Playnix launches Steam Machine competitor with Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB, now costs €1140
Posted by fatso486@reddit | hardware | View on Reddit | 149 comments
fatso486@reddit (OP)
DDR4? weird choice im assuming it has a Cezanne 5500/5600G. Kinda slow but "good enough" I guess. If were lucky it might be a Vermeer 5600. I think the 9060XT is perfect.
its a steam machine done right. what they saved with DDR4 they more than made up for it upgrading that annoying 7600m. slightly faster than P5Pro
TitleEfficient3207@reddit
My dude, even DDR3 is still just fine for all gaming purposes. Most people are getting by with like 3060s 16gb DDR4 and like 10th gen i5s.
TheIndecisiveBastard@reddit
“steam machine done right” seems like a bit of an overstatement
in any case, the price seems incredibly steep and offsets whatever advantages it might have over Valve’s offering
IORelay@reddit
16GB vram is future proof 8GB vram is obsolete on arrival. I'd consider theses 2 hardwares very different.
imKaku@reddit
As well as better upscaling. The steam box will sell, but it’s not a good device.
NeroClaudius199907@reddit
12gb is already obsolete cant imagine 8gb in 2026
EdliA@reddit
What do you mean overstatement? Based on everything we know about the steam box, it wouldn't be hard to beat it. It's a very underwhelming device.
Working-Crab-2826@reddit
Well, most people on Reddit think anything manufactured by Valve is worth it just because its valve.
Valmar33@reddit
There is precedent for that belief, though ~ Valve is well-known for delivering quality products.
We don't even know if the Steam Machine specs are final, so everyone critiquing it is attacking effectively placeholder specs. Which, while okay, is also sort of meaningless.
However, there is also quality to consider... the Steam Deck, while less powerful than other handhelds in the same category, is of far better design quality, OS quality, and overall experience. It also offers a lot of power and flexibility through many third-party plugins and programs.
Working-Crab-2826@reddit
Steam deck is an overrated paperweight.
Valmar33@reddit
What do you base this on??? The Steam Deck is awesome for indie games. Also excellent for playing retro games through EmuDeck or the sort.
And that's precisely what I use it for ~ indie and retro games. Got me back into playing OG Advance Wars.
Working-Crab-2826@reddit
Nothing better than paying more than a current gen console to… play 2D indie games
Lmao
Valmar33@reddit
Did you ignore the retro part? That includes 3D retro games. 3D indie games also play well.
The Steam Deck also doubles as a portable PC.
You're clearly not the target audience for the Steam Deck, if all you care about is AAA games, which struggle even on modern desktop PCs.
Working-Crab-2826@reddit
So you paid 500 bucks to play 2D indie games and emulate stuff we have been emulating on $80 handhelds since forever? Lmfao
Valmar33@reddit
What "$80 handhelds" are you even talking about? The Steam Deck is a very damn flexible portable gaming handheld that's also cheaper than its competitors. It also has better cooling, better construction.
Do you have a source for those numbers? Clearly the Steam Deck has an audience ~ it's been selling very damn well. Especially the OLED.
Spooky_U@reddit
Right, that comment is confidently saying it doesn’t compete well against something that doesn’t exist and isn’t priced.
gahlo@reddit
But muh Gaben!
Firefox72@reddit
Its the GPU that kills the Steam Machine for me.
An RDNA3 7600 performance level GPU that can't do FSR4 in the year of our lord 2026 is just a bad buy.
goldcakes@reddit
Well it can do INT8 FSR4. Should AMD choose to enable it. Hopefully Valve has enough clout to finally force AMD to enable it, and hopefully not just for the steam machine but officially.
AnimalShithouse@reddit
Price is the ultimate factor that decides a product's success. Even bulldozer could be moved at the right price.
The device in this link is priced poorly for anything other than a very niche audience, like an order of magnitude or two more niche than the steamdeck.
Jared_pop21@reddit
As if the steam machine will be sub 1k now either
DrBhu@reddit
I think you greatly underestimate steams patience and determination; they may just sit this out.
(And I would not be surprised if this pays out for them since lord gaben pretty much always wins)
VampiroMedicado@reddit
I hope they release the goddamn controller
DrBhu@reddit
Judging hardware based on a vague news article without any benchmarks is always a bit of an overstatement; specially if you compare it with a ghost machine which is not even on the market yet.
