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Gaming Gear

YouTube Premium adds high-quality audio and 4x playback for iOS, Android and desktop

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Google is expanding access to YouTube Premium features like faster playback speeds and high-quality audio to more types of devices. Most people subscribe to YouTube Premium to remove ads from YouTube and access to YouTube Music, but Google also includes a variety of “power-user” features that give subscribers more granular control over their viewing or listening experience. Now those features will be available in more places.

YouTube Premium’s faster playback speeds (in 0.5x increments from 1x to 4x speed) are now available on Android, iOS and the web, after initially only being available in the mobile YouTube app. The ability to have YouTube automatically download Shorts to view offline or watch Shorts in a picture-in-picture window is now also available on both iOS and Android, after originally launching on Android. Google says Premium’s Jump Ahead feature for skipping to “key moments” of a video is now also available on smart TVs and game consoles.

In terms of the music side of the house, the big change has to do with audio quality. When you’re watching a music video, Google says you’ll now be able to select “High” from the audio settings and listen at a 256kbps bitrate. This change applies to “Art Tracks” as well, which are videos of songs available on the wider YouTube platform that don’t have an official music video. The “High” quality option was originally only available in the YouTube Music app, but now Google says you can access it across the Android and iOS version of both YouTube Music and YouTube.

None of these updates change what the main benefit of a $13.99-per-month YouTube Premium subscription is, of course, but for the price, it’s good Google is trying to unify the experience across devices.



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Dellvostro3030
Game Reviews

Dell Tower PC Desktop Is Cheaper Than Ever, Probably to Clear Shelves Before Amazon Prime Big Deal Days

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The advantages of a laptop goes without saying, but lets say it anyway. It’s portable. It’s a portable computer you can take anywhere with you. But I’m here to tell you, “Big whoop.” a lot of us end up just doing our work from the same spot anyway and if you don’t need that portability, you can save some cash by just going with a tower instead. Take a look at Dell’s Vostro 3030 PC tower. This is the kind of computer that does what’s expected of it and nothing more. A capital P, capital C PC. It normally goes for $899, but Amazon happens to have it right now for 33% off. Right now, you’ll save $299, bringing the price down to just $600 for a limited time.

Diving into the specs, what we have here is a 13-inch by 6-inch by 12inch PC tower powered by a 14th generation Intel Core i3-14100 processor and an integrated Intel UHD 730 graphics card. It’s loaded with 32GB of RAM which while make your performance-intensive apps run fast and react snappy. As far as storage is concerned, the Dell Vostro 3030 is equipped with a PCIe SSD with a capacity of 1TB. You can expect fast load times from anything off this solid state drive.

See at Amazon

Compatibility Options

One big bonus PC towers have over laptops—the ports. With a newer laptop you might have to suffice with just one, maybe two USB slots along the side. That’s not the case here. This Dell tower comes with three USB-A ports and one USB-C, and that’s just on the front. Turn it around and you’ll be greeted with four more USB Type-A ports. That makes eight USB ports in total.

Other connections you’ll find are an HDMI and DisplayPort so you can set yourself up with two monitors side by side. You also have an Ethernet port on the back and a combination headphone/microphone audio jack conveniently on the front. The Dell tower supports Bluetooth so you can pair wirelessly to headphones or other accessories like your mouse or gaming controller. Wi-Fi 6 support enables you to take advantage of fast download and upload speeds.

The Dell PC tower comes pre-installed with Windows 11 Pro. That comes with support for OneDrive and more.

For a limited time, Dell’s Vostro 3030 PC tower is heavily discounted at Amazon. Get it right now for $299 off. That brings the price all the way down from $899 to just $600.

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Creative Stage Pro on TV stand
Product Reviews

Creative Stage Pro review: an affordable soundbar that’s equally at home on a TV stand or desktop

by admin



Why you can trust TechRadar


We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Creative Stage Pro 2.1: Two-minute review

If you’re looking for a very affordable soundbar with a subwoofer, the Creative Stage Pro 2.1 should be on your radar. There are cheaper options available, but most are just a standalone soundbar. And the ones that do come with a sub are most likely from a brand that even a product reviewer like me wouldn’t recognize when browsing the endless options on Amazon.

