Steam December survey: Maxwell down, Pascal up

[midian182]

The results of the Steam hardware and software survey for December 2016 have been released. They show that while the GTX 970 and GTX 960 remain the two most popular GPUs, all of Nvidia’s Maxwell-based desktop cards have experienced a decrease in user numbers. Pascal GPUs, however, have all increased in popularity.

The GTX 970 is still the most common graphics card among Steam users, a title it has held since knocking Intel’s HD Graphics 4000 off the top spot way back in December 2015. But all of Nvidia’s 900 series desktop cards saw a decline last month, with the 970 dropping by the largest margin – 0.23 percent.

The green team won’t be worried, though; all of its Pascal-based cards increased in popularity during December. The GTX 1060 experienced the 10 series’ biggest jump, and is now sitting in sixth position thanks to its 0.56 percent rise.

As is the case with previous Steam surveys, AMD continues to lag behind its big rival. The red’s highest-ranking GPU, the HD 7900 Series, is the 20^th most popular card on the survey, found in only 1.16 percent of Steam users’ PCs. But things could change once Vega arrives.

Away from graphics cards, Windows 10 (64 bit) continues its domination. Microsoft’s newest OS grew in popularity yet again, this time by 0.44 percent, and is now the OS of choice for 51.14 percent of Steam users. Surprisingly, Windows 7 also had a good December; it’s still found on almost a third of PCs and increased by 0.09 percent last month.

Powerful GPUs and high-resolution monitors may be getting cheaper, but full HD remains the favored resolution. 1920 x 1080 is used by 38.21 percent of people, and actually increased in popularity by 0.15 percent. 1440p, meanwhile, grew by just 0.01 percent and is preferred by just 1.84 percent of Steam users.

Finally, it seems more people are adding larger hard drives to their systems – possibly due to the ever-increasing amount of space demanded by modern games.  Almost 30 percent of Steam users have PCs with more than 1TB of storage, a 0.35 percent increase compared to November 2016.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/67718-steam-december-survey-maxwell-down-pascal-up.html

 

[Kibaruk]

You should change the topic to "Numbers show Maxwell is dead"...

It's funny how W10 and W7 are increasing at the same time (Yet 10 is bigger diff).

 

[Puiu]

You should change the topic to "Numbers show Maxwell is dead"...

It's funny how W10 and W7 are increasing at the same time (Yet 10 is bigger diff).

mostly because there were less Linux and MacOS systems.

On a side-note all of the "next gen" GPUs from Nvidia and AMD saw a nice increase in percentages, but it seems like Nvidia sold around 6 times more Pascal cards compared to Polaris to Steam users since it's launch.

For those wondering about the total gains and loses (hopefully I didn't mess up something):
- AMD gained 0.28%
- Nvidia gained 0.68%
- Intel gained 0.24%
- others lost 1.2%

 

[Bigtruckseries]

I've been completely satisfied by Windows 10 integration with my Titan X 12GB.

I run three 19" monitors and a 50" 4K TV without a hiccup and silently - even under game load.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

I've been completely satisfied by Windows 10 integration with my Titan X 12GB.

I run three 19" monitors and a 50" 4K TV without a hiccup and silently - even under game load.

Last time I looked at one of your chest beating posts, you were trying to impress everyone by telling them you had 2x SLi'D Titan X's each with 12GB Hynix memory xxx base clock, xxx boost clock and a lot of other gumph. What's with the sudden downgrade?

 

[Kibaruk]

Last time I looked at one of your chest beating posts, you were trying to impress everyone by telling them you had 2x SLi'D Titan X's each with 12GB Hynix memory xxx base clock, xxx boost clock and a lot of other gumph. What's with the sudden downgrade?

It smells like... bacon in the morning... something is burning. Wait till you hear about his car and mad razing zkillz.

 

[Forebode]

You should change the topic to "Numbers show Maxwell is dead"...

It's funny how W10 and W7 are increasing at the same time (Yet 10 is bigger diff).

mostly because there were less Linux and MacOS systems.

