Valve Steam Machine Review: The Broken Console

Valve what to say Steam Machine can hit “up to 4K on 120 Hz” for displays supported via an HDMI 2.0 connection (even using AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) upscaling tech, instead of native resolution), but the Steam Machine Verified logo that will be used for games on the Steam Store is based on the 1920 x 1080 benchmark.

I’ve been testing on a 55-inch 4K OLED TV and 27 inches 1080p desktop monitorall with 120-Hz refresh rates, all using HDMI. I used four games as references: Marvel’s Spider-Man Reboot, Crimson Desert, Lego Batman: Legends of the Dark Knightis a Japanese RPG Granblue Fantasy Relink: Endless Ragnarok. Frame rates were tracked using the built-in Steam Machine monitor, accessed by clicking the “…” button on the Steam Controller and activating the “Performance Overlay.”

On TV, Spider-Man it changed its resolution to 2048 x 1152 but hit a smooth 60 frames per second (fps). Manually switching to 3840 x 2160 (full 4K) without AMD’s FSR active and all “High” settings dropped performance down to 30 to 45 fps. With FSR and “Dynamic Resolution Scaling” set to a target of 60 fps, Steam Machine delivered, running in 4K at the desired resolution, without image degradation. My HDR-enabled TV also allowed for better color and contrast. On the PC monitor, the Steam Machine produced a picture of 1080p at 60 fps, although the group does not have HDR, so everything looks a bit blurry. Overall, this might be the best game in the game.

Crimson Desert it’s interesting – a well-known and underutilized pig on the Steam Machine. However, it starts and loads well. With the image quality set to “Ultra,” FSR enabled, and the resolution set to “Native Anti-Aliasing,” it produced a not-so-scary 40 fps…in the menus. In game, that dropped to a juddery 20 to 25 fps. Setting the setting to “High” saw an average improvement of 25 to 30 fps, but caused screen tearing during cutscenes.

Cutting the “Quality” setting to squeeze 30 fps, and going to “Balanced” saw the game struggle to 60 fps, but image quality began to suffer, especially with lots of natural scenery such as leaves and water.

On a 1080p monitor, things were much better, using a solid 60 fps even with settings on “Ultra” and advanced features like shadow tracking and weather effects. Still, it’s not bad for a game that Valve says you can’t run on the Steam Machine at all.

Lego Batman on the TV, at 4K with FSR and picture quality set to “High” (not “Epic,” its best setting), saw variable rates of 15 to 45 fps. Looking at the FSR in performance it has a reliable 45 fps, sometimes it goes up to 75 to 90 fps, but drops below 30 fps in car sessions. On the monitor, at 1080p, with “High” and raised to “Ultra Performance,” I got a nice 60 fps, but every attempt to raise the picture refreshed it to 30 fps. However, getting good results was also a problem for the powerful MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ handheldwhich proves to me that the game is not properly optimized for PC—so that the Steam Machine cannot handle poorly optimized games.