If most of the best soundbars prioritize performance, features, or price point, then the price point is most important here. The performance of the Creative Stage Pro 2.1 soundbar is fine for a budget-friendly model and a definite improvement on the built-in audio of most flat-screen TVs. The feature set is also somewhat limited, though it does have a trick or two up its sleeve.

Overall, this soundbar is for someone who wants to upgrade their TV (or computer) audio without spending much money, since most soundbars with a subwoofer are going to cost more.

The Stage Pro’s alphanumeric LED display is a rare feature in a budget soundbar (Image credit: Future)

The Creative Stage Pro is not quite petite, but it’s relatively compact at just under 22 inches wide. Its front is rounded and slightly pointed up due to the way it sits on its two attached feet. There’s an LED display that reads out information like volume/settings and source – a feature I appreciate that is strangely missing from many soundbars, including pricey ones.

  • Creative Stage Pro 2.1 soundbar (Black) at Amazon for $169.99

The button layout on the soundbar’s top is pretty straightforward, with a power, volume level, input, Bluetooth, and SuperWide (more on that feature in a bit) buttons. All the basics are there, though you have to use the remote to get more granular in the controls, mainly by adding independent adjustments for the bass and treble, along with the sound mode selector.

The port selection might not wow, but it’s actually fairly robust for such a compact soundbar, with an HDMI ARC input with CEC Control (which lets you use one remote to control both the TV and soundbar), as well as optical digital, AUX, and USB-C inputs. It’s also worth noting that there’s Bluetooth 5.3 wireless support for streaming music.

At just under five inches deep, the subwoofer is also fairly compact, even if it stands a bit tall at 16.5 inches. The sub’s power cord is permanently attached, so if something happens to it, you’ll have to replace the whole subwoofer.

All sound adjustments to the Stage Pro can be made from the included remote (Image credit: Future)

Before I discuss performance, it’s worth noting that there’s a lot of power on tap with the Creative Stage Pro 2.1, which has two 20W channels for the soundbar and 40 watts for the sub, with a peak of 160 watts. This guy will give you more than enough volume, and I actually listened to it at a fairly low volume level setting most of the time.

There’s plenty of low end, though the bass doesn’t quite get that deep. After spending time watching blockbusters like The Batman where everything is always blowing up, it was clear that this system doesn’t deliver a lot of sub-bass – not too surprising when the subwoofer driver is a relatively small 5.25 inches.

As far as the mids go, they’re a bit boosted, and I wish I could back off a bit with EQ settings (something one would find on more expensive soundbars) for a flatter response. Ultimately, I ended up preferring to turn up the treble and bass a little bit and turn down the volume. The high frequencies on cheaper speakers and soundbars typically sound either tinny or muted, but luckily, the Creative Stage Pro has a decent amount of treble detail.

Considering the Creative Stage Pro is relatively compact, the soundstage is pretty narrow. I didn’t hear much in the way of sound effects positioning, whether in the aforementioned The Batman or other media, including some audio test tracks on YouTube.

As is expected at its price point, the Creative Stage Pro’s feature set is pretty minimal. There’s no Wi-Fi streaming or voice assistant support, though there is Bluetooth for wireless streaming.

What the soundbar does have for features is its various sound presets and Creative’s SuperWide Technology. The five presets are the usual variety: Movies, Music, Vocals, and Gaming. I found them to be a bit too subtle to be all that noticeable, though when I selected the Off option, there was a bit of a volume drop.

Of the presets, I wish Vocal – a mode that usually helps with boosting dialogue – was more distinguished, but it’s too small a boost to really help. I also wish there were a Night preset similar to that found on other soundbars that would limit volume peaks and boost quiet parts so you can hear what’s going on while keeping the volume low.

