The latest Steam Hardware and Software Survey results for April 2026 are in, and we’ve already gone through the changes in what graphics card models PC gamers are currently using. In addition to this. We’ve also noticed an interesting change in GPU VRAM capacity, with roughly half of PC gamers now playing on cards that feature more than 8GB of memory.
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Now, before the whole memory crisis, which has led to GPU price increases and even some scarcity of cards with more than 8GB of memory, the debate over VRAM capacity has garnered significant attention. The reason is simple: as image fidelity in PC games has steadily increased, the memory requirements for playing with high-quality textures and cutting-edge effects like ray tracing have risen.
This is something that we mentioned in our reviews of the GeForce RTX 5060 8GB and GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8GB GPUs, where it became clear that performance at higher resolutions and higher in-game graphics settings was becoming bottlenecked by VRAM capacity. According to the latest Steam data from Valve, 49.95% of PC gamers on the platform now use GPUs with more than 8GB of VRAM.
And the fastest-growing segment appears to be GPUs with 16GB of VRAM, which includes modern cards like the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB, Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB, GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, and the Radeon RX 9070 XT. According to the latest data, 23.51% of all PC gamers on the platform are gaming on GPUs with 16GB of VRAM. Interestingly, this is higher than the 13.45% of PC gamers using GPUs with 12GB of VRAM, which includes popular mid-range cards like the GeForce RTX 5070 and the overall market share leader, the GeForce RTX 3060.
The single highest percentage, 26.76%, covers 8GB graphics cards, with 6.19% of gamers playing with GPUs with 24GB or more memory, like the previous-gen flagship combo, GeForce RTX 4090 and Radeon RX 7900 XTX. Ultimately, this data shows that more PC gamers are choosing GPUs with more than 8GB of VRAM in 2026; however, we probably won’t see the needle move in a sizeable way until GPU makers like NVIDIA, AMD, and even Intel, start releasing mainstream GPUs with 12GB or 16GB of VRAM as standard. Yeah, a GeForce RTX 6060 12GB or 16GB GPU sounds like a step in the right direction.
Given PC gaming performance with Ultra- or Very High-like graphics settings is highly dependent on ample VRAM capacity, this move feels inevitable. Of course, with the current memory crisis and shortage, new AI-powered texture compression technologies could be a reason to keep 8GB cards for PC gaming around for at least another generation.