It goes without saying that the current state of PC gaming hardware is less than ideal. Due to the ongoing memory shortage, GPU, SSD, and RAM pricing is all over the place. A quick search on PCPartPicker shows that the average price of an RTX 5070 is around $850, with many models near the $1,000 mark, despite an MSRP of $550.
So, it is a surprise to see the mid-range RTX 5070 currently hold the top spot in Steam's September Hardware Survey, with a market share of 5.86% of surveyed systems, up from 3.56% in August.
Usually, we'd see NVIDIA's RTX 60-class cards at the top of these hardware survey charts. In fact, for a long time, the RTX 3060 had cemented its position as the most popular choice among gamers. The RTX 5070's position is different from this usual cadence.
- Read more: More PC gamers are using GPUs with 16GB of VRAM than 8GB, according to the latest Steam data
- Read more: NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU is the most-used GPU on the Steam Hardware Survey
- Read more: AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT outsells entire combined NVIDIA RTX 50 series GPUs at German retailer
Nonetheless, the 60-class cards from the RTX 50 series aren't far behind, sitting in second and third place, with the GeForce RTX 5060 holding a 4.20% market share and the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti close behind at 3.87%. The older RTX 4060 remains popular at 3.72%.
Another interesting change is in system RAM. 32GB of RAM seems to be the most popular configuration now, with a market share of 42.22%, up 4.77% from last month. 16GB kits are still popular, of course, holding a market share of 37.82%.
So are people really upgrading to better-equipped mid-range systems without worrying about the inflated prices? It's a hard question to answer, especially since Steam's Hardware Survey uses a random opt-in system. Because it is random, sampling bias is possible. For example, if a massive wave of players in a specific region accepts the survey that month, the global data can skew heavily toward their specific hardware.
Story Q&A
Powered by TweakBot
From TweakTown's coverage of this story.
How can Steam's opt-in Hardware Survey sampling affect the reliability of the RTX 5070's reported lead?
How does 32GB of RAM affect gaming compared with 16GB on a system with an RTX 5070?
Want something else? Ask TweakBot.
Still, the Hardware Survey does paint a somewhat clear picture of just how popular the RTX 5070 appears to be. AMD's Radeon RX 9070 XT still appears underrepresented in the survey, at only 1.35% market share. It is still more popular than the budget-focused RX 9060 XT, at 0.73% market share. This could suggest that some gamers are buying more mid-range hardware to avoid upgrading again for a couple of years.
