Steam Hardware Survey 2024

[AccidentalDenz]

Had the notification to send my details off for the latest Steam Hardware survey which has apparently been going since November. I did a thread on this exactly 2 years ago, but I'm not hard-faced enough to necro a thread from that far back.

The results are here - https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/

The fact that 16GB of system RAM is the largest group (and rising) while 32GB is the next largest group and is shrinking surprises me.

Given the issues we've noticed with 8GB starting to be insufficient for even 1080 gaming, it being the most common amount suggests that high-end gaming is going to continue to be a struggle for large numbers of gamers. The RTX 3060 being the most common GPU seems a bit wild to me, but that links to the VRAM situation for a lot of people I guess.

 

[ubuysa]

My last three generation of desktop PC have all doubled in RAM size, from 8GB to 16GB and now I have 32GB installed - just because I can afford it TBH.

 

[SpyderTracks]

The general gaming community are budget focussed, always been that way. 1080p cards have been the average for many years, before then 720p was the standard.

With the bad reputation AMD have had for driver issues for so long now, even though the 6000 and 7000 series massively improved on that front, the mainstream adoption will gravitate to nvidia even at the budget side. And it is unquestionably the truth that you have to be more technically capable to troubleshoot AMD graphics issues than on nvidia. So many people on these forums have come across standard Adrenaline based software issues and simply switched to nvidia rather than troubleshooting

The issue as always is not that nvidia under provision RAM or unfairly inflate GPU pricing, it’s that the masses will still adopt them even under those circumstances, although most gamers will not know of the significance of VRAM for gaming.

The pandemic showed us conclusively, nvidia will not change their stranglehold until the market stops buying their products, and the market seems to be not only ignorant to the forced manipulation, but willing to pay through the nose for inferior performance

 

[stegor]

There seems to be a mix up between VRAM and system RAM in this thread. It is a surprise though that system RAM of 32GB is dropping relative to 16GB. This will have less effect on gaming than VRAM.

 

[SpyderTracks]

There seems to be a mix up between VRAM and system RAM in this thread. It is a surprise though that system RAM of 32GB is dropping relative to 16GB. This will have less effect on gaming than VRAM.

Don't think there's any mix up

The fact that 16GB of system RAM is the largest group (and rising) while 32GB is the next largest group and is shrinking surprises me.

This was related to RAM

Given the issues we've noticed with 8GB starting to be insufficient for even 1080 gaming, it being the most common amount suggests that high-end gaming is going to continue to be a struggle for large numbers of gamers. The RTX 3060 being the most common GPU seems a bit wild to me, but that links to the VRAM situation for a lot of people I guess.

This was related to VRAM

I think the RAM average still being on 16Gb is that a lot of new gamers will be going for DDR4 platforms with a 5000 series X3D chip for budget reasons, rather than adopting AM5 at quite a significantly increased price of entry. With AM4 still getting current support with new chips like the 5700X3D, it's still a very strong consideration at the budget side.

I suspect once AM4 actually goes end of life, we'll see a sudden sharp rise in both average core counts and 32Gb RAM.

 

[AccidentalDenz]

I shouldn't post on the forum at 6am as I just cause confusion! 😆

I had hoped that switching to a new paragraph to outline my thoughts about a new aspect of the survey might have been enough to stop the confusion. I was wrong.

Still, the important thing is that my thread has sparked a bit of conversation, so that's always a bonus!

 

[SpyderTracks]

On the VRAM front, it's been confirmed now that the Nvidia 5000 series will be keeping the same VRAM allocation aside from the 5090.

So the RTX 5070 will have 12Gb and the 60 tiers will STILL have 8Gb.

Yet, when they're giving any performance benchmarks, they always do so with DLSS as a basic requirement, and of course heavily pushing the benefit of ray tracing.

The reality is, that upscaling isn't really a thing at 1080p, the result is really sub par and it heavily impacts graphical quality, so DLSS on 60 tier cards is irrelevant. Then factor in even without Ray Tracing being enabled, 8Gb is just not sufficient for an awful lot of games nowadays.

So they are stipulating that if you're buying under the 80 tier (above which are the only cards to have adequate VRAM to play games at it's intended resolution with RT and DLSS enabled) you're expected to know that max graphics just isn't an option, you'd have to settle for high even on a cutting edge brand new architecture, and you have absolutely no chance of DLSS or RT at 1080p, and even with that, you'd likely have to reduce texture separately to lowest on the modern heavy games.

Begs the question, what's the benefit of buying Nvidia under 1440p? And does this now mean that the RTX 5070 is actually a 1080p card?

Once gamers cotton onto that, I sincerely hope Nvidia get a rude awakening. And with Intels new Arc B570 having 12Gb VRAM out of the box and being around the performance of the RTX 4060ti AND costing less than the RTX 4060, although I hate Intel, they're the far better option and I really hope they disrupt the stranglehold at the low end.

Although it's kind of moot anyway, as the revenue that the gaming sector actually brings into Nvidia is basically meaningless within their overall portfolio.