So, if I understood this correctly, it’s a stand alone product, it doesn’t need a PC or anything to work. Right?
this post was submitted on 12 Nov 2025
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Both works. It has a builtin ARM based PC running SteamOS but it also comes with a 6GHz dongle allowing you to stream from your PC wirelessly.
I don’t have or want a PC, but I’m willing to buy a Steam Deck if necessary. That’s why this is very interesting.
Steam deck is not powerful enough to run vr games at playable fps, I got like 20 fps in vrchat on steam deck in vr
Thanks for this info. GabeCube it is.
May be better off with a prebuilt pc on sale, most games will prob be fine, maybe not blades and sorcery with hella mods (still not that heavy), or msfs/dcs/etc. but thats more niche I guess.
VRChat is the worst example you could possibly provide for performance metrics in VR. Even people with PCs that cost $10,000 don't get 90fps in a busy room. The entire game is unoptimized user generated content...
vrchat is the only game I tested other than beatsaber because my other vr games take too long to download
Their newly announced Steam Machine also can do the same thing in your living room, but provide a console-like setup.
That's a very strange opinion to read on programming.dev's Linux Lemmy community
Long story short. I’ve worked in IT since 1998, my first computer was a PC-XT, and before that I had a thing that only Brazil had (HotBit from Sharp). I had to achieve an equilibrium between work and home. So, now I work on a MacBook Pro and I ssh to the servers I need (I’m a - mostly - Oracle DBA). At home I have an XBox Series X to play games.
I don’t want a PC. I want things simple. I’ll probably buy the SteamDeck (or the GabeCube) and this VR.
What is a PC for you, though? Steam Frame is a full on computer running Linux, as well as Steam Deck. Nothing prevents you from running basically anything on them. But the same could be said about your MacBook that you already own.
The MacBook is not “mine”, exactly, it’s from my boss. What I’m saying is that I don’t want to go through the hassle of assembling and maintaining a PC. That’s why I bought the XBox (and because of Halo, that’s why I didn’t buy the PS).
So, you just want a prebuild? Just as with consoles, you still need to do maintenance. Yes, you can neglect it for a couple of years, but then you start noticing that your thermal interface is not as good anymore or that your heat exchangers are now more dust than metal. And I find full-sized computers easier to maintain, as they are so easy to disassemble, contrary to consoles.
Also, if you want VR and have the money for it, it's probably a good idea to buy a beefier machine. VR is a bit hungry for system resources (depending on the title, of course), standalone headsets don't provide nearly as good of an experiece as a proper PCVR.
I see, by PC you mean you don't want a traditional 'tower' PC, which is perfectly reasonable. I personally consider anything within the umbrella of "PC gaming" to be a PC, including laptops (even Macbooks).
If you do decide to get the Steam Machine, you can stream from there to get a lot more out of the Steam Frame than what it can do standalone.
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That was my read on it, not sure how I feel about it, I'd be happy enough with vr/ar/display glasses just hooked into the new gabe-box
Gabecube?
Fuck, Nintendo lawsuits be damned, they missed a trick not calling it that
I wouldn't be surprised if they internally called it that
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Going for the both option, PC gives access to higher spec games, via streaming, and lower spec can run direct from the machine
Not only is it Standalone, it has a linux emulator that can run pc games.
What other people haven't quite touched on is that the in-built system certainly won't be powerful enough to run demanding VR games with good frame rates and resolution.
I also have my doubts about the 6GHz WiFi connection being enough for it, I hope there is also a wired option.
But it will be awesome to be able to do normal tasks like coding, writing, etc.. outside in the garden, as an example. I think for people that don't have a dedicated VR space, this could be awesome with 6GHz WiFi outside without needing base stations.
5 Ghz 866 Mbps wifi is 8x more than enough to comfortably run wireless streaming to a Quest 2 with 8-9ms lag, which is almost completely imperceptible when in play. 6 Ghz is more than enough.
Don't forget, it's kind of multiple WiFi connections.
I'm cautiously optimistic, from a sheer speed standpoint, it could be faster than most wired connections available over short ranges. It's not going to actually reach optimal speeds likely ever, but the few who have seen it in action seem optimistic about it too.
Interesting they switched the steam controller to built in battery, but made this one replaceable AA.
Less downtime in marathon gaming sessions? I don't know that this was meant to be portable outside of the house, I'd hate having to carry extra batteries with my deck...
The original Steam Controller case has a compartment for a set of spares. It's not really a big deal having to carry and swap batteries, though not knowing what the charge level is can put you in a bind when your controller goes out at an inopportune moment!
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Imagine trying to use these with a charging cable attached.
This is one of the changes I'm most frustrated with, and one I didn't expect. Maybe it feels worse for me because I didn't expect it, unlike some of the other compromises.
I'll still buy one, but I don't like this change.
EDIT: The other big disappointment that I knew was possible but didn't expect was the loss of Lighthouse tracking.
I had the same thought. I'm assuming it has something to do with them wanting the wireless puck for the Steam Controller to be able to charge the controller as well.
Otherwise, maybe there's some hardware reason why making the battery removable in the Steam Controller would be difficult.
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does this mean my index will work better on linux too?
i couldnt even get sound to work and gave up lol
May be this could help?
https://lvra.gitlab.io/
The LVRA Discord also consists of a lot of very helpful people.
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What kind of power requirements is this going to have while standalone? I'm guessing it'll chew through batteries.
21Whr battery vs 14Whr on a Quest 2. Newer generation chipset with more efficiency. Probably 2.5-3hrs.
It might also be more (or less) energy efficient than the Quest. I would bet more toward it being better, tho. Not just with the main chips, but other things like the sensors, displays, cameras, and other components being higher quality.
On the PC Gamer hands-on I read they got about an hour running intense games standalone. There’s a port to plug an external battery into to extend that, but it seems the focus is on streaming from a desktop, which will use much less resources and extend the battery life quite a bit.
So.... Does anyone know how likely this is too get/run beat saber? That's most of what my VR having friends seem to really use VR for.
Very likely. The Valve Index runs it super well when connected to my Linux desktop. Although I had to downgrade the version of Beat Saber to make it work.
Beat Saber is on Steam and is also the best selling VR game of all time, so yeah I'd say it will work. I'd be extremely surprised if it wasn't one of the very first games Valve worked on FEX & proton optimisation for.
Considering Beat Saber already works on Linux just fine, and it isn't particularly demanding/runs fine on less powerful standalone headsets, I imagine it'll work.
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