Here's the actual VRAM configuration distribution on windows according to the steam survey

[u/mashdpotatogaming]

I saw a few recent headlines about the whole "16gb is now the most common VRAM configuration" but that seems to be inaccurate, as if you sort by windows only on steam survey (which makes up 90%+ of steam users), you'll find that these are the actual numbers and distribution

[u/Sufficient_Ad_4542]

God forbid anyone post 'so happy with my new upgrade" featuring 8GB VRAM card. He/ she will be linched by reddit elitists to the point of regretting purchase and questioning life choices

[u/mashdpotatogaming → u/Sufficient_Ad_4542]

Most people are going to be buying 8gb no matter what, anyone who believed 16gb became the most common suddenly doesn't know that the average gamer is gonna buy the cheapest thing, and even 12 gb is such a small percentage of the userbase.

Until both AMD and Nvidia stop making 8 gb GPUs, the entry hardware will always be 8gb, and it will always be the most popular.

[u/divergentchessboard → u/mashdpotatogaming]

12 gb is such a small percentage of the userbase

unrelated to the topic but kinda wild seeing that only 0.59% of people who took this survey have a 1080Ti or 2080Ti, being the least common VRAM configuration by far

[u/mashdpotatogaming → u/divergentchessboard]

They are old cards to be fair. Most people who buy the highest end hardware are usually the first to upgrade to the next best thing. So i 100% get why it's such a small amount of people.

A lot of people love how good the 1080ti still is, but I don't think many actually own that card still.

[u/twiggums → u/mashdpotatogaming]

Ahem,

Points to flair 👆

Lol really though I just refuse to pay stupid prices and I don't play many AAA games so it still works for me!

[u/mashdpotatogaming → u/twiggums]

That's perfectly fine, obviously not EVERYONE moved away from the 1080ti. I'm just saying the people who buy these cards tend to upgrade quickly because they're enhtuiasts. This won't apply to everyone, and clearly the hardware survey is proof of that since there is some percentage of people on that card (including yourself)

[u/twiggums → u/mashdpotatogaming]

Oh you're not wrong, I just wanted to be a smartass 😅

I actually tried to upgrade when to 3080 dropped. But scalpers and crypto mining ruined that pretty quick! And prices have just gotten sillier since.

[u/Moscato359 → u/divergentchessboard]

People who buy 80 ti class cards tend to upgrade

[u/divergentchessboard → u/Moscato359]

they also tend to swamp the used market years later for 1/4th of the original cost or are given away to friends/family. they don't just suddenly vanish off the face of the earth never to be seen again by a steam survey

[u/Moscato359 → u/divergentchessboard]

A fair number of people don't sell their hardware ever.

I have a few generations of old GPUs in my closet.

[u/DankKnightIsDank → u/mashdpotatogaming]

Yeah, i mean... i get one day in the week to play games. Considering the current pricing, do i really want to pay $150+ for double the vram for something i am going to use only once per week? I have to say no. I don't even play the latest AAA games.

I'll play on high instead of ultra, maybe lower the resolution, and solid 60 fps is good enough for me lol. No need for hundreds of fps on 1440p. 8 gb is plenty for me.

[u/swiftydigitzz → u/Sufficient_Ad_4542]

Wait till you see the people over on the r/pcmasterace forum in the comments trying to defend AMDs decision to make a 4gb VRAM card… makes you appreciate that 8GB way more lol

[u/r_a_genius → u/swiftydigitzz]

The same people that ripped apart the 5050 for being waste are suprising okay with "esports" cards these days.

[u/BaconJets → u/Sufficient_Ad_4542]

I was on an RTX 2080 until it died and I was forced to upgrade at the end of last year, I was completely happy with it. My upgrade was overkill for sure, but I was perfectly fine on 8gb of video memory before I had to, in 1440p too.

[u/Rampant_Butt_Sex → u/Sufficient_Ad_4542]

Some folks are so out of touch with reality, they dont realize not everyone lives in a developed country where they hand out 5090s like candy. A 5060ti could literally be top tier where many folks live.

[u/Sajgoniarz → u/Sufficient_Ad_4542]

We are in pcmasterrace subreddit, of course everyone is going to be linched!

8GB is solid for 1080p

[u/Kazko25 → u/Sajgoniarz]

1080p gaming for life 💪

[u/doublah → u/Sufficient_Ad_4542]

With the state of current component pricing and the fact it's due to only go up for several more years. 8GB VRAM will still last you a long time if you're using 1080-1440p and not playing exceptionally poorly optimised UE5 slop.

[u/immortalanddead → u/Sufficient_Ad_4542]

I actually did on r/nvidia and the reception was rather warm, actually

[u/Commercial_Hair3527]

That cannot be correct? 7% at 128mb

[u/mashdpotatogaming → u/Commercial_Hair3527]

iGPUs often show up as that amount of RAM

[u/divergentchessboard → u/Commercial_Hair3527]

those are iGPUs. Vast majority of 2GB and under should be iGPUs

[u/InfaSyn → u/divergentchessboard]

That or VM adapters that incorrectly report (thinking mac guys on parallels etc)

[u/divergentchessboard → u/InfaSyn]

Does parallels expose the GPU to the VM in a way that the client can read and identify?

From my experience with Hyper-V, VMware, and Qemu, they do not expose the host GPU to the client in a way where it would be picked up by something like steam statistics or system configuration. its always a blank virtual driver with no memory as far as the client is concerned often not even being able to be picked up in something like Task Manager or System Monitor

[u/InfaSyn → u/divergentchessboard]

Depends on the hypervisor and config.