Specially when it comes to steam it is not just enough to pack enough hardware in a sexy small package talking about "4K60FPS" in cyberpunk since Steam proofed with the steam deck that they offer more than just raw power and marketing buzzwords on their hardware.
n0stalghia@reddit
That statement only works if we were to know Valve's offering, but we don't. We have no idea about Steam Machine pricing.
diskowmoskow@reddit
If you put ddr5 and/or beefier CPU… that would be an expansive gaming pc 😅consoles are usually kinda underpowered but somehow balanced machines.
L3G1T1SM3@reddit
Guess we'll see how the price compares to the eventual steam version.
reddit_equals_censor@reddit
*16 GB version of the 9060xt is perfect.
completely destroys the steam machine with its missing vram.
such a pity, that valve didn't do the steam machine right, because they could have done a custom apu with unified 32 GB memory at least and that would have been amazing.
freaking 8 GB 7600m is such a joke.
NeroClaudius199907@reddit
They're begging consumers to sell them their own ram and you think they could've gone with 32gb?
Ambitious_Air5776@reddit
I think this post is great proof nobody gives a single damn about build quality, repairability, or fucking anything other than raw components/price. All we have is some screenshots of the outer chassis and a spec list. For all we know, this thing could be a hackjob with parts hotglued and soldered into place, melting connectors, impossible to even open without destroying shit, and we've already got posts like OP saying 'this is how it's done'.
posts like this make me wonder why I bother trying to build my devices with repairability in mind. competitor will skip that to save on assembly time and components, reduce price by a fraction of the savings, and all the customers will praise the slop job instead. it's all so tiresome
trololololo2137@reddit
steam machine is a hackjob. outdated cheap laptop parts, stuffed into a plastic box.
they are making an inferior product to a 5 year old PS5 while making it more expensive
beigemore@reddit
This guy probably has a katana on the wall behind him.
IORelay@reddit
Price is king.
alabasterskim@reddit
What is "P5Pro"?
-Outrageous-Vanilla-@reddit
Zen2 or Zen3 CPU are great choices for a target of 60 FPS.
Faster CPUs are needed for 144Hz monitor and beyond, but that would also need a faster GPU.
Ebear225@reddit
Depending on the game you can get lots of stutters below 60fps with these CPUs though. It's very subjective and game dependant though for sure.
theunspillablebeans@reddit
Depends on the game, depends on the resolution, depends on a lot of things. Saying X CPU is good enough for Y frame rate is less than meaningless without context.
Zen 2 and Zen 3 will absolutely get you over 144Hz at QHD in many eSports titles for exampled at reasonable settings.
1440pSupportPS5@reddit
It would be embarrassing if valve launched the steam machine at anywhere near $1000 with those specs. But i have a feeling they will. I would not pay anything over $600.
iucatcher@reddit
its not going to be under 800 but i agree with you regardless
Caffdy@reddit
is not 2019 anymore
Ambitious_Handle7322@reddit
What 2019 brother, that's the price it would have launched at before the shortage.
airfryerfuntime@reddit
They've said that they're artificially raising the price so it remains a 'premium' gaming console, and not something people buy just to use as a full PC alternative. It'll probably be $850.
Method__Man@reddit
The steam machine will be between 800 and $1000 for SURE
XTornado@reddit
Oh yeah I would forget about 600$.
1440pSupportPS5@reddit
I have no skin in the game, but the product just doesnt make sense to me past that price given the specs.
BlackSailor2005@reddit
🤣🤣 keep dreaming, even before all this mess people were arguing about a 600$ price tag
ivarokosbitch@reddit
This might be the most boted thread I have ever seen here.
MrPayDay@reddit
„a 512GB NVMe SSD, a second free NVMe slot“
I am spoiled with like 30 installed steam games, but I guess you really need another NVMe here.
FrivolousMe@reddit
It's a real balancing act. You can have 30 indie games installed and be fine, but max 2 AAA games and be hurting.
MrPayDay@reddit
Indeed!
ggRavingGamer@reddit
You can get an external drive, sata or nvme. And install games on that.
