Only A Third Of Steam Gamers Run Their Games At 1080p

One Angry Gamer "Given the stats from the survey, though, it looks like a moderate amount of PC gamers are rocking 1080p equivalent resolutions like Rob Ford rocks the white powder. However, it also shows that there is still a large portion of PC gamers who aren’t up to par (and even fewer above the bar), meaning that the PS4 and Xbox One’s struggle to maintain 1080p and 60fps is actually above the average standard of most PC gamers, especially considering that only a third of Steam users can actually maintain a 1080 resolution."

[ElementX]

My monitor is 1680x1050 *shrug* If I play on my TV it's 1080p.

[WilliamUsher]

Interestingly enough, you're part of the 5.87% in the survey.

I'm curious, do you have your PC hooked up to your TV? And if you did take the survey, would you use your native PC monitor resolution or when/if you hook it up to your TV?

[ElementX]

I have my PC connected to my TV and a monitor. I play on the monitor more often and I completed the survey while using the monitor. The survey just analyses your PC specs so I'm under the 1680x1050 group because that's the resolution I was using at the time.

[BitbyDeath]

And that is why PC has nothing close to the image quality of inFamous SS, DriveClub, The Order 1886 or Uncharted 4.

Devs gotta support them older PC's.

[Army_of_Darkness]

Only a 3rd?? LOL!

I just got my PS4 and connected it to my 1080p HDTV, downloaded war frame and tried it out.
Holy shit... Runs at 1080p@ 60fps and the graphics are very sharp and crisp. So if this game looks this great in the first year of the ps4, then I can't image what the following years will bring except for my personal conclusion that the ps4 is an equivalent to a high end PC. Even Tomb raider DE that I just got looks and plays way better than the ps3/360 versions! I see a big difference already in comparison to the previous gen and I can see why pC fanboys are trying very hard to downplay the ps4 because it's a $400 console that can perform equally as good as a high end pc ;-)

[starchild]

I've never done a Steam survey and I run my games at 2048 x 1152 resolution.

Besides, this article is a bit silly. It doesn't make the point the author thinks it makes.

Even IF the Steam survey was completely representative of all PC gamers (which it's not) that would still mean there are somewhere around 25 to 30 million PC gamers running their games at 1080p or above. How many PS4s have been sold? Last I heard it was around 8 million, I believe. Then you have to consider that not every PS4 owner is playing their games on a 1080p display. There is certainly a sizable percentage of PS4 owners who are playing on a 720p display, or even standard def tube TVs in some cases.

There are definitely far more PC gamers running their games at 1080p than there are PS4 or XB1 owners doing so. And, yeah, the console user bases will go up over time, but PC gamers will also be growing in number and many current PC gamers will be upgrading their hardware and displays over time as well.

[Raf1k1]

People seem to get the wrong idea about this. A lot of PC monitors will end up being something a little different. I also have a monitor that's 1680x1050.

If 33% are actually displaying at 1080p then that doesn't mean that the rest are at a lower resolution. Some of them will be at higher resolutions.

There are just so many different resolution screens with PCs (I'm assuming this includes laptops).

[Vegamyster]

@Army_of_Darkness

" Even Tomb raider DE that I just got looks and plays way better than the ps3/360 versions! I see a big difference already in comparison to the previous gen and I can see why pC fanboys are trying very hard to downplay the ps4 because it's a $400 console that can perform equally as good as a high end pc ;-) "

Mmhm no... A high end PC can play games at 1440p let alone 1080p. Gamespots now dated budget gaming PC build ($566) with a AMD 7850, FX 6300, 4 GB of ram out performed the PS4 in on their benchmarks (BF4, AC4, Thief): http://www.gamespot.com/art...

For $40 more then that build today you can get a PC with a R9 270 (Slighty faster 7870), 8GB or Ram and a 1 TB HDD. http://pcpartpicker.com/p/T...

Tombraider doesn't run locked at 60 fps on the PS4 and both console versions are missing PC features like Tessellation. http://static.gamespot.com/...

