Back before it launched, Valve was promising “4K gaming at 60 FPS” on its new Steam Machine gaming PCs. That claim was just deleted from the device’s hardware page. The change comes after early reviewers struggled to get certain games running at higher resolutions on anything but medium settings.
It was a bold claim and one that made the Steam Machine seem like it was punching well above its weight. An affordable gaming rig that delivers high visual performance and fidelity thanks to AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution? Where do I sign up? “In our testing the majority of Steam titles play great at 4K 60FPS with FSR on Steam Machine,” Valve wrote in a blog update earlier this year. “That said, there are some titles that currently require more upscaling than others, and it may be preferable to play at a lower framerate with VRR to maintain a 1080p internal resolution.”
Valve was clear that not every game would perform up to that benchmark, but backlash following the performance some Steam Machine reviewers experienced actually led the company to nuke that language entirely. The Steam Hardware Updates account noticed the alteration to the hardware listing on June 25. And sure enough, an archived version of the page reveals the “4K gaming at 60 FPS” promise was there as recently as June 24, back when everyone was still entering the lottery to try to be one of the lucky few to actually win a pre-order for the gaming PCs.
Reviewers from Linus Tech Tips to Digital Foundry have generally found the Steam Machine’s performance to be around that of a PS5. Most games on Sony’s console can either run at 60FPS or at a close to native 4K resolution, but not both. And it turns out many modern games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Forza Horizon 6 aren’t able to hit both on Steam Machine either. Even when upscaled from lower resolutions, reviewers have found it hard to hit a consistent 60FPS on anything but mid to lower graphical settings.