Hell, I move between houses with different pcs in them with my external ssd. And the games work on all pcs.
FrivolousMe@reddit
External drives for gaming are going to be horribly slow for anything with a lot of textures and meshes. Onboard always unless you're playing something trivial.
lifestealsuck@reddit
Games mostly use random reads, and they are so slow on SSD that theres no way they can saturate USB 3.0 speed .
I played games on both my internal NVMe Gen 4 and an NVMe over USB 3.0 Gen 1 (5 Gbps). The difference is there if I count the load times with a timer, but it’s similar enough that I don’t really feel it.
VenditatioDelendaEst@reddit
I do not think saturating the bus is the right problem.
QD1 random reads: latency is very important, because you need to get the data back from the last read to know where to read in the next one. Extra switching/translating devices on the path are bad.
QDlarge random reads: fly-by-night USB-to-NVMe may not support separate queues per CPU core.
Lirael_Gold@reddit
This is true if you're talking about spinning rust drives.
it is not so for SSDs.
VenditatioDelendaEst@reddit
The problems with USB-SATA adapters are questionable reliability and not supporting native command queuing. Both of those are equally bad on an SSD. Or worse because SSDs aren't limited by a single physical read head, so NCQ can take advantage of real concurrency, not just better path optimization.
Zaprit@reddit
Modern usb or thunderbolt should still be significantly faster than SATA, I don’t think it would be that bad. Though older usb would be a bit slow
Deep90@reddit
Yeah just use the correct port and enclosure.
madn3ss795@reddit
Yep, you can get a 10gpbs external nvme closure with any gen 3 or better SSD and it's more than fine for modern AAA games. Better get an enclosure with active cooling though.
MrPayDay@reddit
This is the way! I am just too lazy
TheGillos@reddit
Ah yes... I'll just install my favourite game Ark: Survival Evolved...
... 400 GB... aaaaaaand I'm out of space.
Genorai@reddit
lol. lmao even. Isn't the entire point of the steam machine to get the people who don't want to bother making or choosing a computer (in other words console players and people that don't have ridiculous budgets) to finally get one? If what you are offering is worse than the PS5 pro at a worse price than the PS5 pro and also without the name and guarantee of being a valve product then what exactly is the point?
Due_Teaching_6974@reddit
I mean the Steam Machine could well be $800-1000 as well we just don't know yet so stop calling it a console for 'people that don't have ridiculous budgets'
Vivid-Software6136@reddit
Given the current climate id be surprised if the steam machine launched at 999EUR or below.
FinalBase7@reddit
Are yall smoking crack? At that price you can get a 5060 pre-built which just kinda shits all over the cube
Due_Teaching_6974@reddit
Not anymore
RHINO_Mk_II@reddit
It's DOA at that price and above.
Vivid-Software6136@reddit
I agree. Hoping valve see that and launch at a reasonable price.
FollowingFeisty5321@reddit
They've straight up said it will be priced like similar hardware as opposed to the Steam Deck barely above costs. I'd be surprised if Gabe doesn't get a mega yacht out of this.
NapsterKnowHow@reddit
But that mega party yacht is for "marine research" /s
GalvenMin@reddit
Well it's funded by whales, so...
Kryohi@reddit
This thing is launching barely above 1000€ and has a much more expensive GPU with 16GB of GDDR6.
Steam machine hardware probably costs Valve 700€ or less.
sitefall@reddit
People were excited for a machine that brings value (like the steam deck did honestly). Seems like the RAMpocalypse happening kind of ruined Valve's whole business plan with the Steam Machine. They could have taken some loss before and benefit from Steam Game sales (they have the stats to know how many sales the steam deck brought in for example), but even that seems out of reach now.
Genorai@reddit
Well yes, but as I said at least in that case it's a valve product. A bit more "official" if you get what I mean. Whatever the price is the risk surely must seem a bit less to someone that doesn't know much about computers other than where you buy the games.
