AMD Falling Behind: Radeon dGPUs Absent from Steam's Top 20

[AleksandarK]

As we entered November, Valve just finished processing data for October in its monthly update of Steam Hardware and Software Survey, showcasing trend changes in the largest gaming community. And according to October data, AMD's discrete GPUs are not exactly in the best place. In the top 20 most commonly used GPUs, not a single discrete SKU was based on AMD. All of them included NVIDIA as their primary GPU choice. However, there is some change to AMD's entries, as the Radeon RX 580, which used to be the most popular AMD GPU, just got bested by the Radeon RX 6600 as the most common choice for AMD gamers. The AMD Radeon RX 6600 now holds 0.98% of the GPU market.

NVIDIA's situation paints a different picture, as the top 20 spots are all occupied by NVIDIA-powered gamers. The GeForce RTX 3060 remains the most popular GPU at 7.46% of the GPU market, but the number two spot is now held by the GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU at 5.61%. This is an interesting change since this NVIDIA GPU was in third place, right behind the regular GeForce RTX 4060 for desktops. However, laptop gamers are in abundance, and they are showing their strength, placing the desktop GeForce RTX 4060 in third place, recording 5.25% usage.



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[dj-electric]

We're entering the aftermath of the GPU Monopolypse.

I hate it here.

 

[Onasi]

AMD is totally competitive gaiz, their strategy isn’t a mess. Any day now.

 

[AusWolf]

AMD is totally competitive gaiz, their strategy isn’t a mess. Any day now.

Let's see if that changes with the 180° turn they're taking with RDNA 4's complete retreat from the high end segment. With the effort they're putting into APUs, consoles and Linux gaming together with Valve (combine that with Microsoft's scumbaggery as of late), I'm not entirely negative.

 

[Onasi]

@AusWolf
That might happen if the Radeon division will not just randomly decide to shoot itself in the dick. I, uh, really hope, but my expectations are somewhere below Satans wine cellar.

 

[AusWolf]

@AusWolf
That might happen if the Radeon division will not just randomly decide to shoot itself in the dick. I, uh, really hope, but my expectations are somewhere below Satans wine cellar.

Their biggest problems that need urgent tackling imo, are their public image and the fact that they tried to follow Nvidia's pricing recently. As long as people look at Radeon as the cheaper alternative for gaming, it's not gonna work. That's why I have high hopes of RDNA 4 which is said to do the complete opposite: offer decent midrange performance at a relatively affordable price, which is exactly what PC gaming desperately needs. I hope it's not all empty promises.

 

[csendesmark]

This was coming for a long time now.
nvidia now owns the GPU market.

 

[DemonicRyzen666]

RTX 4060......
is on the top 3 in steam
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...................................,



Literally the worst valued card that reviewers said not to buy.



(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

 

[claylomax]

RTX 4060......
is on the top 3 in steam
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...................................,



Literally the worst valued card that reviewers said not to buy.



(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Mindshare > Reviews

 

[AusWolf]

RTX 4060......
is on the top 3 in steam
............................................________
....................................,.-'"...................``~.,
.............................,.-"..................................."-.,
.........................,/...............................................":,
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................./......................................................,:`^`..}
.............../...................................................,:"........./
..............?.....__.........................................:`.........../
............./__.(....."~-,_..............................,:`........../
.........../(_...."~,_........"~,_....................,:`........_/
..........{.._$;_......"=,_......."-,_.......,.-~-,},.~";/....}
...........((.....*~_......."=-._......";,,./`..../"............../
...,,,___.`~,......"~.,....................`.....}............../
............(....`=-,,.......`........................(......;_,,-"
............/.`~,......`-...................................../
.............`~.*-,.....................................|,./.....,__
,,_..........}.>-._...................................|..............`=~-,
.....`=~-,__......`,.................................
...................`=~-,,.,...............................
................................`:,,...........................`..............__
.....................................`=-,...................,%`>--==``
........................................_..........._,-%.......`
...................................,



Literally the worst valued card that reviewers said not to buy.



