January Steam Survey: RDNA 4 debuts in GPU charts as Intel gains ground

Many expected January's Steam Hardware Survey to mark the moment AMD finally overtakes Intel in CPU market share. But January 2026 became the first month since August when Intel gained ground while AMD's share declined.

After reaching a record 43.53% in December (later adjusted by Valve), AMD's position dropped just 0.19% to 43.34%. Intel's share rose to 56.64%. This marks only the fourth instance in the past 12 months when metrics shifted against AMD, with fluctuations remaining minimal.

Given current market conditions – 17 of Amazon's 20 best-selling CPUs belong to AMD, while Intel's top position is the Core i5-12600K at 16th place – AMD remains the primary contender for Steam leadership throughout the year.

The GPU segment continues its familiar rotation with RTX 3060, RTX 4060, and RTX 4060 Laptop trading places at the top. January saw leadership pass to the RTX 4060.

The RTX 5060 showed the strongest monthly performance with a +0.72% gain, allowing it to climb to 8th place in overall rankings. Meanwhile, the RTX 5070 at fifth position remains more popular. The survey also saw the first appearance of the Radeon RX 9070 – the first and currently only RDNA 4 card. Overall GPU distribution stands at Nvidia 73%, AMD 18%, and Intel nearly 8% (including integrated graphics).

Among operating systems, Windows 10 grew more strongly than Windows 11 in January – the older system continues with 27% of gamers despite reaching end of support. Even Windows 7 still holds at 0.08% of users.

For RAM, 32 GB stands out as the only capacity showing growth. 16 GB remains the most popular option, but with a lead of only about 2%, making a change in leadership a matter of time.