Steam’s newest {hardware} survey has been launched. The important thing developments for December 2023 present that Home windows 11 is inching in direction of parity with Home windows 10, avid gamers are regularly shifting in direction of increased core depend CPUs, and the share of methods with 8GB or much less of RAM continues to shrink.
Though the broader market has not fallen in love with Home windows 11, with simply 26% of the desktop market share in comparison with the dominant Home windows 10 at 67%, the image is a little bit totally different for avid gamers.
In December’s Steam survey, Home windows 11 made up floor, with 44% of surveyed customers on Home windows 11 in comparison with 51% on Home windows 10. That is a 4% swing in comparison with the earlier month. With Home windows 12 reportedly set to launch later within the yr, Home windows 10’s dominance ought to proceed to erode over the course of 2024.
Information on the variety of bodily CPUs tends to be variable and Intel methods with e-cores make for some odd configurations, however it’s attention-grabbing to see the variety of customers with eight-cores rising in recognition, now taking on over 20% of the general share.
Techniques with six-cores or much less are nonetheless dominant nevertheless it’s clear there’s a shift away from twin and quad-core methods and laptops, which are actually relegated to all however the most cost-effective of methods. Twin and quad core laptops will more and more be retired.
The share of methods with 16GB of RAM is almost 50%. Techniques with 32GB really fell a little bit, although the latter might be offset by the introduction of 48GB methods into the combination.
Techniques with 8GB or much less of RAM are on the decline. There’s nothing shocking about that, with DDR5 reminiscence kits usually beginning at 2x16GB, whereas gaming laptops are more and more delivery with 16GB of RAM. 2023 additionally noticed numerous low cost reminiscence hit the market. An improve to 16GB of DDR4 from simply 8GB is a really value efficient improve for these utilizing older methods.
As video games develop into ever extra demanding, 8GB is more and more going to develop into insufficient, to say nothing of working a browser with dozens of open tabs on the identical time (as yours actually does).
Different little nuggets embrace a soar within the variety of Steam customers with VR headsets. Although small total at simply 2.24%, that is a 0.4% enhance from the month earlier than, or to place it one other method, a rise of over 20% month on month.
Excluding RTX 4060 cell graphics, RTX 40-series fashions nonetheless aren’t gaining a lot traction, although Nvidia’s absolute dominance over AMD stays intact.
Total there’s not a lot that is shocking right here. After all, the development in direction of increased system specs is inevitable and it is also price noting that the Steam {Hardware} Survey is healthier seen as a tough concept of market share than as the final word snapshot. Nonetheless, it is attention-grabbing to get some perception into what avid gamers are actually working of their rigs.