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[XB1_PS4]

It's funny that the title says only a third of pc gamers run at 1080p, and that's supposed to sound bad.

BUT, if you look at his picture, 62% of them are 1080p AND ABOVE. Just happens to be 33% of them are using exactly 1920x1080.

Also, a lot of people that are on steam aren't really PC gamers. If you've ever downloaded steam, and attempted to play a game. Your stats are recorded. So, a lot of those laptop gamers probably aren't actually able to play that many games. I don't classify them as the PC Master race.

[andrewer]

@Raf1k1 exactly. Just look at 3840x1080 - 25.39%. Lots of people doing AMD eyefinity or NVidia Surround hehe

[levian]

I can't play any PC game in a smaller resolution than the monitor's native resolution. Playing a game in 720p on a 720p monitor is fine. Playing a game in 720p on a 1080p monitor however, everything looks much larger than it should.

[BattleAxe]

I don't play in 1080p because I play in 2560 x 1080 resolution instead :)

[badz149]

Here I thought this is kinda old news?

[OwnageDC650]

I play at 1440p and sometimes at 7680x1440p. 3 of my close buds play at 1440p. None of us bothered with the survey.

[starchild]

Most people I talk to don't. I've never done the survey either. I don't know why some people latch onto the Steam survey as if it were a factual representation of all PC gamers. It's not.

[Spartacus10]

@ starchild
Its more accurate than trusting a bunch of vocal PC elitists.

I have no doubt theres PC gamers running games above 1080p, and even at 4k, or even higher using multiple monitors, but I also dont see why its hard to accept that MOST people DONT do that.

[Jdoki]

@starchild

Because the number of people who DO respond means Steam has an extremely good sample size of data and so is a very good and accurate cross section of the PC gaming population.

Also, by NOT doing the Steam survey you realise that you are not getting your voice heard when it comes to future development of games. Devs take note of stats like Steam Survey when considering the target specs of their games (e.g. If no one who was running DX11 bothered to respond, devs may be less likely to take advantage of DX11 specific features and so on - because why bother to spend time = money developing features only a tiny % of customers will benefit from)

[Nafon]

If you look at the survey, it is clear that a good majority of users that do the survey do it from their average laptops.

"1366 x 768 25.60%"

No desktop monitor has that resolution. Only Laptops and some HDTVs will use it.

[Charybdis]

looking at console gamers past xb 360/ ps3 gen and this gen xb1/ps4. how many % run their games at 1080.

when comparing console gaming and pc gaming for resolution wouldn't we need to compare this gen consoles x1 ps4 (1 year old consoles) and televions connected to these consoles with pc devices (1 - 3 year old pcs) and the resolution of monitors/tvs used.

[Magicite]

I play on 1920x1200. But there are many people who still dont have full hd monitors or those who play on laptops not capable of 1080p.
I doubt there are many who play on higher resolutions.

[ShaunCameron]

Or there are people who do have capable PC's but don't care about video games which happen to be a solid majority of PC owners.

[TardcoreGamer]

THE TITLE IS MISLEADING!
61.63% use 1080p or GREATER
Roughly 38% play somewhere under.

The author didn't account for >1080p displays and triple screen setups.

[WilliamUsher]

Nope.

The 25% relates to a separate category. It means 25% of all people who use multi-monitor setups use 1080 or above, it's not combined with the people who use single-monitor setups.

[gamernova]

I play at 1440p and didn't take any survey. This survey is a sample of a much higher population. Additionally, this survey has a response bias because most people who do have the major gaming rigs are working and most likely will not fill out a survey. Most likely it is the unemployed that have filled these out because simply they have the time. A lot of people don't know how statistical analyses work and are so quick to jump to conclusions. However, it is true that a large portion of PC gamers do not rock the high resolution. Not everyone can afford it. It can get pricey when you want the best experience.

[Qrphe]

This has been known for a while. But this only refers to the display resolution most of them have and not the resolution they run their games at. 1080p is still the most popular resolution though even if this became a fact barely early this year.

[Volkama]

Article makes out that this is a small number, but it isn't.