On a side-note all of the "next gen" GPUs from Nvidia and AMD saw a nice increase in percentages, but it seems like Nvidia sold around 6 times more Pascal cards compared to Polaris to Steam users since it's launch.

For those wondering about the total gains and loses (hopefully I didn't mess up something):
- AMD gained 0.28%
- Nvidia gained 0.68%
- Intel gained 0.24%
- others lost 1.2%

well, there could be the same amount of mac/linux users. New users could have joined with win10/7 systems. We'd hope that those running older OS's were upgrading or converting, but the percentage change doesn't necessarily support it unless actual values were offered up.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

You should change the topic to "Numbers show Maxwell is dead"...

It's funny how W10 and W7 are increasing at the same time (Yet 10 is bigger diff).

mostly because there were less Linux and MacOS systems.

On a side-note all of the "next gen" GPUs from Nvidia and AMD saw a nice increase in percentages, but it seems like Nvidia sold around 6 times more Pascal cards compared to Polaris to Steam users since it's launch.

For those wondering about the total gains and loses (hopefully I didn't mess up something):
- AMD gained 0.28%
- Nvidia gained 0.68%
- Intel gained 0.24%
- others lost 1.2%

well, there could be the same amount of mac/linux users. New users could have joined with win10/7 systems. We'd hope that those running older OS's were upgrading or converting, but the percentage change doesn't necessarily support it unless actual values were offered up.

gamingonlinux has stated a few times that the number of linux users has been continuously increasing, its just that windows is growing faster.
I doubt this month was different then previous months.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

I've been completely satisfied by Windows 10 integration with my Titan X 12GB.

I run three 19" monitors and a 50" 4K TV without a hiccup and silently - even under game load.

Last time I looked at one of your chest beating posts, you were trying to impress everyone by telling them you had 2x SLi'D Titan X's each with 12GB Hynix memory xxx base clock, xxx boost clock and a lot of other gumph. What's with the sudden downgrade?

he had to sell one so he could pay rent to his mother for the month.

 

[OcelotRex]

Where's the mainstream AMD cards (RX 470 - 480)? From what I've read in these forums they're selling as well as the GTX 1060 and 1070 while being cheaper and faster (well not the 1070, just a better value).

People just must love paying for overpriced team green gear.

/s

 

[Evernessince]

Where's the mainstream AMD cards (RX 470 - 480)? From what I've read in these forums they're selling as well as the GTX 1060 and 1070 while being cheaper and faster (well not the 1070, just a better value).

People just must love paying for overpriced team green gear.

/s

You answered your own question. People buy Nvidia simply because it's Nvidia. It's called Mindshare and Nvidia dominates AMD on that subject. While enthusiasts might recommend AMD cards at certain price points because they know it's a better value, there are many people who just pickup video cards without informing themselves. It's why you see Nvidia cards just good enough for the now, so they get the customer as much performance in current titles and force the customer to upgrade when that 3.5 GB of RAM isn't good enough a year later.

Look at the chart, the 7900 series is right before AMD fell into financial troubles and could only produce one new card in the 200 series and one in the 300 series. All that while Nvidia made massive strides in their cards.

 

[Squid Surprise]

I've been completely satisfied by Windows 10 integration with my Titan X 12GB.

I run three 19" monitors and a 50" 4K TV without a hiccup and silently - even under game load.

You're running 19" monitors?!?!?! Yet you paid for a Titan X?

I have 3 Titan X cards (Maxwell 12GB) and I run 3 27" monitors... and connect to a 50" TV for when the wife and I are watching movies

 

[OcelotRex]

People buy Nvidia simply because it's Nvidia.

It's why you see Nvidia cards just good enough for the now, so they get the customer as much performance in current titles and force the customer to upgrade when that 3.5 GB of RAM isn't good enough a year later.

My post was sarcasm. People buy the best performing cards at the price they can afford.

I love the conspiracy theorists who believe Nvidia and Intel purposefully hold back progress because of "lack of competition." While competition can spur progress forward at faster rates that does not mean either company is acting nefariously.

Moreover the process to bring new processors and GPUs to market takes years to develop. They can't just drop a new card/processor out in a month in response to competition.