Creative’s SuperWide feature is more interesting. It has three settings, Near, Far, and Off, with Near or Far engaging processing that expands the audio horizontally for a bit of a wraparound effect to create a greater sense of space.

SuperWide is also great for adjusting the sound for use with a computer or a TV, with the Near setting optimized for a desktop installation. When toggling through the two modes, I did get a sense of audio being closer or farther away, depending on the setting. It’s a bit of a gimmick, but a pretty cool one, and a good substitute for surround sound or spatial audio.

Creative Stage Pro 2.1 review: Price & release date

The Stage Pro’s top surface control buttons (Image credit: Future)

  • Price: $139.99 / £139.99 (around AU$220)
  • Date first available: July 2025

Creative has been on the budget audio train for a long time, so a price tag of £139.99 / $139.99 (AU$220) for a 2.1 soundbar system is about what one would expect from the company.

This system might have some limitations, as discussed in this review, but it is among the best cheap soundbars with a subwoofer. After all, when you get down to this price point, you’re either dealing with a very limited package, such as the even more affordable Majority Naga 60, a standalone soundbar that comes with its own performance issues. Alternatively, you’ll have to pay more for the just barely sub-$500 Sony HT-S2000. Of course, that 3.1-channel soundbar comes with Dolby Atmos and has better sound quality, but it’s almost four times the price despite being our top budget soundbar pick.

Should I buy the Creative Stage Pro 2.1?

Ports include HDMI ARC, optical digital and 3.5 analog audio inputs and a subwoofer output (Image credit: Future)Swipe to scroll horizontallyCreative Stage Pro 2.1

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Features

Somewhat limited audio quality and features, but you’re still getting a lot for the price

4 / 5

Performance

The bass doesn’t get super deep, and the soundstage could be wider, but this soundbar will be an upgrade for most TVs

3.5 / 5

Design

A bit utilitarian looking, especially the sub, but it has an LED display and side-firing speakers

4 / 5

Value

Priced just right, especially when you consider it comes with a subwoofer

4.5 / 5

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

Creative Stage Pro 2.1: Also consider

How I tested the Creative Stage Pro 2.1

The Stage Pro with its included accessories (Image credit: Future)

  • Used regularly for several weeks
  • Tested with all sorts of media
  • Tested the different modes

I used the Creative Stage Pro 2.1 soundbar regularly for a few weeks, streaming all sorts of media from old and new movies to TV shows and music. I pressed every button on the remote to check out the different sound presets as well as the Superwide Technology modes.

I’ve tested a lot of tech gear over the years, from laptops to keyboards and speakers, and so have been able to use my expertise towards giving an honest and fair opinion, not to mention a critical eye, to any product I test.

First reviewed September 2025

Read more about how we test

Creative Stage Pro 2.1 soundbar: Price Comparison



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A screenshot of the PC version of Gears of War: Reloaded
Gaming Gear

Gears of War: Reloaded PC performance: The updated graphics are easy work for any desktop GPU from the past six years but they’re still enough to give handhelds grief

by admin



If you were hoping that Gears of War: Reloaded was going to be like The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered, then I have a bit of bad news for you. It’s essentially 2016’s Ultimate Edition of Gears of War, but with better lighting and textures—everything else, including meshes, animations, and the overall gameplay, is exactly the same.

Gears of War: Ultimate Edition was a remaster itself, so Reloaded is a remastered remaster. Or is it a re-re-master? Either way, whatever your feelings are about the Ultimate Edition, they’ll probably be no different for Reloaded.

I must admit to being a little surprised that developers The Coalition retained the use of Unreal Engine 3 for Reloaded, albeit with large chunks of it heavily rewritten, replaced, and modified. But having thought about it, rewriting the whole game to work with Unreal Engine 5 was probably going to be too much work for the scale of the project, and if you’re going to do that, then you might as well do a full remake instead.


