Steam's October Surge: RTX 3060 Ousts RTX 4060 Mobile, Intel CPUs and Windows 10 Decline

NVIDIA RTX 3060 Reclaims Top Spot on Steam as RTX 4060 Mobile Stumbles

October on Steam delivered a surprising shift in the GPU landscape, with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 unexpectedly reclaiming the top position among graphics cards. This resurgence came as a shock, especially after the NVIDIA RTX 4060 Mobile seemed poised for an unchallenged reign just last month. While many other GPUs saw modest gains, this collective uptick effectively diluted the market share of the previous frontrunner, allowing the RTX 3060 to inch ahead with a marginal increase of 4.47% compared to 4.41% in September. The once-dominant RTX 4060 Mobile, conversely, saw its share significantly shrink to 4.3% from 4.84% in September, relegating it to second place.

The Enduring Popularity of Mid-Range and Budget GPUs

The venerable GeForce GTX 1650 continues its tenacious grip on the top 5, maintaining a solid presence with 3.05% of users, a slight increase of 0.03%. Further up the performance ladder, the RTX 4070 exhibited the most significant growth, climbing from 1.69% to 1.88%, a gain of 0.19%. This surge suggests more gamers are recognizing the value proposition of this higher-tier card over entry-level options. Intriguingly, the enigmatic 'NVIDIA Graphics Device' also saw a substantial boost, adding 0.18% to reach 1.04%. The budget-friendly RTX 4060 is also on an upward trajectory, gaining 0.17% to capture 1.30% of the market.

Integrated Graphics and VRAM Trends: A Glimpse into User Hardware

The continued success of Intel's integrated graphics is noteworthy, demonstrating the company's ability to sell a considerable volume of processors equipped with these solutions. A particularly interesting development is the pronounced growth of GPUs with 512MB of memory, now accounting for 7.07% of the user base, an increase of 0.23%. This trend likely points to the increasing prevalence of integrated GPUs that default to smaller allocations of dedicated memory. The majority of gamers are still grappling with the demands of modern titles, with 33.46% of users having graphics cards with 8GB of VRAM, a slight decrease of 0.2%. Those with 12GB of VRAM represent 18.97% (-0.02%), while a more modest 7.48% (-0.04%) boast 16GB of memory, indicating that high-end VRAM is still a premium feature.

Intel Loses CPU Ground to AMD, Core Count Preferences Evolve

On the CPU front, Intel processors are experiencing a swift decline in popularity among Steam users, despite the growth in their integrated graphics offerings. Intel's market share now stands at 57.82%, a drop of 0.79%. Conversely, AMD has gained a significant 0.78%, reaching 42.09%. AMD users appear to favor higher clock speeds, with processors at 3.7 GHz and above seeing the most substantial growth at 18.91% (+0.55%). In contrast, Intel systems are more likely to feature lower clock speeds, with 2.3 GHz to 2.69 GHz chips representing 21.93% (-0.28%) of their user base. While 6-core processors remain the most prevalent configuration on Steam with 28.69% (-0.09%), 8-core CPUs are rapidly gaining traction, increasing by 0.23% to 25.81%, signaling a potential future takeover. The biggest gainer in core count, however, is 4-core processors, which, despite being in third place, saw a significant jump of 0.40% to 14.58%.

Windows 11 Continues its Ascent as Older Versions Fade

The operating system battleground also saw a clear victor in October. Windows 11 experienced a healthy 0.53% increase, bringing its total user share to 63.57%. Meanwhile, Windows 10 continued its downward spiral, falling to 31.14%, a decline of 1.04%. The fall of Windows 10 appears to be directly benefiting not only its successor but also alternative operating systems. macOS saw a 0.2% rise to 2.11%, and Linux demonstrated robust growth with a 0.37% increase, reaching 3.05%. Despite persistent rumors fueled by a StatCounter error suggesting a resurgence of Windows 7 due to a supposed shift from Windows 10, its actual market share remains negligible at 0.09% (+0.02%). This minor uptick is more likely an artifact of broader data shifts rather than a genuine trend, making any claims of a Windows 7 revival on the back of Windows 10's decline speculative at best.