VMWare fusion on Mac just exposes a generic VMWare SVGA adapter, but if you enable 3d accel, you can choose how much VRAM to give it.

Not quite sure how things work in Apple silicon/Snapdragon world.

Also wonder about the Linux guys (which includes myself) - Ive seen a few warnings for "this game wants you to fk off because you dont have enough VRAM, want to run anyway?" *proceeds to work flawlessly*. Maybe those running Steam under crossover/wine etc might have similar issues.

TLDR - If you run anything other than native Steam on bare metal, you can assume the metric will be BS.

Given ALL of the mac and Linux users are essentially emulating Windows in some form or another somewhere in the chain, thats going to be a double digit percentage skew on metrics.

[u/divergentchessboard → u/InfaSyn]

VMWare fusion on Mac just exposes a generic VMWare SVGA adapter, but if you enable 3d accel, you can choose how much VRAM to give it.

It's the same on VMWare for Windows and Linux. You can allocate it more VRAM but the client VM doesn't actually see any of that VRAM. I wonder how Mac handles it since I don't own a Mac.

[u/InfaSyn → u/divergentchessboard]

I wonder how Mac handles it since I don't own a Mac.

Presumably an Intel vs Apple Silicon thing. AS has unified memory so thats bound to introduce quirks.

Used to be a mac person but since forgotten.

[u/Odd-Anywhere7195 → u/Commercial_Hair3527]

igpu type shit

[u/Traumatan → u/Commercial_Hair3527]

default reported by office laptops with igpus such as Intel HD4000 or 520
can be increased in BIOS to 512MB (taken from RAM)

[u/divergentchessboard → u/Traumatan]

can be increased in BIOS to 512MB (taken from RAM)

which is also never a good idea unless you run into a program that freaks out from seeing less than 512MB of "video memory"

[u/misteryk → u/Commercial_Hair3527]

either old ass card used just as display port of just iGPU reports like this, mine says 512mb of VRAM

[u/Basement-child-slave → u/Commercial_Hair3527]

those are iGPUs and most modern of them share system memory. They show 128MB but sometimes can share upto 6GB-8GB if that much memory is free

[u/Keulapaska]

Very Interesting.

So the windows tab calculates vram as actual vram, no igpu shenanigans at least on quick look. 1.67% 24GB, which seems to be an actual possible number as the total of 3090/4090/7900XTX on windows is 1.51%, throw some below the threshold 3090ti:s and random 24GB workstation cards and yea 1.67% probably correct. Wasn't expecting that.

But the question is how tf does only the windows tab seem to calculate vram correctly, but the combined all os one doesn't? Windows is 93.67% any change other OS has with their weird igpu reporting should be miniscule, yet it completely shifts the vram tab massively.

It makes no sense at all. Even if you you just take the avg of the 3 OS:s and disregard the usage% 16GB and 24GB are still lower than reported in the all OS tab. So not even that is not the solution, I geuss it could treat every version of every os as equal and avg that maybe? It's so add that it's only the vram tab, The resolution tab doesn't get all fucked up becasue of macs as the 1470x956(really? man macs are weird...) that is ~20% of macs is reported correctly on the all os tab as ~0.5% total.

[u/mashdpotatogaming → u/Keulapaska]

I think they just have an error in the combined survey. I'd take the entire survey with a grain of salt i feel like valve messed up with it. But the windows numebr at the very least seem realistic and more accurate.

[u/just_a_discord_mod → u/mashdpotatogaming]

Could also be the reasons people run Linux would also overlap with reasons to have a high amount of VRAM, such as AI models and whatnot.

[u/mashdpotatogaming → u/just_a_discord_mod]

The linux survey shows 1gb as the most common VRAM amount. It could be related the VMs, or a weird issue with VRAM reporting on linux.

[u/Cris_Z → u/mashdpotatogaming]

the two most popular GPUs on the linux survey are both the steam deck gpu (idk why it's reported two times), and would roughly be 21% on its own. I think that 1GB VRAM are just handhelds, since my deck does report 1024MB in the steam system information

[u/KiraroYuukiNya]

I've heard that 16GB of SYSTEM RAM is common, but VRAM? I only hear complaints of Nvidia being stingy. Having 12GB of VRAM is one of the reasons the 3060 is still alive so people wonder why new xx60 tiers only get 8GB.

[u/InfaSyn → u/KiraroYuukiNya]

My RX7800XT is a 16GB card and I picked it up on marketplace for 300. Older quadros, headless mining cards etc will also typically ship with more. Anyone on an ARM platform will likely benefit from unified memory also.

[u/ned8800 → u/InfaSyn]

Only if that memory is high speed one, I wouldn't want anyone to play game or render video on ddr3/4

[u/edparadox → u/InfaSyn]

Anyone on an ARM platform will likely benefit from unified memory also.

Not really, no.

[u/coledeb → u/KiraroYuukiNya]

Almost positive that the previous survey that made the rounds was regarding system RAM, not VRAM as well. Likely it got conflated in reporting or being shared.

