The GeForce RTX 5070 Becomes the Most Popular Graphics Card on Steam

The September Steam Hardware Survey confirms two notable changes in players’ setups.

The ranking of graphics cards used on Steam has just undergone a major shift. According to data from the September 2026 hardware survey, the GeForce RTX 5070 now holds the top spot among the most common GPUs on the platform. It is now installed in 5.86% of the machines surveyed, up from 3.56% the previous month—a 2.3-point increase in just one month. This growth allows the RTX 5070 to outpace every other graphics card model individually. This momentum is also benefiting the current generation of NVIDIA graphics cards more broadly. For example, the GeForce RTX 5060 is present in 4.2% of configurations, a 1.22-point increase, while the RTX 5060 Ti has climbed to 3.87%, up 1.46 points.

© Valve

This trend reflects the growing presence of RTX 50-generation GPUs among PC gamers. The trend is particularly pronounced when combining the various models in the family. In fact, the RTX 5050, 5060, 5060 Ti, 5070, 5070 Ti, 5080, and 5090 now account for 18.21% of the configurations surveyed. They accounted for only 12.93% the previous month. The increase is significant enough to suggest a shift in the Steam landscape, although it must also be acknowledged that some uncertainty still surrounds how these hardware surveys are conducted: they rely on user participation, and Valve does not disclose the number of machines surveyed.

© Valve

Nevertheless, these surveys provide some insight into the state of players’ hardware configurations. Thus, another insight can be drawn from this September 2026 report: a shift toward 32 GB of RAM. For the first time, systems equipped with 32 GB have actually overtaken those with 16 GB. The proportion of systems with 32 GB has reached 42.22%, up from 37.45% a month earlier. At the same time, configurations with 16 GB have dropped from 41.2% to 37.82%. This shift comes at a time when RAM has never been more expensive, proving that games’ memory demands are outpacing inflation… at least to some extent. Finally, the last piece of information from this September Steam survey shows that QHD resolution (2560 x 1440) has seen strong growth, rising from 21.86% to 27.04% of the configurations surveyed. Conversely, Full HD (1920 x 1080) has declined from 50.52% to 47.91%. While Full HD still holds the majority, the shift is clearly underway.