(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Still the cheapest modern GPU that you can buy, along with the 7600 which is equally bad value. For some people (for lots of people, it seems) price is more important than value. Not exactly shocking these days.

This was coming for a long time now.
nvidia now owns the GPU market.

As far as I see from the graph, AMD has been holding a steady 15%. Also, there's consoles where AMD dominates. It's not all doom and gloom, imo.

 

[Onasi]

RTX 4060......
is on the top 3 in steam

I mean, if one needs a new GPU and said person has only 300-ish bucks to play with, which is historically THE biggest segment of consumer base for dGPUs… what else is even there? 7600 and 4060. That’s it. Not everyone wants to go second-hand.
And the 4060 hate is honestly somewhat overblown. Is it not great value? Sure. Is it a glorified 4050 and should have been 230-ish? Yeah. But that doesn’t make it a non-functional abomination or anything, especially since most people will use it to play e-sports titles at 1080p and maybe AAA at mesium-ish. And the price is what you get in the market where the main second player has been shitting the bed since Polaris.

 

[AusWolf]

I mean, if one needs a new GPU and said person has only 300-ish bucks to play with, which is historically THE biggest segment of consumer base for dGPUs… what else is even there? 7600 and 4060. That’s it. Ot everyone wants to go second-hand.
And the 4060 hate is honestly somewhat overblown. Is it not great value? Sure. Is it a glorified 4050 and should have been 230-ish? Yeah. But that doesn’t make it a non-functional abomination or anything, especially since most people will use it to play e-sports titles at 1080p and maybe AAA at mesium-ish. And the price is what you get in the market where the main second player has been shitting the bed since Polaris.

Agreed. I recently bought a 7600 as a cheap-ish spare card (I always keep spares just in case). I was surprised to see how close it is to my 6750 XT. I couldn't even detect the difference without an FPS counter in some games. Yet, the 6700 XT and 6750 XT are generally acclaimed cards, while the 7600 is regarded as an abomination on the GPU industry. Why exactly?

If I was in dire need for a relatively affordable, efficient, but still gaming-capable GPU, I wouldn't mind getting a 4060 at all.

 

[Hecate91]

And the price is what you get in the market where the main second player has been shitting the bed since Polaris.

The prices are what you get when people keeping buying mediocre cards like the 4060, with prices shifted up a tier and performance brought down a whole tier for every card except for the 4090.
AMD isn't to blame for Nvidia's prices when they have at least 76% of the market if the Steam stats are accurate, Nvidia doesn't care what AMD prices their products at when the mindshare and reviewers will recommend Nvidia anyway.

 

[AusWolf]

The prices are what you get when people keeping buying mediocre cards like the 4060, with prices shifted up a tier and performance gets brought down a whole tier for every card except for the 4090.

What would you buy instead? A 3050? The problem is that there isn't any choice left in the lower-midrange anymore. You either fork out your hard-earned cash for a "mediocre" 4060, or you'll have nothing.

 

[Vayra86]

Their biggest problems that need urgent tackling imo, are their public image and the fact that they tried to follow Nvidia's pricing recently. As long as people look at Radeon as the cheaper alternative for gaming, it's not gonna work. That's why I have high hopes of RDNA 4 which is said to do the complete opposite: offer decent midrange performance at a relatively affordable price, which is exactly what PC gaming desperately needs. I hope it's not all empty promises.

How is that NOT 'the cheaper alternative for gaming' then?

RDNA3 is today also the cheaper alternative for gaming. A 7800XT offers more frames at its MSRP. And in the segment below, that also happens and has been happening. The featureset doesn't entirely match, but at that segment its not quite relevant.

And their public image is a direct result of the lack of consistency. Like @Onasi stated, all bets are off wrt what Radeon is going to do next.

