u/arex333

Volume 1 | Volume 2 | Volume 3 | Volume 4 | Problematic games

Probably only going to do another 1 or 2 of these posts so I can stop testing and play the damn thing lol. I will probably compile all posts into a spreadsheet or something for people to reference in the future.

I also got a lot of requests to test counter strike 2. I will not be doing that one since I found the game lacks controller support and this is a TV/controller box for me. Seems like plenty of people are receiving their steam machines now so I'll leave the CS2 testing to someone else.

Also, mods why does this sub block me from posting if I add the word v-r-a-m (without the hyphens)??

• Monster hunter wilds: this was my most requested game by far. I caved and bought a copy to test for everyone (plus I wanted to play it). 4k is pretty heavy. I went for 1440p FSR balanced, medium settings. Frame gen looks/feels pretty good so I enabled it for 75-90 fps. Decent result for how unoptimized this game is.
• Borderlands 3: 4k at 100% resolution scale medium settings gets 50-70fps. Dropping to 75% scale gets 90+fps or you can use that extra buffer to increase settings.
• Diablo 2 resurrected: 4k, 85% scale, high settings, 60-80fps
• Spider-man remastered: 4k high settings, dynamic res (with FSR) set to 60 gives a solid 60fps. Frame gen gets you to 90+ which feels and looks really good to play.
• Remnant 2: 1440p medium settings, FSR balanced, 60+fps
• Marvel rivals: default/auto-detect settings, 4k FSR (4.1) ultra performance, 50-60fps. 1440p FSR balanced 60-80fps (I preferred the 1440p option).
• Ghost of Tsushima: 1620p with dynamic resolution set to 60fps, high settings gives a solid 60+fps.
• The Ascent: 4k @ 85% resolution, medium settings, 60-90fps. If you drop to something like 1440p you can increase settings considerably. Looks fucking incredible on an OLED screen. It has traversal stutters but it also does that on my desktop.
• Far Cry 5: 4k with dynamic res set to 60, high preset for 60fps+. "HD texture" exceeds 8gb graphics memory.
• Diablo 4: 4k with FSR balanced at medium settings gives 60-80fps. fairly scalable if you want to drop resolution to increase settings.

Volume 1 | Volume 2 | Volume 3 | Volume 4

I've tested like 40 games at this point and my experience has been largely extremely positive. Here are the 3 games that I've had issues with. There are likely solutions here but the default experience is problematic.

-No rest for the wicked: the game thinks I'm running on a steam deck and refuses to show resolutions above 800p. There are threads online of people having this issue and apparently there's a launch command to fix it, but it's not working. I've tried the latest GE proton to no avail. Not bothering to test performance until I can get this running at a proper resolution.

-Dead space remake: absolutely horrific stuttering (like it freezes for 1-3 sec frequently.) some combination of changing settings, reinstalling, and changing proton version seems to have fixed it but I'm not sure what the actual solution was. Eventually landed on good performance at either 4k FSR ultra performance, or 1440p FSR quality with medium settings (the latter option looked better). Has the traversal stutter present on the PC version regardless of hardware, but it's more noticeable here compared to my desktop PC which has a 9800X3D.

EDIT: as others pointed out, apparently the game keeps compiling shaders after the initial startup compilation finishes. Recommend just letting the game idle for a while before actually playing. My settings and comments about traversal stutter still apply.

-Borderlands 4: this game is not known for good optimization. With some pretty aggressive settings reductions I was able to get the generate framerate generally above 60 but it had frequent hard fps dips that were really unpleasant. It seemed to somewhat smooth out the longer I spent in an area, but using the vehicle to move around the open world was a disaster. Not sure where the bottleneck is, needs more testing.

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

• Batman Arkham Knight: 4k native, 60fps, ultra settings (minus the Nvidia features). Minor dips into the mid 50s, not noticeable on a VRR screen. Could slightly lower settings to get a locked 60. How the fuck is this game 11 years old?? It looks outstanding. 
• Assassin's Creed Valhalla: 4k, FSR quality, high settings (volumetric clouds is on medium). 60-80 fps, really smooth and looks great.
• Gears of war reloaded: 4k, FSR balanced, high settings, 60fps.
• The last of us part 2: 4k60 with dynamic res and mixed low-high settings. Supports frame gen if that's your thing. I prefer 1440p with higher settings on this one. 
• Arc Raiders: at 4k I had to go fairly aggressive on the upscaling and pretty low settings. It was running between 50-60 but the frame times were pretty smooth and honestly with VRR I probably would have thought it was a locked 60 without a fps counter. 1440p is much easier to run at higher fps and settings obviously.

