OneXPlayer 3 handheld console vs Valve Steam Machine yields surprising results
On the surface, it is completely unfair to compare the OneXPlayer 3 handheld gaming console with a limited 45 W TDP to the Valve Steam Machine home gaming console that can consume up to 140 W. However, modern mobile APUs from Intel and AMD have come a long way and feature pretty capable iGPUs. This makes the OneXPlayer 3 vs Steam Machine comparison a rather interesting one, as the OneXPlayer 3 features the Intel Arc G3 Extreme.
The Intel Arc G3 Extreme is one of the best x86 APUs for gaming currently on the market. It features a 14-core Intel Panther Lake CPU and a 12 Xe-core Arc B390 iGPU. The latter is a superb gaming iGPU, as we found out in our review of the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+.
ETA Prime’s testing of the OneXPlayer 3 vs the Steam Machine shows that, despite the obvious performance gap, the OneXPlayer 3 is far from a slouch, even compared against a home console.
In Cyberpunk 2077, running at 1080p with high settings and “Quality” image upscaling, the OneXPlayer 3 and Steam Machine managed 79 and 109 FPS, on average, respectively. The OneXPlayer 3 is 25% slower, which is much better than what the specs and the gap in TDP suggest.
What’s more surprising, however, is that the OneXPlayer 3 actually beat the Steam Machine in Forza Horizon 6 at both 1080p and 1440p. The OneXPlayer 3 played Forza Horizon 6 at 68 FPS at 1080p/high settings with XeSS “Quality”, whereas the Steam Machine earned 67 FPS using the same settings. At 1440p without using any image upscaling, the OneXPlayer 3 beat the Steam Machine with 51 FPS vs the Steam Machine’s 41 FPS result.
Steam Machine’s performance in Forza Horizon 6 is in stark contrast to its performance in Cyberpunk 2077. This suggests that Forza simply runs much better on Windows than on SteamOS.
In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the OneXPlayer 3 was just 18% and 7% slower than the Steam Machine at 1080p and 1440p with high settings and no image upscaling.
Finally, ETA Prime shows that Multi-Frame Generation on the Intel Arc G3 Extreme can allow the portable console to push performance close to the Steam Machine, also using MFG, in Crimson Desert.
Long story short, the OneXPlayer 3, powered by the Intel Arc G3 Extreme, shows why handheld gaming consoles are at a point where you don’t have to sacrifice performance for portability. The only real issue now is the price. The OneXPlayer 3 starts at $1,499. At that price, you can buy a full-fledged RTX 5070 gaming PC or a Nintendo Switch 2 + a Sony PlayStation 5 for around $1,130.
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