I upgraded from my 15 year old PC to one of the new Mac Minis at Xmas last year, thinking that I would be fine for gaming with my Xbox / Game Pass, and I would “skip a generation” on PC hardware. I have a small Steam / Epic library, but everything that didn’t work on MacOS, I had a Game Pass version of.
Fast forward a year. Xbox shit itself, RAM and GPU prices / 2026 outlook are dismal, etc etc
What’s my best option going forward for gaming? The only option I see right now is cloud gaming like GeForceNOW, but it seems like such a ripoff.
Any advice?
With current pricing, it’s going to be tough and that’s no joke.
Even the new Steam Machine is being predicted to be around $1,000.
https://www.indy100.com/gaming/steam-machine-price-cost-release-date-2674829977
The era of $600 gaming PCs is 1-3 years ago now.
(NGL - I still want a Steam Machine. :)
Yeah, that’s unfortunately the conclusion I’m reaching. I was hoping there was an angle I hadn’t considered yet.
Maybe I’ll just give in and do a year sub to GeForce and then reassess prices next Xmas. I definitely can’t afford to build a new machine now, but a lot can happen in a year.
With the Mac Mini’s use, that is completely understandable. I tried to find something that fit your price range, and couldn’t find squat. However, you might want to take a look at Cevo, which is a Taiwanese ODM, that many of the Linux computer makers utilize.
Good shout with Cevo. One of the few angles I haven’t looked super deeply into is a Linux machine. Time to study.