Lately there has been a bit of a debate about how much VRAM graphics cards should have. Many claim they should carry more, especially those from NVIDIA, when thinking of 4K. Also, NVIDIA responded to this and with data, indicating that the 77% of Steam users play in 1080p or lower resolution.
Steam statistics should not be taken as something precise, they are a close picture of reality. Although it retains outdated data, it lets you see how video game fans move around. We can say that currently it is the best and most reliable source of information we have.
A picture and two numbers are used to dismantle many “theories”. They also serve as a reminder to its main competitor in the graphics card market: AMD.
Critical for Low Memory in NVIDIA Graphics
For several weeks, we have been talking about amount of memory integrated into NVIDIA graphics
NVIDIA has collected the data published by Steam, which refers to April 2023. The data shows that the 64% of users play a 1080p resolution. They also show that 77% of users play at this resolution or even lower, such as 720p resolution. Steam makes it clear that only 12.5% of users play on 1440p and only 2.75% of users play on 4K resolution.
We will transfer this to absolute numbers. On average, every day, 32 million users are connected to the largest video game platform. It assumes whatand 25 million users
Anyone can browse the NVIDIA graphics card catalog and see that there are solutions for everyone. Obviously, as the niche of users who play games at 1080p, the bid amount will be higher.
The data of the most used graphics card
Leaving aside this empty controversy over the amount of VRAM and the resolution, perhaps the most interesting fact is this. NVIDIA specifies that 4 out of 5 graphics cards present in Steam are NVIDIA xx60. This data is brutal, because it means that the rest of the graphics cards are of little interest to users.
It tells us that models like the GTX 1660, GTX 1660 Ti, RTX 2060 and RTX 3060, among others, are the most used. Precisely, all these cards have between 6 GB and 8 GB of VRAM, more than enough to play in 1080p resolution.
The company itself, when marketing its products, usually indicates which audience it is aimed at. Recall that the RTX 3090 was touted as the first graphics card designed for 8K resolution gaming (we won’t go that way or not). For 1440p gaming we already have the RTX 3070/RTX 4070 and for 4K gaming the RTX 3080/RTX 4080 and above, with larger amounts of VRAM.
In the end, it all comes down to the fact that, according to NVIDIA, they more than satisfy the needs of the market. Another thing, which we can discuss at another time, is the price of products, which are more and more expensive.
