Steam Survey Update: It's All About Quad-cores, NVIDIA and Windows 10

[Raevenlord]

An update to the Steam survey results is always worth noting, especially with the added, tremendous growth Valve's online store service has seen recently. And it seems that in the Steam gaming world at least, quad-core CPUs, NVIDIA graphics cards, and Windows 10 reign supreme.

Windows 10 64-bit is the most used operating system, with 50.33% of the survey. That the second most used Windows OS is the steady, hallmark Windows 7 shouldn't come as a surprise, though it does have just 32.05% of the market now. OS X has a measly 2.95% of the grand total, while Linux comes in at an even lower 0.72%. While AMD processor submits may have increased in other software, it seems that at least in Steam, those numbers aren't reflected, since AMD's processor market share in the survey has decreased from 21.89% in February to just 19.01% as of June, even though the company's Ryzen line of CPUs has been selling like hotcakes. Quad-core CPUs are the most used at time of the survey, at 52.06%, while the next highest percentage is still the dual-core CPU, with 42.23%.





On the graphics cards side of the equation though, AMD seems to be in a pretty considerable losing streak when it comes to the Steam hardware survey. The red company has fallen from a 26.2% market share in January 2016 to a much lower 20.5% in June 2017; it seems Polaris' price-point and lower cost of entry for FreeSync did little to convince users to migrate to the red team. Perhaps the lack of a halo product doomed AMD from the start?



There are a total of 19 NVIDIA video cards taking up the top spots in the Steam hardware survey before the first AMD video card series - the HD 7700 - makes an appearance with its measly 1.21% market share. Of the top 19 NVIDIA graphics cards, the GTX 1060 takes the top spot, with 6.29% market. Other 1000 series graphics cards from NVIDIA in the top 19 spots include the GTX 1070 (5th place with 3.60%), the GTX 1050 Ti (6th, 2.80%), the GTX 1050 (13th place, 1.74%) and the GTX 1080 (14th, 1.73%).

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Chaitanya]

Not surprising at all. Games aren't particularly well coded(even in 2017) to take advantage of multi-core CPUs which have been available now for good part of decade.

 

[phanbuey]

this is a retrospective poll any way you look at it.

 

[Nkd]

reason why steam survey isn't worth shit!

 

[Mussels]

reason why steam survey isn't worth shit!

Why, because you disagree with facts?

 

[Manu_PT]

You failed to mention half of the active daily steam users are on Dota 2, CS GO and pubg. That explains why most pc gamers actually use low to mid end hardware. The most played games that make pc gaming a big market, arent demanding and run on any low budget system.

 

[Liviu Cojocaru]

You failed to mention half of the active daily steam users are on Dota 2, CS GO and pubg. That explains why most pc gamers actually use low to mid end hardware. The most played games that make pc gaming a big market, arent demanding and run on any low budget system.

PUBG is a demanding game, you need to have a really good PC to run it properly, I agree that the other 2 are not demanding but that does not mean that automatically most of the players that are playing those games have low to mid end hardware

 

[RCoon]

Still 0.35% Matrox/SiS users in the world.

 

[Mussels]

Still 0.35% Matrox/SiS users in the world.

probs running steam on server machines - some of the dedicated servers require a steam account to own the game to host them

 

[ShurikN]

RX480 came out bit before 1060 (let say they both came out at the same time), both trade blows when it comes to performance, yet 1060 has 6 times more market share.
Such a shame that AMD will always have to fight that uphill battle. Against both the competition and the mindset of people.

 

[Mussels]

*Looks at system specs*
*Looks at sig*

Oh crap, i'm NORMAL

 

[Lionheart]

RX480 came out bit before 1060 (let say they both came out at the same time), both trade blows when it comes to performance, yet 1060 has 6 times more market share.
Such a shame that AMD will always have to fight that uphill battle. Against both the competition and the mindset of people.

Agreed, that whole mindshare that AdoredTV talked about is true.

 

[ShurikN]

*Looks at system specs*
*Looks at sig*

Oh crap, i'm NORMAL

Do you need an applaud?
Maybe standing ovation...

 

[LiveOrDie]

4 cores ? that mite be 4 cores or more?

 

[chaosmassive]

Still 0.35% Matrox/SiS users in the world.

they were special little snowflakes

 

[Ruru]

2c/4t, Nvidia & Windows 10.

 

[rtwjunkie]

4 cores ? that mite be 4 cores or more?

Steam breaks down cores as "CPU's". So presumably I guess you are referring to i7 and asking where are they? 0.49% according to the survey.

Edit: ahhhh, never mind. That wouldn't explain hyperthreaded dual cores. They must be mixed in the 4 CPU.

 

[ShurikN]

4 cores ? that mite be 4 cores or more?

I think it's just 4 cores. Everything else should fall into "other" category.

 

[Mussels]

Do you need an applaud?
Maybe standing ovation...

i need a 6 core AMD setup with a via GPU, gotta be special somehow

 

[Kaotik]

Still waiting for Valve to come clean on their "Software & Hardware Survey"
They've never explained exact methods they use to get their results - is it random pickings who gets to survey each month?
It can't be everyone, since the survey doesn't pop up on hardware changes.
What about users who use more than one machine on same account?

Also, they still haven't cleared up obvious mistake that has been in their video cards survey for years.
No - "HD 8800 -series", which is one model sold for one year on prebuilt OEM-machines is not and has never been used more than HD 7800 -series, which includes several models sold for a year in prebuilt OEM-machines and several years on retail.

 

[NicklasAPJ]

Quad core, else Thanks, aleast 6 Core system today... the System is alot more smooth overall.

 

[EarthDog]

reason why steam survey isn't worth shit!

LOL, good reasons listed...

Still waiting for Valve to come clean on their "Software & Hardware Survey"
They've never explained exact methods they use to get their results - is it random pickings who gets to survey each month?
It can't be everyone, since the survey doesn't pop up on hardware changes.
What about users who use more than one machine on same account?

Also, they still haven't cleared up obvious mistake that has been in their video cards survey for years.
No - "HD 8800 -series", which is one model sold for one year on prebuilt OEM-machines is not and has never been used more than HD 7800 -series, which includes several models sold for a year in prebuilt OEM-machines and several years on retail.

Doesn't it record and send it off automatically? I don't recall filling anything out?

 

[Mussels]

LOL, good reasons listed...
Doesn't it record and send it off automatically? I don't recall filling anything out?

Whenever i reinstall steam i get the survey asked, usually on a new machine/new OS install.
I'd guess they have a token somewhere that recognised an already surveyed system and they just auto-renew that so it stays in the stats, and systems that dont get refreshed (hardware changed, owner upgraded etc) get removed from the stats.

 

[rtwjunkie]

Whenever i reinstall steam i get the survey asked, usually on a new machine/new OS install.
I'd guess they have a token somewhere that recognised an already surveyed system and they just auto-renew that so it stays in the stats, and systems that dont get refreshed (hardware changed, owner upgraded etc) get removed from the stats.

I get a re-survey every 6 months. It asks a few questions, then pulls the rest of the hardware info on its own.

Afterward it redirects to the results and allows you to compare to the rest of the surveyed machines.

 

[dcf-joe]

LOL, the top VR headset is only 0.23% of users.