The only thing ever called a Steam Machine before was the PC architecture they tried to push over a decade ago that was more or less just cheaper PCs of various builds that all ran on the original SteamOS. None of them were made or sold by Valve itself.
The only other steam hardware that was cancelled was the Link; because you can do what it did through an app without the need for specialized hardware now.
Yeah, I really wanted to like my Link, but it was plagued by random FPS lag spikes that made it unplayable. Sometimes a game running at a perfect 60FPS on my PC would just suddenly drop to like 2-3FPS on the Link for a minute or more. Frame times were suddenly measured in hundreds of milliseconds.
In my router and on my PC’s traffic data, I could see my PC was still sending the same amount of data to the Link. And on the Link’s detailed stats, I could see it was receiving the data. So everything was sending and receiving just fine. But the FPS would just suddenly tank for no discernible reason.
It seemed to get worse over time, (maybe as the hardware aged) and it made the Link completely unusable after a while. And the only real response I ever got from Steam about it was “have you tried updating the firmware on your Link? Or try using the app on your TV instead.” Notably, my TV at the time didn’t have the Link app available.
I’ve considered looking into whether or not I can flash something new onto the Link, to at least repurpose it into something else. I have like three of the damned things knocking around in a box, because my first one worked great and I got a few more. Then they slowly started getting those FPS drops, so I quit using them. Maybe a Bluetooth hub for Home Assistant? Or I could try to use it in a project like a Raspberry Pi.
The only thing ever called a Steam Machine before was the PC architecture they tried to push over a decade ago that was more or less just cheaper PCs of various builds that all ran on the original SteamOS. None of them were made or sold by Valve itself.
The only other steam hardware that was cancelled was the Link; because you can do what it did through an app without the need for specialized hardware now.
And while the Link hardware was cancelled, they still put out updates for it. I think the last update was only a month or two ago.
Steam Controller 1 also got cancelled but they’re still shipping updates and showing that device too.
Yeah, I really wanted to like my Link, but it was plagued by random FPS lag spikes that made it unplayable. Sometimes a game running at a perfect 60FPS on my PC would just suddenly drop to like 2-3FPS on the Link for a minute or more. Frame times were suddenly measured in hundreds of milliseconds.
In my router and on my PC’s traffic data, I could see my PC was still sending the same amount of data to the Link. And on the Link’s detailed stats, I could see it was receiving the data. So everything was sending and receiving just fine. But the FPS would just suddenly tank for no discernible reason.
It seemed to get worse over time, (maybe as the hardware aged) and it made the Link completely unusable after a while. And the only real response I ever got from Steam about it was “have you tried updating the firmware on your Link? Or try using the app on your TV instead.” Notably, my TV at the time didn’t have the Link app available.
I’ve considered looking into whether or not I can flash something new onto the Link, to at least repurpose it into something else. I have like three of the damned things knocking around in a box, because my first one worked great and I got a few more. Then they slowly started getting those FPS drops, so I quit using them. Maybe a Bluetooth hub for Home Assistant? Or I could try to use it in a project like a Raspberry Pi.