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(Image credit: Microsoft Studios)(Image credit: Microsoft Studios)

The good news about sticking with the old engine and just using better quality assets, lighting, shadows, and reflections, is that Gears of War: Reloaded will run on pretty much any gaming PC you like. For game performance analysis, I usually start with a top-end rig, but in this instance, I kicked off with the oldest gaming PC in my office, and the game ran so well—even at maximum quality settings—that I skipped over testing a full range of PCs.

In fact, other than one very specific type of PC platform, you can likely just slap all the settings to the maximum values and enjoy 60+ fps performance. You might need to keep the resolution down or utilise a spot of FSR 3.1 or DLSS 3.5 upscaling to push it higher if you want to, but the main reason for using either one is for the superior anti-aliasing—the alternative is to use FXAA, but there’s absolutely no reason to do so.

Tested on: Core i7 9700K | Radeon RX 5700 XT | 16 GB DDR4-3200

1080p | FSR Balanced | Ultra quality preset

As you can see from the above footage, the Core i7 9700K + Radeon RX 5700 XT combination has no problems whatsoever running Gears of War: Reloaded at an acceptable frame rate. There’s quite a big difference in the frame rate when fighting in narrow corridors to battles held in open areas, but every PC I tested is affected in the same way.

If you’re happy to go with a lower frame rate (GoW:R isn’t a fast-reaction game by any means), then you could increase the upscaling quality mode. AMD’s FSR Native AA and Nvidia’s DLAA are both supported, but you’re not really going to easily tell the difference between them and DLSS/FSR Quality.

Admittedly, the RX 5700 XT is still quite a capable graphics card, so the next platform I tested Gears of War: Reloaded on was an entry-level gaming laptop.

Tested on: Ryzen 7 7735HS | GeForce RTX 4050 | 16 GB DDR5-4800

1080p | FXAA | Ultra quality preset

Just as with the Core i7 9700K rig, the RTX 4050 laptop coped absolutely fine. So much so that for the above footage, I disabled DLSS and just used FXAA to remove jagged edges from objects, characters, and other models. Even with no performance boost from upscaling, the little laptop has no problem hitting 60 fps or more.

The other reason why I included the use of FXAA was to highlight just how bad the anti-aliasing technique is compared to what can be achieved with FSR and DLSS. Both solutions have been implemented well in the game, so you’re pretty much covered, no matter what GPU you have.

Tested on: Core Ultra 9 285K | GeForce RTX 5090 | 48 GB DDR5-8400

4K | DLAA | Ultra quality

Heading to the other end of the hardware scale, pairing a GeForce RTX 5090 with a Core Ultra 9 285K and 48 GB of DDR5-8400 produces an entirely expected outcome. You might be surprised that the fps isn’t higher, but that’s in part because Gears of War: Reloaded has an adjustable frame rate cap with a limit of 240 fps.

You might think it has to do with the choice of CPU, as Intel’s Arrow Lake chips aren’t the best for gaming. However, the 5090 was being correctly utilised, and at no point were the 285K’s P-cores being saturated with work. In fact, this was common across all of the PCs I tested Gears of War: Reloaded on, though there was one exception.

Tested on: Asus ROG Ally | 15 W mode

1080p | FSR Balanced | Custom low quality

Given how well the old Core i7 9700K rig coped with 1080p Ultra quality, I was confident that my Asus ROG Ally would be fine with a lower preset and perhaps a bit more upscaling. Upon first firing up the game on the handheld gaming PC, it defaulted to the Medium quality preset with FSR Balanced upscaling.

In the narrow corridors, it just about reached 60 fps, but once out into the open areas, the frame rate would drop below 40 fps. That might not sound particularly rubbish, but it created a surprising amount of input lag, making what’s already quite a clunky game feel leaden and slow.