Of course the survey is only listing what the native resolution of the attached display is, and says nothing of performance at that res. If you took a similar survey of console gamers then the numbers would overwhelmingly stack on 1080p, simply because they are generally connected to TVs.

Also I am quite surprised that as many as 25% use 2 screens (3840x1080). I would expect most of them only game on a single screen, so that number can be added on to the 1080p stat.

[Letros]

If the author had half a brain he would realize that 3840x1080 is two 1080p screens, one for gaming one for whatever. Which would put 1080p to almost 60% of Steam gamers.

[Qrphe]

Out of all of those who use multimonitor setups, 25% of them use two 1080p. It doesnt mean that 25% of all of Steam users run two 1080p monitors on the same rig.

[Volkama]

If so then the snapshot in the article is not clear at all. I see that the 3840x1080 is listed after "other", so perhaps there are some extra headings to the left of the image that specify multi-monitor setup category.

25% using dual screens certainly does seem too high to me :)

[solidsheep]

hehe Windows 8 and Windows xp have almost the same size user base.

[donthate]

That is sort of misleading considering, Steam breaks Windows 8 into 32 bit and 64 bit versions, and there is also Windows 8.1 with similar breakup, as a separate post.

The full list (as you can see 8.1 and 7 is the most popular):

Windows 7 64 bit
48.92%

Windows 8.1 64 bit
17.75%

Windows 7
11.68%

Windows 8 64 bit
8.25%

Windows XP 32 bit
4.69%

Windows Vista 64 bit
1.84%

Windows Vista 32 bit
1.01%

Windows 8.1
0.48%

Windows 8
0.44%

Windows XP 64 bit
0.25%

[DragonbornZ]

I game in 900p on my laptop. When I build myself a pc and get dat Sapphire Radeon 7950 doe :D

[Cueil]

make sure you get that GHZ Edition... the difference can be HUGE

[sourav93]

I would recommend getting a R9 280X, since the 285X will be coming out soon, and the price of the 280x will drop.

[Pandamobile]

1/3 of Steam users is more than the entire current-gen console install base, so...

[NatureOfLogic_]

*Slow clap* smh

I find it really funny that 1080p is not quite the standard that we hear about all the time.

[Cueil]

to be fair a lot of monitors are only 900p... for a while I was rocking three 21" 900p monitors... now I have my system hooked up to my 47" TV at 1080p, but I don't think i took this last survey

[jsslifelike]

To also be fair, there are a TON of Steam users running inferior hardware and just use it to access indies that are exclusive to PC. They do their AAA gaming elsewhere. That skews things more than you think.

[boneso82]

Look at the numbers properly!

1/3 of Steam user play at exactly 1080p!

Another 1/3 play at higher res than 1080p!

So that's 2/3 that play at 1080p or higher!

This in turn means that only 1/3 play at lower than 1080p res!

This article has been twisted by a console fanboy to try and justify console resolutions to console fanboys. Desperate...

(PS: I am a long time console gamer, only built first PC this year. Play it on TV @ 1080p and mostly 60fps)

[user5669510]

Another sour face fanboys, just like the on that wrote the article. They are so despite to find anything to make pc look bad. And you have to participate in these surveys. I don't know any who ever filled these out

And yall do know there are a ton of cheap laptops that is lower than 1080p. Nice try keep on trying to catch up

[Caffo01]

Thank you for being so obvious, this gen started 9 months ago... And don't tell me about wii u, as much as i like it i don t consider it current gen.

[Kosmacz]

However, Steam does show only resolution of desktop. This does not imply that they really play games with this resolution. Real number may be much lower

[Stapleface]

Or higher. I have my pc hooked up to my tv for now and it's a 1080p screen. But I run most of my games down sampled from 1440p. Some from higher resolutions than that.

[MuhammadJA]

This third is the console gamers themselves playing PC games on their crappy laptops.

[Qrphe]

Pretty sure more than 1/3 of console users game on 1080p TVs so...

[Pandamobile]

I would hope so, considering you only have like one option to choose from these days.

