Steam Machine prototype from iBuyPower

[KingVamp]

Here comes another variation of the Steambox.

The prototype from iBuyPower will reportedly only cost $499 and comes with a multicore AMD CPU and a discrete AMD Radeon R9 270 graphics card.

Engadget reports that the system is set to launch in 2014 and "the hardware will run all Steam titles in 1080p resolution at 60fps." No other details were revealed about the hardware, but iBuyPower did show off two variations of their white box. When not illuminated, the light bar in the middle is clear on one machine and black on the other. One has been codenamed Gordan and the other Freeman.

Source
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[Deleted User]

"the hardware will run all Steam titles in 1080p resolution at 60fps."

I can run games on medium settings at 1080p at 60 fps on my fairly new laptop easily, I feel they need to rethink their statements.

 

[Taleweaver]

Erm...to be honest...this news doesn't really excite me. For two reasons:

One...what do they mean with "all steam titles"? Since the thing will be running that steamOS, I assume they are referring to the games that currently run on linux*. But some explanation should be helpful. Like on what settings that will be.

Two...the design of that thing. A square oreo cookie with just an on/off button...seriously? No reset button? No disk drive? No USB in front? Christ...even nintendo has an SD slot, and that isn't supposed to be a hybrid PC'ish thing.


And yes, I know...valve isn't going to start selling games on DVD/blue ray. But with every other console at least giving SOME multimedia options, I kind of took it for granted that if there wasn't a music player on steamOS, someone would port something like audacity or VLC within the first week. This is just a more expensive ouya.



*BTW...does anyone know what steam game pushes the hardware the most of linux games? Indie games are nice and all, but running games like mark of the ninja on those settings doesn't sound much like an accomplishment.

 

[pokefloote]

"One has been codenamed Gordan and the other Freeman."

Shall I be the first to do the honors?

Spoiler

half-life 2: 4k master race resolution enhanced turbo deluxe still-not-giving-you-HL3 edition confirmed

edit: slightly more on-topic though... I dunno. If I was gonna buy a thing to play steam games and I had that kind of money to invest, I'd go higher and make it last longer. I'd rather just get a PS4 and play everything that will ever come out for PS4 without worrying about specs and settings for its entire lifetime, though.

 

[WiiUBricker]

"the hardware will run all Steam titles in 1080p resolution at 60fps."

I can run games on medium settings at 1080p at 60 fps on my fairly new laptop easily, I feel they need to rethink their statements.

Yeah, I can run Plants vs. Zombies with high settings at 1080p at 60 fps easily with my old notebook!

 

[Sop]

Yeah, I can run Plants vs. Zombies with high settings at 1080p at 60 fps easily with my old notebook!

a 270 can easily run battlefield4 at high settings 1080p and 60fps

and it only costs 499 and comes with a steam controller

 

[Bladexdsl]

tired of seeing these things and con-droids

 

[Luhof]

1080p, 60fps, ... ALL Steam Games? "Low settings", my old friend, we meet again...

Two...the design of that thing. A square oreo cookie with just an on/off button...seriously? No reset button? No disk drive? No USB in front? Christ...even nintendo has an SD slot, and that isn't supposed to be a hybrid PC'ish thing.

Maybe the back of this gabecube has 5 USB ports, a SD card reader, a blue-ray drive and a videotape recorder...?
I mean, one single USB port should be enough to plug a USB stick in order to play a few movies. (altough that's just how I see it).

 

[Arras]

Yeah, I can run Plants vs. Zombies with high settings at 1080p at 60 fps easily with my old notebook!

I never managed to get that game over 480p or whatever the default is because I couldn't find video options anywhere

 

[Taleweaver]

Maybe the back of this gabecube has 5 USB ports, a SD card reader, a blue-ray drive and a videotape recorder...?
I mean, one single USB port should be enough to plug a USB stick in order to play a few movies. (altough that's just how I see it).

Yeah, right. But even so...the question would be: which sadist was in charge of the design by putting the on/off button on the BACK of the console?

(you don't honestly think anyone is going to set up the console with all the needed connections facing the wall, do you? ).

 

[Luhof]

Yeah, right. But even so...the question would be: which sadist was in charge of the design by putting the on/off button on the BACK of the console?

I don't think that having the on/off button on the back of the console is that disturbing : I tend to switch on my ps3 with my controller more than pushing the power button. [insert quote about paradigm here]
What if it's like those lamp you just touch to switch on (instabuy).

 

[Satangel]

a 270 can easily run battlefield4 at high settings 1080p and 60fps

and it only costs 499 and comes with a steam controller

You're shit out of luck with a Steam controller for BF4 because BF4 is on Origin, NOT on Steam.

