AMD slips to weakest point in months as Intel regains CPU usage share in Steam's latest hardware survey

AMD has taken a bit of a hit in the latest Steam Hardware and Software Survey, and while the figures for processor usage share may not represent actual sales they at least give some sort of idea of what gamers are choosing to use in their systems. While there are always the excuses that Steam users could be just dusting down old Intel-based computers for a quick gaming session, or one firm is currently undercutting the other, or the global chip shortage is gifting unfair purchase bias to one company, it does at least reveal that AMD is struggling to cross the 30% usage share line at the moment.

In fact, Team Red finds itself at its lowest point of the year in this particular survey, with the overall figures standing at 27.4% for AMD and 72.6% for Intel. The last time Intel reportedly had over 72.6% share was back in December 2020, when the amounts stood at an unbelievable 81% for Team Blue and 19% for AMD. For most of 2021 AMD has managed to take consistent bites out of Intel’s share, with a slight reversal in trend occurring in the June survey. But August appears to be a win for Team Blue, with more Windows users utilizing Intel processors than the month before.

Linux OS users continue to apparently select Ryzen chips though, as AMD hones in on the 40% usage share mark in this particular comparison. It will be interesting to see how the Steam survey reflects the release of Intel’s Alder Lake chips, which have been performing in a promising manner in various leaked synthetic benchmarks as of late. However, with the massive strides AMD has taken over recent years with its Zen microarchitecture, Team Red can afford to take a brief respite before unleashing Zen 4 in 2022.

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