Mario Bautista
The latest Steam Hardware Survey for September 2024 is out and it looks like gamers’ tastes in graphics cards are rapidly changing. The survey revealed that the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 is now the second favorite GPU for Steam players, showing a huge 34% percentage increase in market share since the last survey in August, with the RTX 4060 Ti and the laptop version of the RTX 4060 following closely behind.
While the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 and the RTX 4060 Ti are great cards for 1080p gaming, they’re not the very best graphics cards out there, but that’s not the point. Most gamers aren’t running top-spec hardware, and while it’s unlikely that anyone would turn down a brand new Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 for their rig, the Steam Hardware Survey shows more gamers than ever are choosing more budget appropriate options.
What’s interesting here is the rapid change across the Steam GPU leaderboard since August, which showed Steam gamers picking Windows 11 over Windows 10 for the first time. The RTX 4060 was only just inside the top five back then. RTX 30-series cards such as the RTX 3060, RTX 3060 Ti, and RTX 3070 dominated the other positions, alongside the five-year-old GTX 1650 in second place.
Now, though, it’s Nvidia GeForce RTX 4000 cards that are starting to push ahead. The RTX 3060 is still on top, seeing a market share bump upward from 5.51% in August to 5.86% in September. The RTX 4060, meanwhile, jumps from fifth to second, going from 3.41% total share in August to 4.58% in September.
The laptop version of the RTX 4060 is in third, with a 4.37% market share, while the RTX 4060 Ti jumps from 2.90% in August to 3.66% in September, a percentage increase of 26%. The RTX 1650 has dropped from a share of 3.91% to 3.64% in a month, and while it’s no longer second, it’s still a top-five GPU for Steam gamers, at least for now.
Other Nvidia RTX 40-series cards, such as the RTX 4070, saw more modest bumps, but they’re gaining. The RTX 4070 in particular went from a market share of 2.52% in August to 2.91% in September, showing a 15% gain, putting it just outside the top ten.
What we’re now seeing is a very clear trend away from these older and less powerful GPUs to Nvidia’s most recent and more powerful lineup, and the trend looks to be accelerating fast. Nvidia is already gearing up to launch newer, even more powerful graphics cards for your favorite Steam games, but these 40-series RTX cards will likely stick around for a while yet.
You can check out our Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 guide for all the latest rumors on what is almost certainly going to be the best graphics card you can buy when it launches. However, if this Steam survey tells us anything, it’ll be the RTX 5060 (or its equivalent) that most gamers will be picking for their PC when it launches.