 

[Pedeadstrian]

A $500 console that only plays Steam games, or a $500 PC that does everything a PC can do, including playing games... hmmm...

 

[Mario92]

You're shit out of luck with a Steam controller for BF4 because BF4 is on Origin, NOT on Steam.

That normally wouldn't be problem as it's regular PC but Origin is windows only where SteamOS is linux.

Yeah, I can run Plants vs. Zombies with high settings at 1080p at 60 fps easily with my old notebook!

OBJECTION! PvZ is hardcoded 4:3 resolution and becouse of that I played it windowed. Thus it can't be 1080p without horrible upscaling and black bars!

I like how they market it at this stage. People are now speaking loudly how some Xbone games are "only" 720p so saying every game runs 1080p sounds really good even if they are mostly 2D indie games. Making it competitor for other consoles should make game devs interested to actually make their bigger multiplats for it. Hopefully...

 

[Sop]

You're shit out of luck with a Steam controller for BF4 because BF4 is on Origin, NOT on Steam.

i just meant to say that this is a high end PC, pretty powerful

A $500 console that only plays Steam games, or a $500 PC that does everything a PC can do, including playing games... hmmm...

or you could just y'know, install windows on it? and 500 is way underpriced for this, the graphics card cost 250 alone

That normally wouldn't be problem as it's regular PC but Origin is windows only where SteamOS is linux.
OBJECTION! PvZ is hardcoded 4:3 resolution and becouse of that I played it windowed. Thus it can't be 1080p without horrible upscaling and black bars!

I like how they market it at this stage. People are now speaking loudly how some Xbone games are "only" 720p so saying every game runs 1080p sounds really good even if they are mostly 2D indie games. Making it competitor for other consoles should make game devs interested to actually make their bigger multiplats for it. Hopefully...

that doesnt mean you cant install windows on it, you still get a high end pc and a good controller.

and why not just play it at 800x600 then? they dont mean you have to play every game at 1080p, they mean it can run most games at 1080p, meaning its powerful.

 

[Foxi4]

i just meant to say that this is a high end PC, pretty powerful

No, it isn't. Multi-core AMD CPU and a discrete Radeon R9 270 smells of "APU" from a mile. Where did I hear that before... Ah, yes - they're in the PS4 and the XBox One. This is not "high-end" this is entry-level PC.

In fact, the TFLOPS values of PS4's Liverpool and iBuy Power's R9 270 are pretty close, 1.84 on the PS4 and 2.37 on the iBuy, problem being that one is a console you can optimize for and one is an HTPC.

or you could just y'know, install windows on it? and 500 is way underpriced for this, the graphics card cost 250 alone

No, it doesn't. Radeon R9 270 is considered a low-end Graphics Core Next GPU, prices start at $180.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=Radeon R9 270 &N=-1&isNodeId=1

 

[migles]

That normally wouldn't be problem as it's regular PC but Origin is windows only where SteamOS is linux.

i am pretty sure you can install what OS you want on the steam machine, like valve said...

btw, i imagine you can play every game at 60 fps at the highest resolution, if you count duplicate frames; for example a 60hz monitor will technically display 60fps per second, but the game is running at 10 fps.. you understand what i mean?

 

[Foxi4]

i am pretty sure you can install what OS you want on the steam machine, like valve said...

btw, i imagine you can play every game at 60 fps at the highest resolution, if you count duplicate frames; for example a 60hz monitor will technically display 60fps per second, but the game is running at 10 fps.. you understand what i mean?

It's called frameskipping and that's not what's implied - it clearly says that the box will play games at 60FPS, the refresh rate of the monitor is static, it's always 60Hz. What you're saying only matters when the game runs at a rate much faster than the monitor is capable of displaying, for example when it's running 120FPS but the monitor is physically capable of only 60 refreshes, so you "see" 60 frames out of those 120, however the in-game logic works at a much faster pace.

 

[migles]

It's called frameskipping and that's not what's implied - it clearly says that the box will play games at 60FPS, the refresh rate of the monitor is static, it's always 60Hz. What you're saying only matters when the game runs at a rate much faster than the monitor is capable of displaying, for example when it's running 120FPS but the monitor is physically capable of only 60 refreshes, so you "see" 60 frames out of those 120, however the in-game logic works at a much faster pace.

i am saying they probably was talking about the 60hz of a monitor, and not the fps of a game, misleading information\advertisement, because i find it unbelievable it can run really bad ported games at 60fps... and the steam got a few of them.....

 

[FireGrey]

It's not limited to the steam library, valve have already said that you can do anything you can do in linus on the steammachines.
That means things like Minecraft will run on it.
I think i may get a cheap steam machine (or build one) when i get a new gpu.