{"id":12355,"date":"2026-07-29T22:52:43","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T19:52:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/?p=12355"},"modified":"2026-07-30T02:43:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T23:13:18","slug":"the-steam-machine-is-better-for-me-than-the-ps5-or-xbox-series-x","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/2026\/07\/29\/the-steam-machine-is-better-for-me-than-the-ps5-or-xbox-series-x\/","title":{"rendered":"The Steam Machine is Better For Me Than the PS5 or Xbox Series X"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">The Steam Machine has been out for a little over a month, and while I spent the first couple of weeks testing it against the PS5 and different graphics cards, I wasn\u2019t sure how or even if it\u2019d fit into my daily rotation. But then this last weekend I came down with a cold, and I fell back in love with this little computer. Plugging it into my TV while laying on the couch, turning off the meters and just playing my Steam library? Let\u2019s just say I see the vision.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">I still don\u2019t think it\u2019s necessarily worth the high price for everyone, especially if you don\u2019t already have a robust PC gaming library, but now, all I ever want out of this thing is to pick up whatever PC game I\u2019m playing at my desk, and run it on the TV without tying up my network. And at that, I can\u2019t really think of anything that does it as well as the Steam Machine, especially without taking up way too much space on my entertainment center.<\/p>\n<p><span data-cy=\"slideshow-view-trigger\"><\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-preview\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 slideshow-preview\">\n<h3 class=\"title5 jsx-62124236 jsx-1085005187\" data-cy=\"slideshow-preview-title\">Steam Machine \u2013 Hands On Photos<\/h3>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-images-container\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 images-container\"><button type=\"button\" data-cy=\"hero-image\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 hero-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt aria-hidden=\"true\" role=\"presentation\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/the-steam-machine-is-better-for-me-than-the-ps5-or-xbox-series-x.gif\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><span class=\"button-text jsx-729543028 button button--primary jsx-3027214138 jsx-4266531355 row-pagination-button next contained centered round large\" data-cy=\"paginate next\" title=\"Open Slideshow\"><span class=\"ign-icon right-chevron jsx-2750866048 jsx-2919720488\" role=\"presentation\" aria-hidden=\"true\" data-cy=\"right-chevron\"><\/span><\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<h2 data-cy=\"title2\" class=\"title2 jsx-1903782357 jsx-3735650234\">Performance Isn\u2019t Everything<\/h2>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">I\u2019ve never really been much of a console gamer. I still bought the consoles every generation, because I just think gaming hardware is neat. But whenever I buy a game, I usually just buy it on Steam, and it\u2019s been that way for almost 20 years. The consoles, then, just kind of filled in the gaps. Most of my library on either the PlayStation 5 or the Xbox Series X is made up of a few exclusives and a bunch of games that came with various subscriptions. <\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">But even when I do buy exclusives for the PS5 or Xbox I don&#8217;t really even play them. Just looking back to last year with Death Stranding 2, I only got an hour or so in because the only way to play it was in my living room. So, I eventually forgot about it and moved on to the new thing.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">PC is an entirely different story. Because I can pick up whatever I\u2019m playing on whichever device I\u2019m using, it\u2019s way more likely that I\u2019m going to finish any game I buy on PC. I spend most of my time playing at my desk, but it just so happens that I primarily play RPGs that have a lot of side quests or grinding involved. I love shutting the game down at my desk, then lying in bed playing through some of the content on a handheld while watching a TV show or listening to a podcast. <\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Even before I started reviewing hardware professionally I always had multiple PCs. I&#8217;m just built different I guess. One of the magical things about buying games on any of the PC platforms is that I can progress through them on whichever device I&#8217;m using at the time. A handheld, a laptop, my tower? All of which are great in different situations and they all play the same games with the same save data.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">But the living room has always been an outlier for me.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">I&#8217;ve had living room PCs in the past, but I&#8217;ve always been frustrated with the need to have a keyboard and mouse stashed away just in case I had to fiddle with something. That&#8217;s not to mention how much a full tower PC stands out among the much more sleek consoles. Before the Steam Machine came out, I just kind of stopped playing games on the TV at all. <\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">It just so happens that SteamOS almost entirely negates this problem. Pretty much all of the daily maintenance for the Steam Machine can be done in \u2018Gaming Mode,\u2019 without ever needing to go to the desktop. And, even when I do need to use the desktop, like when I\u2019m getting third party launchers or games, the Steam Controller\u2019s trackpads make it so that I don\u2019t have to break out a keyboard and mouse. <\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Over this last weekend, the Steam Machine just kind of fell into its natural place. I set the outgoing resolution to 1440p, rather than 4K, and at the distance that the couch is from the TV, it looks <em>just fine<\/em>. Would it stand up if I zoomed in and started pixel peeping? Probably not, but the whole point of living room gaming is <em>not <\/em>doing that. And, so I spent the weekend playing Resident Evil 4 Remake and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth in a Nyquil-induced haze, and it was incredible. <\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">I honestly couldn\u2019t tell you whether or not I was getting a steady 60 fps or not, or whether it looked better than the PS5. But it didn\u2019t really matter. I got to carry on my saves from my PC and didn\u2019t have to buy another copy of either of the games just to play them on the PS5 Pro that\u2019s now collecting dust next to the Steam Machine.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">At $1049, the price-to-performance ratio is still bad enough to stop me from recommending the Steam Machine to anyone that just wants to play console games. But I own <em>thousands <\/em>of games on Steam, many of which don\u2019t even exist on the PS5 or Xbox Series X. If you\u2019re anything like me, just having a living room box that can play your entire Steam library locally, especially when it takes up half the space of other consoles, is a dream come true. <\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><em>Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her <\/em>@Jackiecobra<\/p>\n<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/the-steam-machine-is-better-for-me-than-the-ps5-or-xbox-series-x.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/the-steam-machine-is-better-for-me-than-the-ps5-or-xbox-series-x.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/the-steam-machine-is-better-for-me-than-the-ps5-or-xbox-series-x.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/the-steam-machine-is-better-for-me-than-the-ps5-or-xbox-series-x.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[63,50],"class_list":["post-12355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-49","tag-fps","tag-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12355"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12357,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12355\/revisions\/12357"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}