Considering the furor around limited VRAM in new graphics cards at the start of 2025, it was somewhat of a surprise to learn that Valve was only including 8GB of VRAM in its new PC gaming systems. But Valve is committed to the idea, and claims that its Steam Machines will be as (or more) powerful than 70% of the systems used by Steam gamers, TechSpot reports.

When Nvidia launched the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti and 5060 with 8GB of VRAM, and the RTX 5080 with "only" 16GB, many gamers, myself included, decried the move as underwhelming and exclusionary. We bought the new cards and found they couldn't play some of the latest games at higher detail settings, even if the GPU was powerful enough to manage it.

(Credit: Valve)

But as Valve points out, if you look at the Steam Hardware Survey—and presumably Valve has much more data to draw on internally—the vast majority of gamers (over 67%) have 8GB of VRAM or less. Over 10% of all gamers are playing with 1GB or less of VRAM. That, combined with the success of the comparatively lightweight Steam Deck (not to mention rising component prices), likely helped Valve determine that 8GB of VRAM was plenty.

"The Steam Machine is equal or better than 70% of what people have at home," Valve engineer Yazan Aldehayyat said on Adam Savage's Tested podcast last week.

When combined with the console's built-in FSR upscaling from the AMD RDNA4 GPU, that's probably sufficient for an entry-level to low-mid-tier gaming experience. Valve's claim of 4K 60fps in every game might be a bit much, especially at the top end where AAA games can be very demanding, particularly if you're light on VRAM. But 1080p and 120Hz is going to be a piece of cake, as will 1440p at medium settings.

As PC Gamer points out, 8GB of VRAM really is fine for a bunch of games, especially at lower settings. The Hogwarts Legacies, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circles of the gaming world are probably out of reach at anything but the lowest settings—and 4K really won't be doable there without aggressive upscaling—but everything else should play well.

If Steam Machines have 7600-like performance, they'll game better than many of the most popular gaming GPUs on Steam's Hardware Survey. Price will be the deciding factor, though. If it's over $1,000, then 8GB of VRAM will feel underwhelming. But if it can edge close to console-like pricing in the $500-$700 realm, 8GB of VRAM could well be plenty.