The Steam Machine costs $1,049 for the 512GB model and $1,349 for the 2TB version. Those prices sting, especially when the PS5 sits at $600 and the PS5 Pro at $900. But Valve says it has almost no control over the final number.
In a Gamers Nexus interview, Valve engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais described what sourcing memory in 2026 actually looks like. “There’s no contracts. There’s nothing,” he said. “Those guys give us a price every month or something and they say, ‘you can buy that many,’ and it’s yes or no. And if we say no, then they never talk to us again.”
The suppliers — Samsung, Micron, and SK Hynix — hold all the cards. Memory is in short supply, and they know it. Valve isn’t alone in feeling the squeeze. Lenovo discontinued a handheld gaming device over RAM costs. Microsoft raised Surface prices. Even Tim Cook is warning of incoming price hikes across Apple’s lineup.
The situation is so tight that Valve can’t even guarantee dual-channel memory in every unit. Some Steam Machines will ship with one 16GB stick, others with two 8GB sticks — entirely depends on what they can get their hands on. Aldehayyat says Valve’s testing shows “no measurable difference” in gaming performance between single and dual channel, but Gamers Nexus disagrees.
Valve isn’t subsidizing the hardware either. The company says the Steam Machine is being sold roughly at cost. That’s a philosophical choice — Valve believes open ecosystems beat closed ones — but it means the consumer eats the full impact of the component crisis. The RAM crunch isn’t projected to ease anytime soon, so don’t expect these prices to drop.
