If there's one thing I remember from high school biology, it's that the GPU powers the PC, and if you ask a PC gamer what build they're running, the first words out of their mouth are usually the name of the graphics card the beast is running on The first word out of their mouths is usually the name of the graphics card that the beast is running on. Even the CPU, the brains of the whole thing, is often given second place. It is to this part of the PC that we devote most of our money, bragging and slobbering.

GPUs can also say a lot about what you are trying to accomplish from a build. For example, someone running a tight setup with RTX 4000 series Nvidia cards is trying to get the best without worrying about cost. Older cards also paint a picture; someone with a GTX 1080, no matter how good they want it, is likely to be attractive, smart, and responsible with their money.

Steam's video card statistics in the latest Steam hardware survey results (opens in new tab) paint a complete picture of the PC gaming community and tell us what is popular as of February. Currently, many are turning to the previous generation of mid-range RTX 3060s, and the popularity of these cards is actually growing as the current generation is released.

The RTX 3060 (open in new tab) was doing fairly well last October as one of the fastest growing cards on Steam, but with the release of new cards, holiday sales, and gift giving, we saw those numbers begin to drop through November. It wasn't big, but it was enough to bring in a new generation of cards, as expected.

In the following months, RTX 3060 penetration remained fairly stable, but February saw the highest numbers since December of the previous year; the percentage of RTX 3060 users on Steam has increased further, and its popularity on the platform now ranks fifth (open in new tab). This puts it behind much older cards, the comparable RTX 3060 laptop GPU, and the RTX 2060.

However, these numbers are not very surprising, as Nvidia's 30-series finally saw the light of day from GPU mining demand and a tight chip shortage before the RTX 4000 cards came in too close. Although powerful, this new series is huge, consumes a lot of power, and is extremely expensive. [It makes a lot of sense if the RTX 3060 (open in new tab) is under $400 and the less expensive RTX 4070 Ti (open in new tab) is still over $800. Perhaps the RTX 4070 will come in at a better price (opens in new tab), but until then we won't see much other than a higher-order enthusiast base rushing to adopt the latest generation.

That said, it is interesting to note that despite being cheaper, more powerful, and widely available, the competing AMD RX 6000 series cards have seen little change in the charts. All the Red Team can expect is a 0.01% increase for the RX 6800/XT and RX 6600/XT cards, and the RX 6700 XT, which we 100% recommend gamers buy over the RTX 3060, is basically flat, miles behind the slower, more expensive GeForce GPUs It is taking a beating.

Mindshare and brand loyalty are outrageous.

It's also a good reminder of what the average PC gamer is actually running at home. It's easy to get swept up in the hype of top-class builds and want the most powerful kit, but for most games you don't really need it. The glorious GTX 1060 is still in second place, only surpassed by the GTX 1650 (open in new tab). Perhaps I should have a little more respect for my own GTX 1080. After all, it is higher in the popularity rankings than any RTX 4000 series card.