Valve's Steam Machine Just Showed Up on Geekbench, and the Numbers Are Causing Drama

Benchmark scores for Valve's Steam Machine have surfaced on Geekbench, and they're giving us the first real look at how the device performs. The scores appeared under the codename "Valve Fremont" running SteamOS, which strongly hints that review units are already out in the wild.

What the Numbers Say

The Steam Machine runs a custom AMD CPU with six cores, 12 threads, and a boost clock of 4.86GHz. On Geekbench 6, it scored around 2,334 in single-core and 7,316 in multi-core. To put that in context, those numbers are roughly on par with Ryzen 7000-series mobile chips like the Ryzen 5 7640HS. It's comfortably faster than the PS5 in single-core performance, where Sony's console scores around 1,650 to 1,700. Multi-core is a different story though, with the PS5 pulling slightly ahead there.

Worth noting: these are CPU-only benchmarks. Valve has previously confirmed the Steam Machine will use a custom RDNA 3-based GPU with 8GB of VRAM, but no GPU scores have leaked yet.

Why People Are Concerned

The reaction online has been mixed, to put it politely. A lot of people on Reddit and X pointed out that a six-core Zen 4 chip feels dated for a device launching in mid-2026, especially when gaming handhelds with newer chips are already on shelves. Some users called the scores "pretty bad for 2026," and there's genuine worry about value for money given that the Steam Machine's price is rumoured to potentially cross $1,000 due to the ongoing component shortage.

The Bigger Picture

The CPU score alone doesn't tell you how the Steam Machine will actually play games. Valve is pitching this as a living room console alternative, not a desktop PC replacement. It runs on SteamOS with Proton compatibility built in, and Valve's track record with optimising the Steam Deck suggests they know how to squeeze performance out of constrained hardware. The GPU is also the bigger question mark here, and without those numbers, the full picture is still missing.

If review units are truly circulating, an official reveal on pricing and release date shouldn't be too far off.