Refries@reddit
The steam machine is worse than the ps5 pro as well, and they already announced no subsidized pricing
Genorai@reddit
As I said to another redditor I think of the steam machine as a product that a lot of people will buy even if it's worse than the PS5 pro at both price and performance simply because of Valve's name and what it usually means for the consumer. Perhaps I am overestimating the knowledge of the average gamer that doesn't already have a PC but to me at least the product having "Steam" at it's name means that it will surely work, get supported and updated for a long time. I personally don't have the same faith in other companies, even bigger ones than the example of this post.
Refries@reddit
supported for a long time? valve?
A_Seiv_For_Kale@reddit
Yes, Valve supports the things they make for a long time. Are you an alien??
Refries@reddit
Nah, just a TF2, Dota player, we will see how many updates you get when its not longer the hot thing in the company.
VampiroMedicado@reddit
The HW division do release updates often, they even kept updating the Steam Link box thing
void_nemesis@reddit
My original Steam Deck still gets updates and has parts available, that's longer than most Android phones by now. No sign of stopping either.
Genorai@reddit
Yeah, haven't they released a ton of updates for the steam deck? And also doesn't steam itself get major new features every couple of months or so? Maybe I am wrong but I had the impression that steam deck users were very happy with valve.
Seanspeed@reddit
Right, and either way, Steam itself is what is always well supported.
CoconutMochi@reddit
Seems the company behind Playnix is Emudeck, easy to assume they had emulator compatibility in mind when releasing this. It's definitely a niche audience though.
sertaes@reddit
What?
A ryzen 5600/9060xt is better than a PS5 pro in both cpu and GPU.
A steam machine CPU is way better but it's held back by a GPU way worse than even the base PS5.
So to clarify. This steam machine alternative is better than the PS5 pro at a worse price.
The actual steam machine is the one worse than even the base PS5 at the pro's price or higher.
IORelay@reddit
Steam machine's CPU is limited to 30W and only 2 zen4 cores. Realistically it's probably worse than 5600.
RHINO_Mk_II@reddit
Source?
OverlyOptimisticNerd@reddit
I wouldn’t go that far. DF showed the 9060XT as being on par with or marginally better than the PS5 Pro.
As for the CPU, unless it’s really old, a 6-core Zen 4 or 5 is faster than the 8-core Zen 2 in the PS5 and Pro.
But you’re right about every other point, IMO.
Genorai@reddit
I think I consider the PS5 pro to be better because after the pssr upgrade just about every game that gets a pro patch has great upscaling that allows for decent performance. The 9060 xt is great (I have the 9070 xt myself) but fsr4 is almost never included in games even in 2026 and fsr3 wasn't good even when it first released let alone today.
pythonic_dude@reddit
FSR4_UPGRADE=1 %command% in steam launch parameters solves it for all FSR3.1 games.
Noreng@reddit
If you're on Linux with a recent Proton version, that is.
iDontSeedMyTorrents@reddit
Well, this is a Linux box and you'll likely be using Proton to play games, so that's kinda covered already.
Noreng@reddit
Huh, I wonder how they got around the HDMI issues.
froop@reddit
There is a driver patch in the works, ironically more likely to be included in this device than in the steam deck due to legal issues.
Noreng@reddit
The problem is the HDMI ports included. Since the Steam Deck needs a dock, there's actually no issue with HDMI 2.1 provided the dock in question has paid it's fees to the HDMI forum.
froop@reddit
Steam Deck would still need HDMI 2.1 features in the amd Linux driver, which currently isn't exactly kosher and the HDMI forum actively resists enabling. Other Linux distributions aren't hardware vendors though and don't necessarily care about HDMI licensing.
glizzygobbler247@reddit
What 2026 games are you thinking of that dont have fsr4?
TopdeckIsSkill@reddit
Pragmata
glizzygobbler247@reddit
Its got fsr3.1 that can be upgraded to fsr4
AccomplishedAnt2754@reddit
But with the PC, you can ramp up the settings on gen8 games rather than them being stuck at 900p 30fps.
Was literally the best thing ever when I moved to pc!
