this to say about the future of the PC platform as a whole:

"Our computer sits at our desk waiting for us to use it. In the future, when we leave it… we're talking with it all the time," said Huang.

"I'll be chatting in WhatsApp with my agent, and it's doing stuff... and my agents are going to have names, and they're on my WhatsApp, and we're just chatting all the time. I'll be talking to it, and it's going to be talking back. It'll call me."

"That is the personal computer future. Tell me that's not R2-D2. Tell me that's not robotics. Tell me that's not cool," Huang continued. "I believe that many, many people will have this at home, just like they have a car at home. Soon, the agent is going to be so valuable to you, you want it to be sitting in a nice box, sitting in a nice computer, secure, performant, something you could carry with you, something you would use for a long period of time."

That's a nice sci-fi-style piece of imagery. Who among us hasn't imagined the idea of the ever-present "computer" (summoned with a cut-glass British accent, of course), working away in the background to not just respond to our commands, but to intelligently work with us to satisfy our needs, even at great distances?

The problem, however, is when that thinking runs into the cold, hard wall of reality—and all the extra consequences that entails. As things stand, our PCs are enablers of our own intelligence in a relatively direct way. We input commands, the computer responds. We control the machine, to a considerable degree. We are the agent.

But transforming our PCs into something with more agency, more AI-handled tasks, strikes me as risky business. It's putting the user further away from the machine, and letting AI do much of the heavy lifting instead. And in a world where concerns around the wider scope of the tech are well-publicised, this sort of AI-first thinking seems like a misread of the public perception surrounding it.

It reminds me of a joke/meme I read a long time ago, which I'll reprint here:

"Tech enthusiasts: Everything in my house is wired to the Internet of Things! I control it all from my smartphone! My smart house is Bluetooth-enabled, and I can give it voice commands via Alexa! I love the future!

Programmers/Engineers: The most recent piece of technology I own is a printer from 2004, and I keep a loaded gun ready to shoot it if it ever makes an unexpected noise."

AI is far from perfect. And while it continually improves, the level of public trust around it seems shaky at best. We continually read stories of AI deleting work, breaking existing systems, and hallucinating. It can also be manipulated, sometimes with surprising ease. In this upcoming agentic AI PC world, can we really trust it to integrate itself so smoothly into our digital lives? And more crucially, do we want it to?

Looking at the wider picture of public perspective around AI, the temperature seems to be rising. Students are actively booing speakers who tell them about the wonderful AI future they're walking into.

Microsoft's head of AI, meanwhile, has expressed puzzlement around negative reactions towards the tech, while the company itself is in the process of scaling back AI integration into Windows 11 features, after complaints that the operating system wasn't focusing on the fundamentals. Which are, of course, the traditional functions of your PC.

Personally, I like the fact that my PC is a box that I control directly, not an AI agent platform I work with from afar. It makes me feel empowered. And while there are already lots of unseen processes running under the hood to make that happen for me, I'm not sure a swarm of AI agents will improve the experience.

"We're now reinventing the computer. It's an agentic computer. It's an agent now, it's an assistant, not a tool. And that's the big idea," says Huang. That's a shame. I like tools. They enable me, a human being, to directly express myself. Agentic AI assistants handling many tasks for me, reducing my primary role to some sort of bizarre conductor, though? Is this really what we, the end users, want?

Nevertheless, the artificial intelligence beast continues to spread its tentacles into our daily lives, and we're often told that if we don't get on board with the tech, we're going to be left behind. Don't worry, though. It's a good thing. Agentic AI will make our lives better, and soon we'll all… I don't know. Have more time to go to the beach, or something.

I guess I'll believe it when I see it. But it's difficult not to feel that, as end consumers, we don't really have much of a choice as to how our technological future develops. Our brave new AI-dominated world looks to be coming for us whether we like it or not, and we'd better hope it's everything that was promised. Will I be writing about how awesome my new agentic AI PC is in future? Will I even, thanks to AI, be writing about anything at all?

I've no idea, but it doesn't feel great. How about you?

Custom PCs aren't often the most efficient or the most cost-effective, but they sure do look neat, and this gachapon-inspired build on the Computex show floor is no different. It has a big pink and white floating heart spinning on the top, and that's not even the silliest (positive) thing about it.

For the unaware, gachapons are a form of vending machine that has historically been very popular in Japan, where you pay cash for a chance of getting one of many minifigures or collectables. Without it, the gacha game genre wouldn't exist (or at least it would have a different name).

As shown off by TechLin, we actually saw a version of this PC four months ago over on its YouTube channel, but the updated Computex version has some fun flair to celebrate the yearly tech event.

Built on top of a Thermaltake Tower 600, which already sort of looks like a vending machine thanks to its curved glass panel, it's stuffed with an RTX 5060, Ryzen 5 9600X, and custom water cooling.