(Image credit: Microsoft Studios)

My solution was to use the Low preset with a Medium quality texture setting. You don’t really gain much fps by using lower quality textures, and it looks especially bad on the Low or Lowest preset. To be frank, while the new HDR lighting algorithm does a decent job of things, the game’s old-school looks lean heavily on the quality of the textures. In some cases, even on the maximum setting, they’re rather poor, so you’ll want to use the best texture setting that you can.

The one thing I did notice when testing the ROG Ally was that the GPU utilisation was quite poor. In the above footage, you can see that some of the handheld’s CPU cores are being hit quite hard, and along with the relative lack of VRAM bandwidth, this particular handheld isn’t best suited for good-looking, smooth gameplay in GoW:R. Steam Deck owners will want to skip the game entirely.

Final thoughts

(Image credit: Microsoft Studios)

In addition to the above PC platforms, I tested Gears of War: Reloaded on Ryzen 5 5600X, Ryzen 7 5700X3D, Core i5 13600K, and Core i7 14700K rigs, with graphics cards including a GeForce RTX 2060, RTX 3060 Ti, RTX 5070, and a Radeon RX 6750 XT and RX 7900 XT. All of them, without exception, had no difficulties in running GoW:R with the Ultra preset enabled.

In some cases, I had to use Balanced upscaling instead of Quality or DLAA/Native AA, but it didn’t affect the visual quality of the game, and it helped keep the 1% low performance above 60 frames per second. It’s just a shame that I couldn’t do the same with my ROG Ally, without ruining the game’s looks.

The old-school graphics techniques are a piece of cake for any modern graphics card, to be honest, because they all have enough pixel throughput and VRAM bandwidth to keep on top of things. However, handheld PCs are limited in both of these aspects, which is a real shame, as Gears of War: Reloaded is supposed to scale down to such hardware.

Technically, it does, though you’ll have to accept a relatively low frame rate and sluggish controls. At least I didn’t experience any glitches or bugs in the review code, nor any shader compilation or traversal stutters—just frame rate wobbles upon loading a new stage and hit boxes with minds of their own.

Gears of War: Reloaded is arguably a more definitive version of the game than the Ultimate Edition, and if the idea of playing a stompy-stompy, cover-and-fire classic appeals to you, then at least you won’t have to worry about whether your desktop or laptop gaming PC will be up to the task.

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The Framework Desktop and Linux have shown me the path to PC gaming in the living room
Product Reviews

The Framework Desktop and Linux have shown me the path to PC gaming in the living room

by admin


I’ve long dreamed of doing all my gaming on PC — a single platform that’s easily upgradeable and lets me play my overstuffed Steam library wherever and however I like. The Steam Deck is a fantastic handheld, but for my living room, I want something more powerful that works as well on my TV as it does at a desk. Believe me, I’ve tried. Gaming laptops are noisy and awkward, desktops are too chunky, and Windows is annoying to navigate without a keyboard and mouse. I had hoped that Valve’s Steam Machine experiment was my ticket, but it crashed and burned long ago. Nothing’s ever been as easy as a PlayStation 5.

But I’m newly optimistic. I’ve spent the past couple weeks using the Framework Desktop with a clever Linux distro called Bazzite: an open-source take on SteamOS. It’s a lot like installing the Steam Deck’s game mode and Proton compatibility layer for playing Windows games, and you can still optionally access a desktop for work too. It took me less than an hour to set up, and I’m now able to play PC games on my TV at 4K / 60fps — on a box that is smaller than a PS5, doesn’t get too noisy, and can be woken up from my couch with a gamepad.

This combo matches the simplicity of a docked Steam Deck, but it’s so much more powerful. And while a Framework Desktop isn’t as portable as a handheld — or even a laptop — it’s easy to move from room to room. I’ve even taken to working from it at my desk during the day, then moving it to the living room for after-hours game time. Sometimes you don’t want to play games in the same place you just worked for nine hours.

I so very badly want this to be the future of PC gaming.

It’s the year of Linux on the desktop in the living room.