 

[LittleBro]

Unfortunately, the skepticism towards AMD hardware is still very present nowadays on OEM segment. Just for example, the shop I regularly visit to buy PC stuff sells prebuilt gaming PCs. They even make some builds themselves. I asked them once why there is only so few builds with AMD CPU or GPU. They said because Intel and Nvidia equals to reliability and they have established long-term parthership long time ago. I'm not going to judge reliability part but this Intel & Nvidia's dominance might have roots somewhere in days when Intel was bribing customers to not choose competition over their CPUs.

Since most of the players are basically BFUs, they just buy new RIG in shop, install games and play, they don't care. Hell, most of them maybe never heard of AMD CPU or GPU.

All in all, both Intel and Nvidia should thank to OEMs and pre-builders for their dominance.

 

[AusWolf]

How is that NOT 'the cheaper alternative for gaming' then?

RDNA3 is today also the cheaper alternative for gaming. A 7800XT offers more frames at its MSRP. And in the segment below, that also happens and has been happening. The featureset doesn't entirely match, but at that segment its not quite relevant.

What I mean is that AMD tried to break out of the "cheaper alternative" image with RDNA 2 and 3, which somewhat worked with 2, but didn't with 3. AMD still is the cheaper alternative.

What AMD needs is to look into the mirror, accept this fact, and act accordingly. There is nothing wrong with being who you are. You don't always have to play with the big boys to be somebody.
(Am I still talking about AMD?)

 

[Onasi]

AMD isn't to blame for Nvidia's prices when they have at least 76% of the market if the Steam stats are accurate, Nvidia doesn't care what AMD prices their products at when the mindshare and reviewers will recommend Nvidia anyway.

Are we now playing pretend and saying that AMD being a poor competitor in the market is not the reason for NV having the mind- and market-share that it does? Really? You are going to say, with a straight face, that if AMD had been pumping out banger cards and working on investing in their software ecosystem like NV had for the past decade we would have been in the same position? Please.

All in all, both Intel and Nvidia should thank to OEMs and pre-builders for their dominance.

Intel - sure. NV - not at all, they are in the dominant position they are because they realized years and years ago that they HAVE to be a software company just as much as hardware one. CUDA is a de facto industry standard and it isn’t because ebul OEMs put 3050 into overpriced pre-builts.

 

[csendesmark]

RTX 4060......
is on the top 3 in steam
............................................________
....................................,.-'"...................``~.,
.............................,.-"..................................."-.,
.........................,/...............................................":,
.....................,?......................................................,
.................../...........................................................,}
................./......................................................,:`^`..}
.............../...................................................,:"........./
..............?.....__.........................................:`.........../
............./__.(....."~-,_..............................,:`........../
.........../(_...."~,_........"~,_....................,:`........_/
..........{.._$;_......"=,_......."-,_.......,.-~-,},.~";/....}
...........((.....*~_......."=-._......";,,./`..../"............../
...,,,___.`~,......"~.,....................`.....}............../
............(....`=-,,.......`........................(......;_,,-"
............/.`~,......`-...................................../
.............`~.*-,.....................................|,./.....,__
,,_..........}.>-._...................................|..............`=~-,
.....`=~-,__......`,.................................
...................`=~-,,.,...............................
................................`:,,...........................`..............__
.....................................`=-,...................,%`>--==``
........................................_..........._,-%.......`
...................................,



Literally the worst valued card that reviewers said not to buy.



(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Most of the "gamers" can't afford a better card, why are you mad about it?

 

[Hecate91]

What would you buy instead? A 3050? The problem is that there isn't any choice left in the lower-midrange anymore. You either fork out your hard-earned cash for a "mediocre" 4060, or you'll have nothing.

I'd rather get a used 3080 10GB than buy a new card with only 8GB of VRAM, or save another $100 and get a 7700XT. Nvidia priced out the lower midrange after the mining craze, I don't see it coming back especially when people are willing to spend $300 on something like a 4060 which isn't even faster than a 3060 12GB that can go for less than $200 used.

