The most recent Steam Hardware Survey, corresponding to September 2026, brings several important changes to the computers used by players, and the most striking is that for the first time devices with 32 GB of RAM have become the platform’s most common, with 42.22% of users, pushing those with 16 GB into second place at 37.82%. RAM is what allows a computer to keep multiple programs and games open simultaneously without slowing down, so the fact that the majority already has 32 GB demonstrates how demanding today’s games have become.
The other major change is in graphics cards—the component responsible for generating the game’s images—where the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 became the most used on Steam with 5.86% of players, after rising more than two percentage points in a single month. For those unfamiliar, the Steam Hardware Survey is a voluntary poll that Valve conducts every month among its users to learn which components and programs they have installed, and it has become the industry’s most relied-upon reference for understanding the typical PC among gamers.
The RTX 5070 Leads Despite Its High Price
That the RTX 5070 sits in first place is notable because historically the most popular graphics cards on Steam have been the cheaper models of each generation, the 60-series, and this time a mid-range model topped the charts even though it is sold at a much higher price than expected. According to TweakTown, its suggested price is $550, but it is being marketed at an average of around $850, with many models approaching $1,000.
Behind it came the RTX 5060 with 4.20%, the RTX 5060 Ti with 3.87%, and the RTX 4060 with 3.72%, while together the RTX 50 series is present in 18.21% of systems, and no AMD or Intel graphics card makes it into the top ten.
The 1080p Falls Below 50% for the First Time
Display resolution also shows a shift in trend, as 1080p remains the most common option at 47.91%, but for the first time it dips below 50% of players, while 1440p gains ground—a mid-range resolution between 1080p and 4K that offers a sharper image—rising by more than five points to reach 27.04%.
Other data from the Steam Hardware Survey point in the same direction, since 8-core processors are the most used at 30.06%, GPUs with 16 GB of video memory lead with 27.21%, and more than half of players already have more than 1 TB of storage, echoing what we saw not long ago, when 16 GB GPUs surpassed 8 GB GPUs and 8-core CPUs surpassed 6-core.
Windows 11 Dominates and Linux Recedes
In terms of operating systems, Windows 11 remains far ahead with 71.34% of users, followed by Windows 10 with 23.61%, while Linux dropped to 3.05% and macOS to 1.92%. In processors, meanwhile, Intel maintains the lead with 52.59% of Windows-based machines, though AMD is closing the gap with 47.41%.
A Datum That Requires Careful Scrutiny of the Numbers
Before drawing conclusions, it is worth noting that in September the share of Steam users configured in Simplified Chinese rose by more than seven percentage points in a single month, reaching 31.39%, while English fell by four points, indicating that this month’s sample included many more players from China than the previous month. Because those systems tend to have different characteristics, some of the changes could be due to who answered the survey rather than players upgrading their PCs from one month to the next, so we will need October data to confirm whether the 32 GB of RAM and the RTX 5070 remain in first place.