The launch of the Steam Machine has officially given us the first attempt at a knock-off. The cheekily-named Stim Machine comes from a French hardware retailer, and it’s taking an aim at Valve’s mini-PC in a few key ways.
The Stim Machine comes in a single configuration, priced €1,039, which you may notice is the same exact price of the Steam Machine’s base version. It also comes in a similarly-looking, cube-shaped box.
That’s about where the similarities between the two machines end, however. This is simply a pre-built PC using off-the-shelf components in a small form-factor case, but what’s interesting is the potential performance gain versus the Steam Machine.
If you’re willing to look past the larger chassis (222 × 181 × 285mm versus 156 × 152 × 162mm), the Stim Machine includes more powerful hardware in two key areas. One, its CPU is a 6-core AMD Ryzen 5 8400F, which beats the Steam Machine’s Zen 4 6C/12T. The biggest difference, however, will result from the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT GPU.
Despite having the same amount of VRAM, the RX 9060 XT is a generation ahead of Steam’s semi-custom AMD RDNA 3 GPU. According to this Gamers Nexus review, it delivers up to 70 percent more performance. It’s also worth noting that the PC’s discrete components have higher power headroom, which allows them to further overtake the Steam Machine in performance.
Given the Steam Machine’s small form-factor, keeping heat under control was clearly a goal for Valve, but that also meant the company had to limit how much power the CPU and GPU are allowed to draw.
The hardware advantage of the Stim Machine over the Steam Machine is clear, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. The Steam Machine’s most impressive feature, other than its size and low power draw, is its ability to communicate with your TV the same way a PlayStation or Xbox console would. As Chris points out in the Eurogamer review, the experience of living with the Steam Machine is about more than hardware charts.
Valve made the wise decision to support CEC technology with its HDMI port, which is what allows the Steam Machine to function very much like a console, as far as your TV is concerned. You can turn on the TV by turning on the machine, or turn it off by shutting down your TV. CEC is also what guarantees your TV will always recognise the Steam Machine whenever input is switched.
The lack of CEC, or really any reliable way for PCs to communicate with TVs, is what kneecaps every attempt to make a console-like PC. The process is far better on SteamOS than it is on Windows, but without hardware-level considerations, your TV still won’t be able to treat the Stim Machine – or any other PC – as a game console.
To that end, Valve actually recently released a standalone version of SteamOS 3.8, the same operating system that runs on the Steam Machine. This allows anyone to essentially create their own Steam Machine using any off-the-shelf parts, though it won’t let you skip inherent limitations when it comes to HDMI and CEC protocols. You’ll also need to stay on top of updating your drivers and basically perform the same sort of regular maintenance any PC requires, something else the Steam Machine takes care of for you.
