What just happened? Some people thought the latest Steam survey would be the one where AMD finally overtook Intel in the CPU section. But January turned out to be the first time since August 2025 that Team Blue gained processor share while AMD's declined. Valve also revealed that last month's best-performing GPU was the RTX 5060, and the first RDNA 4 card has entered the chart.
AMD hit a record CPU share in the Steam hardware and software survey in December. The 43.53% (a figure that had been higher before Valve corrected it) of participants with Team Red processors in their devices meant AMD was closer than ever to passing the 50% milestone and overtaking Intel.
But January proved to be only the fourth time in twelve months that AMD's CPU share fell while Intel's increased. The good news for Lisa Su is that the fall was only small – down just 0.19%. That leaves AMD on 43.34% and Intel on 56.64%.
Assuming this is just a one-off involving small figures, which it likely is, AMD is still expected to take the CPU lead in the Steam survey at some point this year. Its processors hold 17 of the top 20 best-selling CPUs on Amazon.com – Intel's highest entry is the 12600K at 16 – and it's a similar story across international markets.
Elsewhere on the survey, the long-running trend of the RTX 3060, RTX 4060, and RTX 4060 Laptop constantly swapping places at the top of the GPU section continued. December saw the RTX 3060 take the top spot; January was the RTX 4060's turn.
More interesting is the month's best-performing GPUs. The RTX 5060 dominated in January with a 0.72% increase. The Blackwell mid-range entry is now eighth most-popular on the main chart, though another card from Nvidia's newest series, the RTX 5070, which sits in fifth place, is more popular.
January also marked the arrival of AMD's Radeon RX 9070 in the GPU section. The card was released back in March 2025 and is the only RDNA 4 card in the main chart.
Overall, 73% of GPUs in the survey are from Nvidia, 18% are from AMD, and almost 8% are from Intel (including integrated graphics).
Elsewhere on the chart, Windows 10's user share increased more than Windows 11's in January. Passing its end-of-support date last year hasn't stopped 27% of participants holding on to the older OS. And despite Valve ending support for Windows 7, 0.08% of people still use the 2009 release.
The Steam survey also shows that some people can still afford RAM. 32GB was the only amount to increase among participants in January. 16GB remains most popular, but only by 2%, so 32GB will likely take the top spot soon.
