Steam Hardware Survey Results

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Earlier this week, we reset the Steam Hardware Survey so we can keep on top of what kind of hardware everyone out there is running. So far, we've received over 200,000 responses. Thanks to everyone for sharing your information. Some of the highlights so far:

  • Just over 1% of respondents can run a DX10 path for graphics.
  • About 78% of you have microphones plugged in for voice communication. This will help you out a lot in TF2.
  • A little under 5% of you have upgraded to Vista.
  • Around 20% of your PCs are running multiple CPU cores.
http://www.steampowered.com/status/survey.html

These some other things I found interesting:
  • Five of the participants have less than 96 Mb of RAM
  • 38% run a res of 1024x768
  • 24% have more than 250GB total hard drive space
  • My graphics card is the fourth most popular (Radeon 9600)
  • AMD-Intel CPUs are almost split 50-50 (49%-51%)
  • Most participants (48%) have between 512 Mb and 999 Mb of RAM
  • 96% have a DVD Drive
  • One person has three GPUs in SLI
 
I love you JNightshade. However, I didn't know they could see my triple GPU SLi set up.
 
Well, you have to remember my system uses alien technology to give me an n-core processor. The amount of cores it has is only limited to your imagination.
 
I hope you're not retarded, because then you're limited to one core :P
 
Well, we are limited to the largest number known to man, which is 45,000,000,000. However, many scientists believe that there may be larger numbers. Who know, many one day we will find out.
 
I am in the majority for most of those results so Valve shouldn't leave me behind at least. :D
 
woot my new computer are in the 1% \o/
4GB of RAM, baby.
 
I've got an e-peen \o/! It's very tiny though, for I only have 96mb of RAM. Considering RAM is the core of any computer system, it's suffice to say I'm ****ed.
 
http://www.steampowered.com/status/survey.html

These some other things I found interesting:
  • My graphics card is the fourth most popular (Radeon 9600)
Take note all these lame games forcing Shader Model 3 only. I have a faster card than that but it still doesn't support SM3.

I think some of the cards that do default to SM3 won't be fast enough to run the newer games anyway.
 
Take note all these lame games forcing Shader Model 3 only. I have a faster card than that but it still doesn't support SM3.

I think some of the cards that do default to SM3 won't be fast enough to run the newer games anyway.

its mr.obvious!!!!!!!

also any card that has sm3 will default to running the sm3.0 path; that is including x800 cards i believe. sm2.0b has everything that sm3.0 has except openEX i think thats what its called someone correct me. its used for hdr lighting but source uses a separate method.
 
Well, we are limited to the largest number known to man, which is 45,000,000,000. However, many scientists believe that there may be larger numbers. Who know, many one day we will find out.
/me looks around you
 
Wow, just wow...

Hopefully these statistics means games will not become DX 10 or Vista based, at least for a few more years.

And, holy @$#%! I didnt know there were people that had 8 CPUs! Crazy man, crazy...
 
its mr.obvious!!!!!!!

also any card that has sm3 will default to running the sm3.0 path; that is including x800 cards i believe.
If I'm Mr. Obvious, then you're Mr. Dumbass. x800's don't support SM3.

Only x1300+ support SM3. As far as I know x800's are faster than x1300's.
 
Vista user but I won't upgrade to DX10 for a long long loooong long long long loooong long long time.

If ever.
 
Vista user but I won't upgrade to DX10 for a long long loooong long long long loooong long long time.

If ever.

Why not? Thats how they get like 200 of the similar enemies on the screen. Enemies that normally would make your computer crawl to it's knees with just a few of the same enemy onscreen.

Also, you get double the texture size

You get like twice as many maps. Hemoglobin map anyone? (Crysis) (blood showing through skin)

There are a dozen more huge reasons graphically to wish DX10 well if you like PC games.

Graphics cards aren't really ready yet, and software programers are just now tapping into what they can now do

It will take some time for things to start kicking off. With all of the setbacks with Vista, vid card driver support, and other untimely things going on, it may take longer than Microsoft expected.
 
Because it's not worth the money for me. I don't really care if I get "OMGWTFBBQ 5 FPS MOAR!" or "OMGWTFBBQ UPGRADED GRAFIX!", my Geforce 6800 is still working good and will still do so at least for a few more years. Hell, I used my old TNT2 Ultra card for a looong time before upgrading.

Besides, I use my PS3 for gaming. I mainly use my computer for games that won't be coming out for the consoles.
 
If I'm Mr. Obvious, then you're Mr. Dumbass. x800's don't support SM3.

Only x1300+ support SM3. As far as I know x800's are faster than x1300's.
i never said sm3 makes a card faster....... did you even read my post??? i was talking about how sm3.0 and sm2.0b are very similar.
 
Why not? Thats how they get like 200 of the similar enemies on the screen. Enemies that normally would make your computer crawl to it's knees with just a few of the same enemy onscreen.

Also, you get double the texture size

You get like twice as many maps. Hemoglobin map anyone? (Crysis) (blood showing through skin)

There are a dozen more huge reasons graphically to wish DX10 well if you like PC games.

Graphics cards aren't really ready yet, and software programers are just now tapping into what they can now do

It will take some time for things to start kicking off. With all of the setbacks with Vista, vid card driver support, and other untimely things going on, it may take longer than Microsoft expected.

Speaking for myself, by the time games are actually making use of those features the current batch of DX10 graphics cards will be obsolete.

There is still a LOT of life left in DX9 and therefore very little reason to upgrade past a 7900 or x1900.
 
Speaking for myself, by the time games are actually making use of those features the current batch of DX10 graphics cards will be obsolete.

There is still a LOT of life left in DX9 and therefore very little reason to upgrade past a 7900 or x1900.

I've said the same thing before. The 'DX10' hardware available today can't run DX10 well.

I'll be upgrading my video card last. First I want to get a fast CPU and RAM - which will require a better motherboard.
 
There is still a LOT of life left in DX9 and therefore very little reason to upgrade past a 7900 or x1900.

you can run dx9 games faster if you upgrade past 7900 or x1900.
 
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