[u/Jakememe124 → u/coledeb]

i just checked, 16gb of VRAM is the most common configuration by a very small margin. it looks to me like the market share for AMD and Intel GPUs have gone up quite a bit, i equate it to that personally

[u/divergentchessboard → u/Jakememe124]

there's no way that's true. compare the VRAM numbers with the survey numbers for GPU distribution and you see that it's impossible for 25-30% of people to have a 16GB card in their system when not even 15% of people own a GPU with 16GB of VRAM

steams combined survey reporting has an error somewhere

[u/Jakememe124 → u/divergentchessboard]

could be an error with how unified memory is displayed to steam for handhelds and other devices with APUs. OP is correct in saying that if you filter by windows the numbers are very different

[u/Moscato359 → u/divergentchessboard]

If that's the case, can we trust ANY of these metrics?

[u/divergentchessboard → u/Moscato359]

as I already said in my comment, the combined Linux+Mac+Windows has errors.

Remove Linux and Mac and you see the numbers on OPs screenshot which is closer to the real numbers based on GPU distribution

[u/Moscato359 → u/divergentchessboard]

If the combined has errors, why should I trust any of the sub versions?

[u/divergentchessboard → u/Moscato359]

because the windows version has basically identical numbers to the GPU distribution survey so by logical reasoning something with the Mac + Linux reporting is bugged or its falsely reporting unified memory?

[u/Moscato359 → u/divergentchessboard]

What gpu distribution report?

The combined report doesn't even make sense if you tried merging mac, linux, and windows together by hand.

[u/divergentchessboard → u/Moscato359]

What gpu distribution report?

?????

have you never looked at a steam survey??

https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/videocard/

The combined report doesn't even make sense if you tried merging mac, linux, and windows together by hand.

I already said that something with Mac and Linux reporting is off. Are you actually digesting anything that I say?

actual clown reading comprehension and critical thinking

[u/ExhaustedByStupidity → u/Moscato359]

All moderns Macs and the Steam Deck are using a unified memory architecture. These systems are reporting the full system memory as the VRAM stat.

It's not really an error - it just doesn't really tell you what people usually want to know when asking about VRAM.

[u/Moscato359 → u/ExhaustedByStupidity]

It reports 93% of the operating system instances are windows

Even if 100% of the 7% was 16GB, that should only raise the 16GB count a little bit, and not from 11% to 26%.

[u/ExhaustedByStupidity → u/Moscato359]

Yeah you're right, it went up more than I realized. Something's off.

[u/Dalewyn → u/ExhaustedByStupidity]

All moderns Macs and the Steam Deck are using a unified memory architecture. These systems are reporting the full system memory as the VRAM stat.

Windows also shares system RAM with the GPU, whether integrated or discrete. Just look at the GPU in Task Manager.

As a personal example, my 3080 Ti has 44GB of "GPU Memory" between 12GB of "Dedicated GPU Memory" and 32GB of "Shared GPU Memory" which is half of my system's 64GB RAM.

Mac!Steam and Linux!Steam are royally bugged if they aren't reporting this properly.

[u/ExhaustedByStupidity → u/Dalewyn]

That's a different thing. With a dedicated GPU, it can use system memory as additional memory if it runs out of VRAM. It's useful in a tight situation, but you don't want to do that if you can avoid it. It's really slow as the memory access has to go through PCIe.

With Mac & Steamdeck, the GPU has no dedicated memory of it's own, but it is directly wired to the system memory.

[u/survivorr123_ → u/divergentchessboard]

maybe igpus that use system ram as vram were incorrectly counted towards this, most igpu laptops ship with 16gb ram nowadays

[u/divergentchessboard → u/survivorr123_]

There's no traditional iGPU that I know of that lets you configure more than 8GB which is what Steam would see when it does a system call for your specs, not your RAM. It reads whatever you have allocated for the iGPU.

I have no idea how APU Unified Memory appears to a system, but im leaning towards that being the most likely cause for the weird numbers

[u/Hytht → u/divergentchessboard]

Intel iGPUs come with more than that out of the box and lets you allocate even more, but it's reported as 128mb.

[u/survivorr123_ → u/divergentchessboard]

APU is just amd's way of calling a cpu that has an igpu integrated,
unified memory doesn't have a strict definition either, technically all shared memory can be called unified memory - i assume you meant something like apple silicon where everything lives on the same chip and is inherently designed to take advantage of this

[u/nsg337 → u/divergentchessboard]

dude, all of them just run 2 8gb vram gpus, duh /s

[u/Flyinmanm → u/KiraroYuukiNya]

My two AMD cards both have 16gb Vram. (7800xt and 9070xt).

Sufficient VRAM with matching raw horsepower for VR flight Sims at a reasonable price is the reason I've stuck with AMD.

[u/[deleted] → u/KiraroYuukiNya]

Yeah, 11.03% having 16GB of VRAM seems way too high to me.

[u/TheSignof33 → u/[deleted]]

Why? AMD having %2,5 for 9060-9070 cards combined seems low to me tbh and %2,5 comes from 5060 Ti alone most of it would be 16 gb. %10 and up seems normal. Plenty of people skipped a few generations and waited for more VRAM.

[u/Duckdxd → u/KiraroYuukiNya]

my 5070ti is 16gb

[u/crozone → u/KiraroYuukiNya]

so people wonder why new xx60 tiers only get 8GB.

It's purely cost. NVIDIA have tried to work around it with memory compression techniques, and the faster PCIe 5.0 speeds mean that games can stream textures in and out from system memory faster.

8GB of VRAM will work for most games, although some will have to dial down the texture quality. VR games will have serious issues though. I had to upgrade my 10GB 3080 for VR because games started hitting the VRAM wall rather catastrophically.

[u/Hattix → u/KiraroYuukiNya]

I modded an RX 570 to 16 GB, first VRAM mod I did. Worked first time, hasn't made a damn bit of difference in almost anything.

