The most popular RTX 40-series GPU on Steam is in a gaming laptop, not a graphics card

HP Omen Transcend 14 gaming laptop from various angles
(Image credit: Future)

The latest Steam hardware survey is here and there are some changes of note. Chief among them is the increase in RTX 4060 laptops being used on the gaming platform, comparing stats from May to June 2024.

The survey’s video card data shows a 0.74% increase in RTX 4060 gaming laptop GPUs used by survey responders, rising from 2.84% in May to 3.58% in June. That might not appear like much of a leap, but the next-biggest increase is a 0.2% uptick for the desktop RTX 4060—go figure. It also makes the laptop version of the RTX 4060 the most popular 40-series GPU on Steam.

The Steam hardware survey collects (you guessed it) hardware data, but only from a fraction of Steam’s user base and only those who volunteer to take part. Still, the survey usually gives a pretty decent idea of PC gaming market trends.

The June survey also shows a decrease in the usual GPU suspects: RTX 3060, GTX 1060, GTX 1650, RTX 2060, and so on. These older cards are likely dropping off as people upgrade. In fact, a general trend for this month seems to be more current-gen GPU adoption across the board.

Just as we noted back in April, most people upgrading from older GPUs to newer ones seem to be choosing Nvidia rather than AMD. This is despite AMD’s dominance in the handheld market, which is no small thing, given that AMD processors feature in Valve’s own Steam Deck and Steam Deck OLED.

It’s not bewildering that people might choose to upgrade now. We’re pushing towards the end of the Ada Lovelace GPU generation, with Nvidia's next-generation architecture, presumably Blackwell, just around the corner. Super variants pushed down prices not too long ago, too.

MSI Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 resting on a desk showing display outputs

(Image credit: Future)

Most importantly, there’s been a slew of cheap gaming laptop deals bombarding us over the past couple of months. And you may notice that most of the sub-$1,000 gaming laptops feature an RTX 4060. So, perhaps now’s just a great time to pick up one of these budget gaming laptops.

The mobile RTX 4060 doesn’t quite feature the fully-fledged AD107 chip that you’ll find in the desktop version. However, with a TDP of 115W—which you might hit, if you’re lucky and the manufacturer’s sufficiently benevolent—it’s powerful enough to churn out playable frame rates in modern games. Dave found that even the somewhat power-nerfed RTX 4060 in the HP Omen Transcend 14 offers great 1080p frame rates and even has a decent bash at 1440p.

Your next upgrade

Nvidia RTX 4070 and RTX 3080 Founders Edition graphics cards

(Image credit: Future)

Best CPU for gaming: The top chips from Intel and AMD.
Best gaming motherboard: The right boards.
Best graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher awaits.
Best SSD for gaming: Get into the game ahead of the rest.

So, it makes sense that mobile RTX 4060 GPUs are on the climb.

Another notable note from the hardware survey is the continued increase in the number of Steam users on Windows 11, and a corresponding decrease in Windows 10 users. We noted this trend back in February

While Windows 11 still accounts for less than half of Steam users on Windows, at 46.63%, the number’s climbing. Again, not really a surprise, given that Windows 12 is supposedly set to release this year. Moreover, given that Microsoft’s support for Windows 10 will end next year and AMD’s upcoming mobile chips (which will undoubtedly be used in some handheld gaming PCs) won’t support it, either.

In other words, June’s Steam hardware survey confirms that the steam-engine of progress rolls on, as always, bit by bit (or, user by user).

TOPICS
Jacob Fox
Hardware Writer

Jacob got his hands on a gaming PC for the first time when he was about 12 years old. He swiftly realised the local PC repair store had ripped him off with his build and vowed never to let another soul build his rig again. With this vow, Jacob the hardware junkie was born. Since then, Jacob's led a double-life as part-hardware geek, part-philosophy nerd, first working as a Hardware Writer for PCGamesN in 2020, then working towards a PhD in Philosophy for a few years (result pending a patiently awaited viva exam) while freelancing on the side for sites such as TechRadar, Pocket-lint, and yours truly, PC Gamer. Eventually, he gave up the ruthless mercenary life to join the world's #1 PC Gaming site full-time. It's definitely not an ego thing, he assures us.

Read more
A screenshot of Valve's statistics from its monthly Steam Hardware Survey
Windows 10, 32 GB of RAM, and the RTX 4060 all surge to the top spot in the Steam Hardware Survey, seemingly due to a huge influx of Chinese-language user data
Asus Zephyrus G16 gaming laptop, and Nvidia Ada GPU
Best graphics card for laptops in 2025: the mobile GPUs I'd want in my next gaming laptop
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang holding an RTX 50-series card.
92% of Nvidia users turn on DLSS... if they've been lucky enough to bag an RTX 50-series card at launch AND have the Nvidia App installed
AMD RX 7900 XT with its original packaging.
AMD clawed back 7% graphics market share from Nvidia at the end of 2024, but the outlook for the whole industry in 2025 looks iffy
Blurred graphics card behind a PC Gamer Best GPU 2024 logo and styling
PC Gamer Hardware Awards: The best graphics card of 2024
Steam Deck with menu screen
New figures show Valve's Steam Deck is still by far the biggest selling handheld gaming PC but the form factor isn't really taking off
Latest in Graphics Cards
Nvidia App
Hmmm, upgrades: Nvidia App gets an optional AI assistant and custom DLSS resolution scaling
A close-up photo of an Nvidia RTX 4070, with its heatsink removed, showing the AD104 GPU die and the surrounding Micron GDDR6X VRAM chips
With Nvidia Ace taking up 1 GB of VRAM in Inzoi, Team Green will need to up its memory game if AI NPCs take off in PC gaming
A collage of Radeon RX 9000 series graphics cards, as shown in AMD's promotional video for the launch of RDNA 4 at CES 2025
AMD's CEO claims 9070 XT sales are 10x higher than all previous Radeon generations but that's just for the first week of availability
Colorful iGame RTX 5070 Ti Vulcan OC graphics card from various angles
The RTX 5060 and RTX 5060 Ti are rumoured to be mere weeks away, with board partners reportedly required to ensure at least one MSRP model at launch
Nvidia headquarters
Nvidia CEO sets sights on making 'several hundred billion' dollars worth of electronics in the USA over the next four years, increasing the chance of your next GPU being made in America
The Asus ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5090 Dhahab Edition, a gold-plated graphics card on a sand dune background
A Jensen Huang-signed version of this golden Asus RTX 5090 will be auctioned off to support relief efforts for the California wildfires
Latest in News
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
The new Prime Asset featured in the upcoming update for the Outlast Trials.
The Outlast Trials puts its already paranoid players under surveillance for a time-limited story event
A Viera looking confused in Final Fantasy 14.
Old armor continues to fall victim to Final Fantasy 14's bizarre two-channel dye system, unless you're super into changing the colour of teeny-tiny eyelets: 'Why even bother at this point?'