TechLin 3D printed a replacement front panel, plus a whole lot of detailing, like a spinning dial to replicate the crank in a gacha machine, plus a price tag icon and a handful of gacha capsules along the side.

The Computex model takes all the best bits of the build from a few months ago, but replaces the Care Bears in the capsules on the side of the PC with tiny sticks of RAM. They're very cute, thematically coloured, and presumably much, much cheaper than that memory would actually cost.

It even has a CPU cooler that plays a custom gacha animation directly in the centre of the PC. This isn't the only custom PC we've seen this Computex, but it is perhaps my favourite. darkFlash's Floatron caught my eye the other day with its custom evil scientist-like build, and we even got a look at one based on the Taipei 101 skyscraper, complete with rock climber Alex Honnold scaling the side of it.

As for custom-styled cases you can actually buy, the Venom-like ferrofluid case and the Corsair military-themed Warthog this year, and I'd quite like to take both home.

In a year marked by severe component price hikes and shortages, Valve is still determined to release Steam Machine and Steam Frame by the end of summer. The company confirmed as much as it announced the expansion of its Verified program, which goes into effect today despite neither Steam Machine or Steam Frame having a firm release date.

Valve's Verified program categorises Steam games based on their performance on Valve's hardware and compatibility with Proton, which makes it possible for Windows games to run on Linux. The Verified system was introduced with the release of Steam Deck, but will now expand to account for the new hardware. We learned a bunch about these changes at GDC, but overall: if a game works well on Steam Deck it'll work well on Steam Machine.

Interestingly, devs are being asked to use the Steam Deck to ensure compatibility in the absence of Steam Machine dev kits, as per the Steamworks documentation. "Steam Machine dev kit units are not currently available. The best way to ensure compatibility on Steam Machine is to work on your title's compatibility with Steam Deck. If your game runs well on Deck, it will also run well on Machine with no extra work required from you."

Steam Deck dev kits were available to studios in advance of its February 2022 release, and Steam Frame dev kits are already out in the wild. Is the absence of Steam Machine dev kits an indication of just how tightly Valve is rationing its access to components?

Whatever the answer may be, the fact that Valve still plans to release its hardware at all will come as a relief to those willing to fork out for what will likely be costly pieces of kit. The AI industry's run on DRAM and NAND memory has caused widespread scarcity and massive attendant hikes in prices. Even the Nintendo Switch 2 and PlayStation 5 have received dramatic price increases in 2026. I wouldn't be surprised if Valve simply said: "The time isn't right, let's put these things on ice for now."

Though Valve hasn't set a price for Steam Machine, it seems increasingly unlikely that it'll be cheap. PC Gamer's hardware editor Jacob Ridley predicted a $529 price tag on a 512GB model in late 2025, but in February had revised that upwards to "around $899". And that was three months ago: things have only gotten worse since then.

But, as Valve's Lawrence Yang told PC Gamer in May, everyone's in the same boat. "You know, it's unavoidable that it will impact basically anything we make that has any of those parts in them. So we're doing our best to make sure that we can make the product and have it still available at as good and competitive a price as we can. But yeah, it's challenging for sure," he said.

Computex is both a proving ground for newly released tech and an excuse for companies to throw stuff at the wall and hope enough people like it. As such, we tend to see a lot of weird tech (here's looking at you, ferrofluid case and GPU with Swarovski crystals in it). However, while laptops have been a little dry this year, MSI has somehow made my favourite and least favourite devices.

Starting with my favourite, I love the Prestige 14 Flip AI+, and its Vincent Van Gogh-themed look. One version is based on Starry Night, and the other is based on Starry Night Over the Rhône. They are more or less just the artwork put on the back of a laptop, with a similarly coloured keyboard, but that's good enough for me, as it's still gorgeous art that would look lovely any time it's pulled out of a backpack.

They also come with a themed mouse pad, box, Bluetooth mouse, and even an ID badge. It's a bit over the top, as one would expect from MSI's Prestige collection, but lovely nonetheless. You're getting Intel Core Ultra processors and no dedicated GPU, so it's not quite a fully-fledged gaming laptop, but it should still handle some games, and it's got an OLED display to back that all up.

It's definitely a bit much for watching YouTube or messing with Excel spreadsheets, but it'll be the nicest laptop in your local cafe. The last MSI artisan laptop (Ukiyo-e edition) was also gorgeous looking. We don't yet have a price, but the Ukiyo-e edition sits around the $1,500 to $2,000 mark.

If you are looking for a gaming laptop to stand out in… other ways, let me introduce you to the MSI Titan 18 HX Dragon Edition Draco Epic (yes, that's its full legal name). It comes with an Intel Core Ultra 9 processor and an RTX 5090 mobile. MSI has truly thrown everything at it, with a 240 Hz Mini-LED display, Cherry MX mechanical keys, a dedicated vapour chamber cooler, and a premium box with limited edition coins, a mousepad, and a gaming mouse.

