The publishing of the latest Steam Hardware Survey data marks a bit of a milestone for AMD. The latest data, recorded during September 2020, shows that AMD Ryzen CPUs are winning over gamers with steady gains over recent months. In September AMD left the 25 per cent share milestone behind it with a gain of 0.84 per cent. Please see the screenshot directly below.
Above you can see that back in May Intel lead the CPU market share 77.54 vs 22.45 per cent. Four months later AMD has powered forward to boast possession of 25.75 per cent of the Steam user base. This represents a hearty 3.3 per cent uplift in AMD's CPU share over the period.
AMD's Zen 2 processors have come a long way in closing the single-threaded performance gap with Intel. In modern games, depending upon aspects such as developer and graphics engine, that 1T difference isn't as important as having a bountiful number of threads available. Additionally factors such as pricing and platform longevity will be steering rational purchasers increasingly towards AMD's Ryzen CPUs.
AMD is primed to make further waves in the CPU market as it has scheduled a Zen 3 special event for later this week. The rumour mill points to four high-end AMD Ryzen 5000 series processors forming the foundation of the Zen 3 range. Last week we wrote up a particularly tasty rumour/leak that indicated the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X would be a single thread champ. If Zen 3 lives up to expectations and product is made available in a timely fashion without any price shocks, one must expect AMD's Ryzen CPU winning streak to continue.
I've just checked Amazon UK CPU sales rankings and you can see above that Intel doesn't make a showing until position 7, with the Core i5-9600K.
Another interesting aspect of the Steam Hardware Survey this month is that there has been so little movement in VR. VR headset demand was very strong ahead of the Half-Life: Alyx launch in March but numbers have disappointed after that. VR HMD unit growth in Steam was just 0.18 per cent in September. Will Microsoft Flight Simulator help? It has reportedly inspired a raft of other PC upgrades, so could be the next 'killer app' for VR. One thing that is certain - VR HMD makers will have to make sure supplies are ready for the next big thing, when it comes.
https://hexus.net/gaming/news/pc/145927-sign-microsoft-flight-simulator-vr-closed-beta/
