News AMD CPUs surpass the 40% threshold in latest Steam hardware survey — RTX 5070 emerges as the most preferred GPU within the Blackwell series

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Intel’s lead shrinks as gamers increasingly embrace AMD’s 3D V-Cache CPUs

AMD CPUs surpass the 40% threshold in latest Steam hardware survey — RTX 5070 emerges as the most preferred GPU within the Blackwell series : Read more

 

[ottonis]

I wonder why it took AMD CPUs so long to gain the gaming market share they achieved now. After all, since 2019, AMD has always had an advantage in price to performance ratio and was always the better pick for gaming oriented PCs, especially when on a budget.
So, either AMD didn't deliver as many SKUs as they could sell, or there were still those old Intel tactics at play, bribing or even extorting large OEMs and sellers to favor Intel over AMD.

 

[ezst036]

Linux approaching 3% at Steam, very cool.

 

[Amdlova]

AMD slow adoption is because the compatibility issues.
Intel other hand works with everything from 386 to a 14 gen cpu.
The gaming market is a very tiny portion of the market
I'am x86 slave... But I really wan't to step down to ARM device
Waiting for the Nvidia with the N1X or other brand =)

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

AMD slow adoption is because the compatibility issues.
Intel other hand works with everything from 386 to a 14 gen cpu.
The gaming market is a very tiny portion of the market
I'am x86 slave... But I really wan't to step down to ARM device
Waiting for the Nvidia with the N1X or other brand =)

Don't leave us.
Team x86 is 4 Life!

 

[TerryLaze]

I wonder why it took AMD CPUs so long to gain the gaming market share they achieved now. After all, since 2019, AMD has always had an advantage in price to performance ratio and was always the better pick for gaming oriented PCs, especially when on a budget.
So, either AMD didn't deliver as many SKUs as they could sell, or there were still those old Intel tactics at play, bribing or even extorting large OEMs and sellers to favor Intel over AMD.

Lol no!
The only reason amd cpus increased is the steamdeck and the subsequent rise of all the other gaming handhelds.
You can look this up if you click for details, 60% of that whole 60% is running linux and only ~40% is running windows, without that linux part amd would still be pretty low.

Steam Hardware & Software Survey

 

[ottonis]

Lol no!
The only reason amd cpus increased is the steamdeck and the subsequent rise of all the other gaming handhelds.
You can look this up if you click for details, 60% of that whole 60% is running linux and only ~40% is running windows, without that linux part amd would still be pretty low.

Steam Hardware & Software Survey

Thanks! Now I am even more confused. Why would AMD on Windows have so low counts when it's been the more sensible choice for gaming for more than 5 years?

 

[stuff and nonesense]

I wonder why it took AMD CPUs so long to gain the gaming market share they achieved now. After all, since 2019, AMD has always had an advantage in price to performance ratio and was always the better pick for gaming oriented PCs, especially when on a budget.
So, either AMD didn't deliver as many SKUs as they could sell, or there were still those old Intel tactics at play, bribing or even extorting large OEMs and sellers to favor Intel over AMD.

Inertia, people don’t always go out and buy the latest and greatest (from whoever) straight away and AMD had to establish themselves as a good alternative. There will have been 8000, 9000, 10000, a few 11000 series CPUs still in use slowly trickling away as the 12/13/14000 series Intel stuff replaced some of those CPUs. Some people will have actively chosen to go to AMD as the 11000 and earlier chips became less attractive.
(I hate the term) Enthusiasts will have looked up their CPU choices on reputable sites and some will have jumped ship to AMD in the light of the 13 and 14000 series degradation debacle.

Steam deck may have contributed to some degree, though I don’t know anyone who has bought one.

 

[Notton]

I wonder why it took AMD CPUs so long to gain the gaming market share they achieved now.

Because AMD is AMD and doesn't produce enough CPUs or GPUs to match what the OEMs want.
Dell, HP, Lenovo, Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, Acer, etc. are all around 90~95% Intel CPU based builds.

That and most people don't buy a new gaming PC every year.
But it's actually a lot better for AMD than the numbers indicate, and damning for Intel.
Intel was dominating and had 80% share on steam survey for years and it's evaporated within 6 years.

Steam survey AMD CPU share.
2016: 20%
2017: 19%
2018: 16%
2019: 20%
2020: 26%
2021: 30%
2022: 34%
2023: 34%
2024: 37%
2025: 40%

 

[Neilbob]

Lol no!
The only reason amd cpus increased is the steamdeck and the subsequent rise of all the other gaming handhelds.
You can look this up if you click for details, 60% of that whole 60% is running linux and only ~40% is running windows, without that linux part amd would still be pretty low.