Now, how about the number of console games that actually run at 1080p? That number is much smaller than the number of people who have an appropriate TV.

[Vladplaya]

Probably because there are shit ton of indie games that are 2D ha

[Kivespussi]

I don't think you know how resolution works

[Vladplaya]

I know exactly how resolution works. What I was saying is that if people playing modern 2D games, they most likely running them in resolution higher then 1080p if its supported by the game.

[Kivespussi]

Oh, ok I just thought it was a fanboyish jab at the amount of indies PC has with not as detailed graphics as big titles (obviously). So did many others judging from your disagrees...

But double and triple monitors was a huge chunk (around 30%) of those who took the survey. The article completely ignored them even though they would be even better than these consoles can do

[Vladplaya]

Yeah it was my own fault for making my statement not very clear, I should have known better that people will not think further than what they see on the first glance and then of course disagree if they don't like it. But whatevs.

Also articles using Steam data pop up here and on other sites pretty frequently ,and as you pointed their data is very inaccurate due to many factors that they don't include, or exclude out of their stats.

[joab777]

But they all pay with real money, so who cares!

[matt139]

1680 x 945? wtf lol

Anyway I assumed that 1080p was the standard with all of the console haters circulating the forums.

[Ark_]

... you can expect most coregamers to run at 1080p or better. That's the kind of player you will encounter on gaming forums most frequently.

Example Survey from a german gaming site 03/2014 >>>
http://www.gamestar.de/inde...

[Spartacus10]

Do you understand how much of a retarded sampling method that is?

Its like doing a survey and finding over 99% of people are alcoholics because you did the survey in a bar.

[VJGenova]

@Spartacus10,

A lot of console responders are saying that the "pc master race" isn't that because 1/3 of the gamers run at less than 1080p. If you talk to anyone who claims that pcs are better than consoles, you can bet they have the specs to handle at least 1080p.

I never saw this survey, so I can't opine on it. I will say this one last t

I ran darksiders 2 at 1440x900, still better than the 1280x720 consoles got. That game was horribly optimized.

Also, I know 8 or 9 people who play steam games on their laptops or older rigs. They've never been what I would call pc gamers. All of them have steam. Essentially what I'm saying is, this isn't news. What Ark_ offered was another data set that probably better represents the pc elitists.

[DeusEx-Machina]

Nice to hear. I would have guessed it was less. There are over 75 million active steam users. So 1/3 is a surprisingly high count.

[Eiffel]

The Steam Hardware Survey is optional. Only 1/12th of all Steam users are asked monthly. If you don't get that window that asks you to be a part of the survey, no information about your PC is collected.

That being the case, this makes the article an invalid judgement.

[SnakeCQC]

It not really optional; as its standard as soon as you install steam. You have to go through the settings to untick it.

[Eiffel]

It says right at the top.

http://store.steampowered.c...

There is no settings to opt in or out as it's circulated monthly to a small percentage of the userbase. The only way get in is to receive the notification window for that specific month. It only collects data or not if you choose to accept or cancel.

http://forums.steampowered....

http://forums.steampowered....

[Vegamyster]

They ask you randomly if it's okay to gather info on your system which you can decline, it's not automatic and i didn't actually get asked til years after my account was made.

[LogicStomper]

I've never seen that survey myself, and i go on steam frequently.

[Stapleface]

I have never been asked to do the survey. But there is definitely information about your pc being stored. Turtle Rock used the Steam data base to double checked the stats that you put in for the Alpha sign up for Evolve. Considering I have never entered my system stats on Steam anywhere, they had to collect it on their own.

[user5669510]

You have to realize console only gamers the ones that hate pc because is better are not going to understand this because they are grasping for straws. They run out of ammo and then jump on the first thing they can.

[TWB]

Well yeah, if I want to maintain a good FPS but dont want to lower graphics too much I usually go with 1600x900 resolution instead of 1080p, gives a nice +20 FPS increase usually and still looks fairly good.

