Valve's Steam Machine and Steam Frame VR Headset Delayed Due to RAM Crisis
The highly anticipated Steam Machine desktop PC and Steam Frame VR headset, announced by Valve in November last year, are now facing a major setback due to the ongoing RAM crisis. Despite initial plans to ship both devices "in the first half of this year", Valve has now confirmed that it's unable to make an official announcement about pricing or availability.
The reason behind the delay is the rapidly increasing prices and limited availability of critical components such as memory and storage. As a result, Valve must "revisit our exact shipping schedule and pricing," according to its latest blog post. This means that the company is now facing uncertainty around the Steam Machine's pricing and launch date, making it difficult for consumers to plan their purchases.
Valve had initially stated that the Steam Machine was expected to be priced similarly to a comparably specced gaming PC. However, with the ongoing RAM crisis affecting various devices, including GPUs and other memory-intensive components, pricing is likely to fluctuate. The company's efforts to improve performance on both its own devices and those of enthusiasts who've managed to build their own Steam Machines using similar hardware may also be impacted.
In a bid to mitigate some of these issues, Valve claims to be working on "memory management improvements" for the Steam Machine launch, as well as enhancing upscaling and ray tracing performance in its drivers. These updates should ultimately benefit not just official Valve devices but also self-built Steam Machines with similar hardware.
The highly anticipated Steam Machine desktop PC and Steam Frame VR headset, announced by Valve in November last year, are now facing a major setback due to the ongoing RAM crisis. Despite initial plans to ship both devices "in the first half of this year", Valve has now confirmed that it's unable to make an official announcement about pricing or availability.
The reason behind the delay is the rapidly increasing prices and limited availability of critical components such as memory and storage. As a result, Valve must "revisit our exact shipping schedule and pricing," according to its latest blog post. This means that the company is now facing uncertainty around the Steam Machine's pricing and launch date, making it difficult for consumers to plan their purchases.
Valve had initially stated that the Steam Machine was expected to be priced similarly to a comparably specced gaming PC. However, with the ongoing RAM crisis affecting various devices, including GPUs and other memory-intensive components, pricing is likely to fluctuate. The company's efforts to improve performance on both its own devices and those of enthusiasts who've managed to build their own Steam Machines using similar hardware may also be impacted.
In a bid to mitigate some of these issues, Valve claims to be working on "memory management improvements" for the Steam Machine launch, as well as enhancing upscaling and ray tracing performance in its drivers. These updates should ultimately benefit not just official Valve devices but also self-built Steam Machines with similar hardware.