The Framework Desktop is an ideal vessel for a Steam Machine-like experience. At 4.5 liters, it’s much smaller than most living room gaming computers, and much more powerful than your average home theater PC or streaming box. It’s way more expensive than a PS5 Pro — the Desktop starts at $1,099, or $1,999 for the AI Max+ 395 version I tested here with 16 CPU cores, 40 graphics cores, and 128GB of RAM — but it’s also much more than a gaming console.

I loved the Framework Desktop as a full Windows PC when I reviewed it earlier in August. And Bazzite is one of the easiest and most user-friendly desktop Linux incarnations. Bazzite makes it easier than ever to break away from Windows if you’re boycotting Microsoft, looking for an escape from Windows 10 before it’s cut off from updates in October, or just tired of Windows 11’s incessant pushing of services you don’t care about and attempts to extract recurring revenue from your wallet. The installer is easy, there’s a very capable OS if you switch over to desktop mode with a mouse and keyboard, and if you still need Windows for specific apps or games, you can always dual boot, like I did.

The Framework Desktop makes a nice fit in a TV stand with a Switch 2 and PlayStation 5.

Most people are not going to move a PC back and forth from the living room to the office, but this convertible setup works great with the Framework.

The only drawbacks I found were when I needed to run apps that aren’t compatible (like Adobe’s Creative Cloud suite) or the inevitable moments I had to open the Terminal to run simple commands. Many essential apps have native Linux support, like Chrome, Slack, Signal, Spotify, and Discord. And plenty of others can run with some compatibility help via Wine. But if much of your work and everyday computing needs are web-based, you’re good as gold on Linux.

Using Bazzite in desktop mode took me back to the days when I experimented with Ubuntu “Gutsy Gibbon” in college. (Didn’t we all give in to the temptation of the cube back then?) Linux is genuinely fun to use and tinker with. And Bazzite has a nice, somewhat no-frills aesthetic I admire.

1/4Bazzite has a clean and tidy look in desktop mode.

Linux can and will drive the uninitiated down many rabbit holes, with lots of Googling how to do little things you take for granted on Windows and macOS, like understanding what the hell the KDE Wallet Service is (it’s for managing passwords) or remapping the Caps Lock key. I gave up on the latter and just remapped it at the hardware level on my keyboard with VIA.

But small frustrations aside, both the gaming side and desktop side of Bazzite are fantastic. While my job of reviewing laptops will always mean extensively using Windows, macOS, and some ChromeOS, it’s been kind of freeing to break away (even if just for a little bit) from the oppressive grips of the big three.

Now, if you’re interested in trying Bazzite and living a bit of that Linux life yourself, here’s how I set it up. It’s not totally foolproof, but it’s straightforward if you’re the tinkering type and can follow some simple guides (which I’ll link to).

The second NVMe slot on the Framework Desktop’s main board makes the Windows and Linux dual boot setup super easy. Photo: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

A Noctua fan is ideal for the Framework Desktop, especially if you’re using it in your living room. It’s a lot quieter than the cheaper Cooler Master option. Photo: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

Since I already had Windows 11 installed from my review of the Framework Desktop, I opted to install Bazzite on the second internal NVMe drive. You can dual boot from a single drive, with some precautionary measures, but it’s not uncommon to find forumgoers warning that Windows 11 can disrupt things like the boot order after running an update. Since sharing game files across Windows and Linux is also complicated, I decided to keep the OSes completely separate — which helped reinforce my work / play separation. I use the Bazzite drive for most of my gaming needs and boot into Windows when I need it for work (running Lightroom Classic for photo editing) or games that require it (PC Game Pass games, multiplayer titles with stricter anti-cheat measures, etc.).

I followed Bazzite’s official guide, cross-referenced Framework’s tutorial for the Laptop 16, and I was living the Linux life in less than an hour. Bazzite’s site has a user-friendly ISO picker for downloading the file you need to install the OS — typically by burning the ISO to a USB flash drive using a tool like Rufus. If you prefer video to written guides, Mike’s Tech Tips on YouTube is an invaluable resource, with a pleasant, calming voiceover to boot.

