16GB VRAM continues to grow in latest Steam survey, widening the gap to 12GB and 8GB graphics card owners
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Valve has published the latest results of its Steam Hardware & Software Survey, giving us a look at the hardware and software used by PC gamers. The survey is updated every month and tracks usage of graphics cards (and their VRAM), CPUs, system RAM, operating systems, display resolutions, and more.
The August 2026 results show that some major hardware trends are continuing to change. In particular, GPUs with 16GB of VRAM are becoming even more common among Steam users. Last month, 16GB VRAM GPUs made a milestone jump in the survey by overtaking 8GB GPUs for the first time, and that momentum isn’t stopping.
More than a quarter of Steam users have a 16GB graphics card
8GB had remained one of the most common VRAM configurations among PC gamers for years. But according to Valve’s August survey, 16GB of VRAM now accounts for 26.92% of Steam users. That’s a 1.02% increase compared to the previous month. As for the GPU, the Nvidia RTX 3060 remains the most popular graphics card listed in the latest results, with a 3.76% share, up 0.05%.
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- 16GB: 26.92% (+1.02%)
- 12GB: 12.99% (+0.11%)
- 8GB: 25.75% (+0.42%)
The three configurations above are the only ones that manage double-digit percentages; the next closest is 4GB, with 5.69% of the share. In any case, with the abundance of cheaper 16GB cards these days, for GPUs like the RX 9060 XT and the RTX 5060 Ti, it’s clear gamers are voting with their wallets – and the Steam stats help back up sales data shared online last year.
8-core CPUs also grow in popularity & more
The CPU market is showing a similar trend. 8-core CPUs now account for 28.04% of Steam users, up 0.19% from the previous month. This means 8-core processors remain more popular than 6-core CPUs, continuing another trend seen in the previous survey.
Aside from that, when it comes to the OS, Windows 11 continues to dominate the operating system category. The 64-bit version now accounts for 70.97% of Steam users, increasing by 0.71% from the previous month. When it comes to system memory, 16GB of RAM remains the most common configuration at 41.20%, up 0.23%. This shows that while 16GB VRAM GPUs are gaining ground, 16GB of system RAM is still the standard for a large portion of PC gamers.
As for display resolution, 1920 x 1080 remains the most common choice at 50.52%, although it dropped 0.58% from the previous month.
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