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The console wars rage on as Valve's latest device, the Steam Machine, joins the competition. Microsoft launched the Xbox Series Xin 2020. The Steam Machine launched in June 2026 allowing users to play PC games on a TV and monitor instead of strictly on a PC. Both systems can play the latest AAA release, but only one is technically more powerful.

Valve's console costs $1,049 for the base version, but it's a mighty machine with a semi-custom 6-core / 12-thread AMD Zen 4 and an AMD RDNA 3 GPU sporting 28 CUs. That's much newer hardware than the Xbox Series X's custom AMD Zen 2 CPU and AMD RDNA 2 GPU with 52 CUs. As a result, the Steam Machine is more efficient with newer processing capabilities, including better support for AI through FSR upscaling. However, in terms of performance, the Xbox Series X boasts more than 12 TFLOPS, while the Steam Machine is estimated to reach nearly 9 TFLOPS.…