Steam Hardware & Software Survey

This post legitimately made my head hurt. It makes no sense.

Imagine the whole survey was performed with just 1,000 systems. Based solely on the numbers, Linux usage at below 3% of the total (which includes the Steam Deck, remember), would be less than 30 systems.: about 18 (60%) of those would be AMD. MacOS would account for about 20. The remaining 950-ish would be Windows, and approximately 380 of those would be AMD with the other 570 being Intel. I really really doubt there are enough handheld systems represented to significantly heighten AMDs numbers here.

However you try and skew the numbers, the overall 40% AMD 60% Intel is roughly accurate (as much as the highly variable Steam survey can be).

My own comment made my head hurt.

 

[King_V]

AMD slow adoption is because the compatibility issues.
Intel other hand works with everything from 386 to a 14 gen cpu.
The gaming market is a very tiny portion of the market
I'am x86 slave... But I really wan't to step down to ARM device
Waiting for the Nvidia with the N1X or other brand =)

What compatibility issues? Please cite sources.

 

[TerryLaze]

Thanks! Now I am even more confused. Why would AMD on Windows have so low counts when it's been the more sensible choice for gaming for more than 5 years?

Because they are not MORE sensible, look at the gpus people have, 2 out of the top 20 are amd igpus, another two are intel igpus and the rest are x50-x60-x70 level gpus, these GPUs can be used with any crap CPU no matter how old.
Reading all the click bait articles you would think that you can only properly game with an x3d chip but nobody (extremely small number) uses a GPU that would make any difference.

Steam Hardware & Software Survey

 

[TerryLaze]

This post legitimately made my head hurt. It makes no sense.

Imagine the whole survey was performed with just 1,000 systems. Based solely on the numbers, Linux usage at below 3% of the total (which includes the Steam Deck, remember), would be less than 30 systems.: about 18 (60%) of those would be AMD. MacOS would account for about 20. The remaining 950-ish would be Windows, and approximately 380 of those would be AMD with the other 570 being Intel. I really really doubt there are enough handheld systems represented to significantly heighten AMDs numbers here.

However you try and skew the numbers, the overall 40% AMD 60% Intel is roughly accurate (as much as the highly variable Steam survey can be).

My own comment made my head hurt.

Hey, I didn't upload these numbers....
I'm just saying what the numbers show.
You explain why they show 60% linux usage on amd then.

EDIT:
ALSO, it may be that the OS percentage only shows native linux gaming, steamos and bazzite and the others do use windows, and windows executables, to run the games.

 

[Jabberwocky79]

I know this was an article about CPUs, but looking at the GPU data, something's got to be broken... There's no way that more people out there bought and are gaming with a 5090 than a 9070... Something's not right about these GPU surveys.

 

[usertests]

When 64 GB DDR5 drops below $1.50/GB, jump on that bandwagon.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

Not surprising it took this long. If you had even an i7 8th gen intel cpu or higher and maybe a mid range gpu, you likely didn’t feel a need to replace it until recently or unless your pc kicked the bucket. Not everyone upgrades every year, so even though AMD has picked up their game, as older intel PCs die off, the market change may just be reflecting those who are making their way to AMD now.

 

[fatalshot808]

Lol no!
The only reason amd cpus increased is the steamdeck and the subsequent rise of all the other gaming handhelds.
You can look this up if you click for details, 60% of that whole 60% is running linux and only ~40% is running windows, without that linux part amd would still be pretty low.

Steam Hardware & Software Survey

Wrong. The steam deck is one of the more popular gaming hand held. In total it has sold roughly 4 million units., ASUSs handhelds last sales figure listed was 500,000 total units. In 2023 there was a total of 241 million PCs sold. Even if a fraction of those are gamers it far surpasses the steam deck figure.

The top 9 best selling CPUs on Amazon are AMD and 10th place is Intel. 8 out of the top 10 CPUs on Newegg are AMD.

Not sure why you think a minority market of the gaming division is responsible for it.

 

[Neilbob]

Hey, I didn't upload these numbers....
I'm just saying what the numbers show.
You explain why they show 60% linux usage on amd then.

EDIT:
ALSO, it may be that the OS percentage only shows native linux gaming, steamos and bazzite and the others do use windows, and windows executables, to run the games.

I've had a bit of sleep, and can look at my numbers with somewhat fresh eyes. And I stand by the numbers!

I never denied AMD usage under Linux is over 60%. I even said it myself. But Linux overall represents LESS THAN 3% of the whole figures. The idea that Windows executables on SteamOS are affecting the balance are a rationalisation, and you know it. I don't think they are, and even sales of the Steam Deck, arguably the highest selling handheld, haven't pushed the Linux numbers all that high. The rest are almost entirely Windows, and over 40% of those are also AMD.

