Windows 11 tested on Steam Machine, provides nearly identical gaming performance to SteamOS

Q: What primary reason does the article give for installing Windows 11 on a Steam Machine despite similar performance?

The article says the primary reason to install Windows 11 is to play games that SteamOS cannot run due to Linux incompatibility. It notes performance differences are minor overall, so compatibility with Windows-only titles is the main benefit.

YouTuber compares SteamOS to Windows 11 on Steam Machine showing marginal performance difference between the OSes on the console except for Cyberpunk 2077.

Aaron Klotz

Tech Reporter

Published Jul 15, 2026 3:10 PM CDT

1 minute & 30 seconds read time

TL;DR: ETA Prime benchmarked Windows 11 (using Valve's drivers) vs SteamOS on the Steam Machine and found mostly minor performance differences: Windows 11 led modestly in Geekbench single-core (+3.3%) and strongly in multi-core (+22.1%); game results varied by title and resolution, with Cyberpunk 2077 favoring SteamOS except at 4K. Overall, Windows 11 offers little gaming advantage aside from running Windows-only games, and Valve won't support Windows 11 use on the Steam Machine.

Voice: DefaultSpeed

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Valve recently released Windows 11 drivers for the Steam Machine, giving testers and reviewers an opportunity to benchmark Windows 11 on the Valve console to see if there are any performance differences between Windows 11 and SteamOS. YouTuber ETA Prime tested Windows 11 on the Steam Machine and found that gaming performance is slightly better compared to running the console's native SteamOS.

The YouTuber compared the Steam Machine's performance between Windows 11 and SteamOS in several games and synthetic benchmarks. In Geekbench 6.7.1, Windows 11 had a 3.3% lead over SteamOS in the single-core benchmark, but in the multi-core benchmark, Windows 11 had a whopping 22.1% lead over SteamOS.

This is the only time Windows 11 has had such a massive lead over SteamOS. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Windows 11 was only marginally faster, being 1.7% faster at 1080p very high settings and 4.3% faster at 4K very high settings. 1440p was the only resolution where SteamOS outperformed Windows 11 in this game, by 2.4%. In Cyberpunk 2077, SteamOS outperformed Windows 11 by 8.8% at 1080p ultra settings and by 4.7% at 1440p ultra settings. At 4K resolution, Windows 11 beat SteamOS by 10%. Forza Horizon saw marginal differences between the OSes, with Windows beating SteamOS by 1.7% at 1080p very high settings and 7.1% at 4K very high settings. At 1440p, SteamOS beat Windows 11 by 2.1%.

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Question #1

How much CPU performance difference did Geekbench show between Windows 11 and SteamOS on the Steam Machine?

In Geekbench 6.7.1, Windows 11 showed a 3.3% lead over SteamOS in the single-core benchmark and a 22.1% lead in the multi-core benchmark.

Answered

Question #2

What primary reason does the article give for installing Windows 11 on a Steam Machine despite similar performance?

Have a question not listed here? Ask below and TweakBot will answer it.

ETA Prime's benchmark comparison between Windows 11 and SteamOS shows that there's no serious benefit from moving from SteamOS to Windows 11 for better gaming performance, except in some cases (such as Cyberpunk 2077 at 4K). Moving to Windows 11 is primarily beneficial for playing games that SteamOS can't run due to Linux incompatibility. That said, Windows 11 driver compatibility comes "as is", as Valve warns it won't provide support if something goes wrong with the Steam Machine while using Windows 11.