You can wait in Valve’s queue for a Steam Machine, or you can buy a Radeon mini PC today. Boot it into Bazzite or SteamOS and you get the same Steam Gaming Mode on your TV. The Steam Machine starts at $1,049 and sells through a lottery-style queue, so the best mini PC for Bazzite is the one whose graphics block matches the screen you’re gaming on. That comes down to three AMD iGPUs: the Radeon 780M, the 890M and the 8060S.
We ranked five boxes and one TV accessory against Steam Machine alternatives you can actually order on Amazon. Every spec below was checked against the maker’s own product page and the live listing, and the frame rates come from Notebookcheck, ETA Prime and Club386, labelled with the OS they ran on. We did not bench these boxes ourselves, and we say where a number is Windows rather than Linux. Prices and stock below were checked in October 2026.
Quick picks
Your iGPU decides the tier, and the compute unit (CU) count is the fastest way to read it. The 8060S carries 40 CUs, the 890M 16, the 780M 12 and the 760M 8. Launch coverage of Valve’s own box lists a 28-CU RDNA 3 GPU, so only the first pick here is clearly in the same class.
| Award | Mini PC | iGPU | Approx. price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam Machine class | GMKtec EVO-X2 (Ryzen AI Max+ 395) | Radeon 8060S, 40 CU | ~$2,200 |
| Best 890M box | Minisforum AI X1 Pro-370 | Radeon 890M, 16 CU | ~$1,230 |
| Best upgradeable 780M | Minisforum UM890 Pro | Radeon 780M, 12 CU | ~$990 |
| Best value | Beelink SER9 Pro (Ryzen 7 H 255) | Radeon 780M, 12 CU | ~$700 |
| Budget, light games only | GMKtec NucBox M6 Ultra | Radeon 760M, 8 CU | ~$500 |
| TV remote control | Pulse-Eight USB-CEC Adapter | n/a | ~$57 |
If you only pick one, we’d buy the Beelink SER9 Pro for a 1080p TV and the EVO-X2 if you want High settings in demanding games. The middle of the list is about ports and upgrade paths more than raw speed. Check the live price before you order, because DRAM costs have moved these listings a lot this year.
How we picked these boxes
A living-room gaming box has different priorities from a homelab node, so the filter wasn’t the one we used for the Proxmox mini PC guide. Every candidate had to clear these:
- AMD graphics only: SteamOS 3.8 supports only AMD GPUs on your own hardware, and Bazzite’s compatibility page lists Nvidia with major caveats for Gaming Mode.
- A buyable Amazon listing: the exact configuration had to be in stock on the day we checked, with the CPU and RAM confirmed in the listing title.
- Maker specs we could read: outputs, RAM type and power limits from the manufacturer’s page. A box with no reachable spec page (the Bosgame P3 Plus) was dropped.
- A cited game benchmark: at least one independent frame rate for the iGPU, so no number in this guide is a guess.
What we did not do is run games on these exact units. The frame rates come from the reviewers named in each row, and most of them ran Windows. Absolute Linux frame rates for these iGPUs are scarce, and we’re not going to present a Windows fps figure as a Bazzite one. We also checked the current Bazzite build directly from its image registry and release notes, which is where the kernel and Mesa versions below come from.
Bazzite or SteamOS on a mini PC
Bazzite is the safer install on a third-party mini PC today, and SteamOS is the one to try if you want exactly what Valve ships. Valve opened SteamOS 3.8 to your own living-room PC in June 2026, but on a custom build Valve supports AMD GPUs only. TheSixthAxis also reports that Valve still treats custom installs as a test channel, and they need Secure Boot disabled. Only the Steam Deck, Steam Machine and Legion Go S carry the official “Powered by SteamOS” status. A mini PC you bought from an Amazon listing is not on that list.
Bazzite’s Deck image is the one built for this job. Its docs describe it as the edition for home theater PCs and handhelds, and it boots into Steam Gaming Mode on Gamescope, so the box behaves like a console from power-on. The stable build on 26 October 2026 was 44.20261026 on a Fedora 44 base, with kernel 7.2.11, Mesa 26.2.4, Gamescope 3.17.0 and InputPlumber 0.83.0 for controller handling. Updates on the Deck image are manual, which is what you want on a TV box that should not change under you mid-season.
If you’re torn between the gaming spin and plain Fedora on a box that also does desktop work, our Fedora vs Bazzite comparison walks through what changes. If you’d rather keep Fedora Workstation, you can still get most of the way with gaming on Fedora and Lutris, Heroic and Proton-GE. You lose the boot-to-Gaming-Mode experience that makes a mini PC feel like a Steam Machine.
