AMD RX 7900 XTX GPU just made it into Steam hardware survey, right at the bottom of the table

AMD's RX 7900 XTX has been out for a long time now, and yet this GPU has only just appeared on the Steam hardware survey - and it's the only RDNA 3 graphics card to achieve this feat.

2

AMD is struggling to make its presence felt with RDNA 3 graphics cards, it would seem (Image Credit: AMD)

In Valve's latest survey for July, the RX 7900 XTX sneaks onto the rankings at the bottom of the table, gaining a 0.17% share in terms of all the GPUs used by Steam gamers. In other words, roughly 1 in 500 gaming rigs have the RDNA 3 flagship.

As noted, no other RX 7000 graphics cards have managed to creep onto the GPU rankings in the survey. Mind you, there aren't many others - just the 7900 XT, and the RX 7600, although the latter is a very new release. Whereas the 7900 XTX and XT have been out since December 2022, so have been around for over seven months now.

NVIDIA's current-gen GPUs haven't done a huge amount better, though, in fairness. The top desktop product for Lovelace is the RTX 4070 Ti, but that has been in the rankings for months now, and has carved out a 0.68% adoption level as of last month.

Overall, AMD's GPU progress looks pretty shaky, and not just with the current generation of graphics cards. As PC Gamer, which spotted this, points out, AMD's discrete graphics cards are used by only 8.68% of Steam gamers - although there is an 'other' category in the rankings. That comprises of 10% of all GPUs, those with a share too small to be counted individually, and this could contain further Team Red offerings.

Even adding those, AMD likely has around a 10% share, compared to NVIDIA holding about 75%.

It's no surprise to see GPU share stack up like this, though, seeing as we get pretty regular market reports from analyst firm Jon Peddie which show much the same picture (with NVIDIA around the 75% mark, although often exceeding the 80% level).

It's really a bit of a shocker that AMD has only just got an RDNA 3 GPU into the Steam survey. Yes, the RX 7900 models are expensive, but the RTX 4090 has a massive premium, and is at 0.65%, with the RTX 4080 also being very pricey, yet sitting on 0.47% for NVIDIA.

Indeed, the RTX 4090 actually went up 0.09% this past month, which is a fair chunk of a gain relative to its share, although of course, we have to regard Valve's survey with a bit of caution. After all, the make-up of the PCs polled changes from month to month, so a little bit of movement doesn't necessarily reflect a GPU becoming more popular, but could instead be down to shifts in the gaming rigs that were included in the survey.

Still, Valve's hardware report remains a useful barometer of GPU popularity, and it's a worryingly stormy picture for AMD. Perhaps the next batch of RDNA 3 launches, which might include the RX 7800 and/or RX 7700, could help to fire up overall adoption to a higher level.