PC Gamers are Flocking to Windows 7 in Droves According to Steam
PC Gamers are Flocking to Windows 7 in Droves According to Steam
Posted 01/24/2010 at 11:33am
| by Justin Kerr
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Here at Maximum PC, we love Windows 7. Its snappy, riddled with handy new features, and is the most stable version of the OS to ever come out of Redmond. Regardless of how much fame and positive press it racks up however, we know it will take years for the majority of consumers and businesses to fully make the switch. Overall market share numbers pegged the OS at around 3.6% in November, with a slow but steady climb to around 6% in December.
We know these numbers will continue their march upwards over the next few years at a fairly health rate, but one demographic is breaking the adoption mold, that group is PC Gamers. According to the December Steam hardware survey, Windows 7 accounts for nearly 23% of all Steam users when you add up both the 32 & 64 bit varieties. Vista by comparison sits at around 31%, but that gap is pretty small when you consider that it has a three year head start over Windows 7. As for trusty ole Windows XP, it continues to hold the lead with a commanding 45% share, but is losing ground even faster than Vista.
If you haven't checked out the Steam hardware stats before, it gives a really interesting insight into the PC Gaming hardware landscape, and is definitely worth checking out. For example, a quick glance at the spread shows the average processer speed is 2.5Ghz, and despite ATI's commanding price/performance lead, Nvidia holds over 65% of the market share compared to ATI's 30%. Its a quick and easy way to see where your system ranks against your fellow gamers.
So, Is Windows 7 the best gaming OS?
More like this
nekollx
January 25, 2010 at 1:05pm
too soon man, to soon
------------------------------
Coming soon to Lulu.com --Tokusatsu Heroes--
Five teenagers, one alien ghost, a robot, and the fate of the world.
nadako
January 25, 2010 at 12:54am
I am still with xp even though i have windows 7 64bit system. I did use steam with windows 7 untill i started to incounter problems with tf2. Tf2 would suddenly freeze up when i was sending my client info to servers that i wanted to play on. Any one else with this issue?
gendoikari1
January 24, 2010 at 6:11pm
Intel CPU speeds are higher than AMD CPU speeds, although I think that's having to do with people still having Pentium 4s. If they had a P4 for this long, then surely they must have melted from the heat!
Honorary Family Member:
Phenom II x4 925 2.8 GHz
XFX Radeon HD 5870
8GB G.Skill DDR2-800 RAM
ASUS M3A32-MVP Deluxe
Seagate Barracuda 750GB HDD
gendoikari1
January 25, 2010 at 4:54am
Nobody cares. Go to hell, spambot.
Honorary Family Member:
Phenom II x4 925 2.8 GHz
XFX Radeon HD 5870
8GB G.Skill DDR2-800 RAM
ASUS M3A32-MVP Deluxe
Seagate Barracuda 750GB HDD
arkarkwin
January 24, 2010 at 4:42pm
People still have < 1.4 Ghz Cpu ? don't tell me they got only 512mb ram with 80GB and its not even a laptop but full fledge desktop. Man, thats twilight zone for me.
CloudRider
January 24, 2010 at 10:24pm
I have a 1.3GHz system w/1GB RAM that I turned into a file server, if that counts.
snapple00
January 24, 2010 at 2:38pm
I wonder what the people with <1.4 Ghz CPU are playing on Steam.
DBsantos77
January 24, 2010 at 4:24pm
What are they playing?
The 1998 version of Crysis of course!
http://store.steampowered.com/app/70/
-Santos
jlh304
January 24, 2010 at 2:31pm
Windows 7 is a great product, good to see it's moving fast on XP. I like the fact that only 18% of the cpus out there are single core. Time to start writing at least 2 core games and apps.
BAMT
January 24, 2010 at 1:39pm
Considering XP is nearly 10 years old and still has double the users 7 has (which has been out for a while now) I find that 7 adoption is quite slow.
Tekzel
January 24, 2010 at 2:17pm
Surely you are joking. In a few short months, Windows 7 has attained half the users on Steam that XP has, which has been around for 10 years. It amazes me that anyone can look at those numbers and NOT consider that "flocking".
nekollx
January 25, 2010 at 9:01am
Seriously. I mean lets compare them shall we
31% in 5 months and climbing
vs
45% in 10 YEARS and falling.
How does anyone NOT see that as flocking.
------------------------------
Coming soon to Lulu.com --Tokusatsu Heroes--
Five teenagers, one alien ghost, a robot, and the fate of the world.
Windows Securit...
January 24, 2010 at 12:31pm
Security Experts are leaving Windows 7 in droves according to experts!
So it all evens out I guess
lunchbox73
January 25, 2010 at 9:49am
I'm still trying to figure out your motive my friend. You've been spouting out this garbage for months but I can't understand why. Do you work for Apple or something?
Taz0
January 24, 2010 at 2:01pm
Have you heard of the term "Weasel words" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weasel_word)?
Who exactly are those alleged "Security Experts" you claim are "leaving in droves"? How many are there?
gendoikari1
January 24, 2010 at 2:06pm
My troll detector picked up his other comments. Disregard.
Honorary Family Member:
Phenom II x4 925 2.8 GHz
XFX Radeon HD 5870
8GB G.Skill DDR2-800 RAM
ASUS M3A32-MVP Deluxe
Seagate Barracuda 750GB HDD
MrGeek
January 24, 2010 at 12:25pm
Total pwnage!
Ok... I should not be talking like that since I am 50 years old...!
Just built a completely new rig 2 weeks ago, put Win 7 Ultimate 64 bits.
Crysis plays OHHHHH soooo SMOOOTH! Plus have thrown multiple apps at it (video editing, video conferencing, media player, and WOW, all running at the same time) and Win 7 has not burped yet.
Son's pc had Vista Ultimate and he is bugging me now to update it (he is in college). And in his machine Vista crashes every once in awhile (Crysis is a bitch sometimes!)
Here's specs:
Intel Core i7-860 2.8GHz Quad-Core Processor
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 PlusCPU Cooler
ASUS P7P55D EVO LGA 1156 Motherboard
SAPPHIRE 100281SR Radeon HD 5870
CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850W Power Supply
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB DDR3 1600 (8gigs total)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB Internal Hard Drive
MSI Black SATA 24X DVD Burner
NZXT CS-NT-PANZER-B PANZERBOX Computer CaseMicrosoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bits
Using the motherboard built in sound card for sound (the one I really want is sold out everywhere) and a Logitech 9000 Pro webcam. Klipsch 2.1 speakers. Saitek Lighted keyboard and generic mouse. DELL ST2410 monitor (for 24" widescreen 1080p gloriousness!)
sirphunkee
January 24, 2010 at 12:38pm
Yes...it's an editorial standard intended to promote us coming here and commenting (...which places more ads in front of our eyes, and potentially drives up page rank for the article)
Justin.Kerr
January 24, 2010 at 12:44pm
We also like reading your thoughts and enjoy interacting with our readers.
Often times you guys say the things we only wish we could :)
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