Besides all else, your claim that handhelds are accountable for a large portion of these figures carries no weight, because guess what, these also all use Radeon graphics. And lets have a look at the GPU usage figures; yup, AMD Radeon Graphics have been almost flat for a VERY long time now.

AMD CPUs have very slowly but steadily been increasing almost from the moment the first Ryzen was launched 8 years ago. There have been no sudden jumps because of the Steam Deck or other handhelds. If there had been, Radeon would have as well.

Everyone understands that you excessively carry a flag for Intel, but all your denials and false justifications can't change the basic facts.

 

[TerryLaze]

I never denied AMD usage under Linux is over 60%. I even said it myself. But Linux overall represents LESS THAN 3% of the whole figures. The idea that Windows executables on SteamOS are affecting the balance are a rationalisation, and you know it.

There is a native linux steam and the steamos steam which is windows steam...
If they only count native steam as linux then it makes all the sense in the world.

Everyone understands that you excessively carry a flag for Intel, but all your denials and false justifications can't change the basic facts.

Yeah, ok, sure.
But you still failed to give your own false justification on why 60% + of AMD cpus are on linux...
It's not enough to say "you are wrong" you have to come up with a better explanation than the one you oppose.

 

[Neilbob]

But you still failed to give your own false justification on why 60% + of AMD cpus are on linux...
It's not enough to say "you are wrong" you have to come up with a better explanation than the one you oppose.

I honestly don't understand the issue here. (Less than) 3% of all surveyed systems are Linux. 60%+ of those systems happen just to be using AMD. Many of those systems are quite possibly Steam Decks, and Linux users in general have long favoured AMD over Intel, presumably because AMD have been a bit more open-source friendly and Linux systems tend more towards DIY than pre-built?

I don't know, for crying out loud. It has been this way for a long time.

 

[DWebOscar]

For me personally, I was affected by the 13th gen degredation. I was clinging on due to some external thunderbolt audio hardware, but this pushed me to finally move everything to USB.

It's going to take a lot to get me back on the blue team.

 

[Moores_Ghost]

I wonder why it took AMD CPUs so long to gain the gaming market share they achieved now. After all, since 2019, AMD has always had an advantage in price to performance ratio and was always the better pick for gaming oriented PCs, especially when on a budget.
So, either AMD didn't deliver as many SKUs as they could sell, or there were still those old Intel tactics at play, bribing or even extorting large OEMs and sellers to favor Intel over AMD.

AMD has had the best gaming chips several times. 286, Athlon, Athlon 64, Athlon 64x2, Zen 3 and 5. Zen 4 with an honorable mention. Problem is AMD stopped offering them at lower price points and the chips that us the US TSMC nodes are on track to be 5%-20% higher in price which makes zero sense. TSMC announced its US fabs to be 5%-20% costlier but "Worth it". How Su can justify raising prices based on TSMC literally doesn't add up. Price gouging incoming.

 

[palladin9479]

AMDs growth is slow because contrary to what tech enthusiasts believe, most computers are bought through OEMs like Dell and HP. Those companies have large supply contracts with Intel and nVidia with AMD being a smaller vendor.

Who do you guys think is buying all those xx50 and xx60 GPUS?

 

[palladin9479]

I honestly don't understand the issue here. (Less than) 3% of all surveyed systems are Linux. 60%+ of those systems happen just to be using AMD. Many of those systems are quite possibly Steam Decks, and Linux users in general have long favoured AMD over Intel, presumably because AMD have been a bit more open-source friendly and Linux systems tend more towards DIY than pre-built?

I don't know, for crying out loud. It has been this way for a long time.

No possibility about it, those Linux systems are majority Steam Deck cause Valve.

 

[Penzi]

The thing to keep in mind is that this does not represent gaming PCs, it represents all PCs running Steam that took part in the survey. That means everyone who runs Steam, even if it’s for only one game (I know some of those folks, including my best friend), and chooses to be counted, is part of the survey. Such as an accountant whose sole computer crunches Excel on the job and Bastion in the evening. That could include people like my uncle, whose main computer is nearly twenty years old. (It doesn’t; I doubt he’d know what to do if confronted by solitaire). It also includes people from substantially less wealthy parts of the world.

It includes me, who has an Intel NUC that gets included when I’m at its location or my 5800X with RTX4070 when I’m at home. The survey could, very rarely, include both systems in a month, either/or, or neither…

It also includes my friend who’s stuck on a GTX1070 laptop due to geography and income.

Long story short: the survey is a cross section of an incredibly heterogeneous mix of a slice of all societies and shouldn’t be taken too seriously, certainly not by the “I only play the most recent” Call of Duty crowd.