Hexa-Core CPUs Are Now the Most Popular among Steam Users

You guys run a ton of crap in the background...

I don't think, apart from Handbrake encodes, I ever saw my 4790k hit 25% load. I don't see my current 5900X hit more than about 12-15% load. Granted, it's been a bit since I looked at the 4790, but I'm on the 5900X system now, and I often have a couple of games + Chrome open at the same time, and all my standard background stuff - and still don't come anywhere close to heavy load on the CPU.

I don't go turn off a bunch of stuff before I game; I don't have an unusually trim or barebones system, but I don't go installing accessory software for every single thing I own either.
 
Peter_Brosdahl said:
Yep! That's what I'm saying. Those last gens before 10th gen were impressive. There were a few years in between, when the differences were not so great but, after a while, I just kept hearing great stories about them. In the end, good times but I'm happy to have moved on.

On the flipside, I picked some laptops for our Admin at my day job about 1-2 years ago and I picked some HP Envy's but specifically got one of the 9th or 10th gen 4/8 CPUs that boost up to 4.5 GHz. It just cracks me up seeing a mobile CPU do that out of the box and remembering how we enthusiasts had to jump through hoops back in the day.
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The 8550U in the ultrabook my wife is using does that - an ASUS model that I've long since forgotten. Doesn't stay there long, the laptop has no real cooling capability, but it beat the pants off the 7500U in an XPS13 that it replaced!
 
Brian_B said:
I don't go turn off a bunch of stuff before I game;
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I don't normally but when I have to then I know it's time to start thinking about an upgrade. I usually only leave AV stuff and the various launchers running when gaming and maybe a Chrome window (if I'm bouncing back to look up things when I'm stuck).
 
Peter_Brosdahl said:
Yep! That's what I'm saying. Those last gens before 10th gen were impressive. There were a few years in between, when the differences were not so great but, after a while, I just kept hearing great stories about them. In the end, good times but I'm happy to have moved on.

On the flipside, I picked some laptops for our Admin at my day job about 1-2 years ago and I picked some HP Envy's but specifically got one of the 9th or 10th gen 4/8 CPUs that boost up to 4.5 GHz. It just cracks me up seeing a mobile CPU do that out of the box and remembering how we enthusiasts had to jump through hoops back in the day.
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Grimlakin said:
Yea it is crazy to see a mobile CPU hit 5ghz.
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Yeah, the i7-11800H in my new Dell XPS 15 9510 my work gave me has the capability to go way up there in turbo clocks (up close to 5 Ghz I believe) but I never actually load it up.

It's a Office365/Web/Email/Minitab/Adobe Acrobat Pro machine :p
 
Peter_Brosdahl said:
Same for ours. I just get a kick out of watching Windows updates install. I'll open task manager just to watch the monitor. I know, I'm a nerd.
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I do the same **** thing. Mine I use for office apps and vizio, and RDP sessions, mostly browser work managing vsphere.
 
Also - an aside.

Have we decided that Steam Hardware Survey stats are legit now, or are they still junk because not enough people run Steam to be statistically accurate? Or is it another data point that's only valid when we agree with it?

Just trying to see where we are at here.
 
Brian_B said:
Also - an aside.

Have we decided that Steam Hardware Survey stats are legit now, or are they still junk because not enough people run Steam to be statistically accurate? Or is it another data point that's only valid when we agree with it?

Just trying to see where we are at here.
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probably the second one. I'm sure MS has a better idea because they can just collect it from the windows store.
 
Brian_B said:
Also - an aside.

Have we decided that Steam Hardware Survey stats are legit now, or are they still junk because not enough people run Steam to be statistically accurate? Or is it another data point that's only valid when we agree with it?

Just trying to see where we are at here.
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I think steams hw survey should be accurate enough looking at gamers anyway
 
Brian_B said:
Also - an aside.

Have we decided that Steam Hardware Survey stats are legit now, or are they still junk because not enough people run Steam to be statistically accurate? Or is it another data point that's only valid when we agree with it?

Just trying to see where we are at here.
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I consider them somewhat accurate. Although it pains me to believe it, the numbers regarding the most popular GPUs have seemed closer to the truth than not. I base that just on the responses I see in various threads and sites from people whenever a new gen comes out.
 
Brian_B said:
Also - an aside.

Have we decided that Steam Hardware Survey stats are legit now, or are they still junk because not enough people run Steam to be statistically accurate? Or is it another data point that's only valid when we agree with it?

Just trying to see where we are at here.
Click to expand...
Grimlakin said:
probably the second one. I'm sure MS has a better idea because they can just collect it from the windows store.
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Disagree.

Steam survey is a highly accurate representation of systems on which people play games.

Sure, they aren't as dominant as they once were, but they still have some 120 million unique active users every month. That's one hell of a sample size, and should be more than enough to avoid any serious statistical anomalies.
 
Zarathustra said:
Steam survey is a highly accurate representation of systems on which people play games.
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I tend to agree with this statement. You may not be able to determine absolute installation numbers, but you can get very good and accurate relative numbers. I think there are sufficient returns that it will be highly representative of gamer hardware.

My rationale: https://www.surveymonkey.com/curiosity/how-many-people-do-i-need-to-take-my-survey/
There are many, many other references I could point to that share a very similar conclusion.
 
Brian_B said:
I tend to agree with this statement. You may not be able to determine absolute installation numbers, but you can get very good and accurate relative numbers. I think there are sufficient returns that it will be highly representative of gamer hardware.

My rationale: https://www.surveymonkey.com/curiosity/how-many-people-do-i-need-to-take-my-survey/
There are many, many other references I could point to that share a very similar conclusion.
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Yep,

As long as you are cognizant of what your sample represents.

Definitely use the Steam HW survey as a representation of people who play games on PC's.

Do not use it as:

1.) Representative of enthusiast or AAA game players hardware. There are a lot of casual PC gamers as well.
2.) Representative of western gamers only. The Stem HW survey is geographically diverse, and includes markets where even a modest PC costs several months worth of the average income.
3.) Representative of the PC market as a whole. Gamers are a distinct and specialized subset of the PC market.
 
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