Valve’s October 2026 Steam Hardware Survey is now available, revealing some noteworthy changes across CPUs, system memory, graphics cards, display resolutions, operating systems, and VR headsets. Several hardware categories have also reversed the unusual fluctuations observed in September.
One of the biggest developments concerns system memory. According to Valve’s official survey, 16 GB RAM has reclaimed its position as the most popular configuration, accounting for 41.42% of participating systems, an increase of 3.60 percentage points. Meanwhile, 32 GBconfigurations dropped by 5.16 points to 37.06%, after briefly overtaking 16 GB in September.
The CPU landscape has also shifted slightly in Intel’s favor. Among Windows users, Intel now accounts for 53.48% of surveyed processors, gaining 0.89 percentage points, while AMD slipped to 46.51%. Nevertheless, AMD remains considerably more competitive than it was several years ago, when Intel enjoyed a much larger lead.
Regarding CPU core counts, eight-core processors continue to lead with 28.68%, followed closely by six-core models at 27.29%. Combined, these two configurations represent nearly 56% of surveyed systems, highlighting their position as the mainstream choices for PC gaming.
Here’s a summary of the most popular hardware and software configurations in October:
| Category | Most Popular Configuration | Share |
|---|---|---|
| CPU manufacturer (Windows) | Intel | 53.48% |
| CPU core count | 8 cores | 28.63% |
| System RAM | 16 GB | 41.42% |
| Graphics card | GeForce RTX 3060 | 3.78% |
| GPU VRAM | 8 GB | 26.92% |
| Display resolution | 1920 × 1080 | 50.23% |
| Operating system | Windows 11 64-bit | 72.51% |
| Total storage capacity | Above 1 TB | 48.62% |
| VR headset | Meta Quest 3 | 27.27% |
On the graphics side, NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 3060 narrowly reclaimed the top spot from the RTX 5070 in the combined-platform statistics. Meanwhile, 8 GB remains the most common VRAM capacity at 26.92%, marginally ahead of 16 GB at 26.35%, with 12 GB accounting for another 12.91%.
As for display resolutions, 1080p remains dominant at 50.23%, followed by 1440p at 21.82% and 4K at just 5.05%. Interestingly, 1440p experienced a substantial 5.22-percentage-point decline, while 1080p gained 2.32 points.
Windows continues dominating the operating system landscape with a 93.70% overall share. Windows 11 increased to 72.51%, while Windows 10 declined to 21.11%. Linux, meanwhile, climbed to 3.95%, with macOS accounting for the remaining 2.35%.
The VR headset category also saw an interesting development. Meta Quest 3 retained its first-place position at 27.27%, while Valve’s recently released Steam Frame climbed to 4.13% of surveyed VR headsets, an increase of 3.72 percentage points.
It’s worth highlighting that Simplified Chinese-language participation droppedby9.41percentage points to21.98%, while English increased to39.04%. This substantial change in survey composition likely contributed to several of October’s hardware fluctuations.
As always, Valve’s monthly survey is voluntary and anonymous, meaning its results provide a useful snapshot of Steam’s participating users rather than a definitive representation of the entire PC gaming market.
About the author: Sebastian Castellanos is a data scientist by education and training. He’s also deeply passionate about PC gaming hardware and software. He has recently started writing technical articles and guides on Wccftech about PC hardware, games and mods.
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