The RX 9070 XT is one of our favourite graphics cards of this generation, as it delivers a hefty whack of gaming performance that can sometimes edge it ahead of the RTX 5070 Ti. As for the Steam Machine... well, I reviewed it and I'd like it a lot more if it was cheaper, put it that way. Or if it was more powerful.

One redditor may have solved the Steam Machine's performance drawbacks by putting the two bits of AMD-powered hardware together. Large_Customer_3840 has hooked the big AMD graphics card in to a Steam Machine as an eGPU, via some clever use of adapters.

"I did this by using the NVMe slot with an NVMe to Oculink adapter" say the redditor, "and then had the NVMe drive on a USB-C NVMe adapter to boot SteamOS."

Apparently, this setup works surprisingly well. "When I turned it on, the 9070 XT became the primary monitor and worked straight away," says our intrepid tinkerer. It's always a good feeling, isn't it?

The only issue to date has been a black screen problem, which revealed the Steam Machine needed to be connected to a TV for the eGPU to work. Other than that? It looks to be plain sailing.

Large_Customer_3840 says they've only tested the performance with Crimson Desert so far, but reports that the Steam Machine/AMD GPU hybrid gets over 100 fps on High. The setup looks to require the removal of the Steam Machine backplate, although the redditor says it could become a permanent upgrade with some modification of the case.

Perhaps some water cooling might be in order, just to put the cherry on the cake? It feels like we're gradually putting together the Franken-Steam Machine over here, and I can't wait to see what the modding community does next.

Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.

Andy built his first gaming PC at the tender age of 12, when IDE cables were a thing and high resolution wasn't. 26 years later (yes he's getting old), he now spends his days writing about and reviewing graphics cards, CPUs, keyboards, mice, gaming headsets and much, much more. You name it, if it's PC gaming hardware he'll write words about it, with opinions and everything.