Steam Hardware Survey March 2020: Intel CPUs, NVIDIA Graphics Cards Rising

[Raevenlord]

Steam has just released its hardware survey for March 2020, and it paints an interesting picture on the overall Steam user market. First of all, a disclaimer: Steam's survey's don't refer to the entirety of the systems that are running its digital distribution platform; it hails from only a part of the connected machines which are randomly selected - ideally, in such as way so as for its hardware data to be representative of the overall Steam ecosystem.

The March 2020 hardware survey shows Intel CPUs gaining traction over AMD's, albeit in a very limited fashion (a 0.24% increase in total number of machines running with GenuineIntel CPUs). Cross referencing this increase with the average clockspeeds of Intel CPUs, though, paints an interesting picture: the higher clockspeeds in the 3.3 to 3.8 GHz range (which can relatively cleanly be associated with the company's higher-performance products), saw a decline in usage (contrary to AMD, which saw the reverse happening).





The increase in Intel's numbers comes, instead, from lower-clocked parts, with the most significant increase being in the 2.7 GHz to 2.99 GHz range. Add to this the fact that Intel's increase in the Steam survey occurs in the month of March, when teleworking and the "bubble quarantine" began, and this actually seems like it's mostly motivated by users either turning on their older laptops, or as a result of increased sale of said laptops (where Intel still has a dominating product and consumer position over AMD's).



NVIDIA too saw increases in its market share for the month, which seems to support the theory that this run is powered by sales of new laptops or powering up of older hardware - especially considering the only DX-capable graphics cards to have shown increases are either in the DX12 or... DX8 or below support levels. Interesting times, to say the least.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[TheLostSwede]

I'm curious how this survey works, as I haven't had one in, oh a decade at least.
It would seem their sample size is off, or it's automagic these days.
Might be that a lot of people like me, are stuck on work notebooks these days, hence the slight uptick in Intel CPUs.

 

[dirtyferret]

I'm curious how this survey works, as I haven't had one in, oh a decade at least.
It would seem their sample size is off, or it's automagic these days.
Might be that a lot of people like me, are stuck on work notebooks these days, hence the slight uptick in Intel CPUs.

They asked me to do one the other day.

 

[TheLostSwede]

They asked me to do one the other day.

So not automagic, good to know.

 

[SamuelL]

Makes sense, Steam has some of the highest daily usage numbers ever at the moment as people fire up their old gaming PCs for something to do during quarantine and other install steam on laptops or work PCs for the same reasons. Older builds, laptops, and especially work / enterprise laptops are disproportionately Intel.

 

[ilyon]

I'm curious how this survey works, as I haven't had one in, oh a decade at least.
It would seem their sample size is off, or it's automagic these days.
Might be that a lot of people like me, are stuck on work notebooks these days, hence the slight uptick in Intel CPUs.

Same here: I have Steam on my travel/work laptop, with a power beast (i3-330M), and I receive survey askings only on this computer.

 

[neatfeatguy]

I think about once a year or so I get a popup from Steam when I start it asking if I want to participate in the hardware survey - I've declined the past couple of years. I don't really care.

 

[Voluman]

I'm curious how this survey works, as I haven't had one in, oh a decade at least.
It would seem their sample size is off, or it's automagic these days.
Might be that a lot of people like me, are stuck on work notebooks these days, hence the slight uptick in Intel CPUs.

A window popup and asking are you want to be participate or not.
I got it 2 times yesterday, once for my my amd build and second times on my old laptop (same account)
I will start the big gun soon, lets see, will steam ask 3rd times
Edit: yes, it is 3rd time too

 

[SIGSEGV]

lol. it's sad.
well, it's understandable that there are lots of people out there just an average joe, not a tech-savvy joe.
also don't forget that Intel has long domination over AMD in the past. A good and bad product stigma.

 

[Dave65]

I've never gotten a survey in all these years.

 

[Fouquin]

It seems really random. There are times where I've got it while logging in on the test bench, but didn't get it on my main desktop connected to the same account. I got it when logging in on my father's laptop to set up a game, but not on my own laptop right next to it. Then there are days where I'll click OK, restart the PC later on, and get the popup again right after the restart.

 

[notb]

lol. it's sad.
well, it's understandable that there are lots of people out there just an average joe, not a tech-savvy joe.
also don't forget that Intel has long domination over AMD in the past. A good and bad product stigma.

The only sad thing here is the kind of comments we see under pretty much every news other than AMD praise.

"People are not tech-savvy", "people Intel install Steam on work laptops", "I only get this survey on my Intel machine" etc.
Occasionally someone more extreme comes in: "only stupid people buy Intel" or "Intel pays OEMs and shops to prioritize their products".

When will this stop?
Seriously, when AMD CPUs totally sucked, there wasn't this much hate towards the company itself or the clients. And the occasional AMD fanboy was tolerated - maybe even admired for staying with the brand he wants to support.

I'm starting to wonder what will happen on this forum when Intel gets in front once again.

 

[T1beriu]

NVIDIA too saw increases in its market share for the month, which seems to support the theory that this run is powered by sales of new laptops

Seriously?! The new laptops just launched and you can't buy 99% of models.

PS: The survey is for March. The laptops were announced in April. *facepalm*

 

[moob]

I'm curious how this survey works, as I haven't had one in, oh a decade at least.
It would seem their sample size is off, or it's automagic these days.

I seem to get asked about once a year, or less. It doesn't seem to be tied to the amount of time you spend on Steam either. I got asked late last year, after not spending much time on Steam. But I've been on Steam quite a lot this year and nothing. I blame Gremlins.

 

[Vayra86]

I'm curious how this survey works, as I haven't had one in, oh a decade at least.
It would seem their sample size is off, or it's automagic these days.
Might be that a lot of people like me, are stuck on work notebooks these days, hence the slight uptick in Intel CPUs.

I get them from time to time, but very very rarely. So yeah, bags of salt required as to the accuracy of this data. And its value in terms of saying much about the market.

What stands out to me is two things.
- This is VALVEs data. By Valve. For Valve. Not in our interest but still available. After all, Gabe is all about sharing /s
- Apparently they can directly see a sharp change in VR Headset ownership. Strange how that works with limited surveys going out and an even more limited userbase.

What I really think is that Valve has data aggregation of its internal and partner sales channels, and our surveys are just 'on top of that'. The combination can be accurate and somewhat valuable. Representative however it is not, for example, Valve is close on that VR headset thing, and also close to its data. Same goes for the validity of percentages of different systems. Sure, there might be a crapload of Intel IGPs doing 'something' on Steam, but its not like they drive the market in any way for the platform. At the same time, those shitty IGPs do drive a multi billion dollar market outside of Steam, through a myriad of low-key MTX ridden simpler games.

The only sad thing here is the kind of comments we see under pretty much every news other than AMD praise.

"People are not tech-savvy", "people Intel install Steam on work laptops", "I only get this survey on my Intel machine" etc.
Occasionally someone more extreme comes in: "only stupid people buy Intel" or "Intel pays OEMs and shops to prioritize their products".

When will this stop?
Seriously, when AMD CPUs totally sucked, there wasn't this much hate towards the company itself or the clients. And the occasional AMD fanboy was tolerated - maybe even admired for staying with the brand he wants to support.

I'm starting to wonder what will happen on this forum when Intel gets in front once again.

Lol. The simpler answer is that AMD hasn't had a half decent Laptop CPU in ten years... I think that is painfully obvious and in no need of explanation. I also don't see, like yourself, how this is supposed to be an Intel-AMD debate. Its really not. There is nothing to debate, right?

First and foremost this is Valve's data, and its really important to keep that in mind. People keep using Steam Survey as if it somehow is representative of PC, or of PC gaming, but it is neither. It is only representative of PC gaming in a specific age and interest group. You could even say it is generational, in that. My parents haven't got the slightest clue what Steam is but they know about gaming.

 

[TheLostSwede]

The only sad thing here is the kind of comments we see under pretty much every news other than AMD praise.

"People are not tech-savvy", "people Intel install Steam on work laptops", "I only get this survey on my Intel machine" etc.
Occasionally someone more extreme comes in: "only stupid people buy Intel" or "Intel pays OEMs and shops to prioritize their products".

When will this stop?
Seriously, when AMD CPUs totally sucked, there wasn't this much hate towards the company itself or the clients. And the occasional AMD fanboy was tolerated - maybe even admired for staying with the brand he wants to support.

I'm starting to wonder what will happen on this forum when Intel gets in front once again.