I only encountered one technical issue running Bazzite: There was no audio coming through the HDMI connection to my TV, despite my attempts to select “External Device” or “Default (External Device)” as my source. For some reason, this was fixed by entering desktop mode and switching the source there. It’s worked fine since.

It’s easy to alter the boot order of the Framework Desktop to prioritize the Bazzite drive. Booting up puts it right into Bazzite and its Steam Deck-like Big Picture Mode. And then, to access Windows without restarting and mashing an F-key to get to the boot menu, you can set up a script to reboot into Windows right from Bazzite’s Steam interface. You just go into the Bazzite desktop, open the Terminal, and type in the ujust code below. It does the work for you and adds a “boot-windows” option to the Steam Library.

Code: ujust setup-boot-windows-steam

Bazzite’s Game Mode Home Screen is basically Steam’s Big Picture Mode. You can see my “reboot into Windows” shortcut in the top row.

As far as Linux has come, the Framework Desktop, or any other PC running Bazzite, probably isn’t the one gaming PC to rule my living room. Setting aside the requisite tinkering, there are still games it cannot play, either because they’re from services that aren’t supported (like PC Game Pass) or they reject Linux because they fear cheaters (like Fortnite or Valorant or the Battlefield 6 beta).

But color me impressed by Bazzite and even further by the Framework Desktop. I see why Bazzite has been gaining popularity with PC gamers. The time is ripe for Steam Machines to make a triumphant return, and I think this time it can work. Bazzite and devices like the Steam Deck and Framework Desktop are all showing the way.

Photography and screenshots by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge.

Cyberpunk 2077 is demanding in 4K, but the Framework with Bazzite runs it decently. Image: CD Projekt Red

In my review, I found that the Framework Desktop is best equipped for 2.5K gaming, but the top-end Ryzen AI Max Plus 395 APU I’m using in this “Steam Machine” setup can do 4K at 60-ish frames per second on a TV. How smooth it runs and how good it looks depends on the game. Here’s a brief overview of some games I’ve been playing on it:

  • Cyberpunk 2077: Playing Cyberpunk at 4K at around 60fps meant setting it to medium preset (no ray tracing, of course) with FSR set to balanced, and it looked and played great. Flipping on some “fake frames” with frame generation pushed it into the mid-80s. Not bad at all!
  • Helldivers 2: It plays and looks great in 4K with medium settings and render scale set to balanced, hovering around the mid-60s. In busier areas it sinks to the 50s and briefly into the 40s when there are big explosions.
  • Street Fighter 6: SF6 is meant to be locked at 1080/60, which is no problem. You can push it to 4K and still get a solid 60fps with most details and settings set to “normal” (medium).
  • Monster Hunter Wilds: This is a bit of a torture test, due to Wilds’ infamously poor PC performance (though it’s been slowly improving). The game defaulted to FSR Ultra Performance mode and the lowest texture settings, which makes it look like a PlayStation 3 game. To keep things in 4K and actually looking decent I used FSR Performance and medium textures and turned on frame generation — this kept frame rates in the 70s or close to 80, which could bump to over 100 by dropping down to 2560 x 1440. Textures still aren’t great, but that’s just kind of how Wilds is unless you’re on top-tier hardware. It manages to play well overall and look solid.
  • Elden Ring Nightreign: Just as on Windows, Nightreign plays at 4K / 50-ish on medium settings, or locked in at the 60fps max if bumped down to 2.5K. (Boy, what I’d give for a FromSoftware title with FSR / DLSS support.)
  • Peak: A-okay at 4K on medium settings, with frame rates well into the 80s or higher.

Although some Windows games run better on Linux than on Windows, not all do. Black Myth: Wukong was about the same on either platform, but Cyberpunk 2077 actually ran 15fps slower in my benchmarks on Linux than in Windows with the same settings.

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