DF Direct Weekly #240 Is Now Available (Patreon)

DF Direct Weekly #240: Steam Machine - Pricing, Specs, VRAM, ARM Ambitions + More

Digital Foundry is now fully independent! Join the DF Supporter Program and support the team: https://bit.ly/3jEGjvx Valve's reveal of the Steam Machine has proven phenomenally popular to the point where our coverage is by far and away the biggest DF video of the year. But there's more information emerging post-embargo we had to share, plus plenty of discussion points to wade through. How much will it cost? Does this really cause problems for Microsoft? What is the actual make-up of the Zen 4 CPU? And is a spec that's comparable with PlayStation 5 really the best that could be done over five years into this generation? Rich, Oliver and Alex convene once again to talk about the Valve initiative. Visit the new Digital Foundry website: https://www.digitalfoundry.net Go here to check out DF merch! https://store.digitalfoundry.net Subscribe for more Digital Foundry: http://bit.ly/DFSubscribe 0:00:00 Introduction 0:01:41 Steam Machine pricing 0:13:42 Potential impacts to Microsoft 0:25:18 CPU: likely Hawk Point 2 0:30:54 Hardware concerns and deficits 0:45:11 Should Valve have used Strix Halo? 0:51:41 8GB of VRAM and SteamOS efficiencies 1:03:04 Steam Frame and Valve’s push into ARM 1:14:25 Supporter Q1: Will Steam Machine have pre-loading of shader cache? 1:19:17 Supporter Q2: How can Valve solve the anti-cheat problem? 1:22:25 Supporter Q3: Will Valve drop Half-Life 3 for the launch of Steam Machine? 1:28:21 Supporter Q4: What is a proper punishment for Alex after his denigration of PS3?