Steam just released its monthly hardware survey, and there are a few noteworthy trends worth commenting on. While the majority of Steam users have 16GB of RAM (47.08%), a good number are quickly migrating to 32GB. Users with 32GB are still a far second at 28.72%, but this number jumped by 0.63% compared to the previous month — the largest growth in any of the RAM configurations Steam lists.
On the other hand, 16GB systems saw a massive 1.18% drop. This is a curious development, especially as Microsoft set 16GB as its default requirement for AI PCs. However, it could be just the case of many users upgrading their 16GB PCs to 32GB (or beyond). Nevertheless, considering the other percentage changes, 0.78% of 16GB PC users upgraded their RAM to something higher, while the remaining 0.4% seemingly downgraded their systems.
These changes vary between 0.02% (for less than 4GB) to 0.16% (for 8GB systems). While we cannot explain the increases for computers with less than 8GB RAM, the small jump in 8GB systems could be explained by the existence of ultrabooks and gaming laptops that still come with just 8GB of RAM out of the box — something we will never recommend that you buy, unless you plan to upgrade it swiftly.
The increase in systems with 8GB RAM could also be attributed to Apple, especially as all its Macs and MacBooks start with that default quota, except for the 16-inch MacBook Pro, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro. Even though Apple claims 8GB equals 16GB on PCs, many say that it’s nowhere near enough for professional workloads. Apple uses its RAM as Unified Memory, so the CPU, GPU, and NPU would all have to vie for this limited working memory space.
Another interesting development among Steam users is the increase in the use of other operating systems. Windows remains the top dog, with Windows 10 users at 50.35% of the overall user base. Windows 11 is also slowly getting more market share, which increased by 0.93% to 46.088, especially as Microsoft finally allowed some users to upgrade after blocking them for a few years.
But aside from Windows 11’s slow success, we see Linux has the most impressive recent growth, with its Steam user base going from 1.9% last month to 2.32% — which is a 0.42% increase. While it’s still not quite as big compared to the Windows user growth, the small number of Linux users (versus Windows) means that this is a significant change for the community.
Steam is also making inroads with Mac gaming, especially as Apple is somewhat pushing its users towards gaming by introducing Game Mode in macOS Sonoma. That’s why we see its market share grow by 0.12% to 1.47% — small but not insignificant. Apple’s efforts to get gaming on Apple-silicon Macs could also help Windows, especially as it has recently launched Arm-based Snapdragon X processors to compete with Cupertino’s laptop offerings.
Steam’s survey results show the direction the market is taking in terms of hardware. For example, the survey shows that the most popular GPUs are mid-range cards from RTX 2060s to RTX 4070s, with a few entry-level cards like the GTX 1650, GTX 1060, and GTX 1050 Ti in the mix. This shows a change in where the entry-level GTX 1650 was the most popular last year. However, the survey is not without its pitfalls, with Steam sometimes returning questionable data, like in December 2023, when the survey suggested that more people bought an RTX 4090 than a Steam Deck.
