Valve's October 2026 Steam Hardware & Software Survey shows much of September's odd data snapping back. After 32 GB system RAM overtook 16 GB last month, the 16 GB tier is back in first place at 41.42% (up 3.60 points), while 32 GB dropped 5.16 points to 37.06%. The GeForce RTX 3060 is the most common GPU again at 3.62% across all platforms, a spot it held before September, while the RTX 5070 fell from 5.86% to 3.56%.
It looks like the survey sample played a big part. Simplified Chinese fell 9.41 points to 21.98%, while English rose 4.84 points to 39.04%. The survey is voluntary, so a change in who responds can move the numbers without an actual hardware change behind it.
We can't confirm that, but it would explain why so many categories shifted at once. Windows 11 rose 1.17 points to 72.51%, and Linux climbed 0.90 points to 3.95%. The 1440p share dropped 5.22 points to 21.82%, while 1080p sits at 50.23%.
On Windows, Intel gained 0.89 points to reach 53.48% CPU share, with AMD at 46.51%. Valve's Steam Frame, which launched in September, now holds 4.13% of surveyed VR headsets, up 3.72 points, while Meta Quest 3 continues to dominate with a 27.27% share. However, headset owners are only 1.75% of the survey, so it's a small group.
The interesting bit is still the system RAM split, and while 32 GB RAM had been slowly gaining on 16 GB, it looks like September was the outlier. November's data should give us a better idea of the split.
Source: TechPowerUp News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing