Valve: Steam Machines Won't Be Only Nvidia Hardware
Steam Machines will include all three main GPU vendors: AMD, Nvidia and Intel.
We already figured this would be the case, but Valve Software's Doug Lombardi felt the need to clarify that Steam Machines won't specifically focus on Nvidia GPUs despite the prototypes, but support the three primary graphics vendors of today: AMD, Intel and Nvidia. For PC gamers looking for a pure GeForce screaming machine this holiday season, look no further than Nvidia's Battlebox certification.
"Last week, we posted some technical specs of our first wave of Steam Machine prototypes," said Lombardi. "Although the graphics hardware that we've selected for the first wave of prototypes is a variety of Nvidia cards, that is not an indication that Steam Machines are Nvidia-only."
"In 2014, there will be Steam Machines commercially available with graphics hardware made by AMD, Nvidia, and Intel," he added. "Valve has worked closely together with all three of these companies on optimizing their hardware for SteamOS, and will continue to do so into the foreseeable future."
Nvidia has played a big part in Valve's SteamOS and Steam Machines introduction over the last several weeks. That could be partially due to AMD focusing on revealing its "Hawaii" GPUs and Mantle API during the same timeframe. AMD has also been talking up its unified gaming approach that ties in with the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Nvidia, on the other hand, has been cashing in on its involvement with the SteamOS development and Valve's prototype "consoles."
Although Xi3 hasn't officially made any announcements, its Piston compact PC slated to ship in late November is supposedly a Steam Machine. The "console" will likely ship with a quad-core AMD R464L "Trinity" 35 watt APU clocked up to 3.2 GHz, 8 GB of RAM, an installed 128 GB SSD, a second SSD connector and two SD card slots. There's speculation that the device will ship with SteamOS installed along with several Linux-based free games.
By comparison, the 300 Xbox One-sized Steam Machine prototypes will feature either a Nvidia Titan, GTX 780, GTX 760 or GTX 660 GPU. On the CPU front, some boxes will have Intel's Core i7-4770, some with the Core i5-4570, and some with Core i3 processors. Available RAM will be 16 GB DDR3-1600 (CPU) and 3 GB DDR5 (GPU), and storage will be provided by a hybrid SSHD with 1 TB for storage and 8 GB for cache. Power will be handled by an internal 450 watt 80 Plus Gold power supply.
"[T]o be clear, this design is not meant to serve the needs of all of the tens of millions of Steam users. It may, however, be the kind of machine that a significant percentage of Steam users would actually want to purchase -- those who want plenty of performance in a high-end living room package," stated Valve designer Greg "Gregori" Coomer. "Many others would opt for machines that have been more carefully designed to cost less, or to be tiny, or super quiet, and there will be Steam Machines that fit those descriptions."
The prototypes are slated to be released to the 300 beta participants by the end of the month.

Mmm, maybe we can look at this in a different way: the largest pc games distributor will now build its own distro of linux and work with all major hardware manufacturers to ensure the platform has broad support of next generation games.
Mmm, maybe we can look at this in a different way: the largest pc games distributor will now build its own distro of linux and work with all major hardware manufacturers to ensure the platform has broad support of next generation games.
Based on the Titan-sporting Tiki, which has a water-cooled CPU only and is about the smallest (volume-wise) commercial form factor for serious gaming that I'm aware of, I'm expecting that these boxes will probably be fairly loud under load.
While its not mentioned, you can also format the HDD and install Windows on it and use Steam in big picture mode until devs catch up to the SteamOS distro. I don't expect all the devs to but I would imagine they will want a piece of the SteamBox market.
A 100 buck box that plays casual games and streams from my main PC to the TV seems like a win. I'll stay half interested.
back, you troll nonstop and spread around misinformation about topics you know absolutely nothing about. The price and specifications have only been released for the Piston and that's not even an official Steam box. No one knows how they will be priced or perform yet. Not everyone wants to shell out $100 for an overpriced and overrated, and overbloated operating system just to play games.
Also, Tom's needs to stop posting pictures of the Piston as it is being associated with Valve Steam Machines which it is not.
amd's fx cpus pretty much quit themselves when valve decided for an xbone(R) sized enclosure dimensions and 450w 80+ gold rated psu. hopefully steamroller fx, if they come out, have better luck.
all gpus: intel is the market leader, with 61%~ share, followed by amd's 21%~ and nvidia's 18%~. couldn't tell if you were being sarcastic.
all gpus: intel is the market leader, with 61%~ share, followed by amd's 21%~ and nvidia's 18%~. couldn't tell if you were being sarcastic.
I seriously didn't think they would consider low-end graphics bundled with a CPU as a GPU. How many of us are not using our Intel CPU's GPU? In the land of the laptop, sure I'll use Intel Graphics 2000 or 4000 or whatever. But on a serious gaming machine? No way in heck.
A certified box that's guaranteed to run all the available titles, fine.
But this, is not being able to run anything except Steam offerings the only benefit?
Because that's not a benefit.
I seriously didn't think they would consider low-end graphics bundled with a CPU as a GPU. How many of us are not using our Intel CPU's GPU? In the land of the laptop, sure I'll use Intel Graphics 2000 or 4000 or whatever. But on a serious gaming machine? No way in heck.
if a pc or laptop has igpu or on board gpu and discreet gfx, it's counted as having 2 gpus. discreet marketshares are very different. moreover, non-x86 gpus, ultramobile socs were not counted afaik. tablets like surface pro might have been exceptions.
i guess even when you buy the cpu and the discreet gaming gfx card, you still pay for the igpu and that's why it's being counted. or something like that.
Mmm, maybe we can look at this in a different way: the largest pc games distributor will now build its own distro of linux and work with all major hardware manufacturers to ensure the platform has broad support of next generation games.
There is no sign of them having the capacity to revive OpenGL, and without it it's just vaporware.
It's been a huge mess so far, with 1k$ Piston, then hinting "SteamMachine" is Intel/nVidia box and now suddenly Intel becoming a GPU manufacturer (yeah, I know they do integrated crap).
It took Microsoft YEARS with all of its skilled workers and insane resources to get DirectX to current levels. I wouldn't count on Valve being able to match, let alone beat that.
And IF there is no serious push to Linux gaming, I'd have no problem with buying games from Windows Store, if price is right.
Anyone expecting that have no idea what a SteamBox or Steam OS even is. Just because the Xbox is made by Microsoft do people expect it to run games for Windows? No. Of course it won't run Windows games, and Valve never claimed it would. Just like any console, developers will have to develop or port to Steam OS and there's nothing wrong with OpenGL as the PS4 is already going to be using it and an OS that shares a lot in common with Linux. Getting games to Steam OS will be a relatively simple prospect for devs, especially now that everything is x86.