Unfortunately, the skepticism towards AMD hardware is still very present nowadays on OEM segment. Just for example, the shop I regularly visit to buy PC stuff sells prebuilt gaming PCs. They even make some builds themselves. I asked them once why there is only so few builds with AMD CPU or GPU. They said because Intel and Nvidia equals to reliability and they have established long-term parthership long time ago. I'm not going to judge reliability part but this Intel & Nvidia's dominance might have roots somewhere in days when Intel was bribing customers to not choose competition over their CPUs.

Since most of the players are basically BFUs, they just buy new RIG in shop, install games and play, they don't care. Hell, most of them maybe never heard of AMD CPU or GPU.

All in all, both Intel and Nvidia should thank to OEMs and pre-builders for their dominance.

The reliability argument is something that seems to stick with people, much like how some still insist AMD drivers are bad because they last used an AMD GPU years ago.

 

[AusWolf]

Are we now playing pretend and saying that AMD being a poor competitor in the market is not the reason for NV having the mind- and market-share that it does? Really? You are going to say, with a straight face, that if AMD had been pumping out banger cards and working on investing in their software ecosystem like NV had for the past decade we would have been in the same position? Please.

I think it goes both ways. Sure, one company can pump out banging products, but if reviews still recommend the competition purely because they have more experience with the brand, then the product isn't gonna matter. Equally, you can say what a good "ecosystem" (God, I hate this word) CUDA is, and people are gonna buy into it whether they need CUDA or not. I can also say that AMD works better with Linux, which is equally true, but this time, no one's gonna care because the mindshare isn't there. People still falsely believe that Windows is the only way to do things even with the Steam Deck being around for 2 years now. I know because I used to believe that bollocks myself until recently.

 

[LittleBro]

Intel - sure. NV - not at all, they are in the dominant position they are because they realized years and years ago that they HAVE to be a software company just as much as hardware one. CUDA is a de facto industry standard and it isn’t because ebul OEMs put 3050 into overpriced pre-builts.

I was talking about gaming RIGs. Nvidia made several "incredible technologies you can't exist without" and paid money to game devs to implement it.

 

[AusWolf]

I'd rather get a used 3080 10GB than buy a new card with only 8GB of VRAM, or save another $100 and get a 7700XT. Nvidia priced out the lower midrange after the mining craze, I don't see it coming back especially when people are willing to spend $300 on something like a 4060 which isn't even faster than a 3060 12GB that can go for less than $200 used.

The 7700 XT is a good call. I wouldn't buy a used card, though, especially on a budget. If $300 is the maximum I can fork out, then I suppose I didn't earn that money overnight, which means I have to be careful of what I spend it on. In that case, having a warranty is a must.

 

[Onasi]

I was talking about gaming RIGs. Nvidia made several "incredible technologies you can't exist without" and paid money to game devs to implement it.

Gaming is irrelevant. I know it’s a bitter pill to swallow for a lot of gamers, but no serious company in the space - not NV, not AMD and not Intel - cares about gaming. What the segment gets is scraps off the table. All the development is focused on more important and profitable things.

And yeah, NV developed cool tech (or rather adapted their datacenter tech for gaming use) and incentivizes devs to use it to maintain mind-share. That’s just good business. I have no idea why people trot this argument out as if NV is literally Sauron leading hordes of Orcs to oppress the free people.

@AusWolf
Fair. NV has finally started getting better about Linux support, but AMD driver stack is still superior.

 

[Hecate91]

Are we now playing pretend and saying that AMD being a poor competitor in the market is not the reason for NV having the mind- and market-share that it does? Really? You are going to say, with a straight face, that if AMD had been pumping out banger cards and working on investing in their software ecosystem like NV had for the past decade we would have been in the same position? Please.

Even if AMD had competitive products in every segment, they don't have the amount of mindshare, marketing budget, or the money to pay developers to use their tech that Nvidia does.
Most people are just going to buy Nvidia because they think they need Nvidia features, even though options from AMD and Intel exist.