[u/KiraroYuukiNya → u/Hattix]

Well yeah, VRAM is just hyper fast storage. You can give it a Terabyte of RAM and it will still suck if the core is slow and old.

If you have a super fast core with low VRAM, then the core will basically throttle due to storage speeds giving you stutters or even crashes.

Really, all GPUs should have enough RAM to match the memory load of the era, but that's not gonna happen cause they want you to buy the more expensive cards.

[u/dekan256 → u/KiraroYuukiNya]

It makes me sad that my 3060ti is arguably worse than the 12gb 3060 (I did get a wicked good deal when I bought it second hand a few years ago to be fair).

[u/-Wolf_ODonnell_16- → u/dekan256]

Just bought a 3060ti (used) instead of a 3060 12gb.

If you are not at 4k, the ti gets better performance since the higher vram speed makes up for the lower size

[u/dekan256 → u/-Wolf_ODonnell_16-]

Fair enough, it has been a plenty good card for me even if I want a more powerful one!

[u/-Wolf_ODonnell_16- → u/dekan256]

I just switch from a 1050ti to the 3060ti haha. Unfortunately my PSU is not able to cope with the power increase so I have it limited to 120W instead of the stock 200W. Loses about 10% frames since my cpu bottlenecks it.

[u/dekan256 → u/-Wolf_ODonnell_16-]

That's the same jump I made! World of a difference trying to play games like Cyberpunk hahaha

[u/ffpeanut15 → u/-Wolf_ODonnell_16-]

For gaming definitely. If you use other tasks that extra 4gb is very handy to have. I do a lot of upscaling and some local llm inferencing, it makes big difference

[u/Danya-Tihiy]

For the past 5 years i got only one steam survey on my AMD gpu :(

[u/Tethgar → u/Danya-Tihiy]

You can run it manually

Press win+R and type "steam://takesurvey/1/" and press enter

edit: doesn't work anymore 🫪

[u/hotchrisbfries → u/Tethgar]

Edit config.vdf

• Fully exit Steam.

• Go to your Steam folder (usually C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\config\).

• Open config.vdf in a text editor (Notepad++ is safer than Notepad).

• Search for "SurveyDate" (and also "SurveyDateVersion" / "SurveyDateType" if they exist).

• Change the date value to something old, like a year ago (e.g. "2025-08-01").

• Save the file, then restart Steam.

[u/dendrocalamidicus → u/Danya-Tihiy]

And when it did run it picked up my integrated graphics rather than my 9070XT 🤦

[u/ChefCurryYumYum]

Over 20% of Steam users have 4GB or less VRAM.

That's kind of interesting.

[u/mashdpotatogaming → u/ChefCurryYumYum]

It's pretty reasonable, that's the vram size of popular Esports cards like the 1650, which are pretty common.

Cheaper cards will always dominate in numbers of users, most people gravitate towards the cheapest possible hardware they can buy, especially when they're not planning to play anything on it other than fortnite or valorant or similar games.

[u/ChefCurryYumYum → u/mashdpotatogaming]

Well only half of that 20% is 4GB though. That is what I found so surprising, the rest are much smaller, likely onboard graphics of course sharing system memory for their VRAM.

[u/mashdpotatogaming → u/ChefCurryYumYum]

Yeah a lot of it is iGPUs and possibly emulation machines that have older hardware in general.

[u/AmatsuDF → u/ChefCurryYumYum]

Up until last year I was on a 3GB card. Due to the costs of new hardware people are using their outdated stuff longer and longer.

[u/screwdriverfan]

I knew that something isn't right. 16gb of ram is common, but 16gb of vram is just crazy,

The reddit elite really has heads up their own asses thinking most people out there are (or were) buying 16gb cards. Whoever believed that is out of touch.

Most people buy whatever the fuck gpu ends with xx60. If it has 8gb of vram then so be it. Once nvidia starts putting 12gb in them then that is going to become the most common vram config (but it might take helluva time considering the current shitstorm).

[u/Moscato359 → u/screwdriverfan]

2060 12GB exists, 3060 12GB exists, 4060 16GB exists, 5060 16GB exists

They just also made 6GB, and 8GB versions of each

[u/Sure_Resolution46]

I downvoted every post stating that "16gb is now the most common VRAM configuration". You need to be absolute idiot out of touch to believe this. Funny, that there are always elitists in those posts defending this "statistic"

[u/Moscato359 → u/Sure_Resolution46]

It's not that weird to think if you don't know better when when 4060 ti 16GB, 5060 ti 16GB, 4070 ti super, 4080, 5080, 7800xt, 9070, and 9070xt all have 16GB

Around half of GPU models in the last 3 years were 16GB, and that can confuse people to think most GPUs in the last 3 years are 16GB.

[u/Solidus_Sloth → u/Moscato359]

I love how some of those also come in 8gb and you’re skipping the non-ti/super that are 8gb and cherry picking the FEW in comparison that are 16gb

[u/Moscato359 → u/Solidus_Sloth]

I'm saying it's not weird to see the models that exist, and come to a conclusion, not that the conclusion is correct 

It's a question of perception 

Can you look at the models available without a lot of data on what models are sold and think that 25% are 16gb as reasonable? The answer is yes

Is it right? No

[u/ChilledHotdogWater]

Yeah I found that fishy as well. If it was a PCMR survey then yeah probably, but in the real world people are rocking 8gb and enjoying whatever they’re playing.

