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News Valve announces Steam Machine hardware plans

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Gareth Halfacree, 26 Sep 2013.

  1. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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  2. theshadow2001

    theshadow2001 [DELETE] means [DELETE]

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    Did valve say they were specifically basing the O/S on Ubuntu?
     
  3. GuilleAcoustic

    GuilleAcoustic Ook ? Ook !

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    I need at least one manufacturer name : AMD or nVidia xD ?
     
  4. Griffter

    Griffter What's a Dremel?

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    defo not AMD, they too close to the two big players with their chip in both and wiiU.. nvidia most likely but i think it will be relatively unknown to smaller companies. IMHO
     
  5. Corky42

    Corky42 Where's walle?

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    Well NVidia has come out and said it has been working with Valve...
    http://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2013/09/25/steam-rolling-into-your-living-room/
    Maybe im reading to much into this but why would they mention "tuning SteamOS to lower latency, or lag, between the controller and onscreen action."
    Does this hint at a Nvidia shield type controller (without the flip up screen), streaming games from your PC ?
     
    Last edited: 26 Sep 2013
  6. GuilleAcoustic

    GuilleAcoustic Ook ? Ook !

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    AMD also stated they where working at improving Linux drivers ... this is very confusing :wallbash:
     
  7. Icy EyeG

    Icy EyeG Controlled by Eyebrow Powers™

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    Well, don't forget that third-parties are also developing steamboxes.

    This is going to be very interesting, because hopefully we're going to see stylish/compact/quiet barebones tailored for gaming, without having to pay for Windows. I could buy one to install Ubuntu, XMBC and Steam, instead of SteamOS, without feeling remorse for wasting and extra mandatory 100€ on something I won't use (ie Windows), since SteamOS is free. :)
     
  8. Corky42

    Corky42 Where's walle?

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    And then throw in the Good-Better-Best structure for hardware.
    Good, may = something to stream games from your PC, dirt cheap, no GPU
    Better, may = something able to run most games in its own right, around the price of next gen consoles
    Best = sky is the limit, performance over cost.
     
  9. GuilleAcoustic

    GuilleAcoustic Ook ? Ook !

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    I'm looking at an i7-4765T (4C/8T - 2.0GHz with 3.0GHz turbo - 35W) to replace my Q6600 ... just needing a little GPU, preferably one without PCIe power plug (HD7750 or its replacement, or a GTX650 Synergy from Zotac).
     
  10. teppic

    teppic What's a Dremel?

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    The lower end reference designs will have AMD APUs, it's pretty much guaranteed.
     
  11. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    Yup. You can even check out the repository for the SteamOS custom packages - note how all the non-Steam-specific stuff is from Canonical, plus some drivers from Nvidia (but not, interestingly, AMD.)
     
  12. theshadow2001

    theshadow2001 [DELETE] means [DELETE]

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    Interesting.

    If I recall correctly, nvidia have been working on streaming games a lot lately. Both through the cloud and with their hand held device. So perhaps it shouldn't come as much surprise that only Nvidia are mentioned at the moment since game streaming is one of valves goals.

    Maybe the steam box will come with some form of Nvidia gpu + a CPU rather than an APU like processor. Maybe even one of NVidias tablet processors for a client type steam box.

    Who knows :confused:
     
  13. GuilleAcoustic

    GuilleAcoustic Ook ? Ook !

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    Tegra 4 / 5 ? The low end, streaming only, could be ARM powered. ARM architecture works well on Linux.
     
    Last edited: 26 Sep 2013
  14. War-Rasta

    War-Rasta What's a Dremel?

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    I agree with GuilleAcoustic. We might see an ARM chip for the lower end machines. As for the more powerful stuff it'll definitely have an nVidia GPU. Linux AMD drivers are just not good enough.
     
  15. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    ARM is unlikely - at least at launch. There's no SteamOS respository for any ARM architectures - just AMD64 and i386. That's not to say there isn't an internal repository that Valve hasn't opened to the public yet, but the evidence would suggest that the first Steam Machines will be x86 only.
     
  16. sotu1

    sotu1 Ex-Modder

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    Why should this be an issue? There are a tonne of games available on both console and PC, so developers would prefer to use tech that's common between as many platforms as possible. Going nVidia would mean more fragmentation.
     
  17. AmEv

    AmEv Meow meow. See yall in 2-ish years!

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    So, who wants to debootstrap that repository?
     
  18. Xir

    Xir Modder

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    High end is relative.
    Don't forget this is targeted at the livingroom.
    So 1080 max resolution.
     
  19. Byron C

    Byron C Multimodder

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    I'm very interested to see what they do with the hardware. I've been looking at building a gaming PC for use in the lounge... Compact, high performance or low cost - pick two. (And when I say "high performance" I mean "high performance relative to consoles"; I don't mean some monstrosity running a 4770K with a GTX Titan or GTX 780.)

    To be honest, something they really need to nail is how to rate system specifications. One the of the traditional advantages with a console is that it's a fixed hardware spec: if a game is made for a PS3 then the game will run on your PS3; not always the case with PC gaming. If they're shooting at the console market then they can't put up a description that says "by the way this game needs a Steam Machine or a computer with at least an Intel SuperCoreExtreme 5000 processor with 260 jiggawhatsits of supercooled turboinjectionators". They've already stated that they're going to go with a "Good, Better, Best" rating, so for the love of god stick to it.

    People who are customising or building their own hardware will know enough (or learn enough) to figure out what spec they need and where they fall on the "Good, Better, Best" scale (I'm guessing that a fair number of us are probably way beyond "best" already! ;)). But console gamers don't know or care, so make it easy to understand. And that's not to slight or offend people who play games on a console, or imply that they're somehow an entirely different species to people who play games on a PC; my point is that you buy a console so that you don't have to worry about specs.

    Oh, and if anyone feels like helping a pathetic loser get to at least 10 friends on Steam then feel free to add me :p.
     
  20. Phil Rhodes

    Phil Rhodes Hypernobber

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    Or as we say in English, low medium and high. Only of course, none of the flat-cap-wearing Tarquins in modern advertising would ever let anyone describe anything using that sort of phrasology.
     

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