Smach Zero - a $300 portable, handheld Steam Machine

[Dabombinable]

It's x86, you can load Windows on it.

I know-and anything after XP runs like shit on low end hardware.

[ShadowCaptain]

I know-and anything after XP runs like shit on low end hardware.

 

I am running W8.1 on a quad core atom tablet with 1gb of ram, runs fine to me

 

was playing some games on it last night

[escape093]

I don't get why people are complaining. It's a PS Vita, except you can actually do stuff with it.

[Dabombinable]

I am running W8.1 on a quad core atom tablet with 1gb of ram, runs fine to me

 

was playing some games on it last night

AMD embedded G-Series SoC "Steppe Eagle" with Jaguar-based CPU and GCN-based Radeon graphics

Worse than an Atom-which is an actual quad core.

[marldorthegreat]

This is a poormans nvidia shield.

The nvidia shields a console

[ShadowCaptain]

Worse than an Atom-which is an actual quad core.

 

I thought it was aiming to be better? 

 

The nvidia shields a console

 

What? the Nvidia shield portable is a handheld, there is also a tablet and a console

 

[Khvarrioiren]

The nvidia shields a console

 

A handheld.

[Khvarrioiren]

Ignore this, misread, it actually sports a SoC, not an APU.

[qwertywarrior]

omg i thought that thing died lol

[marldorthegreat]

A handheld.

http://shield.nvidia.co.uk/

[Humbug]

It has 4GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, a 720p touch screen, and an HDMI output. As for the CPU and GPU, well, that's where things get tricky, because it'll be using an "AMD embedded G-Series SoC 'Steppe Eagle' with Jaguar-based CPU and GCN-based Radeon graphics." So basically they're just using a bunch of jargon to say that it won't be that powerful, because let's be honest, at a $300 price point you won't be getting anything stellar. Lastly it will be running SteamOS.

And now the discussion or rant or whatever you want to call this. It certainly is an interesting product to say the least, although Razer beat them to the punch a few years ago, but that product was too expensive. This is basically a similar thing, but well, cheaper. Now, let's talk specs. First off, what on earth is up with only 32GB of storage?

It's a handheld gaming device.

Specs seem to be ok for that.

[AlexGoesHigh]

I dunno about the performance of that AMD SoC. I wish they switched to an Atom like the Zenfone 2 carries, though i guess that thing might have better GPU performance that an atom because of the GCN GPU.

[Khvarrioiren]

http://shield.nvidia.co.uk/

 

That right there is the Shield Android TV. The Shield in itself is a portable handheld device.

[dalekphalm]

I think a device like this COULD work. However, there is one very important thing that must happen:

 

Valve needs to curate a "SteamBoy" authorized list of games. Basically, they need to create a separate Store and Games List that only contains the games that SteamBoy can actually run. Which needs they need someone to validate those games. You could have multiple levels of curation:

1. Games run well on max settings

2. Games run well with reduced settings

3. Games run - But framerates will not be consistent

 

Steam has plenty of games, especially older ones, that would run totally fine on this. Just don't expect it to run Crysis 3 or Star Citizen.

 

However, since the chances of Steam actually properly curating games for the SteamBoy are pretty slim, I envision this being a complete and utter flop.

[Mephy04]

I think handhelds are neat, looking forward to this and hope it does well. 

[MEC-777]

One major benefit of this over the shield is you don't have to have an Nvidia GPU to use it. It will work with any gaming PC, really (the in-home streaming, that is).

 

But, those controls... Will have to try it before I'd consider buying it.  

[dalekphalm]

One major benefit of this over the shield is you don't have to have an Nvidia GPU to use it. It will work with any gaming PC, really (the in-home streaming, that is).

 

But, those controls... Will have to try it before I'd consider buying it.  

The In-Home Streaming may be the only redeemable thing about this. The actual on-device gaming experience is just going to be far too variable if Valve gives the SteamBoy full unrestricted (and non-curated) access to the Steam Catalogue.

[Humbug]

The In-Home Streaming may be the only redeemable thing about this. The actual on-device gaming experience is just going to be far too variable if Valve gives the SteamBoy full unrestricted (and non-curated) access to the Steam Catalogue.