Compare the five mini PCs side by side
These are the specs that change the buying decision for a TV box: the GPU, whether you can add RAM later, what the video outputs are, and how much power the cooler has to deal with. Everything else is close enough not to matter on a couch.
| Mini PC | iGPU | RAM | Video outputs | OCuLink | Power |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GMKtec EVO-X2 | 8060S, 40 CU | 64 GB LPDDR5X-8000, soldered | HDMI 2.1, DP 1.4, 2x USB4 | No | 120 W sustained, 140 W peak |
| Minisforum AI X1 Pro-370 | 890M, 16 CU | 32 GB DDR5-5600, 2x SO-DIMM, max 128 GB | HDMI 2.1 FRL, DP 2.0, 2x USB4 | Yes | 135 W internal PSU |
| Minisforum UM890 Pro | 780M, 12 CU | 32 GB DDR5, SO-DIMM, max 96 GB | HDMI (48 Gbps), DP 1.4, 2x USB4 | Yes | Up to 70 W |
| Beelink SER9 Pro | 780M, 12 CU | 24 GB LPDDR5X-6400, soldered | HDMI, DP, 1x USB4 | No | 65 W |
| GMKtec NucBox M6 Ultra | 760M, 8 CU | 16 GB DDR5, 2x SO-DIMM, max 128 GB | HDMI 2.0, DP, 1x USB4 | No | 120 W adapter |
Two columns deserve a second look. Soldered LPDDR5X on the EVO-X2 and SER9 Pro means the RAM you buy is the RAM you keep. On an iGPU that RAM is also your VRAM, so do not buy the smallest config to save a little. OCuLink on the two Minisforum boxes is an exit route: if the iGPU stops keeping up, an external desktop GPU over OCuLink is a real option, which we cover in the OCuLink eGPU mini PC guide.
Frame rates for the 780M, 890M and 8060S
Between tiers, the gap is bigger than the price gap suggests at the top and smaller than it looks in the middle. These are third-party measurements, quoted with the box, settings and OS they were taken on:
| Game and settings | Radeon 780M | Radeon 890M | Radeon 8060S | Source (OS) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baldur’s Gate 3, 720p Low | 63.4 fps (Beelink SER8), 61 fps (SER9 Pro) | 58.9 fps (Beelink SER9) | 205 fps (Bosgame M5) | Notebookcheck (Windows) |
| Forza Horizon 5, 1080p Medium | ~89 fps (ETA Prime estimate, no box named) | 109 fps (Beelink SER9) | n/a | ETA Prime via Notebookcheck (Windows) |
| Cyberpunk 2077, 1080p | 34.3 fps, 1080p Medium (SER9 Pro) | n/a | 66.8 fps, High where possible (MS-S1 Max, 130 W) | Notebookcheck (Windows); Club386 (OS not stated) |
| Elden Ring, 1080p High where possible | n/a | n/a | 59.6 fps (MS-S1 Max) | Club386 (OS not stated) |
| Counter-Strike 2, 1080p High where possible | n/a | n/a | 263.7 fps (MS-S1 Max) | Club386 (OS not stated) |
Read the Baldur’s Gate 3 row carefully, because the 890M box lands below the 780M one. In Notebookcheck’s runs the SER9’s 890M trails the SER8’s 780M at every BG3 preset Notebookcheck ran on both, which more likely reflects that box’s power tuning than the chip. ETA Prime’s Forza run puts a properly fed 890M about 22% ahead, in line with Phoronix’s Linux testing that put the 890M roughly 25% over a 780M-class chip.
Read it this way and the choice gets simple. A 780M or 890M box is a 1080p machine: esports and indie games run high, and recent AAA games need Low to Medium settings, plus FSR, to hold 30 to 60 fps. The 8060S plays Cyberpunk at 1080p High above 60 fps on a 130 W Strix Halo box, with headroom to try 1440p, and that is the only tier here that a Steam Machine owner wouldn’t call a downgrade.
1. GMKtec EVO-X2: the only Steam Machine-class iGPU
On raw GPU, the EVO-X2 wins and nothing else on this list is close. Its Ryzen AI Max+ 395 carries the Radeon 8060S with 40 RDNA 3.5 CUs, and ServeTheHome placed its gaming performance between a desktop RTX 4060 and a notebook RTX 4070.
We link the 64 GB LPDDR5X-8000 model with a 1 TB SSD, and you can also get a 2 TB sibling for about $200 more. GMKtec rates it at 120 W sustained and 140 W peak with a P-mode button for quiet, balanced and performance profiles, fed by a roughly 230 W adapter. ServeTheHome measured 170 to 180 W at the wall and 43 to 44 dBA while gaming. That is audible in a quiet living room, so the quiet profile is worth trying for lighter games.
