Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650, RTX 2060, and RTX 3080 are dominating their respective GPU generations
Will AMD ever muscle its way in?
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Nvidiaoccupies 18 of the top 20 places for graphics card usage onSteam’s hardware survey, with theGTX 1650,RTX 2060, andRTX 3080models gaining the largest percentage changes this month despite increasing competition from AMD.
Only theAMD Radeon RX 580andAMD Radeon RX 570managed to muscle their way into the rankings, coming in at 11th and 16th place respectively.
We can’t say these placements are reflective of the entire GPU market, but theSteam Hardware & Software Surveyresults are one of the better means of collecting data regarding what hardware and components gamers are running in their machines.
These scores aren’t surprising – Nvidia has made a name for itself by flooding the market with variants of its video cards, from mobile chips for laptops and beefed up SUPER versions of previously released GPUs. The GeForce GTX 1650, RTX 2060, and RTX 3080 lead their generational ranges with +0.24%, +0.21%, and +0.11% respective monthly increase.
Steam Hardware percentage changes for February 2021
Steam Hardware overall top ranking GPUs
The increase for the older GTX 1650 Super is likely down to sales of gaming laptops and new PC builders starting with a lower budget, though we’re not discounting that the current insane market for GPUs because of cryptomining and scalpers might have something to do with it.
The GTX 1650 Super isn’t made to blow games out of the water by running them at4Kand high frame rates after all; this is the entry-level graphics card simply to get you playing.
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 offers a great price-performance ratio that explains its immediate popularity, but it’s unlikely to occupy a top 10 space any time soon unless stock issues are resolved. In fact, out of the 10 spaces Nvidia dominates in Steam’s Hardware results, eight are still occupied by 1000 series GTX cards.
Get the best Black Friday deals direct to your inbox, plus news, reviews, and more.
Sign up to be the first to know about unmissable Black Friday deals on top tech, plus get all your favorite TechRadar content.
Can AMD get a seat at the table?
AMDhas found itself a devout fanbase with the release of its Ryzen CPU series, but if it wants to shake team green in the same way it hasIntelthen there’s more work to be done. More inventory of the Radeon RX 6000 series (and older ranges) needs to be released into the hands of gamers.
With AMD having desirable affordability over Nvidia’s offerings, we could eventually see team red occupying a few spaces in Steams Hardware rankings, especially with graphically demanding game titles creating a need for upgrades to existing machines.
ViaNotebook Check
Jess is a former TechRadar Computing writer, where she covered all aspects of Mac and PC hardware, including PC gaming and peripherals. She has been interviewed as an industry expert for the BBC, and while her educational background was in prosthetics and model-making, her true love is in tech and she has built numerous desktop computers over the last 10 years for gaming and content creation. Jess is now a journalist at The Verge.
Intel Battlemage rumored for December – could new budget GPUs win over gamers neglected by Nvidia and save the Arc brand?
Nvidia RTX 5090 Ti suddenly pops up – and RTX 6000 GPUs are mentioned in trademark filings too – but don’t get excited
Arcane season 2 finally gave us the huge Caitlyn and Vi moment we’ve been waiting for – and its creators say ‘we couldn’t have done it in season one’
