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Nvidia’s RTX 4060 struggled to make an impression when it arrived – notably against the previous-gen RTX 3060 Ti, even though the newer GPU was cheaper – but the graphics card appears to finally be hitting its stride.
This is according to the latest Steam Hardware Survey, where the RTX 4060 has positive leapt up the rankings. In the September report from Valve, the RTX 4060 is now the second most popular GPU used by PC gamers on Steam, with an increase of 1.13% compared to August (when it was in sixth place).
It’s now in second on 4.44%, behind only the Nvidia RTX 3060 which still tops the rankings with 5.71%.
Notably, last month the RTX 3060 Ti actually still edged out the RTX 4060, going by the numbers on Steam – but not anymore.
Furthermore, its Lovelace sibling, the RTX 4060 Ti, has also made good progress in September, putting on 0.74% to sit at 3.55%, where the GPU is in fourth place. Between the RTX 4060 and 4060 Ti we have the laptop 4060, so the top three positions behind the chart-topping RTX 3060 are actually taken by different RTX 4060 models now.
An interesting turn of events, for sure, so let’s dive in and try to analyze exactly what this means for the GPU market going forward.
Analysis: The struggle to overcome that initial perception
It’s the mainstream graphics cards which carry a range of GPUs, of course, and for Nvidia’s current-gen that means the RTX 4070 and 4060 models (plus usually the xx50 too, but that card didn’t happen with Lovelace, not on the desktop anyway).
However, as we’ve already alluded to, the RTX 4060 – the workhorse GPU of the mainstream – rather flopped out of the gate due back at the launch for a couple of reasons.
As mentioned, one of the sticking points for PC gamers was that the RTX 3060 Ti was somewhat faster, and so it felt like the RTX 4060 failing to better – or even match – its Ti predecessor was a notable failure for the Lovelace GPU, frankly. Nvidia sticking with 8GB of VRAM was another sore point for PC gamers, too.
It wasn’t like the RTX 4060 was a bad graphics card, at its price point, but there were concerns around said issues – and those perceptions rather stuck as the GPU being a somehow wobbly choice for PC gamers.
Slowly but surely, that has changed, and as we see now, it appears the RTX 4060 is now on an upward trajectory (and the RTX 4060 Ti, too). Partly that could be due to the RTX 3060 Ti no longer being available – stock has run dry – so there’s no real alternative in that respect.
Some gamers may still lean towards the RTX 3060 12GB, which is available, for that VRAM, but this really isn’t a good choice – and folks are evidently starting to realize that. (The RTX 4060 is a good deal faster than the 3060, way more power-efficient, and has DLSS 3 frame generation – that more than makes up for any video RAM shortcomings. Also don’t forget the 3060 will fall off the Nvidia driver radar quicker, too).
On top of that, the RTX 4060 is now a bit more affordable, too, falling somewhat under its MSRP (even if not by a whole lot, the value proposition has improved).
The majority of people are still gaming at Full HD too, remember, and there’s a reason the RTX 4060 is our top graphics card for 1080p gaming.
This is why we believe that the RTX 4060 is going to make quite short work of displacing the RTX 3060 at the top of Valve’s GPU rankings – especially when we consider the imminent next-gen graphics cards from Nvidia.
Remember the RTX 5090 and 5080 are theoretically just around the corner, and as the new generation comes in, the remaining RTX 3000 stock – which is mostly that RTX 3060 12GB, and the 3050 – is going to fall away. Leaving no real alternative at the affordable end of the market except for the RTX 4060.
If the rumors are right, it could be a long time before the RTX 5060 arrives too – there could be a large gap between the initial Blackwell GeForce launches, and the successor to the RTX 4060. Leaving the latter to clean up in the near future, we’d bet.
If you’re thinking – well, what about AMD? – we’d counter, well, take a good, hard look at the Steam survey. Team Red’s GPUs are approximately nowhere, even though there are some very robust RDNA 3 graphics cards floating around, the top 15 is entirely Nvidia, and the first AMD discrete GPU is the admittedly great value RX 6600 – but it’s at number 34.
Granted, this may not be a fair reflection of the overall market out there, but it’s a decent slice – and besides, analyst figures from the GPU market show Nvidia has closing on a 90% dominance.
Via TweakTown
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