When comparing Playstation 4 vs Valve Steam Machine, the Slant community recommends Playstation 4 for most people. In the question“What are the best latest generation gaming consoles?” Playstation 4 is ranked 1st while Valve Steam Machine is ranked 2nd. The most important reason people chose Playstation 4 is:
PS4 has 8GB of DDR5 RAM and an 8-core x86 AMD CPU that amounts to more computational power and ultimately better graphics than Xbox One or Wii U.
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Pros
Pro More raw graphical power than Xbox One or Wii U
PS4 has 8GB of DDR5 RAM and an 8-core x86 AMD CPU that amounts to more computational power and ultimately better graphics than Xbox One or Wii U.
Pro Great next generation DualShock controller
Pro Blu-ray playback support
Pro Best exclusive games on the market
With series like Uncharted, The Last of Us, Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War and more comming, PS3 is the best choice there is.
Pro Controllers have headphone jack, touchpad & speakers
Pro Cross-play support allows seamlessly continuing a game between Vita and PS4
Pro Quick and snappy switching in and out of applications and games.
Pro ShareFactory app gives video editing tools
Pro A lot more interesting indie games compared to Xbox One
Pro Play classic PS3 games on the PS4 through Playstation Now
Pro Biggest game library, and best sales
Steam has a massive game library with over 2,000 games that trumps even the biggest console library.
On top of that, Steam is also famous for having great sales for older, and indie games.
Pro Forever backwards compatible and upgradable
You still get all the benefits of a PC, and all the games you acquire will come with you from generation to generation, with the advantage of having a cheap, easy to set up machine, with none of the fuss of building your own computer.
Pro Revolutionary Controller
Steam Machines will come with a new revolutionary controller made by Valve, that is equipped with two touchpads instead of analog sticks.
The touchpads are incredibly precise, and allow for better control for small movement and large.
While it may not be able to dethrone the mouse and keyboard for precision, it is more comfortable to use in a living room setting, and if you find yourself wanting a mouse and keyboard, all games are still compatible with it.
Pro Open source
The operating system is open source, and the hardware is free to run anything. You can use the hardware you bought as you see fit.
Pro You can still run Windows
Steam OS doesn't have compatibility with all games, but the hardware is still a PC, and there's nothing to stop you from dual booting whatever operating systems you want to play any game you want, and if you already have a windows box you like, you can use the Steam Machine to stream from that computer to the living room.
Pro Cheaper than a PC
Because Steam Machines will run Steam OS, there will be less overhead required by the operating system allowing cheaper hardware to run games more efficiently, as well as the cost savings of the operating system being free.
Also, because the boxes will be streamlined and mass produced, those savings will be passed on.
Pro Can emulate most PS2 era and earlier consoles.
Pro Most powerful
Cons
Con Pay for online multiplayer
On top of having to pay for the system and games you also have to pay for online multiplayer, not once but monthly.
Con Vita's remote play still needs work to be useful
Con Most variation in hardware
It's somewhat confusing as to which Steam Machine you should look into buying because there are multiple hardware manufacturers who make the same machine with different components. Some have major drawbacks like not being able to upgrade the graphics card or being too pricy.
Con SteamOS
Although easy to navigate and use, SteamOS doesn't have every single Steam game. For instance, if you like GTA 5, you won't be able to play natively on a Steam Machine because the game only runs on Windows. That is unless you stream the game from another computer that runs Windows.
Con proprietary
It might based on the open source debian project but its UI is still proprietary.