All hardware has its day, and we’re now living in an era where the majority of PCs now boast 16GB VRAM GPUs and eight-core CPUs. That’s according to the most-recent results from the Steam Hardware & Software Survey, but there’s still a long way to go before the entire space catches up.
Despite the ongoing RAM crisis pushing up the prices of graphics cards, particularly those with memory capacities above 8GB, the market share of 16GB pixel pushers among Steam users increased by 1.4% in July 2026. Meanwhile, every smaller buffer size (bar 2GB) shrank in dominance, with 64GB (+0.5%) and 24GB (+0.25%) proving the next big winners.
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti is the most-popular graphics card that exclusively packs 16GB of VRAM, commanding 1.78% of all surveyed Steam users. The likes of the RTX 5060 Ti and 4060 Ti occupy more PCs, at 2.40% and 2.36% respectively, but this market share also includes 8GB variants.
Meanwhile, AMD’s flagship, the Radeon RX 9070 XT isn’t too far behind. The card now powers 1.40% of PCs, after making its survey debut back in May 2026. Overall market share, though, 16GB or otherwise remains firmly with Nvidia.
We’ve lamented the continued release of 8GB cards in recent years, as well as perplexing 4GB releases like the Radeon RX 9050. The VRAM capacity has proven troublesome in the face of modern graphics options such as ray tracing, not forgetting higher resolutions and frame generation.
As such, it’s great to see preferences shift towards 16GB options. These cards will prove the wiser investment now, and as games continue to grow more demanding over the next several years.
As the majority of Steam users now rock 16GB GPUs, eight-core processors are now the dominant choice among the cohort. A 0.38% jump has finally seen CPUs of that ilk usurp the long-dominant six-core chips, with a 27.85% market share to the other’s 27.52%.
We noted that chips of this calibre were increasing in popularity back in Deccember 2025. If not for the RAM crisis, I’m relatively confident we’d have seen them become the dominant option much sooner.
While the Steam Hardware Survey doesn’t cover all users, it serves as an informed estimate for the state of gaming PCs at large. Suffice to say, we’re now in a world where eight-cores plus is the norm for processors, but we’re still a few gigabytes short of a true 16GB+ era for GPUs.
Applying some quick maths to Steam’s VRAM data shows the wider majority have 12GB of VRAM or less at their disposal. This isn’t likely to change rapidly, but the gradual shift has demonstrably begun.
For more hardware chatter, check out our picks of the best GPUs available on store shelves today.
