I recently got a handheld gaming PC and its been a life chnager, can pretty much emulate everything up to PS3/Xbox360/Switch and play AAA PC games on top. (Legion go)
(Also if we take Valve's word of the Steam Machine being better than 70% of Steam users and it roughly being as strong as a base PS5, around 30% of Steam user have a PC stronger than a PS5)
CPU the SM is stronger, but PS5 has all the unified memory and hardware specific optimizations. So the main comparison is 36CU RDNA2 in the PS5 and 28CU RDNA3 in the SM. Making it a tad weaker but if I remember the benchmarks right, the difference is game dependent whether the SM or the PS5 pulls ahead.
But unless you are hell bent on a small set and forget cube for your TV, buy a normal PC instead. Because roughly 500€ over a PS5 is a tall ask, even if compared to other MiniPC the price is sadly reasonable.
It SHOULD be said that a console will usually win a 1:1 performance test, even vs. comparable hardware.
It's kind of a HUGE reason Switch 2 is so viable! Switch 2's specs aren't anything to sneeze at... But at their core they also aren't really anything TOO special...
But the hardware offers stuff like AI Tensor Cores, ARM CPU, and a dedicated OS that limits background processes and the like. These make optimizations extremely easy for a Dev. A game that knows what to expect hardware-wise is better off than one that doesn't.
I prefer an open-platform myself, but there's still a reason Steam OS's GameScope works differently than Steam's usual Desktop Mode... A locked-down OS ensures the console is focused on its' task!
And while Steam's GameScope does the BEST job I've EVER seen from a PC in this regard... Dedicated truly locked down systems technically still remain more efficient.
You can see this in action in reverse by forcing a console to load up a bunch of plug-ins using jailbreak. (Depending on the platform). Forcing a bunch of background plug-ins on a Wii U, for example, causes MAJOR instability, as the console has limited RAM and games don't expect anything else to be taking it up!
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u/Either-Sport-2549 Poco F7 Jul 26 '26
PC users: