Steam Hardware Survey: RX 9070 XT Most Popular AMD GPU, Windows 11 Rises as 10, macOS and Linux Fall

Valve's regular Steam Hardware Survey results have been published for August 2026, bringing a new collection of data that charts the course of the PC gaming space. The major findings this month indicate that the RX 9070 XT continues to grow as the most popular named AMD graphics card, Windows 11 has continued its capture of Windows 10, macOS and Linux users, and 16GB and 32GB RAM systems have combined for growth despite ongoing flash memory pricing issues.

The RX 9070 XT has reached 1.37 percent of survey participants overall, climbing to a 1.46 percent figure among Windows-only users and making up 2.70 percent of Linux respondents, though it is grouped together with the RX 9070 and RX 9070 GRE. This 2.7 percent figure stands higher than any other named desktop GPU. Meanwhile, two GPU entries corresponding to the Steam Deck sit at 9.28 percent and 10.48 percent among Linux users, suggesting roughly one in five Linux users on Steam is utilizing a Steam Deck. The Steam Machine accounts for 0.28 percent of Linux Steam users.

Regarding operating systems, Windows 11 adoption continues to pick up pace, with just over 75 percent of Windows users running the latest version, 24 percent on Windows 10, and less than one percent on Windows 7 or other versions. This marks a 71 percent market share in combined results, representing a rise of 0.71 percent compared to previous figures, alongside corresponding losses from Windows 10 down 0.4 percent, macOS down 0.2 percent, and Linux down 0.1 percent.

In system memory trends, despite high prices for DDR5 and knock-on effects for the DDR4 market, 16GB systems rose by 0.30 percent and 32GB systems increased by 0.44 percent. Systems with 8GB showed the largest drop at 0.5 percent. Current configurations sit at 7 percent for 8GB, 41 percent for 16GB, and 38 percent for 32GB of RAM, while 4.5 percent of systems feature 64GB of RAM or more.