r/steammachine • u/ThankfulThrows • 5h ago
Question eGPU?
The steam machine is a pretty capable little box but does have some limits. Anyone here try it with an eGPU? Is that even possible? Heck yeah dudes let’s go.
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u/ZeroAnimated 4h ago
You have to use the nvme slot and run the os off USB c. It'll be a Frankenstein setup but would give you improvements none the less. Not much point in putting in too powerful of a GPU tho it'll be bottlenecked by the 4x pcie bus.
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u/perfectpizzapie 29m ago edited 25m ago
I've been tinkering with one, since I picked up an open box 9070xt for a decent deal. I had to buy an m.2 to oculink adapter to go in the m.2 slot, since the steam machine doesn't support oculink or thunderbolt out of the box. The biggest pain in the ass after that has been getting an external nvme enclosure to work with the USB C port. Everything runs fine if I plug the enclosure into one of the front ports, but they're only USB 3.0, so they max out at 5gbps. The USB C port on the back is supposed to reach 10gbps, but I wasn't actually able to boot from it, even after buying and testing three separate enclosures, and different cables. Finally, I picked up a powered USB C hub, and that solved the problem, so I guess the back USB C port just doesn't supply enough power to run a drive from, on its own.
Other than that, most games I've tested run great. I'm able to get 4k60 in Dragon Quest XI S, which was 1440p60 before. The Last of Us Part 1 runs at about 4k50ish. But I've been playing Resident Evil 4 Remake most recently, and I'm honestly not sure it's running any better than before. I'm getting about 1440p40ish, in more open areas.
Other quirks: the steam machine won't detect the ssd if it's plugged into USB, so the led strip on the front will give a red error code that can't be changed. The only way to get rid of it is to disable the led strip. The power led also stays red. Also, every time the steam machine needs to be restarted, i have to go back into the bios and manually choose to boot from the usb drive. For some reason, the steam machine won't just do it on its own.
All in all, I would not recommend going out of your way to buy an extra gpu, an egpu dock, an nvme enclosure, an oculink adapter, and a powered usbc hub, to get it all set up. For that amount of money, plus the money it costs to get a steam machine, you could build something way better and less janky. But if you already have everything, it's fun to mess around with, if you want to give it a try.
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u/LoGiX247 Received 4h ago
You are cheaper to just subscribe to game streaming service…
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u/ThankfulThrows 3h ago
It would be cheaper if I just stopped playing video games all together
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u/LoGiX247 Received 1h ago
That would mean you need to talk to people around you… that can get more expensive then playin video games ;-) lol
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u/Ok-Simple-7069 3h ago
Sadly I was hoping if there ever was a steam machine v2. They would have a proprietary connection or support for thunderbolt 5. Which would have allowed for this type of thing but I think the CPU is its biggest weakness. At 30W and 6 cores. It’s about as good as a decent gaming laptop.