Over 40% of Steam players still use RTX 30 and 40 GPUs, and DLSS is a big reason why.

For the better part of two decades, the era of PC gaming improvement was pretty easy to understand. Every time new games came out and the demands increased, graphics cards that were once considered untouchable began to push themselves into retirement. If you wanted to continue, you upgraded and that was the only option. It was certainly an expensive but predictable choice.

Fast forward to April 2026, and the latest Steam Supply and Software Survey paints a very different picture. Today, around 60% of Steam users own an RTX GPU, confirming what we already know about Nvidia’s hegemony in the discrete GPU market. However, there is a more interesting story that emerges upon a closer look. A surprisingly large number of players still trust it graphics cards launched half a decade agoand they’re doing so during what many players would describe as the most demanding and “under-optimized” era in the game.

Modern GPUs last longer than expected

Steam’s data tells a surprisingly hopeful story

The easiest food Latest Steam Hardware and Software Survey RTX has become the dominant gaming platform. When the shares of the RTX 20, 30, 40 and 50 series are combined, they are approx 60% of all Steam users. That’s a staggering number in itself, especially considering how quickly the PC gaming landscape can change. Add Nvidia’s GTX cards to the mix and that GTX lineup is still a meaningful ~12.5%. Especially GTX 1650 and GTX 1060 they are stubbornly persistentwhich makes sense given that they’re more than capable enough for older and less demanding games. So all NVIDIA cards followed along with RTX totaling 59.70% About 72.21% of Steam users.

However, diving deeper is where things get interesting. If we look only at RTX owners, the RTX 40 series has the largest share 34.93%The RTX 30 series sits close behind 32.70%. These two genera are almost represented together 68% of all RTX users On Steam.

Now, cards like the RTX 3060, RTX 3070, and RTX 3080 aren’t the new kids on the block. Some of them are approaching six years old, and yet they remain the backbone of PC gaming in 2026. This kind of longevity would have been downright unusual, if not impossible, in earlier times, but today it just seems to be the norm.

Nvidia’s software ecosystem changed everything

DLSS is only part of the story

When it comes to GPU longevity discussions, DLSS is usually the first explanation offered, and quite understandably so. After all, Nvidia’s overclocking technology has become one of the most influential gaming technologies of the last decade. It democratized high-end graphics and lighting systems by allowing gamers to get more performance out of existing hardware, while compromising on image quality as little as possible. Of course, AMD took the same step. and FSR was bornallowing more players to unlock a few more sliders in game settings.

However, if we reduce the whole conversation to just DLSS, we’d be missing the bigger picture. Nvidia has spent years building an ecosystem around their GPUs, and it’s more than just their upgrade technology. Where Nvidia Reflex helps reduce latency, RTX HDR breathes new life into old gamesand RTX VSR enhances streaming content, while DLSS itself becomes a comprehensive package with multiple technologies such as Super Resolution and Frame Generation. Bottom line: the graphics card is no longer the whole product. The software stack surrounding it has become just as important.

Ironically, those with Nvidia GPUs also benefited from AMD’s efforts to reach Team Green. FSR supports a wide range of hardware, including RTX cardsgives old GPUs another lease of life. The result is a gaming environment where software updates can significantly improve the experience after the GPU is first launched, which would have sounded almost absurd in the GTX era.

The RTX 30 series may be Nvidia’s oldest generation

Few graphics cards have held their value this well

Saying that it comes below the RTX 30 series unusual situations would be the understatement of the century. The launch of GPUs resulted in global semiconductor shortages and pandemic disruptions, all while crypto-mining demand skyrocketed and scalpers demanded RTX 3080s from your firstborns. Despite all this, the RTX 30 series managed to transform. One of Nvidia’s biggest success storiesand five years later, it’s just as impressive, if not more so, for its longevity.

Some of this success can still be seen today. The RTX 3060 remains one of the most common graphics cards on Steam, while higher-end options like the RTX 3070 and RTX 3080 continue to deliver excellent 1080p and 1440p performance. Of course, when it comes to newer AAA titles, they don’t set benchmark records anymore, but they don’t need to. For the vast majority of gamers, RTX 30 series cards are still capable of handling modern releases and internal testing also proved it.

Even in the older GPU market, you can find the RTX 30 series prevails lists. Buyers continue to chase them because they’re pretty hard (read: impossible) to find in PC hardware today – their mature drivers, strong gaming compatibility, reasonable power requirements and performance remain relevant, and they’re capable of handling the latest AAA games. What other GPU generation can you say has aged so gracefully?

Software is becoming as important as silicon

Today, it is very interesting to look at modern computer games and see how graphics cards work. In purely hardware terms, we’ve reached a point of diminishing returns, where the only hardware improvement is an increase in the number of cores supporting AI. All the while, legacy GPUs continue to provide incredible value because developers and GPU manufacturers support them. This is perhaps the biggest change in the GPU space, where we’re seeing software extend hardware life far beyond what previous generations managed.

Thankfully, this kind of change benefits everyone. The most advanced equipment and the coolest technologies like Path Tracing and Ray Reconstruction are still available to make hobbyists have field days, but mainstream players don’t feel the same pressure to constantly chase the same improvements.