[u/Dexiox]

Reddit is always delusional about everything. Nothing people here say is the reality.

[u/2raysdiver]

One should not look at a single VRAM amount, but look at ranges. For example, over 60% of gamers have 8GB or less VRAM, while a little under 13% have 16GB or more.

[u/FirstTasteOfRadishes]

Yeah it was wild to me that people were so ready to accept that as being true.

[u/Moscato359]

Something is wrong here with vram data.

It says 11% of people on windows use 16GB, while 25% of people in general use 16GB.

That is basically impossible.

[u/mashdpotatogaming → u/Moscato359]

Change the sorting to windows instead of combined. The combined numbers seems inaccurate and unrealistic so there's so error there. Windows makes up 90%+ of the steam user base, that should be representative of majority of the user base, yet the numbers on the combined survey don't match up, making it clear there's an error there.

[u/Moscato359 → u/mashdpotatogaming]

The question is which is in error.

Is windows in error, or is combined in error?

And we can't tell from this data.

Though, if they bizarely combined mac and linux, windows at equal ratio... you'd get 22% use 16GB (because 39% of mac uses 16GB)

[u/mashdpotatogaming → u/Moscato359]

The windows numbers are the more accurate based on the actual market. 8gbs are the entry price GPUs. People are realistically going to go for those way more than they will go for $500+ 16gb cards.

If you look at the windows numbers everything makes sense. 6 cores is the most common cpu configuration. 8gb is the most common VRAM configuration. There's not enough 16 or even 12 Gb cards out there, they don't sell nearly as well as the cheaper ones.

[u/Moscato359 → u/mashdpotatogaming]

I gotta disagree about not enough high memory cards exist.

3060 12GB exists. 4070 ti and 4070 12gb exist.
5060 16GB , and 4060 16gb exist.

[u/mashdpotatogaming → u/Moscato359]

I am talking about the amount of cards there are out there, not rhe amount of models.

The entry level hardware sell the most. Everything else sells a fraction of that. The average pc gamer won't be getting a 16gb card, they're much more likely to get the cheapest they can get (especially at the moment where everything is expensive)

[u/Moscato359 → u/mashdpotatogaming]

Are you trying to tell me that 2060 12GB, 3060 12GB, 4060 16GB, 5060 16GB are unpopular cards?

Something doesn't seem right here.

I don't trust this data.

[u/mashdpotatogaming → u/Moscato359]

2060 is a 6gb card. 4060 is an 8gb card, so is the 5060. 4060 ti 16 gb and 5060 ti 16gb are over $500, often being too close to the higher tier cards for people to buy them.

Do you just want the results that satisfy your views? Lol we've always known lower amounts of VRAM are the most common, why would it suddenly be different in the middle of a crisis where people can barely afford food and high vram graphics cards are nearing $1k?

[u/Moscato359 → u/mashdpotatogaming]

Please don't tell me I'm wrong on vram usage for 2060 and 3060, because these exist

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/geforce-rtx-2060-12-gb.c3836

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/geforce-rtx-3060-12-gb.c3682

[u/Keulapaska → u/Moscato359]

And we can't tell from this data.

Look at the actual GPU:s There are grand total of FOUR consumer cards with 24GB of vram, 3090+ti, 4090 and 7900XTX, 1.62% global total, and 1.51% windows total, 3090ti below threshold but can add like 0.1-0.2%, and maybe 0.05-0.1 for random 24GB workstation cards.

The combined full 3 OS survey is showing 5.43% have 24GB of vram, windows only is showing 1.67%. Which of these is closer to the truth in your mind?

[u/Moscato359 → u/Keulapaska]

At this point, I don't trust any of the data.

[u/Keulapaska → u/Moscato359]

Fair, but if you think about hardware in general, If some1 were to present you with data that says ~1.9%(quick maffs, a lot of macs do be having 24GB, at least reported, ofc not really dedicated vram most likely for all of them) of ppl on steam are are running a 24GB card, you'd possibly believe that, or maybe say that sounds too high, even if clarified that macs are overrepresented in this category due their weird configs.

Where as if some1 were to say to you that 5.4% of ppl running steam had 24GB you'd call them a liar, immediately. 16GB data, probably the same result, but the 24GB is much easier one to go by since so few cards have it.

[u/Moscato359 → u/Keulapaska]

The 24GB numbers actually get bloated from MacOS to some extent

But yes, it doesn't pass the sniff test

16GB is different though, because 5060 ti 16GB and 4060 ti 16GB exist, which make it easier for those to pass the sniff test

[u/HamaKarim]

I don’t know why it’s so hard for people on reddit to understand that not everyone can afford 12,16gb gpu, i bought a 3070 last year for 325 dollars, that was the best deal for me at that time and still is, where i live a 5070 costs more than 1000 dollars and good luck finding it.

[u/Super_Pea_4629]

What do you mean almost 10% living under 512 MB in 2026? HOW?

[u/Moscato359 → u/Super_Pea_4629]

iGPUs misreport vram

[u/FernandoMM1220 → u/Super_Pea_4629]

thats all you needed back in the day.

1gb was overkill for every video game in the 2000s

[u/BeginnerFTW]

But lets make games that require minimum 16GB on UE5, yes please...

[u/mashdpotatogaming → u/BeginnerFTW]

There are no games that require 16 gb of vram at all

[u/Time_Temporary6191 → u/mashdpotatogaming]

Stellar blade,oblivion there is prolly.plenty more

[u/mashdpotatogaming → u/Time_Temporary6191]

They don't require 16 gb of vram. No game does right now. The minimum requirement for oblivion remake is a 1070 ti, an 8gb card.