For a TV setup you get the right ports: HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 1.4, two USB4 ports, 2.5GbE, and Wi-Fi 7 with Bluetooth 5.4 on a MediaTek MT7925 card. Two M.2 2280 slots at PCIe 4.0 x4 leave room for a big game library. For how it stacks up against the other Strix Halo boxes, see our Ryzen AI Max+ 395 mini PC comparison.
- Who it’s for: High settings at 1080p with room to push 1440p, and anyone who wants the most iGPU you can buy without joining Valve’s queue.
- Skip it if: you game at 1080p. You would pay about twice the Steam Machine’s base price for headroom a 1080p TV can’t show.
- Know before buying: the RAM is soldered and there’s no OCuLink, so this box cannot grow later.
Expect to pay around $2,200 for the 64 GB model; check the live price on Amazon, since stock on this listing has been scarce.
2. Minisforum AI X1 Pro-370: best Radeon 890M box
We’d go for the AI X1 Pro if 1080p is the target and you want the fastest mid-tier iGPU with a way out. Its Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 brings the Radeon 890M with 16 CUs, about a quarter faster than a 780M, and the chassis adds the ports the cheaper boxes skip.
Memory is two DDR5-5600 SO-DIMMs, up to 128 GB, so you can start at 32 GB and grow. Minisforum also advertises a VRAM allocation from 2 GB to 48 GB, which is more control than most boxes give. Outputs are HDMI 2.1 FRL, DisplayPort 2.0 and two USB4 ports, plus OCuLink at PCIe 4.0 x4 for an external GPU later. The 135 W power supply is built in, so there’s no brick behind the TV stand.
- Who it’s for: a 1080p TV, games at Medium, and a plan to add an OCuLink GPU if newer titles outgrow the iGPU.
- Skip it if: you’re price-sensitive. PCGamesN called the price its main drawback, and the UM890 Pro gives you OCuLink and two USB4 ports with a slower iGPU for about $240 less.
- Know before buying: Minisforum sells several configurations under the same name, so match the RAM and SSD in the title before ordering.
The 32 GB, 1 TB model we link was around $1,230; see the current price.
3. Minisforum UM890 Pro: best upgradeable 780M
Buy the UM890 Pro if you care about what’s around the GPU. The Ryzen 9 8945HS gets the same 12-CU Radeon 780M as the cheaper Beelink, but you also get SO-DIMM memory, OCuLink, two USB4 ports and dual 2.5GbE, with a three-year warranty from Minisforum.
Minisforum rates it up to 70 W in its performance mode at 43 dB, and Notebookcheck singled out the quiet cooling in its review. The HDMI port is listed at 48 Gbps for 4K120, with DisplayPort 1.4 next to it. One catch from reviews: the OCuLink port shares lanes with the second M.2 slot, so you can’t use both at full speed.
- Who it’s for: a quiet 1080p TV box you’ll keep for years, adding RAM or an eGPU when you need them.
- Skip it if: you’ll never open the case. The SER9 Pro has the same iGPU for roughly $290 less.
- Know before buying: Minisforum’s own page title still says 8845HS while the body and the Amazon SKU say 8945HS. Both carry the 780M, so gaming isn’t affected.
It was around $990 for 32 GB and 1 TB; check the live price.
4. Beelink SER9 Pro: best value for a 1080p TV
For most people building a couch box, the SER9 Pro is the one. It is the cheapest box here with a full 12-CU Radeon 780M, and it’s small at 135 x 135 x 44.7 mm. Beelink claims 32 dB under its vapor-chamber cooler, and GSMArena’s reviewer saw the fan at full blast under load but found it inaudible in a typical office.
Do not let the name fool you. Despite the “9”, the Ryzen 7 H 255 inside is a Zen 4 chip with the 780M, not the 890M you’d find in other SER9 models. Notebookcheck measured 34.3 fps in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p Medium and 22.6 fps at Ultra on this exact box. That tells you where the ceiling sits: lighter games and older AAA titles run well, and the newest releases need Low settings and FSR.
- Who it’s for: a 1080p TV, indie and esports games, a back catalogue of older AAA titles, and a quiet room.
- Skip it if: you want an upgrade path. The 24 GB of LPDDR5X-6400 is soldered, there’s one USB4 port and no OCuLink.
- Know before buying: Beelink does not state the HDMI version, so for a 4K120 TV plan on DisplayPort or USB4 instead.
The 24 GB, 1 TB listing was around $700; see it on Amazon for today’s price.
5. GMKtec NucBox M6 Ultra: the budget floor
For the cheapest way into Bazzite’s Gaming Mode on a current Radeon, the M6 Ultra is the box, and we’d only recommend it for lighter games. Its Ryzen 5 7640HS has the Radeon 760M with 8 CUs, two thirds of a 780M, so treat it as an indie, emulation and game-streaming box rather than a AAA machine.
