Topic: PC Gaming

@Zuljaras LOL you're very welcome. I will be downloading it to my laptop tomorrow as I have work today but I am off tomorrow so I am looking to sink some time into it. I hope it's better then the last few HoMM games.

@Tasuki To be honest the demo alone is better than Heroes 6 and 7 combined!

@Zuljaras That is good to hear, definitely cant wait to check it out tomorrow.

@Zuljaras Put in a few hours into the demo yesterday and, wow I am impressed. I was really enjoying it, I probably put more hours into this demo them I did the last 3 games. Definitely brought back the HoMM addiction. I cant wait for the full release.

@Tasuki Same here! HoMM is special. Also, Disciples 2 is really nice!

I am very interested in this Steam Machine just announced. If Xbox goes the Handheld route I may look into the Steam Machine. If its anything like the Steam Deck then I will probably be getting it. It just depends on price.

The Steam Machine has definitely piqued my interest. Though I do want to look into it a bit more first, especially the price point.

It sounds like it's the Steam Deck experience in your living room, but with a lot more power.

It's hard to determine these things from the spec but it looks like it has a few less cores and compute units than a PS5, but ought to make up for that with being ahead in architecture and offer comparable performance.

If they can price it to compete, it could take off. I don't expect it to set the console world alight, but it should be capable of doing similar numbers to the Deck.

@Matt_Barber
Personally I couldn't care less how it performs on the market. All I know is that the Deck, as much as I love it, isn't great as a docked experience. This seems to address that. If this can be cost-subsidised like the Deck was? Maybe somewhat price competitive with the PS5 even? I mean, sure, why not? That seems like a crazy good deal for a SFF PC of that spec

I mean of course, I could upgrade my current desktop and shuffle some components around to build my own Steam Machine. And I might still end up going down that route. But my Ryzen 3600X based desktop, even though it's getting a bit old now, still does the job just fine. Seems like a better play to spend less and get hardware that's designed to live in that space from the ground up

Hmm, the Steam Machine could be my gateway to PC gaming.

If the 512GB model is $800, I might be tempted.

Given the fact I haven't touched my PC, Steamdeck, PS5 or XSX in years, I initially had no interest in the GabeCube.

Then I saw this announced by Dbrand. I think... I'll let it be known I wouldn't mind this as a 2026 Christmas gift 😀

@Magician
Are you in Canada or Australia? Surely not the US, right? Cause theres no way that thing costs more than $500 USD. Even the 2TB version shouldn't exceed $600. If they really wanna make an earnest effort to compete, they'll do $399/$499 for the two models. But with how prices are nowadays I'm expecting $499/599

I think Valve have done a great job here tbh - absolutely leaning in to all the things that their user base enjoy about the Steamdeck, and listening to consumer feedback.

So much about it is appealing to me, the 'console-ish' experience of SteamOS, the portability of the cube (6x6x6inch?), the fact that the battery element is built in so you only need a cable(?) and the fact it is essentially a slightly less powerful PS5 means it should play majority of modern games pretty decently.

If they can nail the price-point, and past experience shows that they understand the commercial expectations of their user base, then it will be super interesting how Microsoft approach the next XBOX. I suppose XB will need to perhaps differentiate itself as a high-end high-performance PC/Console hybrid.... but likely to then be very very expensive. When coupled with the eye-watering increase for GP ultimate, the XB ecosystem could soon become a very luxury product indeed.

I suppose that we have to take the obligatory look back to 2014 and Valve's previous attempt to bring Steam Machines to the market.

The consensus was that they missed the mark in numerous ways. SteamOS had a poor user interface and experience, Proton wasn't yet a thing so you could only run games with a native Linux version, the controller was great but few games supported it fully, and there was a bewildering array of hardware with specs and pricing all over the place.

A decade on and we know that SteamOS is a far better proposition that a lot of people would actively prefer to Windows, especially in a living room environment. Most games will now work and the community will give you a compatibility report and controller config. We're also now looking at a single model with just different storage options, so there's no decision paralysis about which one to get.

The final piece in the puzzle is the price. Looking again at the spec, I'd reckon that this thing was built to sell for $400 for the entry level model. Due to recent market uncertainties, and everyone else having put their prices up, they might got a bit higher to give themselves a bit of a margin.

While, again, I don't think it's going to make much of a ripple in the console market, it could give the mini PC and pre-built ones a much needed kick up the backside. There certainly are people charging $800-1000 for machines that are no better in both of those.

@CJD87
I haven't touched my PS5 or XSX in 2-3 years, and aside from Monster Hunter Wilds (a brief stint before I got bored and dropped it, first time ever for me given its my favorite series), I haven't touched my PC (or GabeGear) in years either.

