Steam Machine compared against PS5 in Cyberpunk 2077 with similarly-specced PC

Valve has offered a lot of details about the Steam Machine, except for its price. However, with the hardware of the gaming mini PC considered, it could very likely be priced anywhere between $600 and $800. In one of the recent videos, Linus Tech Tips has taken a deeper dive into the potential price.

With a similarly configured system built, Linus believes that the Steam Machine will be priced $699.99 at launch. This pricing would make Valve's new gaming PC slightly pricier than the non-Pro PlayStation 5 Slim, which retails for around $550 when there's no sale in place (curr. $449 on Amazon).

Speaking of which, Linus also put the Frankensteined Steam Machine up against the PS5 in a gaming performance comparison, testing Cyberpunk 2077 on both. Of course, at first, the Steam Machine-like PC build couldn't hit 60 FPS at the 4K resolution with the visual settings set at Medium.

To hit the 60 FPS mark, Linus set FSR to the Performance mode, while the visual preset was dialed down to Low. With these changes, the PC that resembles the Steam Machine could offer a much smoother performance, and that's basically what Valve is going for with the system.

Nonetheless, in the comparison, Linus and David note that the visuals on the Steam Machine-like PC appear to be a little sharper than on the PS5. However, the lighting on the PlayStation 5 seems to be better in comparison. The good part is that the graphics settings on the Steam Machine can be tweaked as preferred.

On consoles such as the PlayStation 5, it's either performance or visuals, which mainly changes the target FPS between 30 FPS and 60 FPS. Valve has also said that the Steam Machine will come with a custom AMD driver and deep integration with SteamOS. These two are expected to squeeze a bit more out of the hardware, but they can only be tested when the system launches, which is expected to happen in early 2026.