SteamOS vs. Windows: Which OS is Best for Your GPU?
▼ Summary
– The author previously built a personal Steam Machine with an AMD Ryzen 7 8700G and its integrated Radeon 780M GPU, but does not recommend replicating it currently.
– Inexpensive mini PCs with the same integrated GPU are available and suitable for games that run well on the less powerful Steam Deck.
– Valve’s upcoming official Steam Machine will differ by including a dedicated GPU with 8GB of VRAM, offering both advantages and potential drawbacks.
– Recent tests comparing SteamOS to Windows on identical hardware show Windows generally outperforms SteamOS, sometimes by a significant margin.
– SteamOS also worsens performance limitations for systems with 8GB GPUs, hitting memory limits in more games and at lower resolutions than Windows does.
Building a custom Steam Machine for your living room can be a rewarding project, but choosing the right operating system is crucial for performance. Recent testing reveals that Windows often outperforms SteamOS on identical hardware, a surprising reversal from the handheld gaming landscape. This performance gap can be significant, and SteamOS appears to place a heavier burden on systems with limited video memory, making it a more challenging environment for the upcoming 8GB-dedicated-GPU Steam Machine from Valve.
My own home-built entertainment center PC, powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 8700G with its integrated Radeon 780M graphics, serves as a decent living room companion. While I wouldn’t advise replicating this exact build given current memory costs, numerous affordable mini-PCs with the same graphics capability are available. These systems handle games that run smoothly on the Steam Deck quite well. However, this integrated graphics setup is a poor substitute for Valve’s planned dedicated gaming box. That future system, with its discrete 8GB graphics card, will introduce both performance advantages and potential new challenges that integrated solutions don’t face.
To understand the software landscape before these new machines arrive, we conducted a series of comparative tests. We ran several games from our standard GPU review suite on identical hardware, pitting the latest SteamOS against Windows. The results were clear and consistent: Windows generally holds a performance advantage over SteamOS. In some titles, this difference is substantial. Furthermore, SteamOS seems to intensify the limitations of graphics cards with only 8GB of VRAM. Games hit apparent memory ceilings more frequently and at lower resolution settings compared to their performance under Windows.
Our standard testing methodology for graphics cards focuses on isolating GPU performance. We use top-tier CPUs, motherboards, and other components to ensure the graphics processor is the only potential bottleneck in the system. This approach gives us the clearest possible picture of how a video card performs on its own merits. For this operating system comparison, we maintained that same rigorous hardware standard to ensure any performance differences we measured were solely due to the software environment, not other limiting factors in the test platform.
(Source: Ars Technica)
