Valve has announced a batch of new hardware following the Steam Deck… but what Rockstar games can you play on them?
We’ll review each of these hardware and what they mean for the fans who play Rockstar’s games.
Rise Of The Steam Machine
The most important part of this announcement is the new Steam Machine. This time, Valve is making it on their own instead of working with multiple OEMs.
This mini-PC will use semi-custom AMD chips, and this is where we want to help set expectations for potential customers.
The Zen 4 CPU is most similar to last year’s Ryzen Z1 Extreme. Meanwhile, the GPU is most similar to 2023’s RX 7000 mobile GPUs.
Valve’s claim that the Steam Machine can run your games at 4K at 60 FPS is broadly accurate. They obviously didn’t promise this for all of your games.
We may find out this PC’s custom parts performs better or worse than these chips, but don’t expect it to vary that much. Also don’t expect it to compete with top-of-the-line hardware, even among mini-PCs such as this year’s ROG NUC.
Steam Frame And The New Steam Controller
Steam Frame is Valve’s new VR headset. It can run on its own, but it only packs a Snapdragon 8 CPU on ARM64 architecture.
Steam Frame does have game streaming capabilities, and it will run non-VR games as well. So you can stream your Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption games if you want. Obviously, this is non-essential for those games and you’ll probably look for other titles.
The new Steam Controller has all of the Steam Deck’s tricks, like those divisive trackpads, and handy new gimmicks, like grip enabled gyro. It will pair nicely with the new Steam Machine, but you could pick one up just to try on your existing PC.
What Does The Steam Machine Mean For Rockstar’s Games?
Every game that is Steam Deck verified, including Red Dead Redemption 2, is definitely going to run on the Steam Machine.
Valve has touted that the Steam Machine has six times as much performance as the Steam Deck. But Valve will also launch a separate Steam Verified program for the Steam Machine.
This is notable because, if we were honest about it, Red Dead Redemption 2 is a lousy experience on the Steam Deck. Similarly, Grand Theft Auto V is playable but not ideal on Valve’s portable.
We will have to wait next year to find out how well these devices can run Rockstar’s games. Even then, we do imagine if you already have these games on a console, or you have a higher performance PC, you aren’t likely to be drawn in by the hype cycle to get any of these too.
In the meantime, you can watch the new Steam hardware announcement below.
