Steam hardware survey shows GeForce GTX 970 still holding strong

Nvidia's Pascal and AMD's Polaris architectures have stolen the spotlight in the GPU sector as of late, but it's Nvidia's previous generation GeForce GTX 970 graphics card that's still the most popular among Steam gamers, Steam's hardware survey for July reveals.

Given how new Pascal and Polaris parts are, it's not surprising that Maxwell would still hold the top spot in graphics card ownership, at least for now. According to the survey, a little over 5 percent of Steam gamers wield a GeForce GTX 970 graphics card, compared to 3.59 percent who use a GeForce GTX 960 and, somewhat surprisingly, 3.09 percent getting their gaming fix with Intel's integrated HD Graphics 4000 to round out the top three spots.

Positioning is likely to change in the coming months. Both Pascal and Polaris emerged with relatively high bang-for-buck propositions, though it will take some time for consistent availability. It won't be surprising if the GeForce GTX 970 still holds the top spot at the end of August.

So what else are the majority of gamers running, according to Steam's system audits? If building a system based on the most popular parts from Steam's hardware survey, you'd have a dual-core rig clocked somewhere between 2.3GHz to 2.69GHz with 8GB of RAM, 250GB to 499GB of storage, and Windows 10 64-bit. And for those with single displays, the most used resolutions is 1920x1080.

Now that you know what most Steam users are running and what the PC Gamer staff is rocking, tell us about your setup(s)!

Paul Lilly

Paul has been playing PC games and raking his knuckles on computer hardware since the Commodore 64. He does not have any tattoos, but thinks it would be cool to get one that reads LOAD"*",8,1. In his off time, he rides motorcycles and wrestles alligators (only one of those is true).

Latest in Graphics Cards
MSI RTX 5070 Ti Gaming Trio OC Plus graphics card under a red light
This MSI Afterburner file unlocks 36 Gbps RTX 50-series memory overclocks for, y'know, the few people that actually own a card
MSI RTX 5090 Suprim SOC graphics card on a grey background with a gradient
MSI RTX 5090 Suprim SOC review
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang holding an RTX 50-series card.
92% of Nvidia users turn on DLSS... if they've been lucky enough to bag an RTX 50-series card at launch AND have the Nvidia App installed
A side by side comparison of two Asus Q-Release systems, with the original design on the top and the bottom showing the apparently new design.
Asus appears to have quietly changed the design of its Q-Release PCIe slot after claims of potential GPU pin damage
A Colorful RTX 5080 and its box
Three lucky folks in India can win the dubious honour of buying an RTX 5080 GPU at Nvidia MSRP
Jensen Huang, co-founder and chief executive officer of Nvidia Corp., speaks while holding the company's new GeForce RTX 50 series graphics cards and a Thor Blackwell robotics processor during the 2025 CES event in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. Huang announced a raft of new chips, software and services, aiming to stay at the forefront of artificial intelligence computing. Photographer: Bridget Bennett/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Group allegedly trying to smuggle Nvidia Blackwell chips stare down bail set at over $1 million
Latest in News
Three sheep with big guns in Palworld.
It was 'super popular to hate Palworld' after launch, says community manager: 'A lot of companies might crumble under the threats, under the pressure'
Palworld Ancient Civilization Parts - Grizzbolt with a minigun
'It was a very depressing day': Palworld community manager reveals studio's reaction to Nintendo lawsuit
CS 1.6 remade in CS: Legacy.
A gorgeous ground-up remake of Counter-Strike 1.6 is on its way to Steam, and one of the game's original creators says 'it really gives me old vibes'
Portal P3 pinball table
There's a new Portal game and it costs $12,500
MrBeast posing in front of a stack of cashing, promoting Beast Games season 2
Beast Games opens casting for season 2: MrBeast lost a ton of money on season 1 but apparently not enough that he won't do it again
Image for
Rise of the Ronin's PC troubles continue as players report disappearing saves on Steam