[Destiny1080]

A Third Of Steam users can manage wii-u quality, that whole master race thing you have going on may need to be re-evaluated

[LogicStomper]

Well assuming the people who say 'pc master race'have a powerful computer, then it can be said that it is the master race because it is more powerful than that in comparison.

[boneso82]

A third of Steam users game under 1080p!

TWO thirds of Steam users game at 1080p and above!

Read the information in the article properly instead of jumping on the fanboy bandwagon after reading the mis-leading title.

[bumnut]

Don't bother, his name alone shows what you are up against!

[voodoochild346]

You do realize that not only do almost 2/3 of pc gamers play at 1080p or above but they also have the the option to turn up a ton of effects to play to their liking. Console fanboys need to learn that all 1080p is not created equal.

[Locknuts]

Down the bottom of the list it says "3840 x 1080 - 25.39%". And there are other resolutions in between those two.

Not sure if I'm reading it right but it looks like over 60% of people who took that survey rock 1080p OR HIGHER.

[Kosmacz]

No, you misread this.

"3840 x 1080 - 25.39%" it a another survey catched by a screen shot. This belongs to multimonitor users. This means that most popular resolution for multimonitor users is 3840 x 1080.

Users having more than 1080p on their PCs are far under 5%.

Check it by yourself
http://store.steampowered.c...

[Letros]

That's not how it works at all, it reads your desktop resolution set in windows, so it's reading 3840x1080, so yes its almost 60% for 1080p alone for people that took the survey.

[Caffo01]

"meaning that the PS4 and Xbox One’s struggle to maintain 1080p and 60fps is actually above the average standard of most PC gamers"

PC master race my ass...

[Seafort]

If only there was a survey for PS4/Xbone owners playing on 720p TVs :)

I play at 1680 x 1050 res as it was the best monitor I could afford at the time.

I don't consider myself a "PC Master Race" whatever the hell that means but I do game primarily on PC.

I also have a PS3 sat besides me too. Been playing some RDR for a 2nd time around. Love the game.

Will be getting a new graphics card as well next week ready for all the unoptimised console ports :)

[GundalfDeGrej]

There are people who don't have 1080p TVs just like how there are PC gamers who don't have 1080p screens and from the looks of it, there are more steam users playing at 1080p than any other resolution.

[Qwagy UK]

running most of my stuff at 5k

[brainfart]

I dont recall taking a steam survey.I rock all my games in 1080p no exception and if im not able to hit 60 fps I just lower a few setting, but for the most part that rarely happens.I'm sure that will change with more demanding games coming out soon!

[ElementX]

People speaking against the "PC Master Race" conveniently forget that there's more to graphics than resolution. The pixel density on a monitor is much higher, so images look sharper than on a TV even with the same or lower resolution. Also you get better shading, particle effects, image processing, AA, physics, etc.

[Dude420]

I hope you guys know that Steam went from 65M to 75M active users in just 3 months right (October until January)? I don't know how many there are now, especially with the summer sales. See for yourself...

http://www.eurogamer.net/ar...

I'm sure there are much more than 25 million that are capable of 1080p.

[zpoc]

10 million new users means 10 million more people with diverse pc set ups - including those with sub-1080p monitors. there's nothing to suggest these new users would be statistically divergent from current users.

[Dude420]

You're right, as technology progresses, equipment such as 1080p monitors and televisions become easier to acquire thanks to cheaper costs. Therefore, the frequency of this kind of equipment being purchased exponentially increases.

[ATi_Elite]

I lot of pc gamers game on laptops.

A lot of ps4/xb1 gamers still game on 720p tvs

A lot of pc gamers do not have their gaming pc connected to steam like myself

......and Steam does not represent all 250m pc gamers but if it did then it just goes to show that you can upgrade when you want to as not all pc gamers are bleeding edge.

[Perjoss]

I'm using a dell 30 inch in 2560x1600 and I'm very happy with it. I dont plan to go to 4k for a very, very long time. Although a triple 2560 setup might be interesting, specially for driving games.

[_LarZen_]

Just as there is a minority of music lover that have a high-end stereo there is a minority of gamers that have a high-end gaming PC.

