Valve's cube or Sony's Pro

In the Steam Machine vs PS5 Pro match-up, the PS5 Prois the better buy for most UK players: it has roughly twice the GPU compute, costs £89.01 less at Sony's £789.99 RRP, and includes a controller. Valve's Steam Machine costs £879 for the 512 GB model without a controller, sold only through the Steam store. The Steam Machine wins for one buyer: someone with a large Steam library who wants PC games, mods and cheap Steam sales on a TV.

One fact settles it for many households this autumn. Grand Theft Auto VI launches on 19 November 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S only, so the Steam Machine cannot play it at launch.

What is the Steam Machine?

The Steam Machine is Valve's living-room gaming PC, a 156 x 152 x 162 mm cube running SteamOS that launched on 29 June 2026. Valve fits a semi-custom AMD Zen 4 CPU with 6 cores and 12 threads at up to 4.8 GHz, and an RDNA 3 GPU with 28 compute units at a sustained 2.45 GHz, which works out at about 8.8 teraflops. The GPU has its own 8 GB of GDDR6, alongside 16 GB of DDR5 system memory.

UK pricing, direct from Valve: £879 for 512 GB without a controller, £938 for 512 GB with the new Steam Controller, £1,149 for 2 TB, and £1,208 for 2 TB with the controller. The Steam Machine was not listed on Amazon UK at the time of writing (September 2026), so this article quotes Valve's price only. Storage expands through a spare M.2 2280 slot and a microSD reader.

The Steam Machine is a PC, not a console in the Sony sense. It runs a desktop mode, accepts a mouse and keyboard, and Valve provides Windows drivers for anyone who wants to install Windows instead.

Which is fastest for the money?

The PS5 Pro is faster for the money on the GPU, and the Steam Machine has the faster CPU. Sony's PS5 Pro GPU delivers around 16.7 teraflops against about 8.8 on the Steam Machine, and adds PSSR upscaling, which Sony upgraded in early 2026. The Steam Machine's Zen 4 CPU at up to 4.8 GHz is a generation newer than the PS5 Pro's 8-core Zen 2 at 3.85 GHz, which helps in CPU-heavy PC games and strategy titles.

The teraflop gap overstates the real-world difference, because PC games on the Steam Machine can drop settings and use AMD's FSR upscaling, while console games are tuned for fixed hardware. Digital Foundry's early look at the Steam Machine reported Cyberpunk 2077 holding 60 fps at 1440p on high settings, falling towards 30 fps with ray tracing on. The 8 GB of video memory is the Steam Machine's clearest long-term limit for 4K textures.

How much does each teraflop cost?

The PS5 Pro costs £47.30 per teraflop and the cheapest Steam Machine £99.89, so the Steam Machine charges more than twice as much for each unit of GPU compute. Compare Electronic's price-per-teraflop table divides each price by its GPU rating. Amazon UK prices at the time of writing (September 2026) are used where Amazon listed one; Sony's UK RRP is used for the PS5 Pro, and Valve's store price for the Steam Machine.

Teraflops here are single-issue FP32 figures for both AMD designs, so they compare like with like, but they ignore the Steam Machine's newer CPU and the PS5 Pro's PSSR upscaler. The fairer reading is that console makers subsidise hardware and earn it back on games and subscriptions, while Valve prices the Steam Machine closer to PC parts. Steam Machine owners claw some of that back through Steam sales and an existing library, and pay no subscription for online play.

Can the Steam Machine play every Steam game?

No, the Steam Machine plays most Steam games but not all of them. SteamOS runs Windows games through Valve's Proton compatibility layer, and Valve says every game verified for Steam Deck is automatically verified for the Steam Machine.

The gaps that matter to UK buyers:

• Kernel-level anti-cheat: games such as Valorant and several of the biggest multiplayer shooters block Linux, so they do not run on SteamOS. Valve has said it hopes publishers will enable support.
• GTA: GTA Online has been blocked on SteamOS since Rockstar added BattlEye anti-cheat in 2024, and GTA 6 has no PC version at all.
• Other stores: Game Pass and console exclusives are absent; Epic and other launchers need workarounds or a Windows install.

The PS5 Pro has the opposite profile: every PS5 game and nearly every PS4 game run, including Sony exclusives on day one and GTA 6, but only through the PlayStation Store. For a Windows machine with full anti-cheat support, Compare Electronic's best gaming PC guide covers prebuilt options at similar money.

Which is easier in a living room?

The PS5 Pro is easier in a living room: it ships with a controller, connects over HDMI 2.1 and needs no setup beyond a PlayStation account. The Steam Machine is smaller, at 156 x 152 x 162 mm and 2.6 kg against the PS5 Pro's 3.1 kg, but has HDMI 2.0 rather than HDMI 2.1, which limits 4K output over HDMI to 60 Hz. Its DisplayPort 1.4 output carries higher refresh rates, though few TVs accept DisplayPort.

SteamOS boots straight into a controller-friendly interface with sleep and resume, borrowed from the Steam Deck. The Steam Machine has Wi-Fi 6E and Gigabit Ethernet; the PS5 Pro has Wi-Fi 7 and Ethernet. Both use a UK 3-pin power cable with an internal power supply. The Steam Machine is the more rewarding box for tinkerers, and the PS5 Pro the lower-maintenance one for a shared family TV. HDMI 2.1 sets that suit both are in best TV for PS5 and Xbox Series X.

Which should you buy under £900?

The PS5 Pro is the best machine under £900, even with its disc drive added. The PS5 Pro costs £789.99 at RRP, or £893.18 with the PS5 Disc Drive at £103.19 on Amazon UK at the time of writing. The Steam Machine starts at £879, but a buyer without a spare controller pays £938 for the bundle, which breaks the budget.

Buyers who want to spend less have two strong console options. The PlayStation 5 costs £569.00 on Amazon UK with a disc drive, and the Xbox Series X costs £669.90 with a 12.15 teraflop GPU and 4K Blu-ray. Both play GTA 6. The full ranking is in best console for GTA 6, the Pro-versus-standard question in PS5 Slim vs PS5 Pro, and the budget Xbox case in is the Xbox Series S worth it. PlayStation buyers should also check PS5 Black Friday deals and the best PS5 accessories.

Verdict: Steam Machine or PS5 Pro?

The PS5 Pro wins for most UK buyers: about twice the GPU compute of the Steam Machine at £47.30 per teraflop against £99.89, a controller in the box, and GTA 6 on 19 November 2026. The Steam Machine at £879 is the right buy only for players with a big Steam library, a love of mods and no interest in games locked behind kernel anti-cheat.