Tesla Removes Steam Gaming from current Model S and Model X vehicles

Tesla no longer offers Steam support for its current Model S and Model X models. This change was made in response to feedback from customers awaiting delivery of these models. Tesla The company had previously introduced the Steam Beta for newer versions of the Model S and Model X Refresh with 16GB of RAM as part of the 2022 Holiday Update. This update did not support older vehicles with only 8GB of RAM. Tesla however, offered an upgrade for these vehicles for 2,000 US dollars.

The Cybertruck also no longer had a dedicated graphics unit (GPU). Many owners of the Foundation series reported that they did not have access to Steam and the well-known GreenTheOnly later confirmed that the Cybertruck did not have a GPU. In addition, the Cybertruck only shipped with 8GB of RAM, similar to the AMD Ryzen chip-based versions of the Model 3 and Model Y MCU 3. This could indicate that Tesla is phasing out graphics processors and larger memory packages in its premium vehicles, likely due to cost savings, hardware rationalization and optimization.

While the AMD Ryzen RDNA-2 APUs, which are used in every Tesla-MCU are quite powerful and can render 3D or 2D graphics well in mobile configurations, Steam support in other vehicles is significantly limited due to the 8 GB of RAM. Another possible alternative would be an updated Steam beta that gets by with 8 GB of RAM and does not require a powerful GPU, as most users are unlikely to play hardcore games in their vehicles.