this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2026
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Valve describes just how brutal RAM negotiations are in 2026 (www.theverge.com)
submitted 2 days ago by tonytins@pawb.social to c/technology@lemmy.world
163 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Valve’s Steam Machine finally has a price: a whopping $1,049 for the 512GB configuration or $1,349 for the 2TB version. And those are without bundled controllers, which drive up the cost more.

The prices are so high in part because Valve isn’t subsidizing the hardware, and the company has already indicated that the component crisis forced it to reconsider its initial pricing plans. In an interview with the YouTube channel Gamers Nexus, Valve engineers discussed the reality of sourcing RAM in 2026, with take-it-or-leave-it prices as memory and other components remain in short supply, from only a few vendors like Samsung, Micron, and SK Hynix.

[...]

Valve, of course, isn’t the only company in a bind over memory shortages, as the crunch is forcing many hardware makers to make significant pricing changes. Even Apple CEO Tim Cook is warning of incoming price hikes for iPhones, Macs, and other devices. And the RAM crunch isn’t projected to get better anytime soon.

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[–] Senal@programming.dev 28 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

You’re also not mentioning that even the base ps5, which was released 6 years ago, performs better than a Steam Machine.

is that based on the specs or some reviews somewhere ?

edit: nvm, looked it up

6700(ish) for ps5 OG

vs

7600 for steam machine

pretty close , though ps5 probably wins due to very specific optimizations for games compiled for that platform.

I'm seeing 7700xt for ps5 pro, not sure if that's correct but it certainly beats a 7600.

[–] GalacticRobot@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Early reviews are saying that the Steam Machine and PS5 perform similarly, with the PS5 being a smoother experience overall due to automatic framescaling. And that's with something that's 6+ years ago.

[–] Senal@programming.dev 6 points 1 day ago

yeah there's a bunch f performance bumps you can get with a fixed end platform and a whole company invested in making games that run on their platform perform well.

[–] potustheplant@feddit.nl 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, it's close but the ps5 was released 6 years ago and it's cheaper. The Steam Machine's bang for buck is awful. It's a pc with console limitations and a pc price.

[–] punkibas@lemmy.zip 15 points 2 days ago (1 children)

What console limitations? it's a full PC.

[–] potustheplant@feddit.nl 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Hardware console limitations. Everything but the SSD and RAM is proprietary and you can't upgrade it. Heck, it doesn't even have an audio output. The I/O sucks hard.

[–] PalmTreeIsBestTree@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yeah not having an audio port is a bit shit especially if this is suppose to be a plug n play type of deal. At least the consoles allow you to use the controllers for audio.

[–] GalacticRobot@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

That was a huge surprise the first time when I plugged in a PlayStation DualSense controller into my PC and the audio started coming out of the controller.

[–] Senal@programming.dev 2 points 1 day ago

You can also plug headphone directly in to the controller (although you've probably seen that).

nightmare for battery life if your headphones are above average impedance though.

(or maybe it's just my headphones, i'm not an audio snob, who knows?)