So the first Steam Machine has been shown off and it looks awesome with some decent specifications to boot.
Thanks to The Verge we have pictures of a good looking white box with a nice light bar going all the way through the middle, it actually looks better than the PS4 and Xbox One.
Image thanks to Eurogamer.
It's an all AMD box with an AMD CPU and Graphics Card which could be a problem considering the reports you still see about how poor AMD's proprietary graphics driver is, I sure hope they polish it up properly in time. I haven't used AMD graphics for some time now so I can't personally vouch for how good/bad they are.
It's an official Steam Machine though and it comes with Valve's new odd-looking controller.
One thing makes me laugh:
I wonder how much testing they have done to claim that. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Thanks to The Verge we have pictures of a good looking white box with a nice light bar going all the way through the middle, it actually looks better than the PS4 and Xbox One.
Image thanks to Eurogamer.
It's an all AMD box with an AMD CPU and Graphics Card which could be a problem considering the reports you still see about how poor AMD's proprietary graphics driver is, I sure hope they polish it up properly in time. I haven't used AMD graphics for some time now so I can't personally vouch for how good/bad they are.
It's an official Steam Machine though and it comes with Valve's new odd-looking controller.
One thing makes me laugh:
QuoteStill, iBuyPower says that existing Steam for Linux games should run quite well, at full 1080p resolution and 60 frames per second.
I wonder how much testing they have done to claim that. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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12 comments
On November 6th they wrote
Valve time sucks.
We will also be selecting final beta participants soon from the pool of eligible applicants, so stay tuned for that, along with more info about how the new in-home streaming feature of Steam.
Valve time sucks.
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I haven't used AMD graphics for some time now so I can't personally vouch for how good/bad they are.
I have a desktop with a Radeon 5870 and a notebook with a 7970M. Both run just fine.
One thing makes me laugh:
Still, iBuyPower says that existing Steam for Linux games should run quite well, at full 1080p resolution and 60 frames per second.
That should be true for, I guess, 95% (or more?) of the games at mid - high settings. The rest still should run in at least 30 fps.
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it actually looks better than the PS4 and Xbox OneIt depends on tastes. For me it looks cheap and as boring as the PS4 and Xbone or any other high-tech mass market product. And that light bar must be annoyingly distracting when playing in a dark room.
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I haven't used AMD graphics for some time now so I can't personally vouch for how good/bad they are.
I have a desktop with a Radeon 5870 and a notebook with a 7970M. Both run just fine.
One thing makes me laugh:
Still, iBuyPower says that existing Steam for Linux games should run quite well, at full 1080p resolution and 60 frames per second.
That should be true for, I guess, 95% (or more?) of the games at mid - high settings. The rest still should run in at least 30 fps.
I'll second this -- the video performance should be just fine for typical 1080p resolution. My current desktop has a Radeon 7850, and the specs for the R9 270 in this SteamBox are actually a little higher
http://www.hwcompare.com/16574/radeon-hd-7850-vs-radeon-r9-270/
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it actually looks better than the PS4 and Xbox OneIt depends on tastes. For me it looks cheap and as boring as the PS4 and Xbone or any other high-tech mass market product. And that light bar must be annoyingly distracting when playing in a dark room.
From the linked article "the light bar will be customisable" so it would make sense that off would be one of the choices.
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I hate to stare at a bright screen in the dark, it's why i very rarely go to the cinema, talk about headaches :(it actually looks better than the PS4 and Xbox OneIt depends on tastes. For me it looks cheap and as boring as the PS4 and Xbone or any other high-tech mass market product. And that light bar must be annoyingly distracting when playing in a dark room.
I think it looks really quite something personally, I bet we will see a lot of interesting designs coming out of people though just wait and see.
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it's why i very rarely go to the cinema, talk about headaches :(Same here! It's frustrating going with friends for a night out, and returning home with serious eye pains and a headache. No idea how others can do it...
The design of the box is ok, but the color doesn't seem to match the controller. I wonder if the looks will be customizable.
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I would want a black or really really dark grey console, and I'd make the light bar fairly dim, and a nice shade of blue. To match the Big Picture color scheme.
But I would want something with an NVIDIA card, myself. Or at least a removable AMD card so I could swap with my PC's NVIDIA card.
I really hope we start seeing a lot more info coming out. It's rough going with the teeny tiny trickle we've got so far, meanwhile new consoles are selling out everywhere... Come on Valve, open up the, er, valve, and let the SteamOS/Machine/Controller/games info gush!
But I would want something with an NVIDIA card, myself. Or at least a removable AMD card so I could swap with my PC's NVIDIA card.
I really hope we start seeing a lot more info coming out. It's rough going with the teeny tiny trickle we've got so far, meanwhile new consoles are selling out everywhere... Come on Valve, open up the, er, valve, and let the SteamOS/Machine/Controller/games info gush!
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The previous iteration showed that it was using off the shelf parts, with the only custom thing being the case which was modified to mount the GPU at a at a 90 degree angle by way of a PCIe riser card just like the old ISA risers in your ancient 386 desktop boxes.
It makes for a more efficient use of space, though on a modern mobo it does obstruct the rest of the expansion card slots, hence why the original Steambox used an ITX based system as ITX mobos usually have a laptop style miniPCIe card slot for wifi and a 16x card slot for a full size GPU.
It makes for a more efficient use of space, though on a modern mobo it does obstruct the rest of the expansion card slots, hence why the original Steambox used an ITX based system as ITX mobos usually have a laptop style miniPCIe card slot for wifi and a 16x card slot for a full size GPU.
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Not sure about the ati graphics, i've been running an HD6870 for a few years now as i was over heating with nvidia gts250 and gtx280, boy you could cook an egg on the gtx280, but now after problems with L4D2 freezing, lagging, micro shutters, etc and metro last light/painkiller not working at all on ati driver, and serious sam 3 running rough with shadow problems i went out and picked up a gtx650 (for testing), yes it's almost half the speed of the HD6870 but the good news is L4D2 runs near perfect, Metro and painkiller work fine other then the problem of closing itself down now and then, serious sam 3 shadows work now but still some lag and shuttering, i do hope ati/amd do sort the graphics drivers out then i could go back to mt ati card but for now it has to be the gtx650 running on driver 319.32.
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My opinion isn't going to apply to everyone since i have a new 7950 which should never stutter but the AMD drivers arn't that bad on it. Sure its nothing like the preformance the card is capable of but i don't get microstutter, input lag or any problems. Most games run max frames although my most demanding game is currently TF2 (yeah, blame the lack of AAA linux games) but overall i'm a happy customer.
Although occasionally i'm reminded of some vsync issues, i had that on windows with every amd card to date so i blame that just on traditions.
TL;DR: AMD drivers arn't as bad as people say, but could be quite a bit better too.
Although occasionally i'm reminded of some vsync issues, i had that on windows with every amd card to date so i blame that just on traditions.
TL;DR: AMD drivers arn't as bad as people say, but could be quite a bit better too.
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philip550c Dec 2, 2013
Its interesting how everyone is different. I hate when the lights are on while im looking at a screen, I find it distracting and I always turn off all the lights when I watch a movie or use the computer.I hate to stare at a bright screen in the dark, it's why i very rarely go to the cinema, talk about headaches :(it actually looks better than the PS4 and Xbox OneIt depends on tastes. For me it looks cheap and as boring as the PS4 and Xbone or any other high-tech mass market product. And that light bar must be annoyingly distracting when playing in a dark room.
I think it looks really quite something personally, I bet we will see a lot of interesting designs coming out of people though just wait and see.
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