According to the latest reader GPU usage survey from German hardware media PCGamesHardware, the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT has become the most popular single GPU with a 25.85% share, breaking NVIDIA's years-long dominance.
PCGH's survey of readers' GPU usage has been running for over a decade, but this year's data stands in stark contrast to the Steam Hardware Survey.
The most popular GPUs on Steam are mid-range NVIDIA models like the RTX 3060, RTX 4060, and RTX 5060, with 16GB of VRAM and 8-core CPUs just becoming mainstream configurations.
The PCGH reader base, however, demonstrates completely different consumption preferences. In 2016, NVIDIA held absolute dominance, with the GTX 1070 ranking first at 10.98%, followed closely by the GTX 980 Ti at 9.96%, while the GTX 1080 and GTX 970 took third and fourth place respectively.
AMD's most popular Radeon R9 290 accounted for only 4.68%, barely registering, while the "Other" category made up 24.63%, indicating a relatively fragmented player choice.
The landscape began to shift in 2019, with the GTX 1080 Ti rising to the top at 11.29%, followed by the GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 at 9.15% and 9.00% respectively. The RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 2080 appeared among the top contenders for the first time, marking the penetration of the Turing architecture. On AMD's side, the Radeon RX Vega 56 and Vega 64 combined accounted for less than 10%, remaining in a weaker position.
A dramatic turn occurred in 2023, with NVIDIA's RTX 4090 becoming the most popular single GPU at 16.39%. AMD's then-flagship RX 7900 XTX held 6.58%, while the RX 6900 XT, RX 6800 XT, and RTX 4080 each accounted for 5.98%. The "Other" category surged to a record high of 27.39%, reflecting increasingly diverse player choices.
In 2026, the Radeon RX 9070 XT took the top spot with a 25.85% share—the highest ever for a single GPU in the survey—as PCGH readers voted with their wallets to recognize the card's price-to-performance ratio.
The RTX 4090's share dropped to 12.44%, falling to second place, while the RTX 5090 accounted for 7.56% and the RTX 5080 for 6.34%. The RX 7900 XTX maintained its presence at 5.61%, with other options dropping to a historic low of 15.13%.
PCGH readers and Steam users agree on VRAM capacity: Steam's latest survey shows that GPUs with 16GB of VRAM have become the largest single category, a trend mirrored in the PCGH survey.
However, the performance tiers behind these GPUs are vastly different: Steam users mostly opt for mid-range models like the RTX 4060 Ti 16GB or RTX 5060 Ti 16GB, whereas PCGH readers concentrate on high-end products like the RX 9070 XT and RTX 4090.