It's even got super speedy SSD storage, with a total of four M.2 slots that can be linked together as a SuperRAID 5 array, plus a 6-speaker surround sound system, and a wealth of ports (including Thunderbolt 5, USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A and C, plus an SD card reader).

Unfortunately, though, I simply don't like the chunky backplate or the RGB trackpad, and the dragon design is too much for my tastes. It looks impressive in a lot of ways, but I think I'd feel actively embarrassed for just a moment taking it out in a public space. In fairness, those specs imply a very high price point, so I don't think I'd ever feel comfortable taking it out of the house anyway.

I can see the level of artistry on show here, and perhaps if I were on the Computex show floor and saw it in person, my perspective would change. But I don't think I've ever longed for a big RGB-infested, dragon-displaying gaming laptop before, and I don't know if MSI could change my mind.

I caught up with Framework CEO, Nirav Patel at Computex this week, and got my hands on the new Framework 13 Pro for the first time. I've been eager to get hold of what it calls 'the MacBook Pro for Linux users' since it was first announced and, while we'll have to wait just a little longer for our review sample to arrive, my first impression is that it's everything you'd want a premium Framework 13 to be.

And everything about that Apple-baiting tagline makes even more sense now I've got to touch the device and talk about exactly what Patel means by it. Though I'm super-excited to get the 13 Pro in and start throwing some games at the Panther Lake Core Ultra 7 and its integrated B390 GPU core, obviously the target is not specifically gamers, it's software developers.

And, more precisely, the volume of software developers Framework has been talking to who are growing increasingly frustrated at the Mac operating system. Nirav Patel explains that the Linux operating system is the preferred platform for software developers, but the struggle has been that folk coming over from Apple hardware don't want to give up on the feel of that hardware.

Part of it is the premium chassis, and Framework has absolutely nailed that with the new black anodised aluminium surrounds it has created for the Framework 13 Pro. I've been using the standard 13-incher for years, and the laptop chassis is fine, but you wouldn't call it premium. The 13 Pro, however, feels incredibly solid, sturdy, and serious very much like a MacBook or the Razer Blade I'm typing on right now.

Framework hasn't given up any of the repairability, nor has it lost the compatibility, either. You could fit this shell around any Framework 13 device from the past five years or so.

But one of the key things for Patel has been the introduction of the haptic touchpad. He notes that while it might not be a huge thing for PC folk shifting over to the 13 Pro, for MacBook users he saw it as essential to making that shift as smooth as possible for those who want to move away from MacOS but don't want to change how their machines feel to use. They want to be able to touch any part of the trackpad to actuate a click and that's exactly what the new trackpad enables.

The Framework 13 Pro releases later this month, and already the preloaded Linux versions are outselling the Windows options in the pre-orders. "It's actually outselling the Windows configuration," Patel tells me, "which is crazy to see."

Gaming might only be the third pillar of the 'who is RTX Spark for?' foundations, but that doesn't mean it's been an afterthought. Especially not when Nvidia's developer relations team is going out and helping the likes of Remedy make a completely native version of Alan Wake 2—one of the most graphically intensive DX12 games out there—and making it run great on Nvidia's RTX Spark.

I've been playing this native Arm build of Alan Wake 2 on a pre-release version of Microsoft's Surface Laptop Ultra and, while I'm under careful watch so I don't go digging around in the settings, the experience is smooth and the game looks great. And crucially I'm not seeing the telltale smearing of text, input lag, and fine detail screwiness that would tell me it's using a ton of multi frame gen just to get the game running at the 2560 x 1600 resolution I'm playing at. Though I'm confident it is running some level of frame gen in there to get this game running so smoothly on this machine.

Microsoft has been working on this laptop with Nvidia for about three years, Nvidia has been working with MediaTek for two and a half years to make the silicon. And that would suggest Remedy's had ample time to get working on the native Arm port for Nvidia hardware, but Nvidia currently won't be drawn on exactly how long it has taken to get this fully native version up and running.

But it looks damned good to my eyes, and plays well either on keyboard and mouse or with a controller plugged in. Obviously though, this is a tightly controlled demo, and I can't dig in to see what the specific settings are inside the game, but this is still a DirectX 12 game, with a native Arm port running smoothly on this thin-and-light gaming laptop without blowing a gale out the back.

During my time prodding and poking every single RTX Spark laptop and desktop that has made it up to Nvidia's demo floor—from Microsoft, to Dell, Lenovo, Asus, and MSI—I've also had a chance to play with emulated versions of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and Pragmata. Not new beta versions, but simply downloaded from Steam and running on these 64 GB versions of the RTX Spark chip.

