Steam Machine achieves up to 183% higher frame rates with an RX 9070 XT hooked up to an eGPU dock

Q: What performance gains did the RX 9070 XT deliver over the Steam Machine's integrated iGPU in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K?

In Cyberpunk 2077, the RX 9070 XT ran 69% faster than the Steam Machine's integrated iGPU at 1080p, 58% faster at 1440p, and 183% faster at 4K, according to ETA Prime's benchmarks.

Q: How did the RX 9070 XT perform in Cyberpunk 2077 and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart on the Steam Machine (average FPS and settings reported)?

Cyberpunk 2077 averaged about 70 FPS at high settings on 1440p native resolution. Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart ran about 130 FPS average at 1440p on very high settings.

Q: Which games were benchmarked by ETA Prime to evaluate the OCuLink eGPU mod on the Steam Machine?

ETA Prime benchmarked the RX 9070 XT with the Steam Machine using Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, Cyberpunk 2077, Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. These tests evaluated the OCuLink eGPU mod's performance with the Steam Machine.

Q: How much faster was the RX 9070 XT compared to the integrated RX 7600-class iGPU in Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K?

ETA Prime's direct comparison found the RX 9070 XT was 42% faster than the integrated RX 7600-class iGPU in Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 1080p, 53% faster at 1440p, and 66% faster at 4K.

A YouTuber has taken the recently discovered OCuLink mod for the Steam Machine and put it through its paces, benchmarking the mod in several games.

Aaron Klotz

Tech Reporter

Published Aug 12, 2026 3:45 PM CDT

2 minutes & 15 seconds read time

TL;DR: YouTuber ETA Prime benchmarked an OCuLink mod that lets the Steam Machine use an RX 9070 XT eGPU. Results: major FPS gains over the iGPU-up to 183% faster in Cyberpunk 2077 at 4K-though the Steam Machine's 30W CPU can bottleneck high-end GPUs due to limited all-core clocks.

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Yesterday we covered a mod for the Steam Machine that unlocked compatibility with an eGPU dock, making it possible to pair Valve's latest console with graphics cards such as the RX 9070 XT. However, the modder who first shared this mod on the internet neglected to provide any in-depth benchmarks of the mod in action. ETA Prime on YouTube has since taken this same mod and put it through a plethora of benchmarks, giving us a good idea of how external GPUs such as the RX 9070 XT truly perform with the Steam Machine's 30W CPU.

The YouTuber benchmarked the RX 9070 XT with the Steam Machine in several games: Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, Cyberpunk 2077, Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

In Cyberpunk 2077, the game achieved an average of 70 FPS at high settings 1440p at native resolution. GPU usage in this game was hovering at 70% with CPU usage hovering in the high 70% range. Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart ran at a much higher 130 FPS average at 1440p, very high settings. GPU usage was hovering near 100%, unlike Cyberpunk 2077.

ETA Prime also directly compared the RX 9070 XT to the Steam Machine's integrated RX 7600-class iGPU in Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Cyberpunk 2077. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the RX 9070 XT was 42% faster than the iGPU at 1080p, 53% faster at 1440p, and 66% faster at 4K. Cyberpunk 2077 showed an even greater margin, showing the RX 9070 XT running 69% faster at 1080p, 58% faster at 1440p, and 183% faster at 4K compared to the Steam Machine's iGPU.

The results show that the Steam Machine does have the performance chops on the CPU side to handle much more powerful GPUs than its integrated iGPU. At the same time, the Cyberpunk 2077 results also revealed that the Steam Machine's CPU does have limits and will bottleneck high-end GPU hardware. This seems to be a limitation of the chip's all-core frequency; ETA Prime recorded clock speeds of just 3.2GHz while gaming despite the chip supporting a peak boost clock of 4.8GHz.

There is virtually no use case where buying a dedicated GPU dock for the Steam Machine is a worthwhile buying decision, but it is still interesting to see how the console performs with external GPU hardware. It confirms that if Valve wanted to, they could use the same CPU in a future Steam Machine version with a more powerful GPU without running into the risk of a CPU bottleneck.

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Question #1

What performance gains did the RX 9070 XT deliver over the Steam Machine's integrated iGPU in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K?

Question #2

How did the RX 9070 XT perform in Cyberpunk 2077 and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart on the Steam Machine (average FPS and settings reported)?

Question #3

Which games were benchmarked by ETA Prime to evaluate the OCuLink eGPU mod on the Steam Machine?

Question #4

How much faster was the RX 9070 XT compared to the integrated RX 7600-class iGPU in Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K?

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For the uninitiated, modders discovered that the Steam Machine can be modified to support external eGPU docks, despite the console not supporting Thunderbolt, USB4 or OCuLink natively. The mod involves removing the internal M.2 SSD, replacing the drive with an OCuLink adapter, and using the M.2's PCIe 4.0 x4 interface to drive an external GPU. OCuLink is a connectivity standard designed to provide PCIe connectivity through a cable and is supported on a variety of eGPU docks on the market.