Why doesn’t Valve’s Steam Machine use HDMI 2.1?

Valve’s upcoming Steam Machine is a highly anticipated, console-like gaming PC that’s expected to launch in early 2026. It was first revealed on November 12, with the spec sheet showing off a semi-custom AMD Zen 4 processor with integrated RDNA 3 graphics.

Despite the overwhelming fanfare surrounding the Steam Machine announcement, one spec stood out to a lot of PC gamers. Rather than using the latest HDMI 2.1 standard, originally unveiled in 2017, the Steam Machine uses an older HDMI 2.0 hookup.

Now,…