Credit: steampowered.com
In his new video, blogger ETA PRIME answered the question of whether the performance of a Steam Machine PC/console will improve if Windows 11 is installed on it instead of SteamOS.
The experimenters increased the DDR-5600 memory from 16 to 64 GB, which may slightly distort the accuracy of the experiment, but this configuration was used both with SteamOS and in Windows, for which Valve kindly published drivers. The most noticeable difference was in the Geekbench 6 benchmark: Windows demonstrated a 3.3% performance increase in single-threaded mode and a 22% performance increase in multi-threaded mode.
In games, the gap wasn’t as dramatic.
For example, Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p resolution ran at 74 fps on SteamOS and 68 fps on Windows 11. When the resolution was increased to 4K, Windows ran at 20 fps, while SteamOS ran at 18 fps.
When running Shadow of the Tomb Raider, both operating systems showed a difference within the statistical margin of error—around 2 frames per second at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K resolutions. The same was true for Horizon Zero Dawn, with both games requiring scaling technology to achieve adequate frame rates.
ETA PRIME concluded that for most users, installing Windows 11 on a Steam Machine doesn’t make sense. It’s better to stick with the convenient SteamOS. However, if someone primarily needs a Microsoft OS, there’s no point in buying this Valve mini PC just for that, as you can build a more powerful computer for the same price, albeit one that won’t be as compact.