AI datacenters are gobbling up all the RAM and the storage and the graphics chips too, and gamers get stung hardest. Not only is the cost of building a system soaring, but the forthcoming Steam Machine from Valve is being delayed. The compact desktop was expected to offer solid gaming specs at a reasonable price, but those prices are getting out of hand. Valve outlined its challenges in a blog post on Steam.
"When we announced these products in November, we planned on being able to share specific pricing and launch dates by now," it writes. "But the memory and storage shortages you've likely heard about across the industry have rapidly increased since then. The limited availability and growing prices of these critical components mean we must revisit our exact shipping schedule and pricing (especially around Steam Machine and Steam Frame)."
The hoped-for first quarter release isn't going to happen, though "our goal of shipping all three products in the first half of the year has not changed." And they still claim 60fps gameplay at 4K on "the majority of Steam titles." When it does show up, both the storage and RAM will be user-accessible and upgradeable, giving Valve some latitutude to cut corners if it must to land in a certain price range.
8GB and a GTX 1080, it's all anyone ever needed. Everywhere in LA takes 20 minutes.