Not a fanboi either way. I have kit from all three hardware vendors and if I'm going to be honest, I think it sucks that we have so little choice.
Back in the slightly better old days, there was half a dozen graphics chip makers to chose from, even more before 3D was a thing. We had two dozen motherboard brands and a handful of CPU options, even though some of them were never major players.

The only thing I have against Intel is that they've clearly shown that they have been riding their position in the market for too long and they are now having issues that they seem incapable of solving, so they can't really move forward with their x86 line at the same pace they have been able to in the past. It suggests that maybe they've become too big for their own good. However, from what I know, the device makers much prefer working with them over AMD, as they have a much better level of support for the board makers and laptop makers. This is also a big reason why we're seeing more Intel hardware vs. AMD hardware out there.

What I don't understand is why we as consumers, who have no vested interest in either of these companies, unless someone here happen to be a shareholder, are taking sides like it's some kind of war. It's worse than politics on a two party system...

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

I'm curious how this survey works, as I haven't had one in, oh a decade at least.
It would seem their sample size is off, or it's automagic these days.
Might be that a lot of people like me, are stuck on work notebooks these days, hence the slight uptick in Intel CPUs.

First thing I thought, lots of people at home with laptops finding their way to steam for a wee break from Excel.

 

[Animalpak]

So at the end the most players are using a 1080p 60Hz display with a GTX 1660 or maximum a RTX 2060... Veeery veeery essential.

 

[moob]

What I don't understand is why we as consumers, who have no vested interest in either of these companies, unless someone here happen to be a shareholder, are taking sides like it's some kind of war. It's worse than politics on a two party system...

I don't think you'll see most rational adults taking a side.

I have an AMD CPU now but before that I had an Intel CPU for about 6 years since AMD had little to offer, and before that I swapped between AMD and Intel when there was better competition. On the GPU side I've been swapping between AMD/Nvidia since I bought my first dedicated GPU (GeForce 2 MX). I have 0 brand loyalty. All 3 companies do scummy things as well, though lately I feel like Intel and Nvidia have stepped it up a bit with the scum so I've sort of been pushed towards AMD last couple of years. But I'm still not loyal to AMD and I fully expect them to do something that'll turn me off them as well. Unfortunately we don't really have much choice like you said, so at this point I'm going with the companies that disgust me the least, and right now that happens to be AMD on both fronts. And yes, that comes before performance to me.

 

[gamefoo21]

So at the end the most players are using a 1080p 60Hz display with a GTX 1660 or maximum a RTX 2060... Veeery veeery essential.

Considering the absolute carpet bombing by NV on popular YT channels, an uptick in NV card ownership is understandable.

Ironically both of my laptop's with Steam installed on both have Intel and NV GPUs active... So I am boosting those NV numbers...

 

[dyonoctis]

The tech savvy argument is kinda legitimate. I know a fair amount of people who are not really following the tech news who just assume that AMD is the cheap option for people who can't afford the more premium option that is Intel. For the average Joe, the brand image is stronger than the facts, and first impression are long lasting. Cheap one day, cheap forever.

(I was guilty of that myself. For my first computer i had to choose between a celeron laptop vs a turion 64 laptop for the same price. And I've choosed the celeron because Intel marketing was just everywhere...)

 

[MrGRiMv25]

It's mad how many percentage of people are still on duals and quads in 2020, I suppose a slightly stagnant CPU market from 2012-to-2018 hasn't helped but now hex's and octa's are more common that will most likely change soon. I'd wager that by 2022 the hex's will be the new quads.

As others have said, I also haven't had Steam give me a hardware survey pop-up for as long as I can remember...

 

[Arjai]

What's the difference between a duck?

Ask Bill.

 

[ARF]

It's mad how many percentage of people are still on duals and quads in 2020, I suppose a slightly stagnant CPU market from 2012-to-2018 hasn't helped but now hex's and octa's are more common that will most likely change soon. I'd wager that by 2022 the hex's will be the new quads.

As others have said, I also haven't had Steam give me a hardware survey pop-up for as long as I can remember...

By 2022, AMD will make sure that 8-core and 12-core will be the new "quads".
As to why duals and quads, well because the majority of people buy ultra-expensive smartphones and that's where the majority of sales gone so far.

 

[rtwjunkie]

So not automagic, good to know.

I've done 2 in the last 3 years. I could be wrong, but I think after major hardware changes is when I have usually been asked to let it run.