This is something most gamers have known for years. So this survey is nothing new. It's just raw data what most PC gamers have known for years.

[BX81]

Proof 1080p isn't the end all be all some want it to be. GAME ON!

[Seafort]

No it only matters to console and PC elitists as well as the media.

Anyone that's just a gamer I don't think gives a shit about res, fps etc. They just play games they like :)

[Kivespussi]

I don't really care about resolution, but goddamnit if my PC can't run a game at at least 60fps...

I haven't played a game at 30fps if I haven't had to (last gen exclusives) in years. It just feels horrible.

[FsterThnFTL]

I run my games at 3840 x 2160 which is definitely not 1080p.

[zpoc]

cool story. there are lots of people, as shown in the survey, that game at that resolution or higher. you're in the minority, though.

[TheMrMalro]

1600x900 windowed m8s

[AuToFiRE]

For those who didn't actually look at the article, 38% play at 1080p, 25% play at 3 times that (triple monitor) and even more so higher than that.

[Gatsu]

Lol this survey was just complete BS, as the Steam Hardware Survey is optional.
"Only 1/12th of all Steam users are asked monthly. If you don't get that window that asks you to be a part of the survey, no information about your PC is collected. "

I don't even remember ever getting it. I'd say very small percentage of the millions of Steam users actually receive this survey. This result is so inaccurate as the author of article judges the entire userbase on a monthly optional survey.

[zpoc]

i guess you never learned how statistical sampling works. it's the standard practice of using a sample of a larger demographic to extract data from. if a large enough sample is recorded, the margin of error when extrapolating to the whole is quite small.

[Mithan]

This article is stupid.

[uth11]

My monitor is 1680x1050. Maybe someday I'll upgrade but I just haven't seen a need

[Nerdmaster]

Well, I do play in 1680x1050 most of the time on my dual monitor setup, but it's in 3D. I only play in my 1080p monitor when the game doesn't run well in 3D and I think that the game is pretty enough to justify the "work" of changing my main monitor.

[worldwidegaming]

Just in, most companies skimp and buy crappy toliet paper rather than the softer stuff...

[Artemidorus]

Sony fans are desperate once more to find loopholes in any system/machine because they realised how useless the non innovative machine Playstation4 really is. So they go and act butthurt and provide useless information like this.

Provides no games as a gaming machine but indies or overpriced rentals we can all laugh at and download for free on PC. Provides less as an enterainment system having a Blu Ray that's worse than the last generations.

Anyone with a brain will come to realise PC users are going beyond 1080p 60fps which seems to be the trend of the ill educated.

PC destorys Playstation 4 and makes it look like something from the Gamecube era.

[Reefskye]

What is a 3rd though? giving a percentage without any actual numbers is meaningless. Also the article say a laptop without 1080p is piss poor what are you buying 24" laptops? No screen below 24" can display true 1080p. Dude who wrote article doesn't know anything. Plug any TV below 24" to a PC and you will see it cuts off the edges as the PC will not force the image to fit like a TV does for a console or other media devices.

[zpoc]

what are you talking about? i have two 22" 1080p monitors plugged in to my pc right now. they do not "cut off the edges" of anything.

there are tons of 1080p laptops and tablets that are under 20" so i have no idea where you came up with the concept that any screen under 24" couldn't display at that resolution. in fact, many small screens display at that resolution and beyond. off the top of my head, the new surface 3 tablet is 1440p. or every single alienware laptop - they all have 1080p screens, and they're all under 18".

[LightDiego]

But i thought every PC gamer plays all games with 4K resolution according to the internet, i'm shocked.

[GeraltofRivia]

I wonder how much Sony paid for this article.

[PurpHerbison]

I am sure way more people run at 1080p. 1920x1080 is the standard monitor resolution these days. I can't imagine not running native resolution on a 1080p monitor. Looks horrible.

[jjb1981]

My laptop is an 880m at 1080p, that's my max

[arugula]

When looking at Steam's actual display stats, when adding higher resolutions in the mix, 57% of steam users are using 1080p or higher.