The March 2024 Steam Hardware & Software Survey results are now available, and the data shows that the GeForce RTX 3060 is still the most popular GPU among Steam gamers. The card's share increased dramatically in March, with 6.71% (+0.71%) of PC gamers using this mainstream Ampere card.
What about the current generation of GPUs? The GeForce RTX 40 series, the Radeon RX 7000 series and Intel's first generation of Arc graphics cards. While we've seen new models and variants launch, most recently with the SUPER update from NVIDIA and the Radeon RX 7900 GRE global reboot from AMD, we're now well over a year into this generation. Now is as good a time as any to take stock and see which cards are popular and which aren't.
So let's examine some trends, starting with the current generation of GPUs, with the GeForce RTX 4060 and GeForce RTX 4070 being the most popular new cards. The results of the Steam Hardware & Software Survey can fluctuate, but they provide an accurate overview of what gamers prefer to play with. For the first time, GeForce RTX 4060 and GeForce RTX 4070 have made the jump to the top ten list of the most popular graphics cards for PC gamers and active Steam users.
NVIDIA dominates this area with 78% of the total GPU market share, with AMD in second place with 14.64%. The GeForce RTX 4060 Ti is also popular and is on the top-20 list, followed by the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti. The only Radeon RX 7000 series graphics card listed and not included in the "Other" category is the Radeon RX 7900 XTX. And it's quite far down the list, well below the GeForce RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 non-SUPER.
This means that everything from the mainstream Radeon RX 7600 to the mid-range Radeon RX 7700 XT and 7800 XT are not represented. Compared to RDNA 3, most RDNA 2 cards make the list and the most popular discrete Radeon GPU is the aging Radeon RX 580. This is also not a surprise as NVIDIA's aging GeForce RTX 1060 is still in the top ten list .
The Radeon RX 6700 XT is the popular Radeon GPU that can still be purchased brand new in most markets. But with the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER listed and all non-SUPER 40 series GPUs present, it paints a picture of PC gamers choosing NVIDIA, Ada Lovelace and GeForce over the competition.
Now it will be interesting to see how this develops with AMD and Intel preparing for RDNA 4 and next generation Arc Battlemage launches later this year.
1080p is still the dominant resolution among PC gamers, with 58.45% of Steam users using 1920 x 1080 monitors. But 1440p displays still show the biggest increase, with a market share of 19.86%. This fits with the growth seen with GPUs perfect for 1440p gaming (GeForce RTX 4070) and the rise in quality and affordable 1440p displays from the major display manufacturers.
A month-on-month increase of +0.87% is also huge, so it wouldn't surprise us if 1440p displays break the 20% mark this month.
Valve Index is still very popular among PC gamers, but when it comes to SteamVR, Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest 3 rule the roost. They account for over 50% of the VR headset market share, while brands/models like HTC Vive and Pico behind older Oculus headsets like the Rift S. Most still consider VR gaming to be a niche on PC and consoles, but it can still deliver immersive experiences like nothing else.
It will be interesting to see how the PlayStation VR2 fares, as Sony will be adding full PC support to the headset sometime this year. Even now, in March 2024, Windows 10 is still the dominant operating system - even among PC gamers. But since PC gamers tend to adopt new software faster than most PC users, the split is much closer than in other PC sectors. According to the latest Steam data, 54.40% of Windows users are running Windows 10, and 41.61% are running Windows 11.