Steam's "Hardware and Software Survey" updates once a month, and despite some significant limitations, its data gives us a solid idea of the choices users make when building gaming PCs. That information raises a very interesting question: How good is the average gaming PC on Steam? Dawid from Dawid Does Tech Stuff decided to build a PC with very similar specs and closely study its framerate in popular games.
The latest edition of Steam's Hardware and Software Survey indicates that most users have a six-core Intel processor with clock speeds between 2.3 and 2.69 GHz, 16 GB of RAM, a GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card with 8 GB of VRAM, a terabyte of storage, 1080p resolution, and Windows 11 as their operating system. Unfortunately, there are no additional details about the exact CPU model or the memory technology, but it's enough to build a PC and see how it performs with the Top 5 on Steam. Dawid from Dawid Does Tech Stuff did exactly that:
Average Steam PC vs. Steam's Top 5
To fill the statistical gap regarding the processor, Dawid made an educated guess and installed an Intel Core i5-12400, with a 6C/12T configuration, 2.5 GHz base clock, and an acceptable price (the F variant without integrated graphics doesn't exceed €140). In the case of memory, he chose DDR4 modules, but also decided to lower their frequency from 3,600 MHz to 2,666 MHz to see how big the impact is on performance.
The current Top 5 on Steam consists of Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, PUBG, Banana (like a cookie clicker but with bananas), and the latest Call of Duty. Leaving aside Banana, the framerate presents acceptable numbers in all cases. CS2 hits 300 FPS peaks, Dota 2 exceeds 200, Call of Duty floats around 90 FPS, and PUBG varies a lot depending on the user's view, but in this case we can talk about 90-120 FPS.
Lowering the RAM frequency can cost between 10 and 20 percent of the framerate depending on the game, but the biggest impact comes when replacing the RTX 3060 with a GTX 1650, another popular card on Steam. CS2, Dota 2, and PUBG are "playable", but Call of Duty doesn't like that hardware much. In summary, Steam's favorite hardware setup is quite balanced, with a reasonable price-to-performance ratio. Personally, I'm not surprised.
