January Steam survey sees AMD CPUs bounce back, Ampere falters

[midian182]

In brief: After an unexplained delay of almost a week, the Steam Hardware and Software survey results for January are here. Last month’s winners were AMD, Windows 11, and the Oculus Quest 2, while it wasn’t a good period for Nvidia’s Ampere desktop line.

Diving into CPUs, AMD bounced back after suffering a decline in user numbers in December, which marked the first time it failed to steal share from Intel since August 2021. In January, 0.25% more survey participants were using team red’s processors, pushing its overall share to 30.96%.

In the graphics card section, many of the trends we’ve seen over the past few months weren’t present in January’s results. The RTX 3000 desktop cards that have been increasing their user share didn’t have the best time, with the 3070, 3060, and 3060 Ti all losing users. The RTX 3090 and 3070 Ti were unchanged, the RTX 3080 was up just 0.01%, and the RTX 3080 Ti increased 0.04%. The RTX 3050 Ti fared slightly better with its 0.06% rise, but the only desktop Ampere card to see significant gains was the vanilla RTX 3050, up 0.14%.

The graphics cards with the largest gains during January

It was a different story for Ampere’s laptop variants, the mobile RTX 3060 and 3080 were January’s second- and third-best performers, up 0.32% and 0.16%, respectively. Only the GTX 1650 had a better month thanks to its 0.39% gain.

The top ten GPUs remain the same, apart from the laptop RTX 3060 moving higher. As for AMD, the Radeon RX 6700 XT is still the only RDNA 2 card in the main chart.

The top graphics cards among Steam Survey participants

Elsewhere, Windows 11 continues to chip away at Windows 10’s lead as 3.41% more participants opted for Microsoft’s latest OS in January, taking its total to 13.56%. Additionally, more than a quarter of people now have 8GB of system RAM as those with 16GB declined.

The survey also reveals that 2.14% of all participants own a VR headset, almost half of which (46.02%) are Oculus Quest 2, now known as Meta Quest, models.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/93286-january-steam-survey-sees-amd-cpus-bounce-back.html

 

[Uncle Al]

The best thing about all of this is that it continues to drive competition with the ultimate winner being the end user!

 

[QuantumPhysics]

Alchemist ARC has entered the ring!!!

 

[MaxSmarties]

And AMD is going to lose more in the next months, considering the ridiculous price of 5600X compared to Intel offering.

 

[NightAntilli]

And AMD is going to lose more in the next months, considering the ridiculous price of 5600X compared to Intel offering.

In a vacuum, the Intel alternative is cheaper, but... What if you account for the difference in motherboard prices?

 

[Sausagemeat]

The best thing about all of this is that it continues to drive competition with the ultimate winner being the end user!

What competition? Nvidia almost have a monopoly at this point. If you read tech websites you would think that there is some kind of dramatic competition between Radeon and GeForce. But the reality as portrayed here is that GeForce is destroying Radeon and are not letting up. This has been going on for years at this point.

I’m hoping Intel can do what AMD couldn’t and challenge a Nvidias dominance. But it’s Intel, I wouldn’t hold my breath.

 

[letsgoiowa]

At what point do we call it what it is and say "monopoly?"

 

[punctualturn]

As for AMD, the Radeon RX 6700 XT is still the only RDNA 2 card in the main chart.

And that tells you how unreliable this thing is.

But hey, if it promotes nvidia, all sites and youtubers will be parroting like the good little drones they are.

 

[HardReset]

Techspot should really make reviews from modern products, not old stuff. GeForce RTX 3050 had 0.30% market share already on October. And Techspot published review just 12 days ago They even call it new product

 

[Sausagemeat]

And that tells you how unreliable this thing is.

But hey, if it promotes nvidia, all sites and youtubers will be parroting like the good little drones they are.

What are you on about? The variance of the survey is highly consistent. Each time it comes out the numbers don’t change much and even represents the changes within the industry. For example before Ryzen AMDs market share on CPUs was tiny, Ryzen released and that changed. The reason why Radeon does so badly is because it’s a bad product that doesnt sell very well.

Of course if you have a credible source of data that proves the steam survey wrong then I’m all ears. But you AMD fans can never produce more than anecdotal evidence at best. You just can’t accept the reality that people overwhelmingly prefer GeForce parts.

 

[HardReset]

What are you on about? The variance of the survey is highly consistent. Each time it comes out the numbers don’t change much and even represents the changes within the industry. For example before Ryzen AMDs market share on CPUs was tiny, Ryzen released and that changed. The reason why Radeon does so badly is because it’s a bad product that doesnt sell very well.

