Tuesday, April 7th 2020
Steam Hardware Survey March 2020: Intel CPUs, NVIDIA Graphics Cards Rising
Steam has just released its hardware survey for March 2020, and it paints an interesting picture on the overall Steam user market. First of all, a disclaimer: Steam's survey's don't refer to the entirety of the systems that are running its digital distribution platform; it hails from only a part of the connected machines which are randomly selected - ideally, in such as way so as for its hardware data to be representative of the overall Steam ecosystem.
The March 2020 hardware survey shows Intel CPUs gaining traction over AMD's, albeit in a very limited fashion (a 0.24% increase in total number of machines running with GenuineIntel CPUs). Cross referencing this increase with the average clockspeeds of Intel CPUs, though, paints an interesting picture: the higher clockspeeds in the 3.3 to 3.8 GHz range (which can relatively cleanly be associated with the company's higher-performance products), saw a decline in usage (contrary to AMD, which saw the reverse happening).
The increase in Intel's numbers comes, instead, from lower-clocked parts, with the most significant increase being in the 2.7 GHz to 2.99 GHz range. Add to this the fact that Intel's increase in the Steam survey occurs in the month of March, when teleworking and the "bubble quarantine" began, and this actually seems like it's mostly motivated by users either turning on their older laptops, or as a result of increased sale of said laptops (where Intel still has a dominating product and consumer position over AMD's).
NVIDIA too saw increases in its market share for the month, which seems to support the theory that this run is powered by sales of new laptops or powering up of older hardware - especially considering the only DX-capable graphics cards to have shown increases are either in the DX12 or... DX8 or below support levels. Interesting times, to say the least.
Source:
Steam Hardware Survey
The March 2020 hardware survey shows Intel CPUs gaining traction over AMD's, albeit in a very limited fashion (a 0.24% increase in total number of machines running with GenuineIntel CPUs). Cross referencing this increase with the average clockspeeds of Intel CPUs, though, paints an interesting picture: the higher clockspeeds in the 3.3 to 3.8 GHz range (which can relatively cleanly be associated with the company's higher-performance products), saw a decline in usage (contrary to AMD, which saw the reverse happening).
53 Comments on Steam Hardware Survey March 2020: Intel CPUs, NVIDIA Graphics Cards Rising
It would seem their sample size is off, or it's automagic these days.
Might be that a lot of people like me, are stuck on work notebooks these days, hence the slight uptick in Intel CPUs.
I got it 2 times yesterday, once for my my amd build and second times on my old laptop (same account)
I will start the big gun soon, lets see, will steam ask 3rd times :)
Edit: yes, it is 3rd time too
well, it's understandable that there are lots of people out there just an average joe, not a tech-savvy joe.
also don't forget that Intel has long domination over AMD in the past. A good and bad product stigma.
"People are not tech-savvy", "people Intel install Steam on work laptops", "I only get this survey on my Intel machine" etc.
Occasionally someone more extreme comes in: "only stupid people buy Intel" or "Intel pays OEMs and shops to prioritize their products".
When will this stop?
Seriously, when AMD CPUs totally sucked, there wasn't this much hate towards the company itself or the clients. And the occasional AMD fanboy was tolerated - maybe even admired for staying with the brand he wants to support.
I'm starting to wonder what will happen on this forum when Intel gets in front once again. :o
PS: The survey is for March. The laptops were announced in April. *facepalm*
What stands out to me is two things.
- This is VALVEs data. By Valve. For Valve. Not in our interest but still available. After all, Gabe is all about sharing /s
- Apparently they can directly see a sharp change in VR Headset ownership. Strange how that works with limited surveys going out and an even more limited userbase.
What I really think is that Valve has data aggregation of its internal and partner sales channels, and our surveys are just 'on top of that'. The combination can be accurate and somewhat valuable. Representative however it is not, for example, Valve is close on that VR headset thing, and also close to its data. Same goes for the validity of percentages of different systems. Sure, there might be a crapload of Intel IGPs doing 'something' on Steam, but its not like they drive the market in any way for the platform. At the same time, those shitty IGPs do drive a multi billion dollar market outside of Steam, through a myriad of low-key MTX ridden simpler games.Lol. The simpler answer is that AMD hasn't had a half decent Laptop CPU in ten years... I think that is painfully obvious and in no need of explanation. I also don't see, like yourself, how this is supposed to be an Intel-AMD debate. Its really not. There is nothing to debate, right?
First and foremost this is Valve's data, and its really important to keep that in mind. People keep using Steam Survey as if it somehow is representative of PC, or of PC gaming, but it is neither. It is only representative of PC gaming in a specific age and interest group. You could even say it is generational, in that. My parents haven't got the slightest clue what Steam is but they know about gaming.
Back in the slightly better old days, there was half a dozen graphics chip makers to chose from, even more before 3D was a thing. We had two dozen motherboard brands and a handful of CPU options, even though some of them were never major players.
The only thing I have against Intel is that they've clearly shown that they have been riding their position in the market for too long and they are now having issues that they seem incapable of solving, so they can't really move forward with their x86 line at the same pace they have been able to in the past. It suggests that maybe they've become too big for their own good. However, from what I know, the device makers much prefer working with them over AMD, as they have a much better level of support for the board makers and laptop makers. This is also a big reason why we're seeing more Intel hardware vs. AMD hardware out there.
What I don't understand is why we as consumers, who have no vested interest in either of these companies, unless someone here happen to be a shareholder, are taking sides like it's some kind of war. It's worse than politics on a two party system...
I have an AMD CPU now but before that I had an Intel CPU for about 6 years since AMD had little to offer, and before that I swapped between AMD and Intel when there was better competition. On the GPU side I've been swapping between AMD/Nvidia since I bought my first dedicated GPU (GeForce 2 MX). I have 0 brand loyalty. All 3 companies do scummy things as well, though lately I feel like Intel and Nvidia have stepped it up a bit with the scum so I've sort of been pushed towards AMD last couple of years. But I'm still not loyal to AMD and I fully expect them to do something that'll turn me off them as well. Unfortunately we don't really have much choice like you said, so at this point I'm going with the companies that disgust me the least, and right now that happens to be AMD on both fronts. And yes, that comes before performance to me.
Ironically both of my laptop's with Steam installed on both have Intel and NV GPUs active... So I am boosting those NV numbers... :laugh:
(I was guilty of that myself. For my first computer i had to choose between a celeron laptop vs a turion 64 laptop for the same price. And I've choosed the celeron because Intel marketing was just everywhere...)
As others have said, I also haven't had Steam give me a hardware survey pop-up for as long as I can remember... :twitch:
Ask Bill.
:rolleyes:
As to why duals and quads, well because the majority of people buy ultra-expensive smartphones and that's where the majority of sales gone so far.