"What we're showcasing here is, if you're a developer and your game is running through an emulator, we're going to work with you to make sure it's a good experience," says Jo Vivoli, senior manager in Nvidia's tech marketing team. "If you want to make a native arm build, we're going to work with you to make sure it's a good experience."

And it's something a Microsoft engineer, who has been working on RTX Spark for the past three years echos as I step up to play Indiana Jones.

"It's running through emulation," he says, "and so we wanted to highlight the deep investment that Nvidia and Microsoft has made to make sure that gaming is truly an activity that you can participate on an RTX Spark, and it delivers the expected performance and visuals that you would get out of an RTX graphics card."

And it's all working. I also inexpertly bashed through Pragmata, though this is actually the first time playing the game so I had zero idea what the hell I was doing, why there was a little bot-girl on my back, and why this other robot-with-a-sword wanted to chop us into itty bitty bits. But the game ran super smoothly, even if my gaming skills did not.

Now, this is surely not going to be the universal experience for every game, no matter how commited to the experience either Microsoft or Nvidia are—there is simply too large a back catalogue of games in the PC's long library and there will surely be titles that do not play ball.

But it has been focused on at least what it sees as the biggest games. "We've been looking at the 200 largest, most used creative applications, most used games," another Microsoft representative tells me. "And we're on track to have those working in time for launch."

Maybe suspiciously, this is an Nvidia demo suite and there's no hint of Cyberpunk 2077. Will that work for launch? I'm told they think it does, but I guess we'll find out in the autumn.

US-based Maingear has been offering custom and prebuilt desktop PCs, laptops, and workstations for around 24 years, and most recently, it has launched an updated version of its gaming-focused MG-1. What makes this particular model stand out is that, amongst the raft of hardware configurations you can choose from, there's the option to fit the rig with AMD's latest 3D V-Cache monster: the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition.

For its review sample of the new MG-1 Mk.II, Maingear sent over a build with this 192 MB L3 cache processor, mounted in an MSI MAG X870E Tomahawk Max PZ motherboard, and paired with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition, 32 GB of Kingston DDR5-6000 CL30 memory, and a 2 TB Samsung 9100 Pro Gen5 SSD.

It also houses 120 mm Phanteks D30 RGB fans on the AIO cooler and case exhaust, with the redesigned case fielding three 140 mm fans up front. Almost everything can be tweaked with a custom MG-1, though Maingear is currently using a mixture of Team Group and Adata SSDs in the options list.

Because the review build is a little bit of a one-off, exact pricing isn't possible, but the closest configuration you can currently get that tallies with the one I've been using for a week will set you back around $7,273 (excluding shipping). That's one almighty price tag, and even the simplest of MG-1 configurations (Core Ultra 5 225F, RTX 5060, 32 GB DDR-6000, 2 TB Gen SSD) costs $2,491.

In the case of my review sample, the price is somewhat understandable. Getting hold of a Founders Edition RTX 5090 is nigh-on impossible these days, so you're looking at well over $3,500 just for the graphics card. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition has an MSRP of $899, and the DRAM kit and SSD together come to $944.

Or, to put it another way, those four components alone account for 73% of the total cost of the MG-1 Mk.II gaming PC. The memory and storage prices explain why the base configuration is so pricey, too.

There's naturally always some measure of a mark-up with prebuilt gaming PCs, custom or otherwise, though when you add in everything else (the Phanteks fans, the 1250 W power supply unit, the MSI motherboard with all its connectors on the rear, the non-generic chassis, Windows licence, etc), you'll find that Maingear isn't making a vast sum of money with each sale.

The global memory supply crisis has caused DRAM, SSD, and graphics card prices to balloon and narrow the range of different components that system vendors can choose from to help maximise profits. In Maingear's case, it had to turn to the only thing it could do for shaving pennies off the bill of materials: the PC case.

That's unfortunate because the new chassis is the primary selling point of this update. Don't get me wrong, it looks very nice and that front panel, magnetically attached to the rest of the system, lights up a treat and can be swapped for an array of different designs (though they're none-too-cheap, starting at $99). And thanks to the three 140 mm front fans, internal airflow isn't a problem.

The issue is that the rest of the case is very cheap-feeling. The metal side panel feels no different to something you'd find in a $45 case, and both sides are very fiddly to remove and reinstall. The metal pins/pins that are there to help the panels lock in place are too small, and they pop out far too easily if you install the panels incorrectly.

Although it performs admirably well enough, as we'll soon see in the benchmarks, the Maingear-branded 360 mm AIO cooler is also a little cheap-feeling. The mounting system is as basic as it gets, and the coolant pipes and radiator are somewhat on the slim side.

Fortunately, the Maingear MG-1 Mk.II is a bit of a wolf in sheep's clothing, thanks to the rest of the hardware.

Gaming performance