Volume 2: https://www.reddit.com/r/steammachine/comments/1um1lwa/unscientific\_game\_performance\_tests\_volume\_2/

Volume 1: https://www.reddit.com/r/steammachine/comments/1ululhc/unscientific\_game\_performance\_tests\_volume\_1/

Side note, fuck 3rd party game launchers. Signing in to the rockstar or EA launcher or whatever over top of steam is really irritating on a controller focused device.

-God of War 2018: 4k, fsr balanced, "original" quality, 60fps.

-Space marine 2: this was maybe the heaviest game I've tried. 4k60 is completely out of the cards. I was running this at 1440p, FSR balanced, low settings (except textures) and it ran at 60..ish. Chaotic scenes would dip into the 50s. To be fair, even low settings looks amazing and on a VRR screen performance felt fine.

-The Last of Us part 1: 4k is tough to hit 60fps. 1440p with FSR quality looked pretty good. This game has like a million graphics settings and I was able to land on a good visual quality and 60fps.

-Witcher 3: crazy scalability. I was able to hit 4k 120fps, but also I could crank up the settings and murder my fps. You can definitely find your personal sweet spot between fps and graphics.

-Red Dead 2: this game also has a million graphics settings. I was able to find settings for 4k60, but I prefer more eye candy over resolution so I dropped to 1440p with higher settings.

-Horizon Zero Dawn remastered: very demanding. 4k was rough. Dropped to 1440p with FSR. Managed to hit 60 with settings customization.

Volume 1: https://www.reddit.com/r/steammachine/comments/1ululhc/unscientific_game_performance_tests_volume_1/

As mentioned, these are very quick tests. Just booting up the game and messing with the graphics settings for a few minutes until I'm happy with performance. More to come in volume 3.

• Forza Horizon 4: 4k with "dynamic optimization" enabled. 70+ fps, very smooth gameplay and great image quality.
• Elden Ring: This game genuinely does not get enough shit for how terrible the PC port is. The options menu is extremely barebones with no upscaling or anything, it's not even well optimized and it's hard capped at 60fps. Anyways, rant over. 1440p medium settings runs at 60+fps. 4k at low settings runs in the 40ish fps range. This was in a fairly demanding region, though please note I do not own the DLC. I hear dlc areas are the most demanding.
• Baldurs gate 3: this is act 1. I do not have a save in act 3. 1440p ultra, 60fps. 4k FSR quality, low settings, 60fps. I would pick the 1440p option personally.
• Prey (2017): 4k 60fps, high settings. had some weird stutters for a few minutes (shader comp stutter?) that smoothed out.
• Sea of Thieves: 4k 60fps "rare" settings (equal to high, I think).
• Dreamlight valley (wife game lol): 4k ultra 75-120 fps.
• Dishonored 2: 4k high settings, 60fps+

Since this device is so new, there's very little info about how most games perform (outside of the typical ones that reviewers test with like cyberpunk, forza, etc). I'm essentially just rapidfire testing as many games as I can, only spending a handful of minutes with each title after tweaking settings a bit. I have fast internet but it takes a while to download each one.

One quick note, I have a 5090 gaming desktop which obviously means I run games at ultra settings and RT. Some games cloud sync your graphics settings, which can be problematic. When I booted up returnal on the steam machine, it was trying to run maxed out settings with RT at native 4k and would completely freeze the game. My solution was to limit the resolution to 720p temporarily so it would run enough to alter graphics settings.

I'll do more posts as I test more games but here's what I've done so far:

• Resident Evil 4 remake - easily exceeds 60fps at 1440p with mixed settings (medium-ish). 4k requires upscaling to hit 60fps, which is only FSR 2 so it doesn't look great. Anyone know how to add a newer version of FSR?
• Clair Obscur Expedition 33: 1440p FSR quality hits 60fps with low-ish settings. 4k required nuking the image quality to get good performance.
• Dark souls remastered: 60fps stable (engine capped), even in blighttown at 4k native. Very barebones settings menu but I had settings "maxed". No surprise as this is a PS3 era game.
• Overwatch: 4k native, high-ish settings, 60fps. Can easily exceed 60fps with lower res/upscaling/lower settings.
• Returnal: 1440p, low-medium settings ran at 60fps+. 4k couldn't hit 60fps since there's no FSR support.
• Helldivers 2: 1440p, FSR 4 Quality, medium settings was running 60fps+ for me. 4k is doable but with lower settings and much more aggressive upscaling so 1440p looked better.
• Lies of P: 4k with FSR can run at 60fps but it's FSR 3 (anyone know how to force FSR 4?) so image quality is poor. Looks much better at 1440p native.