Caused by budget bargains in the lead-up to the next GPU generation, perhaps?
The latest Steam hardware survey results are in and it looks like people are making the most of recent graphics card discounts, specifically at the lower end of the 40-series. These sales and price drops are to be expected as we’re currently in the lead-up to some next-gen graphics card releases.
The September Steam hardware survey shows a 1.17% increase in Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 users and a 0.76% increase in RTX 4060 Ti users. At first glance, these numbers might not seem very high, but in the case of the RTX 4060, we’re going from a 3.41% share of surveyed GPUs to a 4.58% share, which is a 34% increase.
Interestingly, combined with the mobile version of the RTX 4060—which uses the exact same GPU—that puts the total market share of that slice of Ada Lovelace silicon above any other chip in the entire Steamy dataset.
These percentages are, of course, never going to be the whole story, because they only represent those (a) who use Steam, who also (b) responded to the hardware survey.
The story could also be that these increased numbers in large part come from the Chinese market, given the survey also shows a 1.54% increase in Simplified Chinese language use, a fact that could in part be put down to the release of Black Myth: Wukong.
It makes sense for RTX 4060 and 4060 Ti numbers to increase in the West, too, though, given the ever-approaching Nvidia RTX 50-series and AMD RX 8000-series graphics cards. Those looking to upgrade their GPUs are likely to either buy a cheaper current-gen GPU, such as the RTX 4060, or wait to see what the next generation has in store if they’re looking at the top end of the market.
Plus, there’s the simple fact that graphics cards have been prohibitively expensive for a long time and have only recently started dropping to reasonable prices. Nvidia RTX 40-series GPU prices have been dropping across the board in the lead-up to the 50-series—even in the usually-expensive UK market which recently saw some stellar deals.
The imminent introduction of a new generation of graphics cards is often a great time to buy a new mid-range or budget card—I can attest to this personally, as I bought my RTX 3060 Ti for a great price in the lead-up to the RTX 40-series. RTX 4060 prices dropping below $300 could be just the push needed for a segment of previously priced-out gamers to upgrade and plunge into (for now) current-gen territory.
The rest of the hardware survey results are, for the most part, unremarkable. Of note, though, is that things are a little flip-floppy on the Windows front, as we see that Windows 10 usage has risen by 1.57% and Windows 11 usage has dropped by 1.48%, putting the older OS back behind the new one overall. This is despite Windows 11 previously overtaking Windows 10 on Steam.
Hopefully, we’ll start to see some more significant changes in Steam hardware survey results when next-gen GPUs hit the market. But I won’t hold my breath on people lapping those up right away, not until cheaper variants launch. Who knows, though, maybe AMD will take our Jeremy’s advice and set low Radeon RX 8000-series prices from launch. A man can dream.
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