Of course if you have a credible source of data that proves the steam survey wrong then I’m all ears. But you AMD fans can never produce more than anecdotal evidence at best. You just can’t accept the reality that people overwhelmingly prefer GeForce parts.

Basically you say that because Steam survey supports one of your opinions, it also applies to other opinions too.

Your problem is that Steam survey does NOT tell ANYTHING about sales. Absolutely nothing. However many people including me have posted actual sales data that tells quite opposite Steam survey tries to say.

 

[IzzyBAIDJI]

In a vacuum, the Intel alternative is cheaper, but... What if you account for the difference in motherboard prices?

I don't think the prices of entry level B660 are really that bad. There's no doubt that similarly priced B550 offer more features but ultimately an Intel i5 12400 with a B660 is way cheaper than a 5600x with a B550, at least at Microcenter close to where I live.

 

[TeddyBertrand]

1. Steam surveys never reflect what we think, but NORMAL people who play games like PUBG or CSGO and don't give a * about overclock or GPU performance.
2. As a huge fan of AMD, with 5600X and 6800XT, I would have to say Alder Lake is so much better.
3. Based on what I saw and heard back in Intel, the 12th gen might be their last chance. It could severely harm their critical HVM processes that the company has massively replaced experienced workers with younger immigrants. Not to mention their layoff methods were ruthless and in violation of civil rights.
Details are here: https://www.pdx-tie.org/

 

[Puiu]

Basically you say that because Steam survey supports one of your opinions, it also applies to other opinions too.

Your problem is that Steam survey does NOT tell ANYTHING about sales. Absolutely nothing. However many people including me have posted actual sales data that tells quite opposite Steam survey tries to say.

It does? Amazon top 10 is still full of AMD CPUs with only 2 Intel CPUs in the lower half of the top. I think AMD has decent CPU sales, wouldn't you say?

I don't know about 2022 sales, but in 2021 the CPU sales at Mindfactory were about 85% AMD.

 

[Watzupken]

In a vacuum, the Intel alternative is cheaper, but... What if you account for the difference in motherboard prices?

At the higher end, Intel looks cheaper if we look at just the chip price in silo. But when you consider the fact that it needs a good motherboard (assuming DDR4 type to make it easier to compare), the price may be slightly higher than say a Ryzen 9 with a cheap B550 board, even though the Ryzen 9 is more expensive than say its nearest competitor, the i7 12700K/ KF. If one drops to the i7 12700, then the Intel setup will likely be cheaper.
At the low end however, I feel the i5 12400 is a force to be reckoned with for the performance vs price. Plus, you need only to pay for a decent B660 based motherboard. They are not as cheap as an AMD B550 board for sure, but the difference in board cost will be offset by the cheaper i5 12400 as compared to the R5 5600X. I think it is unfortunate that AMD chose this cycle, I.e. Ryzen 6000 series, to not release a new generation chip. So by the time Ryzen 7000 series appears, Intel's Raptor Lake may dull the improvements from the Zen 4 cores. At this point, it is clear that AMD don't have a response to Intel's Alder Lake. The 5800X3D is not exactly going to turn the tide against Intel, and it will not address the performance discrepancy at the lower end CPU offerings as well. If anything, I feel AMD may have to sell the 5800X3D at a paper thin margin, or they may have to increase prices, either ways is not going to help them.

 

[Zeigy]

Intel CPUs are at a better price point than AMD CPUs? Since when? Anyway, the reason I'm going with AMD with my build this year is because when that think conks out I can upgrade my PC without having to throw out the whole motherboard. Intel makes you replace your motherboard every time a new CPU comes out, AMD, not so much. If I didn't have an i5 in my 6 year old pc that just died and it was AMD I would have only had to replace the processor and keep all my other old parts instaed of having to replace chip and motherboard and RAM and whatever else I have to replace for the new motheboard to be compatible with whatever old parts I have left.

 

[HardReset]

It does? Amazon top 10 is still full of AMD CPUs with only 2 Intel CPUs in the lower half of the top. I think AMD has decent CPU sales, wouldn't you say?

I don't know about 2022 sales, but in 2021 the CPU sales at Mindfactory were about 85% AMD.

And according to Steam Survey, Intel has around 70% share. Should be other way around if looking at sales data on past few years.

 

[punctualturn]

For the ones talking about Intel being a better value right now I will add the fact that I already know what Intel does to competition, the industry and ME as a customer when they are on top, so on moral grounds, I refuse to give them any money if AMD or anyone else offers something reasonably similar in performance.

Adding that, the only way I would end up with an Intel system is if they pay me to do it.