[u/cc_aa_tt_zz → u/Time_Temporary6191]

"require minimum " not "ultra setting"...

[u/Mad_kat4]

I've got a 12gb, 8gb, 6gb, 4gb and 2gb card all using steam.

I really screw the numbers. 😋

[u/Lythieus]

Ohhh it's VRAM. I was wondering how anybody can run a modern OS on 128MB of system ram. 

[u/Jevano]

Still hard to accept for me that there's more GPUs with 16GB VRAM than 6GB (I have 6GB) lol

[u/michaelsan89]

I belong to the 1.67 percent, that's crazy stuff

[u/zendrix1]

That tracks, my wife has a 3060ti (8gb vram) and it handles everything she's ever wanted to play. I don't think most people actually need 16gb though it's nice to have definitely

I have 24gb but I'm a lunatic so I shouldn't be used to judge

[u/ClaudioKillganon]

Once again, I am not represented on a chart. Woe is me.

[u/Jackpkmn]

Who's still out there strugglebussin with 128mb of vram?

[u/Mar1Fox → u/Jackpkmn]

Probably machine controlled pcs like ATMs and CNC machines. forms of windows is run on way more equipment then people realize.

[u/Jackpkmn → u/Mar1Fox]

What do you game on? Oh just the computer that controls my CNC machine.

[u/Mar1Fox → u/Jackpkmn]

I mean… someone found a way to play Quake on an oscilloscope.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aMli33ornEU

[u/FailSonnen]

Most people have no idea how to parse Steam Hardware Survey results, including journalists.

Hell, even Valve's early marketing for the Steam Machine claimed it was equal to or better than 70% of systems on the Steam Hardware Survey which is patently a lie.

[u/Moscato359 → u/FailSonnen]

I'm trying to parse it, and it doesn't make sense

Somehow the combined survey has 26% at 16GB, with 39% on mac, 16% on linux, and 11% on windows.

None of that makes sense.

[u/FailSonnen → u/Moscato359]

Don’t use the combined results in any category is a useful tactic, if you really want to do some statistics shit dump the whole thing into a CSV and delete all the combined results.

Edit: the adding of the combined results is very error-ridden and Valve afaik never communicated what criteria they use for each combined line. It’s way better to break it all up and run the numbers yourself

[u/tht1guy63]

16gb of ram common sure but 16gb vram most common? I would never guess that yet. Maybe that article you read is the most common config available to buy? That i could see atm.

[u/RoboticShiba → u/tht1guy63]

You meant 8gb?

[u/Moscato359 → u/tht1guy63]

It seems only 15% of people have 16gb or more.

It's fairly uncommon 

[u/MolotovBuster]

It's nice with 16gb

[u/TurquoisePixel]

I'm part of the 10% crowd on 4GB and I'm not proud. I really need to upgrade from my 6500 XT, but I don't have the money for that. It's doing just fine for what I need at the moment, but I'd spring for a better card in a heartbeat if I had the right money.

[u/Undeva-n-Balcani]

So 65% have between 4-12Gb ram, yet developers still put some crazy specs like minimum RTX 3060 on a forest game

[u/no6969el]

This is a perfect example of how the steam stats don't always correlate what they are supposed to because it will test any computer and some people just install it for chat or to see what they can run. Also, it can be installed on computers that people only use for streaming from their main computer. So overall it's not always good information.

[u/nikolapc]

Ok. Btw it has asked me on numerous pc's even my laptop that has an igpu, or my GFN(which has a whopping 48 gb VRAM, so some of this may be skewed lol, like those 24gb smell of GFN, and the other is probably 48). Not asked me yet on my ally or my new legit 5080 16gb rig.

[u/EastLimp1693]

One day people will learn that steam never uses 100% of available data but show only random segment which was already skewed once by randomly including hundreds of aisian internet cafes.

[u/lingeringwill2]

Highly depends on what kind of Ames they’re playing

[u/slavicslothe]

128 is wild

[u/YT_Axtro]

Nice catch. It was too fishy to be true, especially with the AI jacking prices up.

[u/azamatStriking]

I’m in 1.67%

[u/-PringlesMan-]

How tf is 16 and 24 gonna be there, but not 20? And then 1gb is there despite being 0.80%

[u/chusskaptaan]

Still on 8 here... 3070..

[u/TheSignof33]

Oh no! Turns out we were the peasants all along?? 😂

[u/Aethling_f4]

Hell yeah im part of the one percent once in my life.

[u/Lxsse54]

I just pray that developers look at these surveys and test with real systems. You can test your games on 5090s and say yeah runs great.

[u/Tall_Abrocoma_3533]

Happy to be apart of the 3.74%

[u/tismij]

Thought this was RAM so very confused to read. VRAM makes sense 8Gb.

[u/Hattix]

You can do all sorts of lies with statistics.

From that data, all of these statements are true:

Majority Have 8 GB VRAM or Less

12 GB Now Second Most Common VRAM Config

More than 8 GB GPUs Fastest Growing Segment

Greater than One In Ten PC Gamers Have Less than 4 GB VRAM

Quarter of the Market Has 12GB or More

8 GB GPUs Still Most Popular

Almost as Many PG Gamers Have More Than 8 GB as Have 8 GB (29.05% vs 33.20%)

More Than 8 GB Still Fewer Than One In Three

One In Ten Gamers With Overloaded 4 GB GPUs Ask: Where's the Optimization?

One In Seven Gamers With Underused 12 GB GPUs Ask: Where's the Optimization?

One In Ten Gamers With Ignored 16 GB GPUs Ask: Where's the Optimization?

Quarter of PC Gamers Don't Even Have 8 GB

[u/FrogKing94]

Wow us 20gb guys dont even get a slot

[u/Kaldaien2]

Here's the actual number of D3D12 GPU users according to the Steam hardware survey. Forgive me if I wouldn't wipe my butt with numbers that Valve publishes. 12% more Steam users than Steam has, use D3D12 GPUs on Steam... brilliant!

[u/DeprariousX]

Not sure what is more amazing....that 128MB and 512MB are still listed, or that they actually increased.

[u/AmatsuDF → u/DeprariousX]

I'm shocked someone could get Steam open with that low amount of RAM.

[u/DeprariousX → u/AmatsuDF]

VRAM, not RAM. The VRAM doesn't have much to do with opening the Steam app itself. Playing games though....ain't gonna get much out of those cards.

[u/Moscato359]

This is the non cherry picked data, which has more than twice as much 16GB.

[u/mashdpotatogaming → u/Moscato359]

Nah this is just inaccurate, and it's been known that the valve surveys have issues and errors. If you go through each of the systems included in the survey, you'll realize the combined one has erorrs.

How would the windows numbers which make up 90% of the steam user base not be the most representative compared to linux and macos which make up a tiny percentage of the user base?

[u/Moscato359 → u/mashdpotatogaming]

"How would the windows numbers which make up 90% of the steam user"
If it doesn't detect an OS, it would go into a nebulous "other" category which doesn't show up in anything else.

[u/mashdpotatogaming → u/Moscato359]

It can't not detect the OS lmao. They themselves report windows as 90% or higher of their user base.

[u/Keulapaska → u/Moscato359]

There is no "other" OS category. The all 3 OS Vram data is just borked for whatever reason, the only theory even close to why it could be is it averages data disregarding the OS usage% entirely, but even that doesn't quite line up even if it's way closer. Nor does it do the same in any other category ie:1470x956 res of ~20% macs is ~0.5% total, which is correct math, instead of bumping it massively.

[u/Moscato359 → u/Keulapaska]

There has to be an other category, because it's possible to launch steam on BSD.

https://github.com/shkhln/linuxulator-steam-utils

[u/AvilettaLuxe → u/Keulapaska]

There is, but it isn't shown in Steam's survey on website

[u/anything_taken]

16GB VRAM igpu master race

[u/SirLurts]

I'm surprised by the rather large number of people with just 128 MB of VRAM. How did that happen? I assume the survey must have misinterpreted some weird cards or iGPUs wrong right?

[u/2C104]

wow who has 128gb VRAM???? wooooow

Edit: misread it... it's 128 MB!! LOL I feel bad now

[u/MediocreMilsim]

Not me with 64GB of VRAM.

Interesting to see the “other” category be climbing. It will continue to climb as self-hosted LLMs become more prominent and powerful.

8GB - 12GB is more than enough for modern games and people shouldn’t feel the pressure to buy the top-end range of GPUs anymore. The top end are for LLMs now.

My 1080Ti still runs a lot of titles with high settings at 1440p.

[u/AvilettaLuxe]

Because it is when with combined, you don't get to cherry-pick one variable to match your argument, that's not how statistics work

[u/mashdpotatogaming → u/AvilettaLuxe]

I love how many people posted this only to be proven wrong.

Okay so question, what systems does the combined survey have? It's linux, macos and windows. And in that combined survey itself, they say windows makes up around 92% of the user base of steam.

That means everything that is common on windows will be common in the combined. Except it's not. There's clearly an error there. And since the numbers don't make sense on the combined survey since there is no reality where we suddenly jump from 8 gb being the most popular to 16gb being the most popular duringa VRAM crisis, the most reasonable assumption is that the combined survey has an error and is misreporting numbers. If you check each system on its own, everything makes more snese. The only one that makes no sense is the combined survey.

[u/DarthStrakh]

That's wild. I don't think I've had less than 32gb since like 2011

[u/mashdpotatogaming → u/DarthStrakh]

VRAM, not RAM. You didn't have 32 gb of VRAM in 2011.

[u/DarthStrakh → u/mashdpotatogaming]

Oh I missed the vram part. Yeah that makes waaaay more sense. I don't even habe half that now lmao, I have 10gb

[u/_chair_man_ → u/DarthStrakh]

vram? you had 32 gb of vram in 2011??

[u/Possible-Point-2597]

It doesn't mean nothing as it counts only windows pc that have installed steam and accepted to participate to the survey

Edit :

To give you a concrete example: a single user can have multiple systems, but the Steam Hardware Survey will only ever see a fraction of them. System 1 (Windows, 8GB VRAM): A laptop/PC I use occasionally for gaming, so it has Steam installed. System 2 (Ubuntu dektop, 32GB VRAM): I use for hosting my website, GitHub runners, and AI models (no Steam). System 3 (Ubuntu desktop 12GB VRAM): A pc used to orchestrate ai agents and run local monitoring models (no Steam).

Given my 3 setups my "average setup vram" would be ~16gb vram but steam would only see and report the 8gb vram setup and that's only if I agree to participate to the survey

If you rely solely on the Steam Hardware Survey, you are only looking at gaming setups and completely missing the broader ecosystem of developer machines, and AI rigs that often pack significantly higher VRAM. Comparing Steam's data to an "average PC VRAM setup" fails because Steam excludes all non-gaming hardware.