But this does appeal to me. Here's why:

As you said- small footprint. And it's quiet. And it doesn't run Windows which is a HUGE reason I dropped PC. Theres a new dual analog Steam Controller with gyro that will seamlessly integrate as "the" controller for it. It will cover all bases with both PS and Xbox 1st party games, negating any need to keep PS5 or XSX (I could make $1000 selling those consoles off on eBay), it will have FREE ONLINE, which on NSW2 only costs me $10/yr (family plan split 8-ways with 7 other members here on this site), but to play online on PS5 or XSX? That crap could cost you HUNDREDS of dollars each and every year! Potentially $3,000+ over the course of a generation, or $4,500+ for both PS5 and XSX over a generation! Even the cheapest options will run you the cost of your actual console over a generation.

It would be perfect for running everything at 1080p 60fps with High Settings, across the board. Which to me is good enough. Many games could do 4k, but 1080p 60fps would be baseline. And with one hardware target, like GabeGear, the GabeCube will likely see many PC games optimizing for it, similar to a console.

I see no downsides here. None. I guess price is the one hang up. But if they can nail $599 on this puppy? I'm in. I'll officially sell off my PS5/XSX, relegate my PC to be a powerful non-gaming Windows machine, and... Idk what I'd do with GabeGear OLED. Keep it, but I never play it. It struggles with too many games, and most of my library that can run is on NSW2 now (natively or via BC). But when GabeGear 2 releases I'd probably sell it and go in on a hybrid Steam experience.

@JaxonH I am genuinely really intrigued.

I was looking at potentially getting a PS5 (had one during pandemic, sold it when I started travelling for work again) but am holding off now until I know more about the capabilities and price point for the Steam Machine. If indeed it is essentially a 'slightly less powerful PS5' and the pricing is sound, I think I might convert to the GabeCube.

I'm certainly not a PC-head, and favour the 'console experience', which for me SteamOS makes pretty easy... the tweaking and emulation is also there, not to mention that the Steam eco-system is really quite affordable (frequent game sales, not paying for online play!).

Also the era of platform-exclusive games seems to be dead or on its way out... Halo on PS, Horizon on PC etc. Timed exclusives still a thing, but won't kill me to wait 6/12 months for something to come to steam.

Between Switch2 and Steam Machine I'd probably have access to all/most of what I wanted to play.

Personally I don't get the Cube at all, less power than a home console, portable but not as portable as a deck or Switch (or equivalent). I guess if this thing is like under 500 dollars then I can see the value proposition of this, but if they are pushing a grand for this thing, then it is worse than any equivalent at the same (or lower) price point. I guess if you are completely locked into the Steam ecosystem and want to do family sharing and stuff maybe? But then I dunno why you wouldn't just get a Deck and Dock (under a scenario where this is 2+ x the price - obviously all of this goes out of the window if the prices are similar)

@Pizzamorg It is approximately 6x more powerful than a Deck though. And while the GPU isn't that powerful, the CPU really is, and I have a feeling Valve is going to show us why CPU performance is a lot more important than we thought with their upcoming VR project(s).

But you're right, it needs to be under $500 for this to make sense to customers.

@OmnitronVariant Yeah it is one of those weird things, cause it is more powerful than a deck objectively, but still not actually powerful 😂 (at least relative to home consoles and mid ranged PCs). This is why the price is everything in terms of making this make sense and not make sense.

You are right too, that since this is housed in the Steam architecture maybe they'll have some wizardry to push the performance beyond expectations with Cube specific optimisations for titles. Although I do think the Verified for SteamDeck thing has kinda become a bit of a joke over the years, with many games getting the tick of approval despite woeful performance on the device.

If the Gabecube comes in around $500...I'm even more interested.

I would say the reason why there's somewhat of an imbalance here between the CPU and GPU spec more just comes down to relative cost of componentry and workload. It's very, very easy to overspec the CPU. This CPU is pretty close to the bottom of the run mobile Ryzen CPUs short of going for the super power efficient or discounted previous generation variations. And the high clock would be more just a result of the size of the cooler. And outside of very specific titles and stuff like shader compilation gaming on PC hasn't really been that CPU bound for a good while now. Unless you're pushing for super high FPS

In terms of the stack of components? The GPU is kinda in a similar spot on the stack. It's basically equivalent to the cheapest still current mobile spec GPU spec from AMD before you start stripping stuff back for the sake of efficiency. It's a sensible pick. The problem is that, especially relative to where they are in the CPU space, AMD's GPUs are behind the curve. Additionally games are, especially these days, more GPU bound applications. So there's a double whammy there

But if they want to be competitive with the price of the PS5 I'm not sure what else they could've done. By my napkin maths a roughly-equivalent DIY (albeit desktop grade and not SFF) version of this would be... (napkin maths) a tad under $1000AU (around $650US). Looking at laptops I can see something similar-ish going for around $1100AU so, that's kinda the price tier we're dealing with here. The PS5 is $750AU for the regular SKU and $1200AU for the 2GB Pro

I don't think there was room in this budget for a larger GPU