Wednesday, January 12th 2022
December Steam Survey Numbers Points Towards Slow Death of the Quad Core Gaming CPU
This might not come as a real surprise, but in the latest Steam hardware survey, we're seeing clear declines of quad core CPUs, the category that some people have been claiming for the longest of times, is all you need for a gaming PC. Among the Windows systems, the decline is over a percent, with six core CPU gaining well over a percent, although the numbers vary quite a bit over the past five months, which is all the history Valve provides. The decline is also clear on OSX, although it's not quite as big percentage wise, but here the biggest growth is in the eight and 10 core segments, most likely due to Apple's introduction of its own M1 variants of CPUs. Only in the Linux segment are the dual and quad core CPU segments increasing, which suggest that some of these systems might be repurposed Windows machines.
The six core and higher CPU segment now holds over 50 percent share in the Steam survey and eight core CPUs are also up somewhat for Windows machines. Of these CPUs, Intel is holding a 69.27 percent share, up 0.82 percent compared to November, although still down over 3.5 percent since August versus AMD. Intel also gained 0.33 percent of Linux users and is back over 60 percent for the first time since August. On the OSX side of things, Apple seems to have gained a 27.97 percent share of Steam users surveyed, up from 6.05 percent just a month earlier. There has also been a 1.2 percent increase in Steam users surveyed that have 16 GB of RAM, suggesting that the low RAM prices in 2021 has made people upgrade their systems. Over 47 percent of all Steam users that were surveyed appear to have at least 16 GB of RAM in their systems.
To no one's surprise, the most popular GPU is the GeForce GTX 1060, which holds a 7.92 percent share, up 0.34 percent since November. Nvidia is without a doubt the most popular choice among Steam users with a 76.83 percent share, with AMD in a slight decline in December with 14.45 percent, with Intel also in a slight decline at 8.51 percent. Apple has a mere 0.77 percent of the total GPU's surveyed, placing them in the other category. This simply suggests that not a lot of Steam users own one of the new Macs or have participated in the survey so far. Among VR headsets the Oculus Quest 2 keeps gaining market share and now holds a 39.62 percent market share among the surveyed Steam users, up 3.3 percent since November. That said, VR headsets are still not all that particularly popular, as only 1.93 percent of Steam users that responded to the survey have one, although it's still a slight increase since the previous month. A quick look at monitors suggest that 1440p is slowly gaining popularity, with an increase of 0.79 percent, but 1080p still holds a solid 67.12 percent in the Steam survey.
Source:
Steam
The six core and higher CPU segment now holds over 50 percent share in the Steam survey and eight core CPUs are also up somewhat for Windows machines. Of these CPUs, Intel is holding a 69.27 percent share, up 0.82 percent compared to November, although still down over 3.5 percent since August versus AMD. Intel also gained 0.33 percent of Linux users and is back over 60 percent for the first time since August. On the OSX side of things, Apple seems to have gained a 27.97 percent share of Steam users surveyed, up from 6.05 percent just a month earlier. There has also been a 1.2 percent increase in Steam users surveyed that have 16 GB of RAM, suggesting that the low RAM prices in 2021 has made people upgrade their systems. Over 47 percent of all Steam users that were surveyed appear to have at least 16 GB of RAM in their systems.
41 Comments on December Steam Survey Numbers Points Towards Slow Death of the Quad Core Gaming CPU
im too in the chart wih my A4 4300M (1 Modul) and my A8 3800.
11,88% use 2
35,3% use 4 (= still here 47,18%)
33,25% use 6
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80,43%
Definitely with the 10400F spending most of the last 15 months at $170 or less (as low as $145 and currently closer to $160) it's really hard to see why you wouldn't just get a 6C/12T these days.
I also dislike their representation of GPU models and inconsistent grouping. Example: GTX 1060 3 GB and 6 GB are grouped into a single product, but RX 580 2048SP and RX 580 are not and many more examples. That is not how data should be represented and people draw wrong conclusions from it ...
1st gen RDNA cards were commanding ridiculous premiums. Even before Nvidia introduced LHR versions, the 5700 and 5700XT were incredilby good ETH miners, matching the hashrate of an original (non-LHR) 3070 but at lower power draw. Now, thanks to LHR a 5700-series card is about 40% better than a 3070!
I sold my used 5700XT in the UK for (adjust to US pricing) $1150 in May last year, back when new RTX 3080 cards were selling for $1350 (if you could find one in stock back then).
I wouldn't be surprised if many gamers with 5700-series cards sold them on ebay to fund a 3060Ti or similar upgrade and still have more leftover money from the sale than they originally paid for the 5700-card in the first place!
It made economic sense for me to start mining and I bought 24 cards, making me a very small-scale miner. Even so,
I don't think I've bought 24 cards for personal use across 2 concurrent PCs in my entire life. I've only bought 28 cards for personal use in 26 years, until ETH mining when I bought a pallet of 20 direct from my sysint distributor, and sourced 4 more at retail. If I'd had hindsight and enough spare capital I probably would have bought three more pallets of 20 in Feb/March 2021. By June they were worth twice what I'd paid back then.S3 Virge, Voodoo Rush, Voodoo Banshee, Riva TNT2 ,Geforce 2 MX, Geforce 3, Radeon 9200, Radeon 9700 Pro, Radeon 9550, Geforce 6800 GT, Radeon X1800 XT, Radeon X700 Pro, Geforce 8800 (G80), Geforce 8800 GTS-512 (G92), Geforce 7600GS, Radeon 5850, Radeon 6850, Radeon HD 7950, Radeon R9 290X, GTX 970, Radeon RX480, RX Vega56, 2060 FE, 5700XT, 2060S, 2070S, 3060, 3060Ti