u/grue

How much are used Indexes going for these days?

According to the Gamers Nexus (I think) video I saw, they're sourcing whatever RAM they can find, so some units ship with 1x16GB and others ship with 2X8GB and it's just random luck which you'll get.

Wait, the gabecube isn't exactly a cube? Well that's just mildly annoying for no good reason!

Look, if you just want something that vibrates there are a lot of easier ways to achieve that.

I'm not sure anybody *really* cares about the streaming codec as long as it works with good quality.

But fair enough: I agree it would be nice to have a "Steam Link 2" that could do 4K60 (or better) and (as pointed out in a Machine review video I just watched) support HDMI CEC.

(Maybe some third-party company should do it and name it the "Missing Link," LOL)

Depends how many memory channels the CPU supports. On a small consumer CPU, no benefit, but start getting up into bigger chips like Threadripper or especially Epyc and some of them support even more than four channels.

(Also, it might be worth noting that I'm pretty sure the Steam Machine only has two RAM *slots*, let alone channels. 4x8GB won't even be possible.)

What they should have done is made a new Steam Link with more capable hardware for cheap. That would have sold like hotcakes.

The Steam Link was pretty much a dumb terminal for VNC. In what way does it need to have "more capable hardware?"

Apparently, some units will ship with 1x16GB RAM and some will ship with 2x8GB RAM. I understand Valve's decision to scrounge both types of memory to be able to ship more units, but I wish they'd let customers express a preference.

As it is, there will be some 1x16GB customers annoyed they didn't get dual-channel *and* some 2x8GB customers annoyed they can't easily upgrade, and it's a shame those groups will be larger than they needed to be.

Sounds like a worthwhile tradeoff for something you're strapping to your face and therefore want to be as light as possible.

* It's a full controller, no "only one joystick" like the 2015 model.

This is 16-bit controller slander.

I also have a pair of underused Steam Controllers, and a Steam Link to go with them. Turns out I just don't care about gaming on my TV.

So, there’s a pretty big leap going from Strix Point (mid tier) to Strix Halo (high-end)

Holy shit, no kidding! I guess maybe that's the reason Valve didn't go that way: they wanted to put their product right in the middle of that graphics gap. Also, even that first one apparently has 12 CPU cores, so the whole balance between CPU and GPU performance is just off.

Still though, if we're talking custom, it would've been cool if Valve could've had them build something equivalent to a "Ryzen AI 7" or "Ryzen AI 5", but still with Radeon 8050S or 8060S graphics.

larger chip, lower yields

Oh right, I forgot about that part.

Not sure what kind of area one could expect for the CPU alone (without the integrated GPU) for this kind of process

I guess you could look up specs for a desktop Ryzen CPU that doesn't have integrated graphics. Not sure which is the right one to pick, but I checked a few Zen 4 AM5 chips and they were all 71 mm^2^ @ TSMC 5 nm.

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BTW, what actually is "Strix Halo" anyway? I'm confused about whether it's what they're calling all the latest-generation APUs, or just the high-end ones, or Asus co-branding, or what.

Are there not any lesser APUs (with smaller die size and higher yields) that aren't "Strix Halo" but still have a similar architecture and decent gaming performance?

Unified still requires a significant amount of chip area per die

Even compared to having two entirely separate memory controllers, one for the CPU and one for the GPU?

They say it's a custom design, so surely they could've custom-designed it to be unified rather than discrete if they wanted. I guess maybe they were trying to make sure it would only be bought by gamers by deliberately making it less versatile for AI?

Anybody else mildly surprised it isn't based on an APU with unified memory, like a cheaper/slower Framework Desktop?

No, the problem is that people believe "[concept] on a computer" is somehow magically different from "[concept] IRL" when it's not.

When you buy a game from Steam, you buy a *game*, not a license, and the First Sale Doctrine applies just as much as it does if you buy a board game from Walmart. Any claims to the contrary are simply *lies*, and any government support for such lies is simply *tyranny*.

Indefinitely.

They need to be on Mastodon specifically.

Nvidia slop on an AMD GPU?