Each month, Valve releases the results of its hardware research. The results are usually predictable, especially for the graphics cards that most people use. Most of the time, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 or comparable XX60 class cards from another generation are on top. The RTX 4060 is technically the top GPU on Steam, but this time it’s the mobile version.
Since December 2024, the RTX 4060 for gaming laptops has grown from 4.19% to 4.99% of Steam’s user base. It seems like a minor change, but in the same time frame, the RTX 3060, the most popular graphics card, has been shrinking from 5.01% to 4.72% for some time, can be led by mobile GPUs. This is the first time I remember that a mobile graphics card was at the top of my list.
Why play a laptop? Why now?
It’s no secret that graphics cards are becoming more expensive. Even the RTX 4060 is a more expensive league than its equivalent. It was before RTX. And while gaming laptops certainly aren’t cheap, when you get the marked-up price, it makes sense to actually grab a gaming laptop and call it a day if the retailer is attached to the GPU. just Graphics card.
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 for laptops is also not the most powerful GPU in the world, but disabling goodness like raytracing and enabled DLS is still enough to play most games at 1080p without much struggle. It’s not surprising that it’s enough for many. Especially as they start to challenge the prospect that everything will be more expensive.
This is probably also why Valve’s reporting is the RTX 5070 Ti, which is the only current generation GPU that creates it, and is included at just 0.27% of the player base. It puts it Behind GTX 1030, a cheap graphics card released 8 years ago, was bad at that time.
Game laptop makers have been making games for years, future Or whatever, but now, as laptop GPUs are sitting firmly at the top of Steam hardware research, I’m actually beginning to believe it. After all, when everything costs arms and legs, it starts to become really hard to justify dropping $1,000 on a graphics card, even if it involves generating multi-frames.
The future of PC games
The magic of PC games is that they are flexible. To play the game on a PS5 you need to have one specific hardware, but you can basically configure your PC, but you need a mind (or budget). There are games like Assassin’s Creed Shadows that allow you to kneel the RTX 5090, but that’s not why PC games are great. Instead, indie games that birth out of nowhere are places where real magic happens and you don’t need super expensive hardware to take advantage of it.
I don’t think high-end gaming PCs will go anywhere, but this hardware research has made the niche quite clear. teeth It will be reduced a little. Instead, mid-range gaming laptops and handheld gaming PCs are beginning to look like a way for many to join PC games in the future.
It will be interesting to see if desktop graphics continued to shrink or shorter issues as the RTX 5000 laptops became more common the following year or so, and as the AMD Z2 expanded its next-gen gaming handhelds. Only time can be seen.
Jackie Thomas is the hardware and purchasing guide editor for Passthecontroller and PC Component Queen. You can follow her @jackiecobra
