News Nvidia's RTX 4080, 4070 Ti Finally Arrive in the Steam Hardware Survey

[Admin]

The latest Steam Hardware Survey shows various movements in the graphics card rankings.

Nvidia's RTX 4080, 4070 Ti Finally Arrive in the Steam Hardware Survey : Read more

 

[PlaneInTheSky]

The four-year-old GeForce GTX 1650 (Turing) is still the most prevalent graphics card for Steam gamers.

The average PC gamer basically has a system that has the performance of a PS4 from 2013.

And it is clear most PC gamers can not afford a full system upgrade that would rival a PS4 Pro, let alone a PS5. Not only is the 1650 still the most popular PC GPU, the 1060 3GB and 1050Ti are still extremely popular too.

You can basically argue that the majority of PC gamers have stopped upgrading or switched to consoles. The remaining PC gamers likely play indie games now, or older less demanding titles that still run on their systems, you can clearly see this from game sales figures.

The fact so many PC gamers run very old hardware, has to do with Nvidia and AMD's outrageous GPU prices.

This cost is also related to the fact that PC don't have a unified architecture like consoles and ARM have. When a PC gamer buys a GPU, they are buying a second PC. GPU on PC have their own controllers, memory pool, power management, cooling, etc. That drives up the cost like crazy for PC, the GPU alone costs as much as a console. Managing 2 different memory pools also introduces lots of performance bottlenecks along the way, where PC can't load assets into video memory as fast as consoles. PC bandaids like DirectStorage need to be introduced, yet PC games continue to struggle with stuttering.

PC gaming is really in shambles right now. You have the outrageous cost of GPU, tons of PC gamers who can't afford upgrades, the shader compile stuttering on PC, asset load stuttering from a lack of unified memory, developers that don't care about the platform and release horrible ports, etc.

 

[tamalero]

The average PC gamer basically has a system that has the performance of a PS4 from 2013.

And it is clear most PC gamers can not afford a full system upgrade that would rival a PS4 Pro, let alone a PS5. Not only is the 1650 still the most popular PC GPU, the 1060 3GB and 1050Ti are still extremely popular too.

You can basically argue that the majority of PC gamers have stopped upgrading or switched to consoles. The remaining PC gamers likely play indie games now, or older less demanding titles that still run on their systems, you can clearly see this from game sales figures.

The fact so many PC gamers run very old hardware, has to do with Nvidia and AMD's outrageous GPU prices.

This cost is also related to the fact that PC don't have a unified architecture like consoles and ARM have. When a PC gamer buys a GPU, they are buying a second PC. GPU on PC have their own controllers, memory pool, power management, cooling, etc. That drives up the cost like crazy for PC, the GPU alone costs as much as a console. Managing 2 different memory pools also introduces lots of performance bottlenecks along the way, where PC can't load assets into video memory as fast as consoles. PC bandaids like DirectStorage need to be introduced, yet PC games continue to struggle with stuttering.

PC gaming is really in shambles right now. You have the outrageous cost of GPU, tons of PC gamers who can't afford upgrades, the shader compile stuttering on PC, asset load stuttering from a lack of unified memory, developers that don't care about the platform and release horrible ports, etc.

I actually wonder the distribution per country.
Would EURO, ASIA and NA nations have much higher end videocards?

 

[SunMaster]

I think maybe "Moore's Law is Dead" is onto something. There is a humongous number of gaming/internet cafes in Asia. They keep getting logged on with new users all the time, skewing the percentages.

He talks about it here

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5lELVqb_J0&t=180s

 

[P1nky]

I think maybe "Moore's Law is Dead" is onto something. There is a humongous number of gaming/internet cafes in Asia. They keep getting logged on with new users all the time, skewing the percentages.

This is one of those myths that doesn't want to die. Yes, there was a problem with overcounting machines from internet cafes, but Valve fixed that in 2018!

 

[renz496]

And it is clear most PC gamers can not afford a full system upgrade that would rival a PS4 Pro, let alone a PS5.

i don't think so. some people have the money even to buy the highest end hardware but PC gaming is all about flexibility. for some people what's important is they can play the game. you don't need high end rig to do that nor 4k monitor

You can basically argue that the majority of PC gamers have stopped upgrading or switched to consoles. The remaining PC gamers likely play indie games now, or older less demanding titles that still run on their systems, you can clearly see this from game sales figures.

i don't know why you came with such conclusion. just because you see many people complaining about it on the internet meaning that is the stand of majority of people out there. like we saw the kind of hate nvidia get on the internet for the past 20 years and yet their market share keep getting higher instead of lower. and if you look at nvidia the most recent financial which is not affected by crypto their gaming revenue actually end up being much better than they had in late 2019 (which also not being affected by crypto). if pc gamer play more indie games right now it is not because their rig are completely incapable of playing triple A games but more like triple A games that coming out are not really that exciting. that's why we have lots of remake now.

The fact so many PC gamers run very old hardware, has to do with Nvidia and AMD's outrageous GPU prices.

this probably only true for those that like to upgrade often. but this is not the primary reason why many pc gamer still use their older hardware. happen personally to me before where i think there is no point buying newer stuff when the hardware i got at the time provide me enough good experience. that's why i end up holding to my 2500K for 7 years. my GTX970 i did not feel the need to upgrade until i run horizon zero dawn on it. 1650 end up being the most popular GPU right now on stream should be a proof that price is not really the factor why people did not upgrade.

PC gaming is really in shambles right now

not the case at all.

 

[SunMaster]

PC gaming is really in shambles right now.

I don't think it is, it's just people are cautious with upgrading. The majority of users don't want nor need a high end system. I upgraded my system to a 5950x system 18 months ago. Well aware am4 was at the end of its life I got a new Gigabyte Aorus Master x570 for less than $300. I bought a 2nd hand 6900xt (and a 2nd hand 3090 for my son) in september. I was upgrading hardware from 2015. My old rtx 970 from 2015 had no problems running aaa titles like elden ring or Horizon Zero Dawn, but I was not happy with framerate nor details.

The fact that pc systems more evolve instead of revolutionize itself every 2nd year like it did in the 90s make a PC more viable for a long run than in the past. Most PCs can have their ram upgraded if needed, or add storage or even upgrade their CPUs - for a (relative small) cost. By the time you want/need an upgrade you can buy cheap used components.

Just because everyone and his mother don't build new high end systems every 3rd year, like they perhaps did in the past, doesn't mean PC gaming is in shambles.

It could be though, over time, if the current pricelevel on GPUs and motherboards are the new standard.

 

[hannibal]

My GPU is tree years old now and no need to upgrade for at least tree more years!
PC gaming is doing just fine! 1060 is rather good gaming GPU still, so why upgrade? When it does not work anymore, then it may be time to upgrade to something like AMD 6400 and Nvidia 2060.
The point is PC gaming does not need expensive GPU. PC gamer may want to have one, but that is very different thing!
And even at current prices Nvidia 4000 series is selling. Not as well as when there were corona epidemic and crypto currency was havoking everything, but the gpus are not selling badly. The companies were just not considering that crypto booom would end (again) and most people allready did have GPU good enough. Nobody should buy $2500+ GPUs and still those are selling.
PC gaming is doing fine, it is doing very fine actually. 6 years old GPU is good enough for gaming, peoples has hundred of games in Steam (that they have no time to play).
If luxyry GPUs like 4070ti and above are expensive. Nobody forces to buy those. And as I did say. Even those sell well enough.