NapsterKnowHow@reddit
Most PS5 titles run at 60fps-90fps 900p-1600p. That's better than most desktop PC gamers
AccomplishedAnt2754@reddit
Yes but gen8 games that were never updated run at those specs
NapsterKnowHow@reddit
A decent amount received free or paid patches/updates
AccomplishedAnt2754@reddit
Yes, and there's stacks that didn't. Including the game that motivated me to switch, Prey
NapsterKnowHow@reddit
And for those you can force the newer VRR and PSSR features
Genorai@reddit
Sure you can and that is the reason my PC is my main gaming platform and has been for years. The problem is however, that nowadays games simply aren't well made and they run very poorly. The only way to circumvent that is by throwing more power at the problem which obviously isn't the realm of the 9060xt.
AccomplishedAnt2754@reddit
I feel people overstate how bad pc games run. Sure there's some stinkers, but if you look for optimised settings, there's normally a few that are just needlessly heavy, and with those turned off + a community patch, most stuff runs fine
Genorai@reddit
Unfortunately my experience is very different and I am exactly the kind of person that searches for optimized settings for my games. Most triple a games have been almost unplayable (at least on release and for at least a few months). Borderlands 4 and Monster Hunter Wilds have been particularly bad examples. At least I can always count on Resident Evil to run perfectly every time.
AccomplishedAnt2754@reddit
I mean, those were the two worst performing games of the last 12 months. There's been plenty of others that have been absolutely fine
TopdeckIsSkill@reddit
as a 9070XT owner, there is no option to automatically upgrade fsr3 to fsr4? optiscaler is still the only option?
Noreng@reddit
No, and there never will be. AMD swapped to the DLL approach with FSR3.1, meaning any game that shipped with FSR3.0 or FSR2.X will need Optiscaler to upgrade the FSR upscaling.
Genorai@reddit
The option exists I believe in the last 3 or so driver updates. The very same updates have been extremely unstable for some people. Mine was working for a bit before breaking again with the latest version. I haven't done the usual song and dance with rollbacks yet because of lack of time though.
TopdeckIsSkill@reddit
Can you explain which driver issues you got? I never had with mine
Genorai@reddit
Sure I have had a bunch of issues with driver timeouts, inexplicably low framerates (that get way higher and more stable on other versions with no other changes) and my personal hell which is actually the only problem that I haven't managed to find online. While the framerate is normal and stable according to the game (when this happens it does with all games, not one specific example) every few seconds or minutes the game starts lagging REALLY bad. The best way to explain how it looks would be that it looks like my monitor's frequency suddenly drops to about 20Hz before randomly recovering after 30 seconds or so.
dabocx@reddit
If it’s ddr4 then it’s zen 3 most likely
OverlyOptimisticNerd@reddit
I looked it up and it appears to be a Ryzen 5 5600.
So yes, Zen 3.
SirActionhaHAA@reddit
That's true for steammachine too and it's even worse because it ain't got fsr4 support. This product at least looks more practical than whatever delusions the valve fans have over steammachine.
ithinkitslupis@reddit
I also think part of the steam machine is also wanting first class long term support and grouping together to standardize hardware so devs have a nice target...which this is also going to fail at.
iDontSeedMyTorrents@reddit
Okay, but this is a lot faster than the Steam Machine except maybe in strongly CPU-limited scenarios.
Genorai@reddit
My thoughts exactly.
Luxuriosa_Vayne@reddit
yea but you're paying 60 euros minimum per game, on Steam just waiting a year is enough to get triple AAA under that
Guess how many PS4/PS5 I have and how many PC ones
Siats@reddit
Storage aside, this is better than a PS5 Pro. From Digital Foundry's testing, the Pro only performs 30%-40% better than the regular PS5, which is roughly equivalent to an RTX 4060 in raster. A 9060 XT 16GB is 50% to 100% faster than an RTX 4060 (1440p Ultra and 4k ultra respectively, Tom' Hardware).
doneandtired2014@reddit
Outside of storage capacity, how're you coming to that conclusion?
Cezanne is still 15-25% faster than the Renoir derivative in the PS5 Pro (which performs like a 1700x more often than it doesn't), the 9060 XT is about 15% faster with more dedicated memory, and all of it is packed into a fairly compact SSF case.
Would have been stupidly overpriced this time last year? Yeah.
Is it stupidly overpriced when the PS5 Pro is now $200 more expensive than it was at launch? No, not really and not in a world where 16 GBs of "okay but not great" DDR4 is pushing $200 and a 512 GB drive is within the same ballpark of what we were buying the fastest 2TB PCIe 4.0 TLC drives at
as of last summer (which are currently hovering around the new price of a base PS5).