Maybe Valve should formalize the publication of minimum specifications. The way it works at the moment any dev can write their games min specs in a non-structured manner on the store page. What they can do is give devs specific CPUs / GPUs / RAM / free space options to choose from as minimum specs. Once that data is stored in a structured manner it would be easy for the steam program to check a user's hardware, lookup the database and then present a list of compatible games to the user. As you correctly stated earlier valve is anti-curation and mostly hands-off. However the above mentioned automation is something I can see them doing... Currently they only do it to separate windows/OSX/Linux games.

[BallisticPeanut]

It kind of does. I believe the D-Pad are those 4 buttons on the bottom left hand side of the controller.

It's kind of like a d pad, but I'd like to have an actual pad like on the Logitech F310 or any Nintendo controller.

 

And those buttons look pretty far apart from each other and probably be a pain to use  :wacko:

[Tairetsu]

The specs sheet states clearly that it has an SD card slot. 

 

Besides this is for low-end gaming, of course you are not gonna be running AAA games on ultra settings, but for 720p 30FPS gaming this is probably going to work pretty well, I mean, hell, the team claims this thing can run Bioshock Infinite, Civ5 and Dota 2, I don't think it runs them at high settings 60FPS, but if it can make them playable then that's more than ok for me, the 720p touch screen is a nice touch in my opinion, I mean, it's a small screen, it doesn't need to be 1080p, and being 720p games will look slightly better without hitting the performance as hard. 

 

Basically i'm going to jump in the hype train to prove products like this have a market, but I'm not putting my money on the table until I see some demos.

[TopWargamer]

The specs sheet states clearly that it has an SD card slot. 

No, it doesn't... Nowhere in the source article, their official website, or in the video does it say that it has an SD card slot. 

[dalekphalm]

The specs sheet states clearly that it has an SD card slot. 

 

Besides this is for low-end gaming, of course you are not gonna be running AAA games on ultra settings, but for 720p 30FPS gaming this is probably going to work pretty well, I mean, hell, the team claims this thing can run Bioshock Infinite, Civ5 and Dota 2, I don't think it runs them at high settings 60FPS, but if it can make them playable then that's more than ok for me, the 720p touch screen is a nice touch in my opinion, I mean, it's a small screen, it doesn't need to be 1080p, and being 720p games will look slightly better without hitting the performance as hard. 

 

Basically i'm going to jump in the hype train to prove products like this have a market, but I'm not putting my money on the table until I see some demos.

The problem is that some people will buy this, and will try and run AAA games on it.

 

The advantage of a Console is that there is only one graphical setting. It's optimized and at the very least - playable.

 

This could see major public backlash if a bunch of uninformed consumers buy these things, buy a game it can't play, then get pissed because the store let them buy it.

 

Sure, an informed enthusiast gamer/tech like some of the LTT users wouldn't fall for that - most of us would do our research and properly check the minimum specs and reviews - but let's be frank. Most consumers - even most gamers, don't do that.

[dmegatool]

Sure, an informed enthusiast gamer/tech like some of the LTT users wouldn't fall for that - most of us would do our research and properly check the minimum specs and reviews - but let's be frank. Most consumers - even most gamers, don't do that.

 

True that. Specs are just too vague and complicated. You need to know part by numbers that don't make sense and are hard to compare against each other.

 

There should have a kind of steam benchmark where it spit out a number. Dev could test their games and rate the performance with the same benchmark. So if my GPU and CPU gimme a score of 2000, I know I won't be able to play a game where it state 3000 as a minimum. Or maybe just make it all automatic and warn the user when they're below a preset... There's probably a better way but specs are a plague on PC. It's ok for us tech junkies but for people who just want to game, it's just another argument for consoles. 

[crystal6tak]

Hold up a sec, does AMD have any hardware based H.264 decoding in their chips? I mean I know for sure know intel has them which is great for steam machine streaming.

[dalekphalm]

Hold up a sec, does AMD have any hardware based H.264 decoding in their chips? I mean I know for sure know intel has them which is great for steam machine streaming.

Err... AMD has had H.264 decoding since the R600 architecture (That's Radeon HD 3000 series) in the form of UVD and UVD+. So yes... H.264 decoding is no problem at all for AMD.