You get a generous box for the price: two DDR5 SO-DIMM slots up to 128 GB, two M.2 slots, one USB4 port, dual 2.5GbE and Wi-Fi 6E. Its HDMI port is 2.0 and GMKtec rates it for 4K60. The weak point is cooling, and Notebookcheck’s German review found the fan clearly audible under load, which matters more on a couch than at a desk.
- Who it’s for: emulators, indies, Steam Remote Play from a bigger PC, and a first try at a Bazzite TV box.
- Skip it if: you play recent AAA games. The SER9 Pro’s extra 4 CUs are worth the roughly $200 step up.
- Know before buying: the Amazon title mentions an “Upgraded 6800H”, but the CPU is the Ryzen 5 7640HS with the 760M. Also check that the 16 GB ships as two sticks. A single module roughly halves the memory bandwidth the iGPU depends on, so add a second matching stick if yours arrives with one.
The 16 GB, 512 GB model was around $500; check the current listing.
6. Pulse-Eight USB-CEC Adapter: TV remote control
None of the five makers claims HDMI-CEC on its HDMI port, and Pulse-Eight itself says almost all graphics cards do not support CEC. Without it, your TV will not turn on with the PC or switch inputs for you, and the TV remote cannot reach Steam’s menus. This adapter is the standard fix on a Linux HTPC.
You plug it in between the PC and the TV, and it talks CEC over USB through libCEC, which Bazzite lists in its feature set. It’s passive, though, and Pulse-Eight’s own limits are tight: about 2 m of total HDMI cable at UHD, 5 m at 1080p, and nothing above 4K60 4:2:0 8-bit. At 4K the maker says the current model may not work in-line. Its workaround is to run the PC straight into one TV input, then a second HDMI cable through the adapter into another input.
- Who it’s for: a 1080p or 4K60 TV setup where you want the PC and TV to power on together.
- Skip it if: you run 4K120 or HDR at full chroma. The adapter cannot pass that signal in-line.
- Know before buying: on Bazzite 44, the launch notes say
ujust cec-modelets you pick dGPU mode, which sets up the libCEC services that a USB adapter like this one needs.
It was around $57; check the price on Amazon.
Set up the TV: HDMI 2.1, VRAM and controllers
Three things trip people up after the box arrives, and none of them shows on a spec sheet. Plan for these before the first boot:
- HDMI 2.1 is not on by default yet: AMD’s HDMI 2.1 FRL code has been in the kernel since Linux 7.2 but ships disabled, and the patch to enable it by default targets Linux 7.4. Bazzite 44 carries the HDMI 2.1 stack as an opt-in, per its Deck 44 launch notes: run
ujust configure-amd-hdmi21(or use the toggle in Bazzite Portal), then reboot if prompted. You also need a certified Ultra High Speed HDMI cable for 10-bit 4K120. On SteamOS, plan on 4K60 or 1440p120 over HDMI for now. - Leave the VRAM setting alone first: AMD’s advice is to keep the BIOS UMA frame buffer on Auto and raise it only if a specific game complains. On Linux the driver also borrows system RAM beyond that carve-out, up to about half of it by default, which is why total RAM matters more than the BIOS number.
- Controllers go through Bluetooth or USB: the Deck image ships InputPlumber for controller handling, and the Steam client maps pads through Steam Input. The EVO-X2 and AI X1 Pro have Bluetooth 5.4, the SER9 Pro and M6 Ultra 5.2. A box tucked behind a TV can lose range, so a front USB port and a short extension cable fixes that for a 2.4 GHz dongle.
Bazzite’s hardware compatibility page sets the floor for Gaming Mode at UEFI, 8 GB of RAM, an SSD and Vulkan 1.3, and every box here clears it with room to spare. The settings above are where a couch setup goes right or wrong.
Where each falls short
Every pick gives something up, and the trade-off decides which one fits your room better than the frame rate does:
- GMKtec EVO-X2: twice the Steam Machine’s base price, audible at full power, and no RAM or OCuLink upgrade path.
- Minisforum AI X1 Pro-370: the 890M’s lead over a 780M is about a quarter, and you pay a premium of a few hundred dollars for it.
- Minisforum UM890 Pro: the same iGPU as the cheaper SER9 Pro, and OCuLink costs you the second M.2 slot’s bandwidth.
- Beelink SER9 Pro: soldered RAM, one USB4 port, and an unstated HDMI version.
- GMKtec NucBox M6 Ultra: an 8-CU iGPU that will not run new AAA games well, and a fan you’ll hear.
For most people the answer is the SER9 Pro with a Pulse-Eight adapter, running Bazzite’s Deck image on a 1080p TV, for well under the Steam Machine’s price. If you want Cyberpunk at High settings, only the EVO-X2 gets there, and that is the one case where a mini PC costs more than waiting in Valve’s queue.
