16 Years of GPUs: The Steam Hardware Survey (Top 20 GPUs from July 2008 to August 2024)

Data is from the Steam Hardware Survey

Via the Wayback Machine

With animation by Flourish

The Steam Hardware Survey and video card drivers are inconsistent between reporting individual cards and groups of card variants. What constitutes an individual card is up for debate as GPUs have changed a lot over the years though I've done my best to present legible information.

The latest and greatest cards are often hyped so I hope this animation celebrates price and energy efficient workhorse cards!

The numbers do not add up to 100% because survey responses where the GPU could not be identified are not depicted. As of August 2024, this is about 10% of all survey responses.

Other anomalies in the survey data include: In 2012, a bug were fixed where old hardware was being over-represented and new hardware was not being surveyed. In 2018, a bug was fixed where hardware in cyber cafes was being over-represented.

Pre-2008 surveys exist but is erratic and inconsistent. So unfortunately it was not included.

Helpful data cleaning up card names was collected from Wikipedia

[viniciusferreira]

Gtx 1060 getting the lead in jun 2017 and only being surpassed in aug 2022 (5 whole years and 2 generations later) just proves how stagnant the "budget" market has become.

[kicsiduda]

"Why are you so hyped?"
"I watched a statistic video about GPU uses!"

[yumyumshrimpseiei]

bro gtx 1060 just destroyed every thing

[MegaPepsimax]

Maybe AMD not competing with Nvidia for the super GPU in 2025 is a good thing.... I mean this survey clearly shows a massive market for budget and entry level GPUs. Nvidia setting the price of new GPUs at $600+ has left one big gap for AMD to fill. I really hope it works out

[mclarenfgtr]

If you are confused, just remember Nvidia GPUs own the laptop market.

[kacperoo]

10xx was just too good price/perf and Nvidia will never make the same mistake again.

[SakuyalzayoiTheMaid]

gotta love the consistent mass of people playing on integrated graphics keeping 4000 intel on the chart for *decades*

[tasktale]

Intel HD graphics really surprised me, it even dominate longer than AMD.

[vangelis]

The sheer dominance the gtx 1060 held for years was amazing

[WujoFefer]

When all YouTubers were talking about 4090 all gamers were playing on xx60 cards... especially 3060.... and in the end fastest GPU in top 20 was 4070 Ti with 1.25%...
Anyway... I love the time when 8800 was on top... it was one on the best era of gaming (at least in my opinion)

[dvxAznxvb]

the suspense was killing me with how the music was building up

[adondonadon]

it's me and my 1050ti since 2018, this baby is still holding on.

[Quisspo]

3060 was a decent deal but why the 4060 is exploding in usage is mindboggling, this card is so overpriced for basically no performance uplift

[SongOfLife_]

Time traveler kicks a rock :

Ryzen 4070 most popular gpu in 2024

[SuperfluousIndividual]

And what did we all learn? No 90 series card from NVIDIA in sight and the only 80 series on the board was the 3080 at a whopping 1.84% market share (7:27).
Judging by the amount of hype the new generations get on Youtube you'd think everyone would be rushing to buy them, just like with the leaks going around with the 5090!

[Therealnotanifox]

Still nice to see the gpu i use is still up there which is the rx 580

[randomweirdyoutubechannel]

Soo many unfortunate people in 2014 with intel hd 4000

[buzerKomurcu]

It feels like yesterday and I'm baffled by the fact that 770 was used so little. I swear to god my ASUS 770 lasted an eternity with satisfactory performance before making way to mighty 1080ti. Best buy ever.

[brugj]

In the end AMD is nowhere to be found. NV is absolutely dominating.

[binaryparrot]

Had a 1050Ti from 2018-2023. Never realized it was one of the most used GPUs at the time