Seanspeed@reddit
No, that isn't really the point.
It's for people who want a small, very small form factor PC that is already setup for gaming with a dedicated front end so you dont have to bother with Windows and all its difficulties.
Valve have even said they aren't subsidizing Steam Machine, so giving amazing performance per dollar is not a priority here.
Also, there's way more advantages to PC gaming than just raw horsepower comparisons.
mpgd@reddit
I might get a similar machine. I moved to a new place with limited space so this would fit under my TV.
For my use case a console doesn't makes sense (all my friend are on PC) and this is strong enough for the games I play. If I can build a similar SFf pc with the same budget I will not consider it.
Sh1v0n@reddit
Arch-based PlaynixOS? Good.
Weird-Adhesiveness15@reddit
Can someone link me the official website to Playnix and this machine? I can't seem to find it in Google.
GoranjeWasHere@reddit
playnixOS not SteamOS. yeah lolololol
kingwhocares@reddit
It's not a Steam Machine, it's a PC. And you can get better ones at that price.
Jazzlike_Tank7171@reddit
You are getting downvoted but you are right. The steam machine is steam os optimized for console and controller ( technically a computer like every game system has been for decades now). Console gamers want to get right into steam, no fuss, controller in hand. If you want to deep dive into the computer world of steam machine, you can, but its about the console experience which this thing wont give you. The steam machine should give you that. People are focusing way too much on performance and not enough on ease of using Steam with added Steam controller. Im not even a fan of valve and I understand the purpose of stram machine.
DirectorDry2534@reddit
Guess the price is thanks to our AI overlords. But even if it were cheaper, it looks goofy af. That alone is reason enough to still pick the Steam Machine.
Gloriathewitch@reddit
way too expensive saw a 9060xt 16g for 419 today, the rest of the computer is not $700. get the $155 5500 ryzen mobo and ram deal, then get a cheap 1tb nvme and you're very much in the green
SpiritedHornet0@reddit
"Cheap 1tb nvme"
DrBhu@reddit
Hard to compete with a phantom
max1001@reddit
You can get 5070 laptop for that price in USA.
alabasterskim@reddit
Do you have a link to one?
max1001@reddit
https://www.costco.com/p/-/hp-omen-16-slim-gaming-laptop-intel-core-ultra-9-285h-geforce-rtx-5070-16-1920-x-1200-144hz-32gb-ram-1tb-ssd-windows-11-home/4000373324
alabasterskim@reddit
That's $160 more and a sale price at a place you need a membership ?
max1001@reddit
1140 Euro = 1338 USD dumdum.
alabasterskim@reddit
I'm looking at the US pricing right now and the unit is $1139 USD. They didn't do a 1:1 conversion.
jenny_905@reddit
That is more like the spec Valve should have gone for.
Plank_With_A_Nail_In@reddit
I can buy a regular pre built PC with better specs lol.
pythonic_dude@reddit
Ships with Linux, Radeon gpu and hmdi cable? Seriously? Is compiling kernel with patches bringing (some parts of..) hdmi 2.1 support left as an exercise for the buyer?
Ashratt@reddit
Chroma Subsampling is an absolute non-issue in games
Nobody buys this to edit excel sheets on his TV
DuuhEazy@reddit
The fact neither nvidia intel or amd has figured there is a considerable market on board powered, low profile gpus is insane, would make these builds a lot easier.
FollowingFeisty5321@reddit
There's quite a few mini PCs doing this with Intel and Nvidia, they're just not preinstalling the OS for you.
https://www.zotac.com/us/product/mini_pcs/magnus-en474070c-barebone
https://rog.asus.com/desktops/mini-pc/rog-nuc/
Stennan@reddit
GPU wise I'd wager it being twice as fast as a 7600M steam machine? But the price high enough to prevent people from getting an extra living room pc.
fatso486@reddit (OP)
DDR4? weird choice im assuming it has a Cezanne 5500/5600G. Kinda slow but "good enough" I guess. If were lucky it might be a Vermeer 5600. I think the 9060XT is perfect.
The specs are basically a faster P5Pro
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