Redditor upgrades Steam Machine with an RX 9070 XT using an external GPU dock, sacrificing the console's M.2 slot to do so

Someone has figured out a way to hook up an RX 9070 XT graphics card to a Steam Machine, despite Valve's latest console not supporting GPU upgrades or graphics card docks officially. Large_Customer_3840 on the Steam Machine subreddit showed off an RX 9070 XT graphics card hooked up to an external GPU dock working perfectly with a Steam Machine.

To make this setup work, the user took out the Steam Machine's integrated M.2 SSD and replaced it with an M.2 to OCuLink ribbon cable adapter to make the Steam Machine compatible with their Aoostar EG01 eGPU docking station. Since the Steam Machine lacks any additional M.2 slot or SATA slots, an external SSD was used in place of the M.2 SSD for storage.

SteamOS reportedly saw the RX 9070 XT without any issues, with signal output going from the GPU to the monitor perfectly without any additional tweaks in the OS. The only caveat the Redditor pointed out was that the Steam Machine would fail to display an image through the RX 9070 XT if the HDMI port on the Steam Machine itself was not connected. To remedy the issue, the Redditor routed an HDMI cable from both the Steam Machine's HDMI port and the RX 9070 XT to their TV.

The Redditor neglected to share many benchmarks, but claimed the system achieves over 100 FPS on high settings in Crimson Desert, a new AAA game that came out earlier this year. Benchmarks from other sources show Crimson Desert running off the Steam Machine's integrated RDNA3 GPU at roughly 60FPS at 1080p high settings. Assuming the Redditor was benchmarking the game at 1080p, it confirms that the Steam Machine's CPU can handle much more demanding GPUs than its integrated RDNA 3 GPU.

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Question #1

How did the Redditor physically connect the RX 9070 XT to the Steam Machine using the M.2 slot?

Click to reveal answer

Question #2

Which eGPU dock and M.2 adapter were used to make the external GPU work with the Steam Machine?

The Redditor used an Aoostar EG01 eGPU docking station and an M.2 to OCuLink ribbon cable adapter to connect the RX 9070 XT to the Steam Machine.

Answered

Question #3

Why was it necessary to connect the Steam Machine's HDMI port as well as the GPU's HDMI to the TV?

Because the Steam Machine would fail to display an image through the external RX 9070 XT unless the console's own HDMI port was also connected, the Redditor had to run HDMI from both the Steam Machine and the GPU to the TV so the video signal would appear.

Answered

Question #4

What performance improvement was reported in Crimson Desert compared to the Steam Machine's integrated RDNA3 GPU?

The Redditor reported getting over 100 FPS on high settings with the RX 9070 XT, compared with roughly 60 FPS from the Steam Machine’s integrated RDNA3 GPU. That represents an increase of about 40+ FPS, roughly a 66 percent performance improvement.

Answered

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Running an external GPU docking station through an M.2 slot is nothing new; it's been done many times in the past, primarily on older laptops that don't come with Thunderbolt connectors. All modern M.2 NVMe slots use the same PCIe standard as traditional PCIe slots, allowing any PCIe card to work as long as you have the right adapter.