Will ARC Raiders Run on the Steam Machine? (verdict & ProtonDB Platinum)

Short answer: yes — ARC Raiders is out (our catalogue records a 2025 release), and our derived Steam Machine verdict is green at Low, Medium and High, all at 1080p. ProtonDB rates it Platinum from 997 community reports, and Steam declares full controller support. That verdict is derived from Valve's compatibility data and our spec model — we hold no measured Steam Machine FPS for this title.

Full verdict card: ARC Raiders on the Steam Machine — our derived Machine and Deck verdicts, ProtonDB's tier, controller support and spec fit, all in one place.

ARC Raiders is Embark's PvPvE extraction shooter built on Unreal Engine 5. When we first wrote this page, the open question was whether its anti-cheat would let it run on SteamOS at all. The game has since shipped, and the community answer is in: a Platinum ProtonDB tier from nearly a thousand reports is about as strong a "it runs under Proton" signal as our dataset holds.

Why our verdict is derived, not measured

Our green verdict comes from Valve's own SteamOS/Deck compatibility signal for the game — Valve lists it as Deck Verified, and our derived Deck verdict is green at 800p — run through our published spec model against the Machine's fixed hardware. That is a derivation, not a stopwatch. We have no measured Steam Machine frame rate for ARC Raiders and we won't invent one; if community Steam Machine FPS reports come in through submissions, they appear on the verdict card.

Treat the colours as "what our model expects," not a benchmark — see our methodology.

What the independent signals say

• ProtonDB: Platinum, 997 reports (strong confidence). Platinum is ProtonDB's top tier — players report it running out of the box under Proton, the same compatibility layer every SteamOS device uses. It answers "does it run?", not "how fast?", and we never convert a tier into an FPS figure.
• Controller: full support (Steam-declared). On a couch-first box that matters — no mouse-and-keyboard fallback needed.
• RAM: 16 GB recommended on Steam's own spec sheet — exactly the Machine's 16 GB. It fits, but with no headroom to spare, so close background apps before a long session.

One caveat that hasn't changed: online games depend on their anti-cheat staying enabled for Proton. Today's reports say it works; a future patch could change that in either direction, so if a big update lands, check the card before assuming.

The 8 GB VRAM ceiling is still the thing to watch

Steam's spec sheet doesn't state a VRAM figure for ARC Raiders, so we can't compare it to the Machine's 8 GB directly. The general UE5 pattern still applies: high-resolution textures can push past 8 GB, and when they do you get traversal stutter and frame-time spikes rather than a clean lower average. Texture quality is your most important single setting.

Settings to start with

1. Start at 1080p, not 1440p. It's the resolution our verdict is built for.
2. Textures: High, not Ultra. Protect the 8 GB VRAM budget — Ultra textures are the most common cause of stutter on 8 GB cards.
3. Turn on FSR (Quality first). Use it to buy frame-pacing headroom, then decide whether to spend that headroom on resolution or fidelity.
4. Cap your frame rate. A stable, capped frame rate feels better in an extraction shooter than a high but jittery one.
5. Watch frame-time, not just FPS. In a game where one bad fight ends your run, a spike at the wrong moment costs you loot.

For more on dialing in 8 GB-ceiling settings across titles, browse our /games library, and if you're still deciding on hardware, which device breaks down where the Steam Machine fits.

Should you buy it for the Steam Machine?

If you want ARC Raiders on the couch, the signals line up: a green derived verdict, a Platinum ProtonDB tier from 997 reports, and full controller support. The two things to manage are the 8 GB VRAM ceiling (textures at High) and a 16 GB RAM recommendation that lands exactly on the Machine's limit.