TL;DR: Steam’s July 2026 survey shows 16GB VRAM GPUs now slightly outnumber 8GB ones (25.9% vs 25.3%), driven partly by better Radeon reporting and new RDNA 4 cards, though most gamers still use under-16GB cards and 8-12GB GPUs remain common.
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Although not indicative of the full PC gaming landscape, Valve’s monthly Steam Hardware & Software Survey data offers some great insight into trends and where the PC gaming hardware landscape is sitting. It’s a valuable tool not only for hardware makers but also for game developers of all sizes looking to optimize their games to ensure they run on the various PC systems out there.
When it comes to the latest July 2026 results, there’s a notable change when it comes to VRAM capacity. That is, looking at all of the discrete and integrated GPUs out there across AMD, NVIDIA, and Intel, 16GB is the most popular VRAM capacity with 25.9% market share, followed by 8GB with 25.3% market share.
It’s the first time we’ve seen 16GB take the lead, which covers a wide range of cards like GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, RTX 5080, Radeon RX 9070 XT, and more. That said, when looking at the bigger picture, the majority of gamers are still gaming with GPUs and VRAM capacities less than 16GB, thanks to the popularity of 12GB cards like the GeForce RTX 3060 and RTX 5070.
- Read more: Half of all PC gamers now have GPUs with more than 8GB of VRAM
Perhaps the biggest takeaway, and a metric that is worth following closely for the rest of the year, is the 8GB GPU’s downward trend in popularity. One of the reasons for this could come down to Valve’s monthly Steam Hardware & Software Survey data improving in recent months, where we’re now seeing more accurate Radeon data, which has seen RDNA 4 GPUs like the Radeon RX 9070 XT and Radeon RX 9060 XT, two 16GB cards, being properly accounted for.
Which GPU models does the article cite as examples of 16GB cards included in the 16GB share?
According to the article, what VRAM capacities make up the majority of gamers’ GPUs right now?
How might improved Radeon data reporting in the Steam survey have affected the VRAM share results?
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