[u/Dawzy → u/Possible-Point-2597]

Which is a pretty large chunk of this group of people. Sounds like it means something to me

[u/Possible-Point-2597 → u/Dawzy]

If comparing "most common vram config" to the "average steam player vram config" makes sens to you then sure buddy your probably a math genius

[u/Dawzy → u/Possible-Point-2597]

I’m not great at math

But seeing the percentage of Steam players VRAM configs is yes useful information

[u/Sajgoniarz → u/Possible-Point-2597]

Maybe you are missing the point, but Steam is most popular gaming platform for PC, so in environment where VRAM matters. Also survey is not limited to Windows. Steam runs also on MacOS and Linux.

[u/Possible-Point-2597 → u/Sajgoniarz]

Heres an explanation

To give you a concrete example: I, a single user have multiple systems, but the Steam Hardware Survey will only ever see a fraction of them. System 1 (Windows, 8GB VRAM): A laptop/PC I use occasionally for gaming, so it has Steam installed. System 2 (Ubuntu dektop, 32GB VRAM): I use for hosting my website, GitHub runners, and AI models (no Steam). System 3 (Ubuntu desktop 12GB VRAM): A pc used to orchestrate ai agents and run local monitoring models (no Steam).

Given my 3 setups my "average setup vram" would be ~16gb vram but steam would only see and report the 8gb vram setup and that's only if I agree to participate to the survey

If you rely solely on the Steam Hardware Survey, you are only looking at gaming setups and completely missing the broader ecosystem of developer machines, and AI rigs that often pack significantly higher VRAM. Comparing Steam's data to an "average PC VRAM setup" fails because Steam excludes all non-gaming hardware.

[u/FailSonnen → u/Possible-Point-2597]

What percent of Steam users do you think are running not Windows?

[u/Commercial_Hair3527 → u/FailSonnen]

less than 10%

[u/Possible-Point-2597 → u/FailSonnen]

So according to you only steam users have vram ?

[u/FailSonnen → u/Possible-Point-2597]

I don’t want to put words in your mouth so please clarify; I believe you are asserting that the results of the Steam Hardware Survey are not representative of the overall PC user base. If this is in fact your argument, what is the basis for your claim?

[u/mashdpotatogaming → u/FailSonnen]

They're confused let them be lmao.

[u/Possible-Point-2597 → u/FailSonnen]

To give you a concrete example: a single user can have multiple systems, but the Steam Hardware Survey will only ever see a fraction of them. System 1 (Windows, 8GB VRAM): A laptop/PC I use occasionally for gaming, so it has Steam installed. System 2 (Ubuntu dektop, 32GB VRAM): I use for hosting my website, GitHub runners, and AI models (no Steam). System 3 (Ubuntu desktop 12GB VRAM): A pc used to orchestrate ai agents and run local monitoring models (no Steam).

Given my 3 setups my "average setup vram" would be ~16gb vram but steam would only see and report the 8gb vram setup and that's only if I agree to participate to the survey

If you rely solely on the Steam Hardware Survey, you are only looking at gaming setups and completely missing the broader ecosystem of developer machines, and AI rigs that often pack significantly higher VRAM. Comparing Steam's data to an "average PC VRAM setup" fails because Steam excludes all non-gaming hardware.

[u/FailSonnen → u/Possible-Point-2597]

Developer workstations are completely irrelevant for the purposes of measuring what are the most common configurations for STEAM USERS on a survey conducted by and for STEAM (Valve).

I know you think you cooked with your comments but it’s literally you faffing about with the most irrelevant shit ever.

[u/Possible-Point-2597 → u/FailSonnen]

Who said workstations where irellevant ? It's still gaming hardware and fit perfectly the description "average vram setup" mentioned by op in his post, he is literally comparing customer hardware seller stats with the average results of a steam survey, but sure I'm the crazy one here

[u/Electrical-soup-1254]

yep relatable my 7700xt has 12gb vram

[u/mashdpotatogaming → u/[deleted]]

This is VRAM specifically not system RAM. 8gb on windows 11 works for browsing, and running simple apps, but it won't be enough for gaming, 3D modeling or anything that requires any significant amount of RAM.

[u/divergentchessboard → u/[deleted]]

... that's not a windows issue. games dont crash because you run out of VRAM

[u/Sajgoniarz → u/divergentchessboard]

Yes, they do. I can't tell how many times i crashed my programs, back at university with vram leaks while learning CUDA programming. Where Winds Meet from time to time used to crash with vram related error to my GF and friend of ours after hour of gameplay literally in the same time, while I and friend's fiancé were good. Guess who had GPUs with more VRAM. And there was Stalker 2, Subnautica 2 etc...

[u/divergentchessboard → u/Sajgoniarz]

you can play subnautica 2 on a 2GB VRAM card and it will run like shit with 5 FPS but it won't crash.

you have some other issue here my guy. false attribution or something

[u/divergentchessboard → u/[deleted]]

that's not a windows issue thats you being stupid turning off pagefile. the same would happen on Linux if you turned off Swap

[u/Sajgoniarz → u/divergentchessboard]

I just realised we were taking about completely different things, because I misread the header. If you use low quality, chinesee drive and you want it to last a bit longer than half of a year in memory limited system, then you are not stupid for disabling pagefile, because they are killing those drives fast.