A prominent tech content creator has successfully loaded Windows 11 onto a classic Valve Steam Machine. Using official drivers released by Valve, the modification process went smoothly and immediately improved basic desktop navigation. However, the actual gaming benchmarks produced highly mixed results across different screen resolutions.
The gaming tests conducted by YouTuber ETA PRIME revealed a close battle between the native SteamOS and the Microsoft operating system. At 2K resolution, SteamOS managed to hold steady with a lead of about 2 to 3 frames per second. But when the display was pushed to 4K, Windows 11 flipped the script and took the lead by that same small margin. On the basic desktop interface, the Microsoft operating system performed much faster than the default software.
Testing at 1080p showed that performance depends heavily on the specific software. For instance, Shadow of the Tomb Raider ran much better under Windows 11. On the flip side, Cyberpunk 2077 favored SteamOS. For most users, going through the trouble of swapping operating systems only makes sense if you absolutely require specific Windows applications that do not run on SteamOS. Otherwise, the default system remains the superior choice for pure gaming.
