Gamers slowly switching to higher GPU memory configurations

AMD and NVIDIA should take a note.

The September Steam Hardware Survey shows slow shifts in the gaming PC market. The GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU remains the most popular card, climbing to nearly 4.9% share. NVIDIA’s RTX 50 series is also gaining momentum, with the RTX 5070 and 5060 models rising in the charts.

One of the more interesting trends is the decline of 8 GB GPU popularity. Despite many new releases in 2025 still shipping with this capacity, including the RTX 5060, RTX 5060 Ti, and AMD’s Radeon RX 9060 XT, the share of 8 GB cards dropped by 1.37% to 33.66%. While still the most common memory configuration, the market is gradually shifting toward higher VRAM models, with 16 GB cards showing the fastest growth. This configuration is more practical for modern titles and, as reviews show, often requires fewer user-side optimizations to achieve stable frame rates.

Source: Steam

CPU adoption is also evolving. Six-core processors, long the standard for mainstream gaming PCs, fell below 30% share for the first time. At the same time, 8-core CPUs continue to gain ground, now reaching 25.28%. This reflects a move toward higher core counts in gaming systems.

One more thing that is changing is Intel’s and AMD’s market share, steadily declining for months. Currently, AMD’s market share sits at 41.31% with 1.15% increase in one month. Nothing suggests that this trend will change, given that Intel Core Ultra 400 “Nova Lake” is not expected until next year and Intel has no response to the Ryzen 9000X3D series right now, dominating gaming performance charts.

Source: Steam

While the balance is shifting, 8 GB GPUs and 6-core CPUs still make up roughly a third of the market, which remains a substantial share. There is also the question of survey accuracy. Some users argue the data does not reflect their systems since they were never surveyed. However, Steam appears to have increased its sampling frequency, in my case, it collected system data multiple times last year, suggesting the results may now be more representative.

Source: Steam Hardware Survey via Wccftech