 

[lripplinger]

Steam's survey is interesting because it shows where the market is, at least on Steam anyway. Most people including myself are happy with mid-range graphics cards (I am using a GTX 1060 myself). I also find it interesting that even though the GTX 970 had the 3.5GB/4GB VRAM mess, it is still the most popular GPU?

 

[pencea]

Using steam to gauge is the equivalent of smartphone users using Geekbench to compare performance against desktopp CPU's.

 

[qking]

I still have mine. Got 2x 970s in there and they go like the clappers for my use. But next time round will def be a single card / multi gpu approach.

 

[Darth Shiv]

That is a pretty stunning picture really. I wouldn't have dreamt that NV would be dominating the charts so much. Really puts *enormous* pressure on AMD to deliver. Here's hoping there is some competition.

One thing that would be nice is if AMD APUs can clean out that Intel integrated rubbish.

 

[commanderasus]

Survey says "It really does not matter what people are buying, as long as they are buying. I just replaced my old GTX 580 with a Asus Expedition 1050. For what I do it is just fine for my needs. People buy what suits their needs and budget. And you are only looking at a tiny slice of the pc buyers market with steam numbers.

 

[captaincranky]

First, are Intel HD Graphics 4000 really the 4th most popular, (or 4th most used), GPU on Steam...? I'm flabbergasted, amazed and confused about that..

Second, to illustrate how acute my shopping skills are, I specifically bought an Ivy Bridge i3-3225 because of the upgrade GPU it contains, the HD 4000 package.

Second, er I mean third, when I came to grips with the fact I wouldn't touch Windows 10 with any of your 10 foot poles, I decided to try and turn the rig into "a real computer", buy buying and installing an EVGA GTX-750 ti. Sometimes it amazes me just how being extremely cheap, can hone one's shopping skills to a very fine point.....Er, if I do so so myself....

 

[Adhmuz]

You answered your own question. People buy Nvidia simply because it's Nvidia. It's called Mindshare and Nvidia dominates AMD on that subject. While enthusiasts might recommend AMD cards at certain price points because they know it's a better value, there are many people who just pickup video cards without informing themselves. It's why you see Nvidia cards just good enough for the now, so they get the customer as much performance in current titles and force the customer to upgrade when that 3.5 GB of RAM isn't good enough a year later.

The pipe dream people are living in and want to manifest to those around them is absolutely uncanny, oh wait, right Because Future Proof, because games just suddenly stop working on previous generation Nvidia hardware and they cripple them through drivers and blah, blah, 3.5GB VRAM, blah, blah... This horse your trying to beat, no one cares, the market has spoken, get over it.

 

[Evernessince]

The pipe dream people are living in and want to manifest to those around them is absolutely uncanny, oh wait, right Because Future Proof, because games just suddenly stop working on previous generation Nvidia hardware and they cripple them through drivers and blah, blah, 3.5GB VRAM, blah, blah... This horse your trying to beat, no one cares, the market has spoken, get over it.

I never said anything about Nvidia crippling drivers...

"This horse your trying to beat, no one cares, the market has spoken, get over it."

It sounds to me like your projecting. You came here and put words into my mouth all to criticize something I never said. On what I actually did say, God forbid I state an observation that is generally supported by the PC community at large

"the market has spoken"

Yes, because selling more of a product suddenly makes it's flaws go away. Hm, I seem to remember a GTX 970 class action so obviously MANY people care. Not to mention the fact that I could simply point out Call of Duty as an obvious break to your "rule". Just because something sells doesn't mean it it's issues suddenly go away.

 

[OcelotRex]

On what I actually did say, God forbid I state an observation that is generally supported by the PC community at large

The entire premise of that video (that AMD Cards "age like fine wine") is contradicted by *important note* at the end:

"LAUNCH DAY DRIVERS ARE IMPORTANT!"

While one interpretation is that the cards became better over time it's more clear to me that the cards were released in a poorly optimized state and their full performance took years to unlock. By the time the 7970 reached full potential in 2015 according to the video one could purchase the GTX 970 with 30% more performance at 1080p than the 680 or the 7970: