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Summary
- SteamOS on a 2019 iMac improves gaming performance, hitting 60FPS on high settings for Hades 2.
- The $100 2019 iMac turned Apple-Steam Deck hybrid by Eta Prime with SteamOS shows impressive results.
- Though not a major contender, the iMac running SteamOS still performs decently with games like Cyberpunk 2077.
Man, this SteamOS thing is getting a little out of hand, isn’t it? Ever since Valve opened the gates and allowed SteamOS to roam free on any device it pleases, we’ve seen people install it on all kinds of things to compare it to stock performance. For instance, when it comes to handhelds, it seems that using SteamOS can help boost framerates over using Windows 11, which is good news for people who want to get even more bang for their buck.
Until today, I haven’t seen someone grab a 2019 iMac, stick SteamOS on it, and turn it into some sort of Apple-Steam Deck hybrid. Fortunately, someone has done just that with a purchase off of Craigslist and honestly, the result is pretty impressive given the circumstances.
Related
I built a Steam Machine out of spare PC parts and you can, too
If you have old PC hardware lying around or an aging Windows laptop, you might be able to breathe new life into it with SteamOS
This 2019 iMac, purchased for $100, makes for a pretty good gaming device with SteamOS
As spotted by Notebook Check, this cool project comes to us via Eta Prime on YouTube. We’ve seen some of their stuff in the past, and they do some really cool things; for instance, they turned an Android phone into a portable gaming PC and converted a busted Steam Deck into a mini PC.
This time, they’re back with a $100 iMac from 2019 that they scored off Craigslist. They immediately started installing SteamOS on it to see how well it would run, then spent the rest of the video going through a few games, showing off the stats and demonstrating how well it performs.
Is it the next big gaming PC? Probably not. However, given the circumstances, I’m mighty impressed with how it performed. Hades 2 on high settings hit 60FPS, with some dips to 57 every so often. Forza Horizon 5, on very low settings, managed to score around 90FPS. And while Fallout 4 was playable, it locked the settings into Steam Deck mode due to running on SteamOS, which meant Eta Prime only managed 40FPS on it. Surprisingly, Cyberpunk 2077 managed around 40-50FPS when running on low settings at 720p, which is better than I thought it’d perform.
If you want more SteamOS goodness, check out one of our writers, Raghav Sethi, who switched from Windows 11 to SteamOS on their Asus ROG Ally and took some time to write about how they felt about it. Plus, we have a piece from Madeline Ricchiuto about how they never want to go back to Windows for gaming after using SteamOS.
