It has virtually develop into the stuff of legend, simply how small and ever-shrinking AMD’s share of the graphics card market has develop into, and there isn’t any finer instance of that than the shortcoming of the corporate’s RX 9000 sequence to make any influence on the Steam {Hardware} Survey. Valve’s month-to-month register of the {hardware} utilized by Steam avid gamers has been utterly devoid of AMD’s newest GPUs since their launch practically a yr in the past. Nonetheless, this month, that lastly modified.
Within the Steam {Hardware} Survey for December 2025, which has simply been launched, the AMD Radeon RX 9070 managed to sneak into the highest 100 playing cards used on the platform, coming in because the 96th most-used possibility. This places it simply forward of the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT and simply behind the Intel HD Graphics 4600 – the built-in GPU in lots of Intel CPUs.
Loads of different AMD GPUs occupy greater spots on the checklist, with the RX 7600 XT within the forty ninth spot, two positions forward of the RX 7900 XTX, and the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT sitting at 29. Nonetheless, no different RX 9000 sequence playing cards make the checklist, with the highest current-gen card, the RX 9070 XT, and AMD’s newest mid-range possibility, the RX 9060 XT, nowhere to be seen.
This sluggish success for its newest playing cards can also be a development mirrored in Nvidia’s GPUs, regardless of the corporate’s choices in any other case dominating the highest of the chart. The RTX 5070 is the top-ranked RTX 5000 sequence possibility, sitting in eleventh, whereas the RTX 5060 is in twenty first place.
As an alternative, it is Nvidia’s older chips that proceed to rule the roost. The RTX 3060 returns to prime spot, with 6.53% of Steam customers utilizing the two-generation-old, mid-range card. In the meantime, laptop computer and desktop variations of its successor, the RTX 4060, take up positions two and three. Even the traditional GTX 1650 nonetheless manages to keep up its spot within the prime 5.
This basic development of a sluggish uptake of recent playing cards and older playing cards staying in prime positions for a very long time is not a lot a suggestion that newer fashions aren’t promoting, but it surely simply goes to indicate how lengthy it could actually take for market share to construct up and the way slowly some avid gamers improve. In spite of everything, the Steam {Hardware} Survey covers avid gamers all around the globe working all kinds of PCs, from historical to cutting-edge.
That is additionally why you are inclined to see mid-range and finances playing cards dominate the highest spots, as the vast majority of PCs customers aren’t in a position to afford flagship GPUs or any era, not to mention the present. Certainly, this sample has solely grown as GPU costs have skyrocketed. It is nonetheless only some years since flagship GPUs have been $500, not the $1000+ costs of at present.
Again to the RX 9070, and as we discover in our AMD Radeon RX 9070 assessment, there’s good motive that AMD’s second-tier GPU is the primary 9000 sequence mannequin to make an influence on the Steam chart. It affords an awesome steadiness of efficiency, options, and energy consumption, with solely its launch worth seeming just a little excessive on the time. Nonetheless, with real-world costs for the RX 9070 XT and different competing GPUs having been a lot greater than anticipated, the RX 9070 has ended up being an awesome alternative. You too can learn our greatest graphics card information for extra of an summary of the present state of the graphics card market.
This would possibly solely be the primary small shoots displaying indicators of a comeback for AMD within the graphics card market, however with GPU costs anticipated to rise throughout the first half of 2026 – we’re already seeing RTX 5090 playing cards hit nicely over $3,000 – it might be an awesome alternative for AMD to make much more of a dent, if it could actually constantly provide a less expensive different.
