AMD's Radeon RX 9070 XT has made a notable entry in Valve's Steam Hardware Survey for May 2026, capturing a 1.33% market share and becoming the most popular AMD GPU on the platform. According to a report by TweakTown cited by TechRadar, the card now sits above Nvidia's GeForce RTX 4070 Ti in the rankings, whereas previously it failed to register at all. This sudden appearance may be due to recent updates in how GPUs are classified in the survey.
Market Share Snapshot
As of May 2026, the RX 9070 XT holds a 1.33% share of Steam's GPU market. For context, here is a comparison of selected GPUs from the survey (approximate positions):
| GPU | Market Share | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 | Leading (for years) | Most popular overall |
| AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT | 1.33% | Most popular AMD GPU |
| Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Ti | Below 1.33% | Surpassed by RX 9070 XT |
TechRadar noted that the GPU market remains "in disarray due to the RAM crisis and its impact on video RAM," making both the RX 9070 XT and the newly appearing RX 9060 XT value-packed options. While not as cheap as Nvidia's low-end RTX 5000 series, these AMD cards offer better performance for the price.
Why the RX 9070 XT Popped Up
The RX 9070 XT's sudden appearance in the survey puzzled some observers. TweakTown theorized that changes to how Steam classifies GPUs may have allowed the card to be properly detected and counted. Previously, it did not appear at all. The card's popularity also stems from its raw performance and the inclusion of FSR 4 (FSR Redstone), which provides solid image quality and performance when upscaling.
The Bigger Picture: Nvidia Still Dominant
Despite AMD's gain, Nvidia continues to hold an overwhelming lead. The RTX 3060 remains the most popular GPU on Steam, as it has for years. TechRadar reported that Nvidia's DLSS upscaling technology remains superior to AMD and Intel's equivalents, impressing on image quality and performance fronts. "It's hard to see Nvidia's GeForce GPUs falling out of favor anytime soon," they wrote, noting that Team Green's dominance in the desktop arena is still clear, even if AMD's latest lineup is finally putting up a fight.
The Steam Hardware Survey is a limited perspective on the entire GPU market, as it only captures a slice of gamers on the platform. However, it offers an interesting glimpse into hardware trends. For enterprise technology decision-makers, these trends may affect GPU availability and pricing, especially for AI workloads that rely on similar architectures. But the survey itself focuses solely on gaming hardware.
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