It has been almost three years since Chromebook users got word that Steam support is coming to ChromeOS. We’re still not totally there yet, but today Google announced that it’s ready to enter beta testing.
In a blog post, Zach Alcorn, Google product manager, announced that Steam on Chromebooks is available as a beta with ChromeOS 108.0.5359.24 and later. Steam on ChromeOS entered alpha in March, and Alcorn said the updates announced today are based on “thousands of gameplay reports.”
AMD support
The Steam on ChromeOS alpha required not just an Intel CPU, but also an Intel 11th-gen Core i5 chip with Intel’s Iris Xe graphics. The beta supports Intel’s latest 12th-gen chips and extends support to Team Red. Alcorn said the beta supports AMD’s Ryzen 5000 C-Series CPUs.
Google’s beta also lowers spec requirements to an i3 CPU in the case of Intel-based Chromebooks, while AMD Chromebooks require a Ryzen 3 chip or greater.
The RAM requirement has also dropped from 16GB of RAM to 8GB.
However, Alcorn said an i5 or Ryzen 5 and 16GB is still recommended “for the best experience.” In fact, some supported games will only work with 16GB of memory. As is the case with any local gaming, the more powerful the machine you have, the better the performance you can expect.
Chromebooks that support Steam testing
With these updated requirements, the number of Chromebooks that can test Steam has tripled. Below is the full list of supported devices that Alcorn shared. Unsurprisingly, they include the high-refresh rate (up to 144 Hz) cloud-gaming Chromebooks announced last month.