The Steam hardware and software survey is useful for getting an idea of the graphics cards gamers are adopting and the ones falling out of favor. Unsurprisingly, the GeForce GTX 1060 is at the top of the pile once more, increasing its share to 15.88%. With its closest rival, the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, on just 9.83% it seems the two-and-a-half years old card will not be dislodged from its perch anytime soon.
In terms of manufacturer share, Nvidia claims a 75.2% share, which is a slight rise over the month. Intel has fallen a little (10.6% to 10.15%) while AMD has also seen a drop, from 15.3% to 14.68%. A portion of Nvidia’s increased share has been provided by uptake of the GeForce RTX 2070, 2080, and 2080 Ti graphics cards, which all feature highly in terms of monthly growth.
The RTX 2070 has seen growth of 0.17% for the month, making it the third-highest grower for the period. The RTX 2080 has 0.09% growth, while the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti followed behind with 0.06%. However, there is absolutely no sign of the RTX 2060 graphics card. This could be partially due to gamers who want to experience the ray-tracing abilities of the top-end Turing cards. While the RTX 2060 can offer 5 Giga Rays/s for ray tracing, the GeForce RTX 2070 can deliver 6 Giga Rays/s – that's one billion more rays per second, and 6 Giga Ray/s has been mentioned as the minimum for a decent ray-tracing experience.
Meanwhile, the red team has little to cheer about this month. AMD’s most popularly used card, the Radeon RX 580, sits behind 15 Nvidia products and the Intel HD Graphics 4000 in the overall usage chart. The Radeon RX Vega has not enjoyed much movement for the month, lagging behind Nvidia’s RTX 20-series cards with just 0.03% growth. The Radeon R7 Graphics was the biggest loser of the month, dropping 0.29% share.