Valve Corporation's Linux-based operating system, SteamOS, now supports AMD and Intel graphics processors.
SteamOS is primarily designed to play video games and previously the operating system was limited only to Nvidia GPUs. However, the company has now announced support for Intel and AMD graphics as well.
"We have just updated the alchemist release with the alchemist_beta contents. All the changes which were only in alchemist_beta are now released to everyone. Existing SteamOS installs should update themselves automatically. Notably, Intel and AMD graphics are now supported. (Optimus solutions are still unsupported however)," per a statement released on Steam Community.
However, SteamOS is still in beta testing and the Linux video drivers are also in the beta state.
AMD suggests that there are still some screen-tearing issues and things can slow down when the SteamOS overlay and games are running simultaneously. Valve engineer John Vert wrote on Steam Community that the company is still working with AMD and Intel to resolve a number of issues.
"We are working with AMD on this, and when it is available it will be in the alchemist_beta repository. Same thing with the Intel graphics issues. Hopefully soon. Our current focus is really on Big Picture mode. We have some ideas for desktop mode and we are interested to see what the community does with it, but don't expect big changes there in the near future," Vert wrote.
Valve has unveiled 13 Steam Machines at the 2014 International CES last week, a move that will give stiff competition to other big names in the game console industry. A number of Steam Machines are intended to ship with AMD and Intel graphics at launch in early 2014.
The Steam Machines will run on SteamOS and customers will be able to install the operating system free of cost on their personal computers.
