Valve has surprised everyone by launching its powerful gaming machine. Valve’s Steam Deck has been the most famous and the first choice of buyers who want to do handheld gaming; those buyers prefer to buy the Steam Deck. Valve has also launched a new Steam Deck, a new Steam Controller, and the Steam Frame along with GameCube 2.
Valve had previously launched the GameCube, but it wasn’t very successful. However, this small GameCube 2 gaming console could capture the market from other gaming consoles and break all sales records. This gaming machine is going to be special because this small cube-sized machine is capable of gaming at 4K 60 FPS. The company still has not revealed its price yet, but Valve has clarified that at the price at which GameCube 2 will be available, this Steam machine will be more powerful and efficient than a PC build you can make at that price.
Video: Steam/Valve
The hardware is specially designed for Valve. Fitting an internal power supply along with other PC components in such a small space is challenging, but Valve has managed to do it. It includes AMD’s semi-custom CPU and a dedicated GPU similar in power to the RTX 4060. This machine acts as a complete gaming PC. It won’t run Windows; instead, it uses Steam OS. The company claims you will be able to do more than just gaming on it. Some experts even suggest it could outperform the Xbox. Let’s take a closer look at the Valve GameCube 2.
Table of Contents
Design:
The name GameCube comes from the design of the Valve machine itself. Its design is very simple, minimalist, and compact. Looking at its dimensions, it is 152 mm tall (148 mm without feet), 162.4 mm deep, and 156 mm wide, which is approximately a 6x6x6-inch cube. The total weight of this steam machine is only 2.6 kg. You can customize the front panel, and it can be easily removed, as it is fixed with just four magnets. If this Steam Machine gets too hot, removing this panel can increase its airflow, thereby slightly improving the cooling performance of the Steam Machine.
On the front side, you get LED RGB strips, which you can customize, such as setting colors and animations, and you can see them on the game downloading progress bar. Below that, you get the power LED and power button.
Image: Steam
Looking at the internal design, this Steam Machine has a 200W internal power supply fitted at the bottom, with the motherboard and, on the board, the rest of the CPU, GPU, and RAM. Above that, you get a heatsink, and a single 120mm fan is provided to cool it.
CPU/GPU:
In terms of performance, AMD’s semi-custom 6-core, 12-thread CPU, which is based on the Zen 4 architecture, powers this Steam Machine. Similar to the Ryzen 7000 series, Valve has only disclosed the chip’s 4.8 GHz boost clock and its fortunately low TDP of 30 W. Valve must have tested everything before selecting this effective CPU.
Talking about the GPU, this Steam Machine comes with a semi-custom AMD Radeon GPU based on RDNA 3.0, meaning this GameCube 2 has a dedicated graphics card. It has a maximum clock speed of 2.45 GHz, with a total of 28 compute units and 8 GB of GDDR6 video memory. Although this may seem low on paper, you don’t need to be worried about the specs, as this GPU is tuned to easily deliver good 4K 60 FPS gaming. Its power draw is just 110W, which also makes it very power-efficient. The installed GPU performs roughly like an RX 7600M or slightly slower than an RX 7400.
Talking about the thermal solution, in this GameCube 2, you get a single heatsink along with a single 120mm silent fan, because this Steam Machine consumes only 150W-155W even at peak load. For this reason, this cooling solution is enough to keep the system cool.
RAM/Storage:
This Steam Machine comes with 16 GB of DDR5 4800 MHz SO-DIMM laptop-style memory. You might be able to upgrade it, but opening it up and upgrading it yourself could be difficult. When it comes to storage, the Valve GameCube 2 comes in two models: one with 512 GB Gen 4 NVMe and the other with 2 TB Gen 4 NVMe. Both machines come with a short-size 2230 NVMe installed, but you can easily install a 2280-size NVMe in this Steam Machine. Additionally, the front side of this GameCube 2 has an SD card slot, which you can use to expand its storage.
IO Ports/Connectivity:
On the front panel of the GameCube 2, you get 2 x USB 3.0 Type A ports offering up to 5 Gbps speed. Next to them, there is a micro SD card slot, which allows you to expand the storage of this machine. On the rear side, you get 2 x USB 2.0 Type A high-speed ports, 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type C port, RJ45, 1 x HDMI 2.0 port (up to 4K @ 120Hz, supports HDR, FreeSync, and CEC), 1 x DisplayPort 1.4 (up to 4K @ 240Hz or 8K @ 60Hz), and an AC power connector.
Image: Steam
If we talk about wireless connectivity, it comes with 2×2 Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3, along with a dedicated antenna for the Steam controller.
Opinion & Price:
Steam Machine, or GameCube 2, is a practical gaming console that comes with a minimalist look, a practical gaming machine designed for gamers who, when taking any gaming console, don’t worry much about the hardware. They know that games have been tuned with the hardware of this console, and if you take any gaming console, the money isn’t made by selling hardware but by selling games. The price of Xbox is currently 598 USD, and it is heard that the starting 512 GB model of this Steam Machine with the controller will be priced at just 499* USD. Because of this, many gamers are looking forward to it.
